I Barely Remember Highschool Geography: Let's Make a Fantasy Map!

Here it is! My First Longform Video! I hope you enjoy watching this as much as I enjoyed making it! This has been a heck of an experience but I'm really excited to make more of these in the future!
I'll absolutely admit there are some rough edges to sand off and fix for later videos, and because of that any constructive criticism is welcome, I'm here to improve!
Also this video is dedicated to @LuKremBo, without whom this video would have literally no music:
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[@Attaxalotl]

Xeric Shrubland / Semi-Arid Shrubland are a bit weird. Adding to the confusion is the fact that Xeric and Semi-Arid Shrublands tend to be right next to eachother, as the only real difference I know of is Semi-Arid gets a bit more rainfall. You'll find creosote and mesquite in the Chihuahua Desert, Regular Mexico, and you'll also find both in the Basin and Range area, New Mexico. And also there's some overlap with what exactly counts as the Basin and Range and Chihuahua Desert, like for example, the entirety of the Tularosa Basin (El Paseo up to Carrizozo), which is where I grew up.

[@robertwinslow]

"I realized that what I had made was essentially just a funky funhouse mirror map of our regular Earth." Just rotate the map and nobody will notice. (I speak from experience.)

[@Attaxalotl]

"2/10, would not explore"

[@happynihilist2573]

Making a Not-Earth map is fantasy tradition as old as the big Hobbit himself I particularly like Warhammer's map and it doesn't even bother pretending to be enyting other than a not-Earth

[@Idkpleasejustletmechangeit]

Maybe someone who is bored and likes to examine maps might notice. Or someone who likes maps that have South at the top (yes, those exist and are perfectly factual depictions of Earth, as there is no up or down in space and putting North at the top is pretty much an arbitrary decision).

[@unknowable4147]

_its free real estate!_

[@longc35]

Not sure if you took this into account but a useful thing to remember is that their tends to be more moisture on the ocean/sea side of mountains, this is because as air rises in the atmosphere to go over mountain ranges it is less able to hold moisture and so most water precipitates out before it gets to the far side. Sounds like your map is pretty much set at this point but it’s something I always try to keep in mind when making maps.

[@hannahsmth]

Comment for the algorithm :3 (but thanks! My favourite comments are the ones that teach me new things)

[@longc35]

I know comments help so "Comment for the algorithm." Is my go to if I don't have anything more specific/constructive to say. Love your art style btw.

[@JN-so6wt]

@@hannahsmth but hey also creating these "problems" or inaccuracies for yourself can also be a great opportunity to help you build world out in unique way by giving yourself a need for clever solution. Like mountains basically never stand alone due to how they form. But say you didn't know that and put a single mountain surrounded by flat stable grasslands. So why is it there? What is happening now or happened in the distant past to create this landmark? Natural? Unnatural? Magic? Mechanical? Mythological? Must be something really unique and clever and interesting! Planned it that way the whole time... 😶

[@MrBot_001]

As a worldbuilder myself, I look forward to seeing what you have in store for the future. Your channel seems like it has quite a bit of potential

[@Halberddent]

Have I ever told you how much I despise traveling through deserts? I have been taking *Steppes* to avoid them. Wonderful video, and that art you made personifying the mammoth steppes and taiga biomes was way too cool, took me completely by surprise! For anyone else out there trying their hand at this kind of realistic worldbuilding, I HIGHLY recommend Artifexian's series about the process. It goes over everything in as much details as you could possibly want, and he makes the science pretty easy to understand.

[@Shaso-xv3tw]

Personally I’d solve the funhouse mirror earth by literally flipping it around as if being viewed through a mirror. Actually now that I think about it, flipping the world around and warping the terrain would make something mostly unrecognizable to all but the most eagle eyed viewer and would feel crazy unique…

[@JN-so6wt]

you can also just do that with your world whatever it is, to open up "alternate planes" or mirror realms of that world too, DnD Shadowfell and Feywilds being an extant example. and can even link events/chases/goals/journies between the two, with portals or magic teleport items like the Zelda aLttP mirror (where you could solve puzzles, or bypass obstacles/gain accesses, or discover new things, depending on "where" you warped to the other realm based on your coordinates in the original realm)

[@formersamonellaclone]

that’s kinda what aot did at some point right? like they literally just took a map of the world and flipped it upside down

[@jayx1068]

@6:00 I like how you noticed also that you made an earth clone and didn't just gloss over that. There are very successful earth clones, off the top of my head best are Warhammer and Dungeons and Dragons, Game of thrones is also an earth clone but hidden much better by never showing the whole map at once. This is a great vid even if you didn't know the science :D

[@FearingAKS]

I’ve watched a lot of map and world building videos and I think this is the first time I’ve felt like I watched a video that covered everything my brain thinks about when thinking about making a map

[@pericoparakeet6104]

"The hobbit amd THAT OTHER ONE" I love that quote

[@randomhistorystuff165]

A fun little tip: Work on little areas at a time, then, as you get better, GET BIGGER!

