Rivers - Worldbuilder's Log 41

[@VulcanTrekkie45]

Rivers erode through mountains often enough on Earth that geologists can use that fact to determine how old the river is. The Susquehanna River eroded through the Appalachians and the Columbia River eroded through the Cascades

[@AaronGeo]

Same thing with the Danube. At the Romania-Serbia border, it crosses the Carpathian Mountains.

[@samstarlight160]

You could cut through mountains and other high features, but you could also just say that the gaps between features on the original map were carved out by flowing water. That's how I interpret this method of placing rivers anyway

[@KiraiKatsuji]

@@samstarlight160 Has similar thought even before reading this comment

[@khilorn]

It more cuts through as the mountains develop be it by volcanism or uplift.

[@theothenintendomaster3717]

@@AaronGeo Yep the Danube erodes a massive valley in between the Carpathians.

[@nathanleech4933]

It might be very interesting to play with odd mineral formations and deposits around your large Caspian Sea in the endorheic basin. Erosion from the nearby mountains could deposit lots of minerals in the lake, which would be exposed in the current time period of this world as it is not overflown. Glad you enjoyed the dinner!

[@Lucas-df4ht]

The spec evo in that massive endorrheic lake would be insane! Imagine Beluga Sturgeon-style freshwater/brackish aquatic evolution only tangentially related to the wider oceans around the world.

[@WilliamLund-o1d]

Went back to see when it became isolated, and it formed 100 million years before present, so it would basically be a marine australia, so there could really be some cool stuff going on there.

[@ArcticTron]

@@WilliamLund-o1d Holy crap that sounds so cool. It's like a mix of the Caspian Sea and Lake Baikal but crazier in the sense that its bigger and older than both respectively.

[@YeetyboisEmpire]

this

[@shirokamishijisa3945]

Can't wait to get to the culture-building section of this series! Just from the rivers and topography, I can see some interesting possibilities for major citiy locations and some possible country shapes.

[@AaronGeo]

I LOVE RIVERS I LOVE RANDOM CHANNELS OF WATER

[@cal5365]

I LOVE WATER CHARLIE! I LOVE WATER!

[@BlenderModeling-yd5ft]

@@cal5365 uh cal5365, I- I would really not be uh- screaming that at the top of your lungs.

[@pointyorb]

@@BlenderModeling-yd5ft i don't get it

[@Han-b5o3p]

NO! RIVERS WILL NEVER GET ME! LIBERTY FROM WATER AAAAA

[@BlackIndigenousPosse]

Listen to Aesop Rock - By the River.

[@EthanNeal]

18:35 Those canyonlands/fragmented tpopgraphy is really something I've seen in Idaho downstream of the outlet of former Lake Bonneville, Red Rock Pass. There's a long series of short canyons across most of the Portneuf River Valley as you go along I-15 and US 91 until you reach the Snake River. It's also really easy to see on interactive sea level maps that let you go up to 1500 meters. Also going to add that while in 99.9% of cases rivers don't split, there are a few edge cases. The more notable example being deltas, which I'd imagine you'll come back to at some point, but I'll add to that that deltas are not an exclusively coastal feature, just look at the Teton River just north of Rexburg, Idaho and the Okavango Delta in Botswana, both form deltaic complexes where you wouldn't expect. Also, rivers can very rarely split at the continental divides, Two Ocean Pass in Wyoming is the best known example, but it's extremely rare and happens with very small streams near to their headwaters.

[@somethingforsenro]

another unique example of natural river distributaries (splits) is the natural casiquiare canal in northern south america, which connects the amazon river delta with the orinoco in colombia

[@irmaosmatos4026]

@@somethingforsenro making the Guyanas a ocean-river island!

[@justsaying4303]

there's also the inner Niger delta in mali

[@GmodPlusWoW]

When you said "computer says no", that activated my ancient Little Britain memories that I kinda wish I didn't have. But I'm still glad to see all these neat little rivers and lakes.

[@roleplayerchadwick]

This video came out of the perfect time for me. I was needing to make rivers in a current worldbuilding project that I am calling Walkress

[@orktv4673]

A "current" worldbuilding project... checks out

[@AaronGeo]

Same. I was making a supercontinental world called Helios and then after finishing the continental climates a couple weeks ago, I had nothing to do and I was bored. So I began making another world called Elysium from scratch, a world with 6 continents. I was just finishing up the isotherms and hot/cold spots and when this video came out, I went back to Helios and started drawing the rivers.

[@statelyelms]

I absolutely love rivers and watersheds, but it's so far along in the world building process and so contingent on very technical details that I never have gotten to draw them in a satisfying, realistic way, and probably never will. This scratches that itch so well

[@jamesgriffith5582]

I think there's two slight errors present here. The first is the idea that you need to punch holes in these Andes style mountains in order to let the moisture through in order to have the rivers on the other, drier, side. Now, were the moisture coming in from the landward side I'd agree. However, looking at the Andes themselves they're narrow enough, and the moisture coming in heavy enough, that both sides are lush and green, the dryness only really beginning once you reach the plains below them. Indeed, looking at Patagonia you not only have a series of major west to east rivers originating from the continuous mountains, but they seem to very much originate where the mountains are at their thickest and largest, with big icecap chunks and then large glacial lakes on the east side. -Bigger mountain, more precipitation, more snow and glaciers, bigger rivers on the dry side. (This is also true-ish for the Yukon river as well, it originates from the thickest part of the mountain). I'd say scroll over and look at how the Andes does it down south, then follow on. You could have some fantastic lakes on the northern sides of those mountains. -In addition, I'd say that those big northern endoheric basins would but unlikely to remain endoheric. Especially the southern one, at least in that form. Again, plenty of moisture on the mountain, probably a good enough amount pushing through and up. The comparison would be the Tibetan Plateu, and to be fair that has a large centre endoheric basin (as well as draining to the north into a larger one, the gobi desert (in your case the big lake would be the equivalent)). However, what the Tibetan Plateu also has is two 'collector' rivers on the north side, the Indus and the Yarlung/Brahmaputra, which collect the water coming off the Himalayas to the north, thus cutting off the Endoheric basin from a supply that could overtop it. (You also have the fact that all those high plateus would have been carved up by glaciers, blasting through big valleys that could make it a lot easier for water to get out). I'd say have the lower basin drain out to either to the south or east, given that there appears to be gaps in the mountains there (or blast one so it can flow to the west into your super nile). I'd then keep the river going into the main big basin, but have it hugging the mountains like the Yahlung or Indus. You may want the same thing on the western side too, there is a gap of sorts in them due east of the apex of the lake. Then, the inside of that big mountain basin could be subdivided up similar to the Tibetan Plateu. As it is, you don't have the real ideal situations for Endoheric basis... A giant closed in land-mass, akin to the central asian basins, or a natural endoheric basins with tall rain catching mountains and a desert basin behind, akin to the Great Basin. Regardless, great work.

