A Map that Breaks All the Rules (Fantasy Mapmaking)

[@seyeruoynepotsuj]

"I'm going to draw a landmass that doesn't look like anything on Earth." = Immediately draws Antarctica. =

[@hattimounattimou8258]

kinda explains why the cities arent near the rivers, theyre litteraly stood on top of water

[@ethanwolfe3407]

looks like Ethiopia to me

[@thephantom7121]

I think it looks like Australia

[@Dayvonsmile]

this comment deserves more likes

[@TitanOfDarkness25]

Unending Suffering no

[@cattrucker8257]

>map that breaks all the rules >ends up with one of the most epic-sounding worlds he's created yet Guess that's living proof of what you say at the beginning of the vid.

[@DragonsDungeon]

Cat Trucker If a Master breaks the rules of the craft it becomes one of the most interesting pieces they create.

[@TheDryfus]

Maybe they didn't settle next to rivers and such, because there is major flooding every year.

[@px6883]

Good idea but I'll just say one word: Nile

[@thrownswordpommel7393]

@@px6883 Yep. Was thinking of that too.

[@HotSauceBear]

​@@px6883 With the Nile, the floods were more or less predictable, so they used it to their advantage to water their crops... meanwhile in Mesopotamia, it was harder to predict, and the floods often ended in actual damage. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw his city placement was that the water was *evil.* Maybe it was poisoned by a vengeful god, or sea beasts ravage any attempts at building a city on the coast, or whatever

[@theosm2976]

The horrible monsters that shattered the lands of this world were not slain, but sleep at the bottoms of the rivers that their war with the gods and the mortal peoples of the world created.

[@magiv4205]

That would be a BLESSING, not a curse! Flood plains are some of the most fertile lands there are.

[@saram2905]

The island with the volcano having the most trees makes actually a lot of sense. Since volcano ashes actually provide nutrients for the plants. He might be asleep for some time now so with the good soil left from eruption a forest started to grow. I was already going to mention floods being a reason to why the populations decided to be further from the water but someone already mentioned it..

[@Metalhammer1993]

Yeah in my world I'm actually having a region near a river and a Volcano as one of the richest and economically important as it just is this fertile and productive. Plus it is on a main trade road. Or maybe even the start and end of it. The bridge over the river is defended with a massively fortified city as in the mountains on the east iron can be found as well. The trade roads to the south is guarded by two watchtowers called "The hands". A name locals explain kind of tongue in cheek "you know why the Hands are called the hands? There is always some bastard holding his hands open" and while it can be avoided as a toll booth it is the safest route north and sort of a military checkpoint. (With iron and massive food production this area just has to be both mercantile and militaristic. Grain and iron are just too valuable to be unprotected)

[@mexa_t6534]

That idea of a god stirring the world into existence is honestly kinda neat.

[@quinstockton5719]

I kinda like the idea of the world being made from a dead god.

[@davidlfort]

There is a Japanese myth that has that beginning, iirc (the stirring, that is).

[@mexa_t6534]

Badzookeeper the Aztec myth of creation is kinda like that. See there was the sea and the gods. There were these two gods who were rivals, but they banded together when a giant crocodile/amphibian beast with mouths on every joint popped up (the Cipactli) The gods turned into snakes, coiled around it’s limbs and pulled it apart into three pieces, which they the godly realm, the mortal world and the underworld, and from its skin and gestures they created rivers, mountains, grass, dirt, etc. The mouths scattered all over the world, never satisfied, always hungry for blood. This is one version, of course, there’s more, and that’s not the only reason why the Mexicas performed human sacrifice. It’s still pretty neat, doe

[@mslightbulb]

Badzookeeper oh, I think there was a culture in South africa that had that belief. Though instead of a god it was a monster.

[@arthurcosta4643]

In norse mithology, the earth is made from a dead Jötun (giant). Its not the same think, but, is cool like concept to

[@minerjr1112]

While the water is efficent for trade and travel it runs salty. Undrinkable, settlements where built above natural springs of fresh groundwater.

[@huhnocorn7397]

Hal lo you can fish under ground if you try hard enough it’s not working? *try harder*

[@deergod8292]

Warrior 55 The illusive mud carp, always the most difficult yet most plentiful catch.

[@sarah.s.flanagan]

This. If all the rivers are brackish or straight up saltwater, then you’d need to scoot your town away from them far enough to hit on an area where the soil can support crops

[@livedandletdie]

Miner... how to get fresh water... take fish gut it and wrap it up in cloth and drink up through the cloth... it might be mostly blood and guts but it's healthy and fresh water.

[@livedandletdie]

@@sarah.s.flanagan collect rainwater or use fish innards for water... boil the water, use mangrove to filter the water... there are a million and one ways to get fresh water...

[@aybkamen]

The settlements are located in Ley Lines confluences. In this world trade goes by magic portals and the Ley Lines are key in that. (Edited: Lay Lines-> Ley Lines)

[@WASD20]

Oooh. Love that idea!!

[@allgreatfictions]

Ley* lines.

[@YGOrochi]

@@allgreatfictions dont be that guy...

[@doctor-atuti]

@@YGOrochi Somebody has to be

[@NorthernDruid]

that's kind of brilliant

[@jauxro]

I like what Tui T Sutherland did, she went "I'm writing a book about dragons and they live on dragon-shaped continents. The reason is 'I do what I want'."

[@riabliobe2944]

XD

[@darkstarfirestudios4500]

Yes! I love it!

[@lapislazuli7835]

Yes! WoF fan!

[@findafishgaming3650]

Not only that, she did it TWICE.