[@Marcha-]

Hidden Gem of a channel.

[@Cruxador]

Good video! I know more than a layman about this kind of thing, so a few bits of added context: The reason coasts often hug the tectonic plate lines is because there are two kinds of crust: Oceanic and continental. Basically, continental is like oceanic but with a bunch of lighter rock and earth (stuff other than basalt) piled on top. If a continent splits, the new crust is oceanic, since there's nothing on top of it. And if a bit of plate that's got continental crust meets a bit that's got oceanic, that also forms a coastline (and the oceanic subducts beneath the continental, pretty much always, as it's denser). Another feature of this distinction is that continental plate forms bigger mountains such as the Himalayas (which are still forming) and the Rockies (which are not as their plates have fused, and they've since worn down). On the other hand, those formed when a oceanic plate meets continental are smaller and tend to be volcanic, as they're formed when crust that falls into the mantle melts and floats back up. With regards to the mountain standing by itself in a flat place, this can happen in real life, although it's quite rare. The most famous is Hawaii, which is a chain, but it's formed from a volcanic hotspot that the crust has been drifting over. But the individual mountains are spread out enough that it's not highly visible because of sediment and water obscuring low parts. Wind and weather patterns can be complicated but there's a simplified version that's pretty accessible imo: The convection cells formed by the Coriolis effect. Basically, alternating bands of pressure (and, therefore, precipitation/humidity) according to the way that the air swirls as the planet turns. It boils down to: Put a band of mostly desert at about 30º north and 30º south, skewed a bit in either direction if you want, and the poles are also dry while the tropics are wet. The only other big thing to keep in mind is orographic precipitation, which is that the mountain squeezes moisture out of the air (by pushing it up and therefore decreasing its density and pressure) so you get a lot of rain on the upwind side of mountains and then not so much on the downside side. The same coriolis gyres I mentioned before tell you which direction is usually going to be upwind, you can google a diagram and just look at where the arrows point. They don't account for small-scale variation but you can easily get away with ignoring that or making it up Oh also seasonality can shift things north or south a bit but that's just because the earth's axis is on an angle, and the air isn't directly attached. All biome classifications are subjective and fuzzy, so I'm not surprised this part threw you a couple snags. It seems like people think in terms of biomes more now than they used to when I was coming up (I blame Minecraft) but while it can be a useful lens, it's important to remember that biomes are just frameworks developed by humans to classify groups of ecosystems, mostly to allow us to apply knowledge from one area of the world to another. When you're writing your own stuff, they're a good guideline but if you understand a bit of the basics of how temperature and water quantities interact, you can design your own environments for narrative purposes and not need to worry about matching up specifically to environments that exist on Earth. After all, look at the Fynbos - A unique biome that exists in just one small area. If something by chance can be that rare, it only stands to reason that there are possible biomes which by chance don't exist at all. No reason why your world can't have similarly unique biomes if conditions allow. You had the science pretty well figured out for someone without a background in it overall, but there's always more to learn for people who want to. Of course, when it comes to world-building, you can always subvert these ideas. Maybe there's no tectonics, because some gods put the continents in their place - but then if real hydrology and weathering are applied to those landforms, it still makes an interesting and varied world.

[@jordythecat7181]

Awesome video! Very excited to see where this leads. I discovered a way simpler method to developing world maps from a blog called "Worldbuilding Pasta". The method goes as this: draw a jagged, blobby shape. Draw in some random mountain ranges. This will be your world's last supercontinent. Now, break the shape into numerous pieces and spread them out from each other, or collide some to make Himalayan-style mountains. The mountain ranges from before will be worn down from erosion, but not entirely (think of the US's Appalachian mountains). Worldbuilding Pasta has a far more complex method involving a program called GPlates, but coming from someone who's done multiple attempts at making a world map with it, it is *very* hard and honestly just not worth the trouble, even if it does give you realistic results. But it's clear you've put a *lot* of effort into this world map, and I enjoy it as it is. Plus, since your goal is to have Tala's culture develop towards a modern-esque level of technology, it only makes sense for your world's continents to be Earth-like.

