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I am requesting feedback on my in-progress fantasy world map, primarily in 4 major areas:

  • biomes
  • rivers
  • cities
  • borders

Do they make sense? If not, what should I change? Any observations or inferences concerning my world's geopolitics are also welcome.

enter image description here

Higher Resolution Here.

Additional information:

  • The sea in the center of the map is roughly analogous to the Mediterranean in terms of size and location.
  • Colored dots are major cities. The larger dots with stars are capitals. Diamond-shaped markers are sites of significance, but not settlements. Triangles are ruins. The dashed line is a ruined ancient wall. Smaller towns, villages, and military outposts are not shown (yet).
  • There are five major nations, represented by Blue (theocratic autocracy), Yellow (mercantile oligarchy), Red (tribal confederacy), Purple (unitary monarchy), and Green (feudal state). Blue, Red, Purple, and Green have all clashed historically, but are currently at peace. Red and Purple share cultural ties and have established a mutual respect. Yellow is the youngest nation and currently has the most influence due to having gained control, directly or indirectly, of virtually all sea trade. They managed to do this because their island is abundant in valuable resources (mountain salt mines and pigments according to my notes, but it could easily be something else) and they skillfully played the surrounding nations against each other until they became strong and rich enough to run the table on everyone else. Yellow is the keystone holding the peace together.
  • The Red city in the middle of the desert gets their water from underground aquifers. The Red city next to the eastern mountains gets theirs from a spring.
  • The lonely mountain in the desert is an inactive volcano.
  • Three city-states (Maroon, Teal, Silver) occupy the southern jungle. They will conduct trade but mostly stay out of each other's way. Maroon also trades with Red, while the other two have no interest the outside world. Teal has a strong nautical culture and follows a pattern of yearly migration to and from the southeastern archipelago. They also have an ongoing feud with the shark-people who inhabit those waters.
  • Nomads occupy the northwestern steppes and occasionally harass Blue's borders. Blue has attempted to conquer them in the past to no avail.
  • The forested valley tucked into the western mountains is occupied and fought over by two relatively small rival tribes. They have no contact with the world outside their valley.
  • The southwestern peninsula is currently uninhabited, but used to be a powerful empire.

If you want to see the changes I'm already considering and give feedback on them, you can find my markup of the map here.

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  • $\begingroup$ If we assume sea level on your planet has recently risen quite a bit and much of your continental crust is underwater it works, otherwise not so much, your shorelines are very jagged. $\endgroup$
    – John
    Commented Jun 12, 2022 at 23:30
  • $\begingroup$ @John That's probably a consequence of the fractals used to make the shoreline and not exactly an easy fix, but I'll make a note of that. $\endgroup$
    – HumbleWanderer
    Commented Jun 13, 2022 at 0:10
  • $\begingroup$ It's a great map. Why do you need to know if it's "believable?" Believable compared to what? You haven't explained your climate (complex) or shown us where tectonic plates are (complex) and don't show us altitudes and sea depths - so there's only so much we can tell you (note that biomes don't usually follow straight lines). So, I like the map! But I'm not sure what else you're expecting.... $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Commented Jun 13, 2022 at 4:53
  • $\begingroup$ What is the black stuff? $\endgroup$
    – Daron
    Commented Jun 13, 2022 at 12:40
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    $\begingroup$ @A.bakker I used a program called Other World Mapper. It's relatively user friendly, even if you're an amateur like me. $\endgroup$
    – HumbleWanderer
    Commented Jun 13, 2022 at 23:43

1 Answer 1

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Your map is quite accurate in context. A few pointers:

  • There might be fighting over that linely volcanon in the desert, but the nation controlling the desert might own it anyways (volcanoes are rich in resources and minerals, even inactive ones).
  • You should add more rivers expanding from the lakes, some inland parts of the map have to go a ways to have access to water from lakes or the sea.
  • Some nations might fight over the middle small island in the sea, as it might become a central fishing area of sorts of a control tower.

I will add more points soon

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