[@theothenintendomaster3717]

Yep the mountains especially in the tropics are far less dry than Edgar previously outlined and so provide moisture to form great rivers.

[@xiphosura413]

Yeah, as he was marking in the little rivers on the southern flank of the plateau I was wondering about stream capture eating into that endoheric basin. Would make a very impressive delta too. I reckon fluvial features are hugely underrated in worldbuilding!

[@ФестрийКрековский]

I think that huge lake is too up north and too wet to be endoheric. Kaspian sea has an average summer temp of 25-30 degrees and is located in desert region, while this one is 15-20 in warm in cold summer continental. Kaspian sea's only major river is Volga, while this lake has huge amounts of rainfall, plus meltwater from snow in the region, plus large icecaps in the mountains all around to supply it all year long. But most importantly, Kaspian sea oscillates too but we don't see it owerflowing now because it would take about 150% area increase to overflow as there's very flat lowlands to the north of it. There's no other large endoheric lakes on earth just because Kaspian sea's basin is very low. Its overflow channel's (Kumo-Manych depression) highest point is roughly between it and the Azov sea and is just 20m above sea level, so erosion can't really make it lower either. But if a lake forms at a higher elevation, nothing is stopping it (given enough water) from just carving an outflow channel low enough so its just downhill from its water surface elevation, and draining the lake even further. So even if we assume that the current size of that lake is at its equilibrium, instead of water level rising to overflow, the canyon should've been carved down through the low terrain to its current water level (maybe even lower)

[@leondonmaya8878]

Just an observation of an overlook on the canyon part, the canyon ends up being deeper than the surrounding areas, and is disconnected by a higher elevation part, the inland sea would instead overflow to the other river to the west southwest through the other canyon an it is lower in elevation.

[@madelinejameswrites]

Seeing that comparison that Nikolai generated is really fun! Definitely pretty close. And your river map is GORGEOUS. I love how you darkened everything to make it super easy to see the river.

[@madelinejameswrites]

Also, can we unanimously declare that precipitation is the hardest of all things...

[@Auroral_Anomaly]

Do all the worldbuilding KZbinrs know each other?

[@rafaelbastos8713]

​@@Auroral_Anomaly It's probably because it's such a vaste knowledge involving hobbie, that people tend to search more reference with others.

[@charliewilson8782]

​@@madelinejameswritesAgreed, I spent hours the other day trying to figure out why I had so few arid regions, trying to match my 5-degree precipitation scale to the 3 degree one that Edgar used, and trying to put numbers to my precipitation map so I could use the equations from the köppen climate classification before I finally decided to go all the way back and redo pressure and precipitation altogether.

[@madelinejameswrites]

@@rafaelbastos8713 exactly! None of us are working in a vacuum, we're building off each other's work and adding what we can to what's out there. From my experience, this community is also really into sharing and helping each other out. It's wonderful.

[@magnolia1253]

This has been one of the most awesome videos in the series so far. Lots of potential with rivers and how water interacts with the land in general. Though he kind of glossed over the existence of river deltas. And sometimes rivers DO split outside of deltas.

[@NeoWish]

know the rules before you break it

[@JacobH-zu1lb]

Don't forget about stream piracy! A great example of this is the Yellow River changing courses and the mouth of the river being at different sides of the Shandong Peninsula at different points in history.

[@JacobH-zu1lb]

An opportunity to do something like that at 21:30

[@irmaosmatos4026]

the Yellow being so unconstant while the Huangdi to the south always following the same path is an interesting contrast in real life, and would be cooler in fantasy.

[@stefanodadamo6809]

21:38 to be true, sometimes rivers DO split through distributaries, though rare. It requires adjacent basins, locally not separated by any significant elevation, to actually exchange water. Casiquiare is a case.

[@NeoWish]

know the rules before you break it. that rule is made to minimize newbies doing it and learn only later otherwise when they know better

[@6-4crusader55]

8:22 rivers do split! It is very rare but it does happen, they’re called river bifurcation! There’s a famous example here in the Rockies, called Parting of the Waters in Two Ocean Pass!

[@EthanNeal]

Not only that, but with deltas, too, and they don't have to stop be coastal, the Teton River splits just northeast of Rexburg, Idaho before both forks independently join the Henry's Fork of the Snake about 10 miles downstream

[@LynnSerp]

Hell, the Niger has an enormous inland-delta that's significantly rich floodplains.

[@alexisdorris272]

Was looking for this comment before making one myself - rivers split and rejoin further down the way more often than Edgar seems to think 😂

[@AaronGeo]

​@@LynnSerp Yeah, in Mali

[@InvaderX32]

@@alexisdorris272 I think he is making such a point about rivers not splitting because splitting rivers is a very, very common mistake for worldbuilders, especially less experienced ones. Rivers can split but it requires specific circumstances and is generally very rare, so it's best to avoid it unless you really know what you're doing. If you have too many splitting rivers your map will just end up looking really unnatural.

[@InvaderX32]

I wonder if the giant inland sea would cause the development of topography similar to what occurred during the Missoula Floods in Washington. That was a glacial lake outburst, but since the lake is so huge it would probably release a ton of water when it overflows. Giant current ripples probably wouldn't be visible on the world map, but would look pretty cool on a smaller-scale one!