[@hannahsmth]

There are definitely *way* easier ways of making a world map than mine, but I like my process just because it just makes sense to me, I feel like I've covered my bases and made it "real" enough to stand on its own once I move to other parts of the writing process :) Thanks for letting me know about Worldbuilding pasta though! I'll have to check them out, and I'm glad you don't think the earthlike setup's too much of an immersion-ruiner, if nothing else it definitely makes it easier for me to allocate real world biomes to the different locations ^^""

[@jordythecat7181]

@@hannahsmth Worldbuilding Pasta is a very thorough resource for science-adjacent worldbuilding. They've only made posts about mapping climates and terrain so far, but nevertheless a great blog for making realistic worlds. There are also KZbin channels like Artifexian (who's making a *very* good series about creating a world from scratch, currently finishing the world map), Biblaridion (who's made videos about speculative biology and conlanging), and Step-by-step Worldbuilding (an underrated KZbinr with very good videos about societal worldbuilding). Update: The latter's username is *not* Step-by-step Worldbuilding, it's Worldbuilding Corner. Sorry for the mix-up.

[@Pazliacci]

ooh hell yeah I loved my high school geography classes, and like, a really fascinating thing about plate tectonics, so yes the basics are convergent, divergent, and transform, HOWEVER, there are three sub-types of convergent: the first one which you mention, continental plate, and oceanic plate, since the continental granite plate is lighter than the oceanic basalt plate, the basalt plate subducts under the continental plate, forming volcanic activity on the continental plate above, as the oceanic plate gets melted, and that melt then reaches the surface in volcanoes. the second is oceanic plate and oceanic plate, here is a fascinating process, instead the OLDEST oceanic plate is the one that subducts since there's more deposit on it, and its heavier, this is how a lot of the island chains in the "Ring of Fire" were formed, since the pacific plate subducts under the Australian and Philippine plate, causing volcanic islands to emerge HOWEVER that is not how Japan was formed, Japan was part of the Asian continental plate, until the sea of Japan was flooded in with ocean water, causing the appearance that Japan was an island. FINALLY the last type is continental and continent plate convergence, most famous is the Indian plate, which crashed into the Eurasian plate, and unlike the other two types, instead of one plate being pushed under the other, and forming volcanoes, instead both push eachother upwards, hence why the Himalayas have some of the tallest mountains, since its two plates pushing eachother upwards. however there's a lot more fascinating stuff too, so for example, the Appalachian mountains, the Mountains in North Africa, the Scottish Highlands, and the Scandinavian Mountains, all don't have a clear tectonic plate matching them, its because millennia ago, when the continents were still Pangea, they all formed the same Caledonian mountain range, but then the Atlantic ocean started to diverge, and split the continents and the mountain range. (this is why Edinburgh is famous for its volcanoes) Finally, just wanna note the absolute majestic scale that is the Hawaiian and Emperor chain (so mad I can't post pictures in KZbin comments) BUT looking at them, they are actually part of ONE long chain, and what happened was that originally the Pacific plate was moving northernly, and a "hot spot" (area of local volcanic activity underneath a plate poking a hole through it) basically as the plate moved off the hotspot, a new volcanic island would form ontop of the spot, while the old one would be dragged along with the plate, so originally islands were dragged NORTH along with the plate (forming the Emperor Chain), but then the Pacific Plate at some point radically altered direction, and now it is moving more Eastward, which then formed the Hawaiian Chain, while dragging the Emperor Chain further east from the original Hot Spot, which is so fascinating, that all the island in the Emperor Chain, would at some point, have been located where Hawaii is today. (also the difference between oceanic plate basalt and continental plate granite, is that granite formed SLOWLY in the ground, forming the basis of the plate, while BASALT is rapidly cooled when it emerges from a "divergent" plate in the ocean water, since as the plates move apart.) (absoloutely love your whole setting so far from all your videos)

[@klynt2763]

1:35 "-Because you're insane" this is true as a person who draw maps as a hobby and who plays map painting games (Paradox Interactive games)

[@Sawdust_]

map painting gamers unite(to fight eachother over the throne of spain

[@storyspren]

I found this channel through the religion videos and I'm in between bingeing it all and trying to fulfill a deadline, and it's so wonderful to find a chronic worldbuilder with such a nice art style (I say this as a chronic worldbuilder myself), and I'm definitely revisiting this video for the biome stuff after I fill that deadline when I have tome to follow along and properly figure out the biomes in my dnd setting!

[@eli_bultman]

Holy crap I just found my next channel to binge watch.

[@SeleniumAndroid]

I adore the image at 11:18. What a wonderful way of depicting biomes!