[@lEGOBOT2565]

"Rivers, they never split" there is a river in the US that *does* split. It's more of a creek, but Two Ocean Creek splits *at* the continental divide, and flows into the Pacific and the Atlantic. The topography of the area is funky

[@BeneathTheBrightSky]

I'm excited to see the Hyper-Nile river become a cultural powerhouse someday.

[@kalez238]

I love drawing rivers so much. This video was so fun imagining where I would put all the rivers vs where you did, though much was the same.

[@sainthuckelberry]

Pretty cool. One thing I do that helps the "believability" of rivers is that, if the elevation is high (and especially if the elevation *change* is high) then I draw rivers basically straight. In low and very flat terrain, rivers tend to wobble, meander, and create oxbows, and so I draw much wigglier lines in flat/low places.

[@KiraiKatsuji]

AMAZING I LOVE RIVERS AND THIS CHANNEL!!!!! Also so in this episode we're doing one of the most important things in terms of how civilizations will develop, as rivers were used for many many things in history and they guided many things through it. Also it looks so beautiful exactly what i love about topography the gorgeus river systems

[@beepbop6542]

I see a small problem with some of your rivers. They seem to very curvy in the hills and straight in the lowlands. This is actually kind of reversed in real life. On slopes, rivers can often proceed quite quickly, eroding their path and heading down quickly. In flatter areas, rivers will meander a lot, with many oxbows. Look at the Seine or the lower Mississippi and compare to, say, the Rio Grande.

[@AaronGeo]

Yeah. Didn't notice that. But some of them are curvy in the hills due to complicated terrain. I'd argue that those linear rivers in flat terrain are accurate, since the river bends are so small that on a global scale, they look merged and linear

[@dav9104]

​@@AaronGeo Wouldn't they erode the hills then and make valleys? Water is extremely powerful force, especially over extended periods of time.

[@terdragontra8900]

@@dav9104 The river erodes the valley it’s in faster than rain erodes the hills around it, so erosion often accentuates hills rather than shrink them

[@laMoria]

That is true yet if you look at the rivers in the Massif Central, you will see that from above the river path is not straight at all (Tarn, Lot, Allier, Loire). And their path become straighter in the plains. As always with rivers, one must think about the geology first. What grains can the water carry. Fine stones (sediments) will only deposit in low speed water, so in the plains, while pebbles will be deposited even in the fast water uphill. The Seine has fine grains, its bassin being mostly made up of sediment stones, and so there is a lot of material to be deposited once in the plains, which alter the course of the river. On the contrary, the Loire comes from a place with a lot of granite, which deposits quickly. There is less material to be deposited downstream, thus less curves. So is my understanding at least

[@BlenderModeling-yd5ft]

I'm so happy were finally done with climates. Rivers are one of my favorite geographical subjects, right behind mountains! Orogenesis ftw! Also, I'm SO excited to see what kind of awesome cultures Artifexian fills his world with!

[@hackarma2072]

There was a paper recently about how 50% of rivers are really on the temporary side of things with a clear dry season.

[@oddscomedy7128]

I live in ottawa and I have a fun little history lesson about the city. Back then, during the last glacial retreat, a huge sea was created from melting sea ice that ranged from Lake Ontario, and through the Ottawa River and st Lawrence River (both of which were bellow sea level at the time). The sea was big enough to house dolphins, whales and pinnipeds. Then the sea dried up over time, forming the Ottawa valley, and leaving behind several glacial lakes behind. So yeah, my city and the river has a history of flooding before the floodings today. Edit: the seas name is the Champlain Sea

[@bourbonbobo]

"Make the topography respect you" makes me think of a certain other KZbin channel that builds not worlds but cities.

[@justsaying4303]

i thought the same thing too

[@uncolorr]

which

[@kittycatcaoimhe]

I would like to note that rivers don't *never* split, it's just exceedingly rare. I'm not talking about islands and deltas either, but genuine split headwaters. If a headwater flows into a wetland that's on the margin between two basins, it can absolutely form two separate rivers. This is seen in Wyoming, USA, with Two Ocean Pass, which has North Two Ocean Creek flowing down from it, hits a relatively flat bit *on* the continental divide known as the Parting of the Waters, and splits into Atlantic Creek to the east, and Pacific Creek to the west. Atlantic Creek eventually joins up with the Missouri River, which then merges with the Mississippi River, flowing out to the Gulf of Mexico. Pacific Creek flows into the Snake River, which then merges with the Columbia River, flowing out to the Pacific Ocean. There's also a creek and a separate lake that does the same in Canada (Divide Creek and Committee's Punch Bowl). The Rhine River has a delta so large that it effectively is the whole of the Netherlands, with the River Ijssel feeding into the Markermeer. Similarly, the Mississippi River splits off and forms the Atchafalaya River in Louisiana, USA. In cases where a river does split, the branches off of these rivers are called distributaries, and while they usually rejoin or are part of a large coastal plain that features a lot of wetlands, there certainly are cases where they separate completely. However, these instances are uncommon enough that having more than a handful of them in a single world would push the boundaries of realism, and they're usually fairly transient from what little information I'm finding.

[@MarsAnonymous]

There are some more curious cases along these lines: - Vistula. At the beginning of its delta, it splits into the major portion, which ends up directly in the Gdańsk Bay near the city of Gdańsk, and a smaller part (Nogat) which ends up in the Vistula Lagoon near the city of Elbląg. There's a 30 km distance between those two places. - Danube: In the Donauversickerungen between Immendingen and Möhringen, part of the Danube seeps into the ground and flows underwater ... until it emerges at the Aachtopf, about 10 km southwards, and flows into the Rhine.

[@EthanNeal]

Another case of rivers splitting is the Teton River in Idaho, which splits in 2 near Rexburg before both forks join the Henry's Fork of the Snake separately. It's very rare to see it as high up as that at 1483 meters (4865 feet), but it can happen

[@alfredwaldo6079]

Yup def something that can happens. There is an example if this in northern Sweden

[@streambotnt2095]

Ahh, this is real quality content. More than just that, it also brings me joy in this newfound hobby of mine. Worldbuilding is actually quite fun. I always think of weird scenarios in my head anyways for stupid things that could happen on different planets, why not make my own? And here I was a few days ago buying a drawing tablet to get started, and today it arrived. I haven't yet finished my first contients topography, but damn, I am looking forward to making my first river systems on it. Its been a real fun to draw squiggly lines and listen to podcasts and videos. You got me into this, and I am grateful for that. Thanks a lot!

[@Sprait_CB]

If precipitation falls, only in winter, it was possible to get a drying river, as in Australia.

[@theothenintendomaster3717]

Yet another fantastic video, the lakes and rivers are perfect, I think next video is going to be about mountains and in order to make the Ezrian rivers more believable you could do off camera montane koppen climates, because often times mountains especially in dry zones are wetter than lower elevations,In a previous comment I outlined a method of locating Subtropical Highland climates from Geodiode.(tropical mountains between 1500-4000 meters and with temperatures of 0-22 degrees Celcius).

[@ronniethezombie]

As someone who has been building a world for over 20 years, your vids have inspired me to start sharing it with the world. I have always been so afraid that someone might "steal" it and I'm sooo protective of my "baby". Guess I can only see what happens.

[@kv4648]

On the large mountain plateau I'd imagine that water would pool and build up in deep lakes before being able to punch through the steep walls that surround the area. Maybe it could even give some spectacular waterfalls I'm not a geologist though so I don't know for sure

[@kulichkun8709]

About rivers in cold climates. In temperate continental climates (Dfb) and colder, rivers freeze in winter. Numerically, it can be said that rivers freeze if the temperature in winter is lower than about -7C for lowland rivers. Mountain rivers are usually too fast, so they do not freeze. Depending on the cold and the length of the winter, the thickness of the ice varies. In the taiga (Dfc), the ice on the rivers is more than 30 cm (1 ft), which allows you to safely drive a car on it. In areas with temperatures of about -11C and below in winter, the ice is usually thick enough (10 cm) for a person to walk on or ride a sled. In spring, the ice breaks up and the ice float down the river. If the river flows north, the upper reaches of the river melt faster, causing the ice to accumulate in a thick layer at the border where the river breaks up. At the same time, all the snow begins to melt, which leads to large volumes of water. This leads to large floods. The water level in rivers can vary by up to a dozen meters.

[@AaronGeo]

2:32 I noticed that on your website's Koppen Climate map, there's still those arid regions you erased.

[@ATmoose]

What I think would be super cool is if the giant captain sea lake connected to the super Nile River. Maybe the last ice sheet reached the southern mountains dividing the two and carved a gap. Then as the glacial ice sheet melted the ice stayed in the mountains longer creating an ice dam and causing a huge meltwater lake near the current super Cashins lake. The ice dam then broke unleashing a mega flood down the Super Nile. This would be similar to how glacial lake Missoula created the scablands in Eastern Washington in the US. If all the water from your super captain sea floes into the super Nile that would help explain how that river does not dry up as it floes through the desert.

[@Zestrayswede]

While cool, I think it would make more sense for the water in that lake to flow westward rather than southward

[@Chair5]

18:28 it’s giving hyper Lake Bonneville vibes Edit: and now im imagining future geologists finding the deposits of many ancient catastrophic floods in that region

[@skrebdog]

8:20 There is a quite a well known example (maybe not so well known) of rivers splitting in Venezuela; The River Orinoco splits, with one path flowing down to the Rio Negro and ultimately the River Amazon! It's called the Casiquiare canal.

[@TaserFish-qn2xy]

Yeah, it also happens again and again in deltas. When flow is sufficiently low to precipitate sediment out, the created sandbank can start a split. But fast flow over hard rock basically never splits.

[@diri_birb]

@@TaserFish-qn2xy there are other mechanisms how rivers can split. For example a temporary obstacle such as an ice dam blocking the main channel of the river, forcing the water to carve another channel for itself. Or the river can split around a rock fin or a mountain. Like, river bifurbication is rare outside of deltas, but still a lot more common than people seem to think it is. Now that I think about it, many of the real life examples I'm thinking of are in the areas that were under the ice sheet in the previous ice age, so I wonder if its (after)effects make them more likely to form 🤔

[@TaserFish-qn2xy]

@@diri_birb Well, aren't you thinking of diversions? Sure, vulcanism, landslides and glaciers can all change riverbeds and geology. Rivers can also cut back up at their point of origin, which can capture lakes or other rivers. However, from what little knowledge I have about the matter, I'd assume that these processes usually leave behind one dry riverbed and one main channel. Intuitively, it seems exceedingly unlikely for the processes you or I have described to split a river such that significant amounts of water, let's say more than 5% of the total volume, flow along both channels. That being said, I'm happy to learn if you can provide some real world examples!

[@diri_birb]

@TaserFish-qn2xy Nope, definitely thinking about bifurcation. It's true that the resulting bifurcation (if it happens, a diversion is probably a way more common result) can be semi-temporary, but the same thing can be said about river channels anyway. The new split river can then later join the river it split off from (sometimes way, way downriver), which creates what are technically huge river islands, or continue its own way until it meets another river or the sea. Idk if I have any specific examples of the split-and-rejoin thing, as that is a thing that happens a lot. For ice age affected areas specifically you could look at the rivers in the Nordics? For an example of a stable (and permanent split) river bifurcation in that same area, look up Tärendö river. Tärendö river splits off from the Torne river, taking about 57% of its water with it. It then later empties into the Kalix river. Both Torne and Kalix flow into the Gulf of Bothnia, but in completely different places.

[@CODENAMEDERPY]

20:23 I feel like The Grand Canyon is not the best choice to model that system after. Would the Coulees of Eastern Washington work better? I'm not sure, but I feel like large-scale flooding and erosion would happen every time that basin breached, causing coulees to form. But that also partially depends on the soil and the bedrock(s).