[@PhilosoShysGameChannel]

The process of making Ta Mando's map was easy at first and then TOP TIER HARD toward the end xD Had to literally just hire a fantasy map maker cause our art skill is not nearly good enough xD

[@pact-md5wp]

Another way to create a map is to take a note for dnd Start with the core location your character originates from and work outwards filling in details as your character explores. This allows you to avoid a lot of tedium of drawing a world just keep a basic guideline for what lies beyond the protagonists "fog of war"

[@apm3694]

I'm suprised by the fact that you don't have more subscribers.I would have never been able to put in the effort to do something like this.

[@mathiask.5474]

I learned more in map making with this very video than in my 10 years of geography at school, you get my sub :D

[@liamt1289]

This was so helpful, thanks!

[@Megararo65]

I love how the first differents I noticed from your world and the real world is that yours has the double of Australia, for some reason 😂

[@rolldicerepeat]

Had to comment just to say thank you. This is one of the most insightful and interesting videos on worldbuilding/map making I’ve watched 👏 Can’t wait to check out more!

[@ashantighania225]

Thank you very much for making this video! I am world building hidden worlds for my web-comic and I needed the extra encouragement to work along to. No, this video is not too long and is perfect for fellow artists who need a virtual studio environment full of other artist working on similar tasks. Please make more videos! I have liked and subscribed!

[@BobSzes]

Thanks so much, Its great having a good overview of this stuff. Its allso great to know the underling factors that go into making a world.

[@TheMostBloatedOfBitterflies]

Hi, I watched a couple of your videos and their excellent! I am nearly 16 and I've been doing game design for as long as I can remember. I'm currently working on a new game/world and these video are giving me great ideas! Thank you!

[@The_Fireball]

Such an underated channel! Very thoughtout videos! I would love to read your story.

[@anraccoon2896]

Your drawing/narration style is so fun

[@icantcomeupwithagoodusername]

Just found your channel and after watching all your videos I'm excited to see were this story goes

[@mr.pickleperson2389]

This video is so good, and i'll definitely be spending the next few days working on my own fantasy world!

[@dragongock]

i just discovered this channel through this video and i LOVE ITTT

[@unknowable4147]

Absolutely love your content! So fun to watch you be passionate about this, thank you so much for these videos!

[@danilobovocarneiro4894]

I just found this channel, and I really love how you used hand drawing in this video; it's very unique. Great content, too!

[@miwiarts]

Your videos are so nice to listen to! ☺️

[@hannahsmth]

Thankyou! That's really nice to hear :)

[@alexkoti780]

Thank u so much for your inspiring video. I am starting my first serious worldbuild and ur Video was a huge help to even Start. With ur Beautiful Art Style and way of explaning things i was instantly motivated to draw along while watching u ^^

[@anakbahaavlog]

For the biomes, you can look at another factor like orographic rainfall. As it influence by wind pattern, mountain ranges and ocean

[@MythosMasonry-fq1up]

3:29 There is one more type of converge. It's 2 plates smashing into each other and folding like paper. This creates a raised area, followed by a depression and another eraised area like Tibet and the Sinkiang highland. The one that splis under makes mountain ranges that look like narrow stright lines like the andes. The Smashing together produces more potato-blobs of mountains like well Tibet and Perssia. 4:09 In maps I'd recomend using the coastlines from the real world as inspiration. The coastlines seem to be super uniform in 'squigglyness; 5:05 that's cool 5:39 Except the part that looks like literal europe & the meidterennean your map does not resemble our world all that much. I'd show you my map that I also made from scratch and I also had friends tell me that is basically just looks like earth. Humans are sadly pattern recognizing creatures and will find patterns where there are none. 9:37 Yeah, water flow patterns are important. it's the reason why Spain is as warm as florida while being as far north as Canada. In some ways it's so hard that it may as well be arbitrary, but general rules are: cold water has more oxygen so more Krill and whales. If it flows from cold->hot it cools a place if from hot-> cold then it warms it. This also decides where it's easy to sail. And is the reason why Black people never made it to madgascar, but Polynesians did. Water currents flow from indonesia towards madgascar while there is no current from africa to madgascar. Air currents are also fun. Basically Air flowing from warm-> cold makes it rain. The other way around it makes it dry. Also mountain are always wetter. Which is why you actually will find rainforest in mountains in the savannah.

[@andrewsusen3154]

Great job on the research and great art work. A tip incase you didn't know, prevailing winds carry desert sands to forests which provides minerals to help all the trees grow. Could be a cool globe wide storyline to run.