[@EthanNeal]

The Coulees would probably be a closer match, but I think it's more like a Lake Bonneville situation, though you see a lot of the same scab land formations in southern Bannock County, Idaho and down the Snake River Valley. Given it's a more humid area, albeit still far inland, the erosion in that area would be less noticeable, also since it'll likely have been far longer since the last flooding event there than the Missoula or Bonneville floods are for us.

[@CODENAMEDERPY]

@@EthanNeal ah, good points. Thanks

[@Thaumh]

Looking good! But you forgot Okavango style inland seasonal deltas. All those "petering out" rivers from the gaps in the "Andean" mountain range could do that.

[@robandrews1106]

I have stated before that you are a genius, but will affirm that again! This video was nicely done and made the process very clear. I had always basically made a call on water flow based on local relief, which lets out a lot of long rivers and frankly didn't create great looking river systems. I quickly sketched out the basins using your process and there will be some changes as a result! I have a TON of mountains in my world and so there were also a ton of basins within the major ranges - however, when I considered the elevation ( I used 6000m as an average) where ice was unlikely to melt and rivers do not flow, many of those basins were truncated or disappeared altogether, leaving me with something I'm happy with. Thanks again for your work - I constantly watch these videos and see things I didn't consider and go ' oh, damn...'

[@autochton]

20:09 shows the map in a way that makes me wonder. The canyon you've mapped out looks like there's a higher-elevation barrier between it and the inland sea than the outlet further south, which in turn can fairly easily be traced through outward to arrive at the outer end of the canyon. Were you planning to change the topography closest to the lake at the canyon inlet?

[@amazinggoob9108]

I wonder how one would even begin to simulate something short-scale but still impactful like the Lake Missoula floods at the end of the ice age. Would it even be worth it to try...?

[@EthanNeal]

I think so, as long as you have an idea of how glaciers retreat from an area, and that that area has a glacial endorheic basin become an exorheic basin, you would them follow the course of the new channel, flattening the entire valley, until you find somewhere flatter (like eastern Washington), where the floodwaters would spread out but still erode channels in softer rock, where it'll leave canyons and remnant lakes. I'd take a look at the course of the Clark Fork, Spokane, and Columbia Rivers in both satellite and terrain view on Google Maps to get an idea of what gets left behind after a major flood like that

[@WarLordXavier]

I think it'd be cool if you put in a few water features cause by ancient asteroid impacts like the lakes around René-Levasseur Island

[@legomojo]

Rivers are one of the things I give the most thought about on fantasy maps. Thanks for making me even more neurotic when I see a fantasy map now. 😂

[@starcluster2593]

i have never done worldbuilding or geography but i like this and will remember what i was taught

[@Hwelhos]

About the huge lake. If there is a period where there is more rainfall than another, then what if it overflows in one period, creating a river while being dry in the other. Imagine the cultures this would create: "The sacret river that starts flowing in this one period of the year and is dry in the other." I think that could be amazing!

[@ceddyd]

This is EXACTLY the episode I needed for the world generation in my video game! Literally the biggest thing I was getting confused on.

[@secretsecreton3499]

You should almost certainly take another look at the precipitation and climate maps now that you’ve added glacial lakes. The irl Great Lakes have a huge effect on climate and it would help add climate diversity in the coldest parts of the map.

[@JonJonny-c3z]

*Me coming back after years and seeing Artifexian's fancy, grand spanking cool new logo (for me)* 🤯😮

[@nature337]

The massive inland sea periodically flooding reminds me of the Missoula Floods of Washington! It makes some insane local topography, and i image the water discharge of this world's one would be especially cataclysmic

[@jan_Wilo]

i would love to all the rivers overlayed with the climate map that would be pretty cool to see, might ss and make a quick version tbh

[@gusdog5288]

super nice to just watch and relax to at night 🌚

[@uake3555]

I think you should delve deeper into lakes like huge lakes of North American continent and lakeland area of Finland where 25% of area is water. And how movement of ice sheets affects the shapes of the lakes. Or how ice sheets have made ridges (natural dams) when they have moved and retreated. I think by chenking maps and how ice sheets have moved in North America and fennoskania area you might get some inspiration. Also check ice age terminal moraine like Salpausselkä or Outer lands and how they effect river, lake formation and geography.

[@wednes3day]

Previous ice age glacial maxima huh? Wouldn't that also mean deposits? If not multiple rows of (major) moraines? (iirc North America was the example we were given for those)... and then of course all of the fun other sub-glacier formations 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 That said, *would* be cool to see the rivers on a sphere .. both for distortions and to put mega-Nile in perspectives

[@dayalasingh5853]

And I've just been watching Any Austin's videos on river hydrology in video games, perfect timing.

[@DanielCrabbprn]

I am almost glad this vidoe did not come out until now. On my wolrd, a large section of a continents interior is endorheic, however there is a small (250km) section of the highlands in the south east. I decided to put a karst flow through those hills/mountains, allowing the continent to drain. If I had seen this, I probably would not have done that. As an interesting cultural point, this has allowed me to put an underground city in the area. As all river trade from the inland nations must trade though this city, it has developed into a trade powerhouse. (I understand that an underground river isn't necessarily navicable, but I also have magic in this world, and industrious people, so this has been added in as a historic mega-project / world wonder).

[@skylarjune1635]

I love rivers, I live close to the Chattahoochee in the US and rivers are always an important part of my worldbuilding. It’s good to know I got a lot of things right in my last project I did before doing much research, but I definitely got some things really wrong hehe

[@CuriosityCore101]

I've been looking forward to the rivers video!

[@Xedlord]

Can you show what the River map of Picard (That's the lower continent right?) looks like on the globe next video or something? Since it's kinda hard to see on the projection.

[@Auroral_Anomaly]

Yes WE’RE BACK!