[@congruentcrib]

I don’t know how else to say this, but your animations, voice, and demeanor make me feel safe. Just warm and welcoming… and it just is something you can’t find anymore. Thanks!

[@PhilosoShysGameChannel]

We like this long form stuff a LOT! 10/10 great stuff!

[@alexandreramalho9637]

this video is not just "so good", it is extraordinary!

[@st4rl0rd10]

You deserve more subs...this content is gold

[@itvoadan]

I love the way you approached it! I also struggle with enjoying more of the creative side and not really knowing much about the technicalities...😅 I guess just embracing the fact that it won't necessarily be accurate is fine. After all, the creative process is what I enjoy the most. A lovely video! There's a lot of useful information. And it also made me inspired and want to worldbuild again. Perhaps when I graduate and have more time for it. Really thank you for this video♥

[@xiphosura413]

Really good job with this! I've spent far too long nerdishly taking deep dives into all aspects of worldbuilding without actually having anything to show for it, but this video has inspired me to just throw something together anyway, rather than using all that knowledge to raise my personal standards to silly, dizzying heights before I've even begun. All the time and effort spent on the research which you said you skimmed over would not have changed all that much in the end, (some biome placements & specific topography is about it) and iteration can always rejig things anyway. Love the art style too (the taiga and mammoth step artwork in particular would make a kickass poster!), you've got a new subscriber. The stone tools vid was awesome to see, my mother is an archaeologist with a special interest in the Palaeolithic, so it was right up my alley funnily enough :)

[@bigjoem9808]

Before I said you where quickly becoming my favorite channel to watch this video made that official. I have been world building and struggling at times with it, this is the only video that I have seen that has been able to easily explain this topic In world building. I know you said you were anxious for creating this video but I want you to know it came out more than great, but rather the best I’ve seen, I love your videos and I’m excited to see what’s next.

[@Halberddent]

There's a channel called Artifexian that you might find useful. Hard worldbuilding of this sort is his bread and butter.

[@hannahsmth]

Thank you so much for saying all that, I keep thinking about it and smiling ^^"" That I managed to help you with your worldbuilding is everything I hoped this video would be able to do, and I hope you keep worldbuilding! It's a wonderful thing to make a whole world from nothing but your imagination :)

[@bigjoem9808]

@@hannahsmth I am happy that I made you smile and I only spoke the truth your videos are wonderful and amazing and I’m so happy I found your channel.

[@kovi567]

As much as I like people going insane over biomes, keep in mind that folks dedicate their whole life learning about it just to do mortal combat with their peers to have a fleeting feeling of being right, until somebody else comes over and disproves everything they stand for. Normal people call things by what they think they are, and historical people cared even less. For them, every grassland may be a steppe, or maybe the entirety of africa be a desert, and don't know what a savannah is because they never heard the bloody word. Easiest way to make something logical is to have an elevation map, a heat map, a wind map (usually coriolis winds are enough), and a percipitation map (which you may base on the previous two). Basically, biomes are the combination of the geography, the local temperature and water content. Regarding Water: -Rain happens when moisture containing hot air (being lighter than cold air) goes up, then as it cools down it's moisture retaining capability is diminished, resulting in the excess moisture percipitating and falling down the ground (basically the moisture turns into clouds or fog, then water). -Clouds form over bodies of water, such as seas and oceans, and via winds they are spread over landmasses, depositing their water content along the way. Landmasses that are mostly flat and don't slow the winds down usually don't have lasting rains, and thus are more barren. -Fogs happen in high moisture areas and during the early morning and evening, when hot air is first introduced or moves out of the picture. They get trapped within mountains, so rainy season in basins is also foggy season. -Rivers come from mountains, by either them retaining rainwater in mountain lakes, dolinas and other features, and then said water trickling down, or if they are high enough the snow on the peaks can just melt during hot periods, resulting in cold, clean rivers. -Rivers also merge, and never split (naturally, though exceptions occur). Big rivers are fed by a bunch of smaller ones, and they carve their path in the landscape. They also like to change place throught the ages, especially if they seasonal (those that shrink or dissapear in dry season, and flood in wet season), moving on the other side of villages in a couple dozen generations. -Deltas are not rivers splitting, it's actually the sea/ ocean water depositing silt and whatnot at the end of the river, which in turn extends it, as the water tries to flow around the created banks and islets. It doesn't happen at the end of every river, it highly depends on where the wind blows, and thus where the waves go relative to the river's end. -Lakes appear when a river is slowed down enough, or if multiple ones merge in a low area/ basin. Their size highly depends on the size of the rivers feeding them, and some are so big they are called seas. Since rivers are dynamic, as the millenias go on even the largest of lakes can dry up, leaving behind soil full of clay. Lakes also have rivers coming out of them towards seas/ oceans. -Coastal areas may have inlets created from changing water levels. These are not lakes, as they have direct access to seas/ oceans, and are also salty themselves. These may also dry up and leave behind salt flats. -Salt water lakes are actually parts of seas or oceans that got trapped as the sea levels decreased. They may also eventually dry up and leave salt flats behind, though the length of this process is heavily dependent on the amount of rainwater it gets. Such lakes may also be fed via rivers, and may feed rivers going to the sea/ ocean. -Marshes happen in two cases: It's either a coastal area that is relatively flat, and thus experiences seasonal or occasional salt water floods, or it may be next to a river or lake that floods seasonally or ocasionally, covering large amounts of land in water that will eventually dry out. They rarely form basically as low depth lakes as well, but that's very rare. Regarding Elevation: -Mountains happen on the boundaries of tectonic plates, their size dependent on how long these plates have been interacting with each other. The himalayas are big because the indian and eurasian plates have been messing around for so long. The philippine isles are so underdeveloped because the philippine and sundra plate interaction is relatively fresh. -Their types are also indeed dependent on what type of movement is happening. Collisions produce inert high elevation mountain ranges, divisions create volcanic mountain ranges, and rifts create inert low elevation mountain ranges and plateaus. -Mountains are the prime "rain catchers", responsible for retaining moisture in a given area. They have a wet side where the winds are blowing from, percipitating their moisture, and a dry side which barely gets any waterflow. Both sides are viable for rivers, but it's usually the wet side that has more and biger ones. -Mountains are thusly also where a lot of plants grow, particularly tall mountains having multiple types of biomes that would be normally be separated by hundreds of kilometers, simply because the higher parts are colder and rockier (such as having a snowy peak, then rocky band, then grasses/ mosses/ lichens band, then a band of shrubs, and lastly bands of trees of varying thickness). -If the area is hot, mountains may be of more bearable temperature if high enough, but if the mountain is in the midlle of a large landmass and/ or is being "shadowed" by another mountain range from the prevailing wind direction, they may become rocky mountains bereft of moisture, and thus vegetation. -Rocky mountains may also form on the dry side of mountains in particularly hot or cold areas, if they are more "horizontal", and reach deep into the arid parts of the landmass. -Lastly, rocky mountains may also form if they are steep enough, such as if they are mainly made of limestone that is heavily eroded, or if they are on a major subduction zone. Basically plants just don't have enough "grip" on them to proliferate. -Plateaus are just relatively even mountains that may have really deep canyons carved by rivers. They often form at continental rifts, and are heavily dissected by rivers. -Fjords are mountains that have been "carved" by glaciers, thusly they are located at the northern and southern hemisphere, where such glaciers formed. They are basically coastal mountains with steep elevation and often no foothills, that are also featuring a lot of canyons where the sea itself moved in the wake of glaciers. They may have islands separated from the mainland, which eventually will be broken down by sea/ ocean waves. These are really good places for shipbuilding btw. Regarding Plants: -Trees need lots of water and different types grow everywhere, though they don't like strong winds on flat terrain. -Shrubs are okay with medium amounts of water, and are more resilient to winds, and may even utilize it to proliferate over large areas. -Grasses, mosses and lichens need minimal minimal, give no damn to wind, and in fact the basis for many animal's diet. Grasses need a lot of sunshine though, so cloudy areas or under thick tree canopies is moss and lichen territory. -Fungi need dead matter to grow, so wherever is life there are fungi as well to break it down when dead. They like caves a lot though, since a good number of species are averse to light, and none of them need it. -Algae grows in every body of water, though the more it moves the less there is (so strong rivers have low amounts). It needs sunshine though, so only the top part of the water gets algae "infested". -Kelp grows from the ground up, so only continental shelves have them, where the water isn't that deep. They also blot out sunlight, so algae and kelp forests are usually mutually exclusive (though exceptions occur). -Land where there is barely to no water is where deserts are. They still have some extremophile species in there, but the theme is generally low amounts of biomass in a given area. Okay, this is basically all I have from the top of my head. It's a lot, but it's still way less than doing your own research, or watching 3-6 youtube videos detailing each type of biome and where to put them (again, you don't need to know what xeric shrublands or montante forest means, if you know where shrubs or trees grow in general).