[@elyott8508]

Hi, First, I'm new to the chanel and I want to say that this series of videos is amazing. Not only by the work you put in it ( the spreadsheet and the research you do) but also because you try to explain the phenomena that make habitable world interesting and this help you're viewers try to do there own world. (And just for that, thank you so much) Second, my question maybe a bit annoying and late but as I couldn't find any answers, I would like to know if multiples stars in the spreadsheet may be a possibility or if it's just out of the question ? Finally, I apologize if there are mistakes or stuff that don't make sense. As an non English speaker, I struggle to find errors and gg trad isn't always helpful. Anyway, I hope that anyone who lost time reading this essay still have a great day 😅 and well, Bye.

[@anarchosnowflakist786]

this is so cool I love it

[@SIZModig]

Lakes next? I'm surprised of how many rivers you have in the cold, dry places but I guess they'll be swallow or dry mostly. I can't wait to start mapping out potential population centers!

[@keith6706]

I live in a polar desert. We receive an average of 186mm of precipitation a year (the cutoff for a desert is about 250mm). This image is what the land around where I live looks like: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/Tahiryuaq_2022-07-23_Sentinel-2_L2A_True_color.jpg/1920px-Tahiryuaq_2022-07-23_Sentinel-2_L2A_True_color.jpg The ocean is the water in the bottom left corner. All the rest is fresh water.

[@GabrielGABFonseca]

Man oh man, I can't _wait_ for Any Austin to give this river system a go!

[@ThatDevilBear]

you say rivers dont split meanwhile i live within driving distance of the else/ hase bifurcation great video, as always, im so hooked on this series

[@ananas_anna]

Dammmmn that is a cool thumbnail! Can’t wait to watch the creation process.

[@brysonfetters4934]

Just a small bit of feedback, the canyon you had coming from the Northern Inland Sea is topographically below all the land, around it (both upstream and downstream) which doesn't if its supposed to have been cut by waterflow from the big lakes. Other than that this is a great video!

[@Taqterra]

"I'm gonna close this ridge up to make a single access point to ezri" Oh no, bro made a conflict zone

[@Taqterra]

Nvm it was reopened

[@terdragontra8900]

There are a few places where you have many rivers running parallel to each other all the way to the sea (or some other big river). It looks kind of unnatural, and it seems to me (in my completely unexpert opinion) that over the course of time some of these rivers would capture their neighbors, especially in flatter areas, so a greater proportion of them would be (higher order) tributaries.

[@NeoWish]

especially if its flat

[@imperialsky8273]

Doesn’t it make more sense to do the previous glacial period first as they affect almost every modern river that met it. (For example the Ohio river)

[@imperialsky8273]

Also I’d check out TheGeoModels video on how one river stole fish from the other. It explains a really interesting effect done by rivers that essentially “steal” another one’s flow via erosion. Super useful for local topography although it may be a little niche and recent on the geological time scale.

[@imperialsky8273]

Oops I just finished the video and noticed that you did take into account glaciers, but I would have liked to see more on how they changed the course of previously northward moving rivers and other hints at a glacial past like peninsulas and islands in the vein of Massachusetts. Excited for the coastline video

[@khilorn]

In the wise words of my college hydro professor, "shit flows downhill."

[@hxmb]

Looks really cool! The lakes on Ezri look a bit odd with the three in the west and three in the east all evenly spaced out, but I guess that's just my own aesthetic preference. Love the big ice margin lake in the south. Are there any lakes like that on earth?

[@fwuz_]

on the river splitting thing: a lot of people point to the parting of the waters as a real world example but i think that gives it the impression that its only ever a small phenomenon near the source of a river, and it's not. i'd highly recommend looking up the casiquiare canal, which, despite the name, is a naturally occurring river. it splits off from the orinoco river and delivers water to the upper amazon. it is NOT a small stream; it captures about 30% of the orinoco's water at the point of diversion. it's believed to be a stream capture in progress, but it's existed at least since european colonization and it isn't going to go away anytime soon. it's extremely cool and i think more people should know about it, and it's disappointing seeing it swept under the rug with a demonstrably false "rivers never split" rule.

[@NeoWish]

know the rules before you break it

[@Papahye]

keeping the gap might be better, because then you have more than one way for the civilisations on both sides of the mountain to interact and trade. 6:35

[@Not_Dane_Heart]

woooooooooooooooooooo¬!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! new episode!!!!!!!!!!!! how am i late tho?

[@Lilas.Duveteux]

So...Rivers. Now, around South-West Ezri peninsula, should it be high fantasy as opposed to spec bio...I would place a civilisation of tropical agrocultural-merchants in the warm waters. With most natural disaster being in the other side of the peninsula, the waters would likely seem warm and welcoming. While mainly travelling through water, the abundont rivers would allow them to travel quite far in-land, and might reach the more hazardous and climactically diverse coasts nearby. The hot, rainy climate would be ideal for cotton, and let's say their variety is green. With access to algea forests and corals, we could for this genra also put a merfolk civilisation here, in the warm, shallow waters rich in all kinds of foods. Benefitting from tropical and subtropical climates, it would be best suited for riziculture, yams and sweet potatoes. If one prefers for flavor New World crops, sweet potatoes or yams would be like the perfect basic food. If the merfolk civilisation poses obstacles, the various rivers would allow for a diversity of freshwater mullusks and fish. Plums and sapote are the local fruits, with maracuya, acai, pacay and cocoa being popular treats. If one wants a more Eurasian feel, then riziculture would be a must, with kumqwats, dragon fruits, breadnuts and lychee as the popular fruits instead. They could maybe also cultivate sea grapes. These climates might also allow for the cultivation of many spices. Such societies are likely to be non-warring, exploratory and probably practice avid slavery to keep growing cashcrops. The merfolk of the shallow seas would probably eat mostly sea grapes, sargacian algea, mollusks and welks. The Meganile stretching across the desert might allow a civilisation to arise, probably one based on irrigation. It would probably still cultivate a bit of rice on the shallow flood plains, but millet or corn would be the probable maincrop, as it can withstand high tempertures and droughts. Gobi berries would be the likely main fruit, as well as bergamote, citrus maxima, figs and kumquats would be the local luxury products, shortly followed by hempt. If one wants a more American flavor, then the Three sisters might be the prefered crops. In both cases, with a spice producing region right South, this desert civilisation would probably enjoy a cuisine on the spicier side, and one where the main method of cookings would be grinding and then making quite thin, flat breads, as they don't take long to cook and require less heat. In both cases, carti might be the prefered vegetable. Drying and salting would be the prefered methods of preparing, with salted fruits and cactus being a local treat. Their access to meat would be tenuous. In Steppe regions, the cultures would be most likely nomadic herders-warriors, or hunter-gatherers.