[@zynpkrdg]

Another interesting thing is to consider that deserts are deserts because they don't get rain. So it makes you think, why are there deserts next to oceans? It's because of the pressure ways of earth (so because of where parrallels are), the air is never able to rise so rain can't happen. Rain might happen because of mountains, it's how muson climate is made because air keeps tossing into mountains, and that's why the middle of asia has a desert because those mountains keep the rain from going to those lands. Idk this is also just my high school knowledge but for some reason it stuck with me because i had thought "oh, i could use this when worldbuilding!" when i listened to it lol.

[@Grimmance]

I used to make giant maps on those presentation sheets 2'×4' I think, I'd mark out rough outlines for landmass then work from the mountains out, that way I could build in the rivers and coves/coastlines. My geography teacher thought I was a little obsessed but seemed fine to slip me more paper. Worked out great for my D&D campaigns.

[@rinzertv07]

I love this map and the way made it

[@DavidGlenn]

Wow. You're really committed to this. I've been thinking I need to go back and figure out the entire world I've been working on (Not just my setting) Admittedly, I have no idea if I can do topography, so you get extra worldbuilding points for that. My main setting is actually a savanna biome, so making sure I get it right is important to me.

[@tylerjohnson398]

Comment for the algorithm essentially, but when it comes to air currents and wind, I usually use the 3 cell model. In my experience it helps out a lot, as it can point out where the drier areas should be, like the horse lats in the real world.

[@evermoonn]

this video is about maps but i learned so much abt the world, thank u

[@Reddman812]

Do more of these

[@marcoster3601]

THANK YOU. You made my day, been looking for someone like you to inspire my girlfriend's writing Wish I found you sooner❤

[@raulpurdy8388]

Great video love your content, cool map btw.

[@hannahsmth]

Thankyou! I'm glad you like it! :)

[@agentpapayatree]

Yo! Great video, ur sub count suprised me a lot! Also, what program do you use for drawing all this stuff?

[@hannahsmth]

Hey! Thankyou! ^^" I use photoshop primarily! But I bought the brushes from Trent Kaniuga, another KZbinr, which is why they look so good :)

[@vex3488]

I’ve been struggling SO LONG trying to figure out topography, your system of designing it seems so simple in hindsight! How did you decide on a specific Map Projection? Just wondering as through my redesigns I keep second guessing what map projection to use.

[@Jpteryx]

Great explanation of your methods. For topography, except where there are coastal cliffs hundreds or thousands of meters tall, only the lowest level of land topography should be adjacent to the ocean. Where the land steeply slopes from high elevation to sea level, like the Andes mountains, high elevations can be close to the ocean, but there will still be thin strips of lower elevations in between. Lakes don't need to be at sea level, but they still should be surrounded by a ring of land that's all at the same elevation level. For temperature, an Earth-like planet will have warm currents on the east coasts of continents between 15 and 45 degrees latitude north and south, and on the west coasts of continents between 45 and 75 degrees north and south. Then there will be cold currents on the opposite sides of the continents: on the west coasts of continents between 15 and 45 degrees latitude north and south, and on the east coasts of continents between 45 and 75 degrees north and south. Where there's a warm current, the nearby land will be warm relative to its latitude. Where there's a cold current, the nearby land will be relatively cold. Of course, elevation matters as well.

[@rickcharlespersonal]

I recently embarked on a high fantasy worldbuilding project in which I specifically designed the world around Earth's real landmasses. This is because geopolitics is not my forte and I wanted an efficient way to fill in gaps when I came to them. This way I can look at a region I need to flesh out and study the civilizations that have existed in that general area on Earth and consequently base my fictional civilization on them. This has helped me develop a geopolitically plausible world without taking too much away from what I really enjoy and am better at, which is the biodiversity. It is definitely not a sin to "copy" Earth, a lot of prominent worldbuilding projects have done this including Warhammer Fantasy and A Game of Thrones.

[@RaggedyJack]

Great video

[@bobskywalker2707]

Thank you she’s the goat

[@thegrandlibrary9451]

Omg! Your channel is such high quality! How do you not have more subscribers? You ma'dam, earned a new subscriber! Going to use your tips for my own world building now. :3

[@Cruxador]

Yeah this just got put on my front page for the first time and it's good and fun to watch. Hopefully this means she'll get some more love from the algorithm now.

[@thegrandlibrary9451]

@@Cruxador Hopefully so! She is great.

[@jacob4448]

Super cool! Could you maybe make a tutorial on how you made the map?

[@neceon4586]

Shouldn't have watched this video, now I'm set on completely revamping my world map... Jk, great video! And for someone with a mediocre understanding of geography, this will come in SO handy to get my world's basics done. Thanks a lot!