[@theorixlux]

9:02 that river u just finished, wouldnt it be super bendy and fuzy because of the slow change in elevation?

[@EthanNeal]

Yes and no. On the local scale, rivers will bend and fold on themselves, but these are only a few kilometers across even in the most extreme examples. On a global scale, those bends just aren't as prominent and will want to form a roughly straight line. Just look at a map of the US and see how the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers flow, the Mississippi is very bendy but still follows a fairly simple curve and the newer Atchafalaya isn't nearly that bendy and flows almost straight south to the Gulf of Mexico

[@theorixlux]

@@EthanNeal yeah I checked Google maps. When u zoom out to ~the size artifaxian was at, the Mississippi is astonishingly straight. Really helps reinforce how small we are and how vast the world is....

[@AaronGeo]

​@@EthanNeal Same with the Amazon and it's tributaries. The bends are so small that on a global scale, they look merged and linear

[@fernandorevilla3518]

Yeeeessss i cant wait for more stufff!

[@quinterbeck]

Are you gonna do geology?? Rocks!!

[@danielrhouck]

I think yesterday I heard that there were about 300 instances of rivers joining in the US, and one arguable instance of them splitting. So you can have rivers split 0.3% of the time. Although I think the reason that split was arguable was partially that it was manmade, and splits arenʼt *stable* and eventually itʼll tend to choose one branch over the other.

[@diri_birb]

That "about 300 instances of rivers joining in the US" sounds like a really small number for such a big area. The splits aren't any more stable than river paths in general; all rivers change paths over time. Some more drastically than others, but all rivers do change paths over time and no river path is "stable" in the long run. So I don't know why that could be used as an argument against depicting river bifurcation? And while there are examples of manmade river bifurcation, there are also natural river splits found around the world.

[@Anvillian]

Do we think the Worldbuiliding is over yet? I can't wait for the conlanging.

[@plaecholder]

Make the topography respect you?! Oh man... don't say that you might just cause City Planner Plays to have aneurysm

[@yere7851]

and so the void in my soul has once again been filled

[@BlenderModeling-yd5ft]

The oscillating lake that occasionally discharges reminds me of the scab-lands of Washington state.

[@somethingforsenro]

what about natural canals like the casiquiare? they're not common by any means, but they're definitely a natural example of a river splitting in two (more natural than the atchafalaya distributing from the mississippi anyway)

[@Lilas.Duveteux]

So, this super-large lake would probably be a center-point for civilisation, with the Southern Smaller perhaps being devided in two by the river, or perhaps the river would be it's center point of a thriving culture. The wet, continental climate might be best suited to the cultivation of buckwheat and rice (some varieties are quite cold hardy and fast growing, through selective breeding by importing a southern original crop, they could reach something better suited, but some varieties of wild rice grow in quite cold climates, becoming a staple food for Cri tribes), maybe oats or millet, but if one wants New World Crops, than potatoes and white beans, with some edible algea as the main vegetable. The staple crops that tolerate a cold, wet climate tend to need to be prepared by drying and boiling, and buckwheat and rice cook in a very similar way (twice the volume of water as grain, until the grain has fully absorbed it), while potatoes and beans might be more versatile. Living in a basin filled with sedimentary rocks and a lot of wetness, might encourage the technology of pottery quite early on. The cold wetness would also encourage the growth of many conniferous nuts, probably becoming staple foods in complement to the rice or potatoes, with swampy vegetables, while black spruce needles would become a steady source of vitamin C. If these cultures would to develop animal husbandry, it would probably be of aquatic animals such as carps and crayfish. Next on the list of livestock that would be useful in such an area would be pigeons and sheep, probably forming in the case such a technology would develop a strong culture for dairy products. While pigs are well-adapted to this climate type, the issue would be terrain, but it doesn't mean that should they discover pig husbandry, they would say no to pork. Should they become cultivators of buckwheat, apiculture would be a must, complemented by the growing of berries to diversify the diet of the bees and make more food for humans. Berries would be easy to forage and cultivate in such a climate, and would probably form a good portion of their diet. Buckwheat is a flowering plant, and also, people need a lot of calories to resist wet cold without modern heating. Polinators might be so precious in fact, that should cities develop, mosses that damage buildings, once ripped off, would be used as catterpillar food. Mushrooms, that enjoy cold and wet environments, might also be part of the diet, eaten as a vegetable, perhaps making it necessary to use less clean water for boiling food, as mushrooms contain a lot of it that releases during cooking. Their cuisine would probably have a nutty flavor profile, based on steaming, lactic acid fermenting and boiling, rich in fat, starches and vitamins. Wild game in this area would probably be of goats and similar agile grazing herbivores, fish, shellfish and bird. In term of native ethnic groups to the nearby mountains, they would likely be adapted to an extremely snowy, wet climate, suggesting straight hair, long nose, a thickset built and slented eyes. Despite the cold climate, they do have the potencial for developping agriculture, or even an advenced antiquity civilisation, since the body of water they are close to would be a point of gathering for many populations of hunter-gatherers, allowing them to exchange ideas, while a stable, rythmic climate would provide the basis for agriculture despite a short growing season. In terms of time devision, they probably would make a devision between early and late spring, and late and early autumn. As the snow melt, it would create truly devastating floods destroying everything in it's wake, while early autumn would be a season of abundance and warmth, the late fall would be desolate and hungry, and would be a time of waiting, as it would make it more difficult and dangerous to practice hunting and fishing until the ice thickens. With that, many technologies would involve making floods less devastating, hence probably encouraging complexe architectural thinking, even prior to agricutlture. Lighter and more robust rafts might allow to save one's life during floods. Rivers after overspilling could look from the outside quite calm, but easily make swimming or paddling a treaturous activity. Houses would have to be at least partially able to float, at least for short periods, and boats would have to be wider and shallower to resist unpredictable currents, while they would still need smaller and narrower ones to traverse narrower and faster streams. In the cold winters, up in the North, when rivers freeze over, they might develop technologies such as sledges to help them carry heavy equipment through the thick blanket of snow. With a terrain offering a diversity of needs, this group would become masters of freshwater travel early in their history, further aiding technological development. The copious amounts of snow would also push for technologies such as sledges to help them travel through this thick mess. Some sledges can reach very high degree of personal comfort and sophistication, like if one looks at the sledges made for the Russian boyars, these were works of immense craftsmenship and menutia, creating objects able to travel relatively easily through the snow while providing passengers with a certain degree of warmth and luxury. If I would to put a fantasy race in their, I'd say dwarves, with a mostly pastoral and merchant lifestyle in the high-lands, while humans would be merchant-agriculturalists of the low-lands. Some undynes might be in there as well. In terms of insulation for tents and homes, their tecnological paths could be for very crude insulation, or very sophistication. The probable sedimentary soil would likely encourage a clay-based insulation techniques such as terracotta and earthware in houses, as well as animal skins. If they would to reach crops for fabric, then nettle, hempt and flax could be used to make very robust tent cloths, that would provide good insulation against rain. In the winter, there won't be such a need since, snow, there's a lot of it, and random branches would probably form sufficient insulation. Wood would also be a material of choice for insulation, especially in permanent homes, perhaps with lits bretons or "indoor cabins" being the most popular options for beds. Having such a wide amount of semi-salty water inland would have interesting implications, in terms of spec evolution, that said, probably providing unique food sources.