[@spacedragon1453]

As a map and history addict. I was going to say it looked like Afro-Eurasia. But, frankly. Just build a map your happy worldbuilding with.

[@spacedragon1453]

Although... you did combine England and France. 0/10 unforgivable combo.

[@JN-so6wt]

@@spacedragon1453 all the same to most of the global south tbh

[@johnkrappweis7367]

A wonderfully detailed,and sometimes excruciatingly so, help with world building can be found at the KZbin channel called Artifexian. This guy seems to glory in all the mathematical micro-minutiae that you seem to hate. And trust me, you aren’t the only one. But on the other hand, he is amazingly knowledgeable on the subject.

[@sit-insforsithis1568]

I have the map of middle earth printed out and hang like a painting in my room :)

[@ThePills101]

Hey, I dig the content so far. I Game Master a space RPG, always on the lookout for fantasy maps. What does the community think about oceans on tidally locked worlds like Mordia or Ras Shamra?

[@StrangeGamer859]

Do you have a full-size picture of your map anywhere? I love the shapes of the coastlines.

[@andreafardo7370]

I started making maps out of treasure maps, and only when i was deep into worldbuilding i saw tolkien map😅

[@alexh6681]

For my fantasy world i just took a map of earth from the jurassic period and mirrored it lol.

[@TroyTheCatFish]

W video :)

[@nfwrambo]

Maybe you could name your story after the hunter god/philosophy the clan has?

[@star_lover343]

What do you do when the planet is pretty much a giant Bahamas like it's a bit closer to the sun causing tropical weather around most of the planet will there still be polar ice caps ?

[@Dimipim1]

cool

[@garvinanders2355]

One thing I noticed is your continental groups seem closer together? So I would think the Western and Eastern hemispheres wouldn't be as isolated from each other as they were on Earth...

[@letsnotgetstressed8552]

This gets you a great, realistic/semi-realistic map but a pretty bland one. I’ve seen a lot of fantasy maps that have only real world biomes in about the same amounts.

[@cloud1973]

I love maps. Just don't give me a map of earth and ask me where a specific place is, because I'd just keel over and die.

[@thepowerofluck2432]

What was the song in the first few seconds of the videos opening? I've had that song randomly appear in my head and I need to know the source

[@ladahieno2382]

Lacks a percipitation map

[@jern2216]

what software do you use for making maps?

[@arnehefer5749]

Are you South African by chance? You really sound like it, it seems like im the only South African interested in this sorta stuff😂

[@hannahsmth]

Yeah I am! Was it the accent that gave it away? :p

[@arnehefer5749]

@@hannahsmth yeah it was! I’m so glad I’m not the only one in SA that finds world building cool Greetings my fellow South African🫡😂

[@marcopagliarani9338]

What software did you used to make the map?

[@SusCalvin]

I grab a map of German and thai towns.

[@TopatTom]

Reddit man:NOO YOU HAVE TO KNOW THE TECONIC SIMULATIONS AND HOW THEY MOVE AND EVERY SINGLE KNOWLEDGE Her: stfu i make map 🗿

[@lizoliver3021]

what software are you using to make the map?

[@hannahsmth]

Actually I drew it by hand, first on paper and then using clip studio paint, sorry if that doesn't help much ^^"

[@lizoliver3021]

@@hannahsmth no that definitely helps! thank you :)

[@objectsupr9970]

Hm, you need help

[@Etropalker]

Wow, you didnt even get degrees in geology, atmospheric physics, paleoclimatology and ecology, its like you dont even care to get it right, smh. ;)

[@Denny-pw5vn]

u talk like u dont know what ur talking about like the way u say things speak w more confidence

[@Idkpleasejustletmechangeit]

I think something cool that could be thought about for something like this would be an explanation for the seasons. In Earth's case, the seasons likely exist, because Theia collided with Earth, which made it tilt a bit (and created the moon). The Earth being tilted means that the light hits Earth from different angles depending on how far North or South you are and as the Earth travels around the sun, those angles slowly get switched (this is how seasons work. Less light = colder temperatures = winter). You obviously don't need to just copy Earth's seasons and their explanation. Maybe you do want a similar explanation. Then you could maybe decide that the impact tilted the planet even more strongly, which would create different seasons. Maybe you want the explanation to be more mythological or supernatural. Perhaps summer is just the earth god taking a hot bath. Maybe winter is a devine punishment. It could also just be that the gods play poker to see who has to take care of the planet's shenanigans, all of whom take a different approach (this could be combined with an aura of unpredictability surrounding the seasons). Anyway, nobody will read this anyway.

[@wokekkk]

It would be cool to see a fiord with tropical climate