[@GeneSch]

I have a strong feeling that the "placeholder" name is already not so placeholder.

[@lordvenusianbroon]

'Rivers don't split' - I understand the reasoning for not messing around with rivers along most of their course...but surely they do at deltas?

[@NeoWish]

surely everyone knows that delta exception? Rivers don't split rule is to minimize newbies doing it.

[@BanditCat003]

no deltas? rivers can split in some cases, in which they become *distributary* rivers, opposite to the *tributary* rivers basically. the not caspian sea canyon would be an *episodic* river? or perhaps even more ancient?

[@BanditCat003]

also some rivers like the okavango dont feed a lake or sea, but just deltas and evaporates in the desert, which may be something to keep in mind for those exotic rivers that you snuck in dispite the region being very dry

[@NeoWish]

yeah forget about delta. I don't put in mine either unless I made a map specifixally for that region

[@Soup_Crime]

So basically the huge lake/sea in Ezri is like a Giant Lake Bonneville? that's cool!

[@EthanNeal]

Not only that, a giant Lake Bonneville with two major outlets. Every time it overtops, it floods that river system, then provides it with a steady water source until the area rebounds from the water weight no longer being there, cutting off the river and making that basin endorheic again and forcing the next flood through the other outlet. Given the deep canyon on the northern outlet in a more humid region, the next major flood will actually go south towards the southern outlet. That oscillation likely takes place over hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years excluding external factors, but it's still a cool feature that I don't think we have here on Earth but still feels realistic. Edit: I misremembered what the map looked like 🤦

[@thesunwillneverset]

For those wanting to see a real world illustrated example of this, the Schools Atlas of UK Rivers (can't post link but should come up on a Google search) highlights the 101 major drainage basins of the UK on a colour-coded map :)

[@Lilas.Duveteux]

A single river in a temperate desert. I think that has some super cool social implications. I would imagine it to be quite...Special. Because it means it would be the central point of many nomadic populations, that would eventually probably settle here, creating an irrigation society with a good access to the sea. The probable presence of steppe and desert nomads nearby would probably encourage a society of irrigators and merchants, much more stable and less war-like, but again, with constant threats of invasion. The flat terrain would make such places militarely vulnerable. A Supernile has a lot of implications also. Probably, it would create war-torn irrigation societies, with a highly centralized government whenever the system reaches equilibrium. In colder climates, because of the accumulation of snow, spring might be associated culturally with destruction, at least early spring, were melt waters, especially on steap terrain, might create absolutely devastating flooding. In the endoreic bassin that gets a lot, a lot of rain and long, cold winters, spring would be a season of absolute destruction, meltwaters destroying everything in their path, maybe even having macabre spring celebrations.

[@Premo-412]

I live in the City of Bridges(over rivers)

[@theorixlux]

Didnt someone make a program where you can put your map onto a sphere in space? Would be amazing to see that at the end, without the projection distortions

[@volcryndarkstar]

He's done this in blender in previous episodes.

[@theorixlux]

@@volcryndarkstar true, but I recall someone else made a program

[@AaronGeo]

​@@theorixlux Maptoglobe maybe?

[@maizen1335]

Wasn't there something about using failed rifts to help find river basins?

[@craz2580]

I must admit, i watched the first 3 videos and a half, and then stopped until now due to time restrains

[@luftwaffesheep]

Okay guys, I need HELP! So not to long ago I was inspired to start my own world building adventure. On account that all of us, myself included, are watching this video it will not surprise anyone to know that I wanted to do things the artefaxian way but that was a massive task I was undertaking due to a few problems namely: 1. I do not use a Mac 2. I am not subscribed to the Adobe suite of apps I need someone to help Windows users on a budget like me. I tried GIMP once and it was awful so no GIMP for now. And also no 'switch to Mac/Apple' argument either.If anyone knows how to aid this horrendous situation PLZ REPLY!!!!

[@AaronGeo]

Audiodesk Sketchbook is available on Windows. It costs 20$ though. Clip studio paint, however, is free and available on Windows

[@Anvillian]

Just boosting the algorithm :D

[@cashwarior]

YESSSS RIVERS!!!!