[@FaeriePrince]

My reasoning is that after the scorching, all land was almost uninhabitable, and so, two great dragons lied down their lives, that all life may continue. How they did this? Most likely they were animus dragons. Or they were the gods of dragons. One of those two.

[@DreDredel3]

Does he realizes he just drew the continent of Atlantis? Atlantis was described as...Alternating rings of land & water surrounding a large island in the center with a river running through the island & a mountain to the north with an open waterway to its south. This map he drew could be the post flood version of Atlantis.

[@napoleonscv2837]

*years in the past* "sup everyone, today i'm gonna break all the rules.. ..let's call this map Atlantis or smth, idk"

[@Lenny-ue8hk]

Look at the eye of the Sahara for a possible location of Atlantis

[@DreDredel3]

@@Lenny-ue8hk Indeed, there's an article that mentions what Plato described in his writings. However, Plato claims that the story of Atlantis was not from his own ideas. The story of Atlantis was passed down to him from an Egyptian: "Plato asserted that the Egyptians described Atlantis as an island consisting mostly of mountains in the northern portions and along the shore and encompassing a great plain in an oblong shape in the south "extending in one direction three thousand stadia [about 555 km; 345 mi], but across the center inland it was two thousand stadia [about 370 km; 230 mi]." The Eye of the Sahara happens to match that description down to the measurements & surrounding land mass. However, many have tried to go there to study it but have failed to find any solid structures. But have found pottery shards littered all over the area. Satellite imagery shows that if there was any water there, it all washed off towards the West, the direction of the Atlantic Ocean. The name of the country the Eye of the Sahara sits, is called Mauritania. Mauritania is actually of latin origin meaning Sea. The Eye of the Sahara is believed to have formed via a catastrophe long ago by a bubbling effect in that area and then sinking below sea level and finally ending nearly a meter above sea-level. Interesting to note the differences in before & after pictures of Japan when hit by Tsunami, plus the fact that Japan does not experience Sand Storms like in the Sahara. Food for thought.

[@MusicalBoarder]

@@Lenny-ue8hk atlantis is fictional

[@GodwynDi]

@@MusicalBoarder Is it? Is Troy also fictional?

[@yanaleigh]

I'm trying to make the world I just started running a campaign in mostly realistic when it comes to terrain and such, but there are some magical exceptions. My favorite is that in an area known for its timber up in the mountains some certain trees that are incredibly valuable grow on the banks of an icy river. By icy I mean it has chunks of ice floating in it it's so cold. That stands out a little bit in the summer, but it is high altitude. However, that river curves its way down down down until it crosses through a good 50 miles of tropical jungle before it finally gets to the coast. But the water never warms up. When my players find it they're going to be walking through a tropical jungle and find a river filled with arctic fish and small icebergs.

[@vjaceslavsavsjaniks6431]

I created mostly realistic starting place about 400x400km of playground and down south "Place where highest meeting was held" so it`s fused with magic, illusions and so on

[@princessthyemis]

sounds cool!

[@eyesack6845]

same, but mine is a bunch of floating islands deep in the unexplored territories that a small group of elves settled. even though it's way up north it is warm due to the crystal in the center. the crystal is from the the god arcane's staff, which was shattered in a battle of the gods. each piece landed in different parts and created unique biomes. if the crystal in destroyed or removed then all of the islands will fall. the area was once a delta so under the islands there is twisting rivers and ponds. it also has an abundance of an extremely rare plant that can be used for potions and my players can steal them to sell.

[@maxwellsimon4538]

That actually sounds very amazing. I wonder what sort of landmasses/weather patterns are affecting the currents to make this huge frigid river flow so quickly to bring ice down into the tropics?

[@vjaceslavsavsjaniks6431]

@@maxwellsimon4538 big and chonky mountain, with underground caves.

[@felscorf456]

Breaking all the rules artistically truly creates an alien and fantastical map, and you're right it does get the viewer to ask questions and be engaged and intrigued by the artwork. I like it.

[@Sanquinity]

This is what more fantasy should have imo. Familiar, yet not quite right according to what we know of earth.

[@walpole6322]

Theory: this land is in fact above a giant hurricane, as in the scale of the red spot on Jupiter. The main faith developed in the world is that their prayer sustains the winds, and keeps them afloat. They have invented primitive ballooning and wind-harnessing technologies. The islands are slowly being torn apart by centrifugal force, and that's why the land is shaped as it it, and why the rivers split so often

[@honeybee3808]

That's so cool omg

[@joeye1772]

Ok this one wins

[@niiikaaa21]

Ohhhhhh that is so interesting! If the land of the fantasy world is on the hurricane, then the hurricane must be on yet another land that the people living in the fantasy world may or may not know about. Maybe there are several different religions based on the assumption that there are more people waaaayyyy down from where they live, and that they control their world or something. And most people just write that off as crazy but then the heroes of the story have to go on some kind of quest and accidentally "fall off the earth", and get caught in the hurricane. Because of their magic abilities they survive and land on the actual planet the hurricane is on. They travel around there and meet the people that live there that are constantly living in fear of the hurricane. And then they somehow complete their quest with the help of their new friends and maybe in the end they even find a solution to stop the hurricane and lower the fantasy land on a huge mountan or something so it doesn't destroy important land on the planet. Idk man maybe someone has a better idea for the ending, my brain just went wild with that hurricane idea :D

[@walpole6322]

@@niiikaaa21 I love it!!!

[@jmcc4566]

The scale of the Red Spot? So about three times the size of Earth? That makes those mountains pretty big, lol

[@ethancooper1056]

"can't break the rules if you don't know the rules" :D

[@MagyarGaben]

STONKS

[@jocabulous]

"this sign can't stop me because i can't read!"

[@skyblazeeterno]

You can accidentally

[@strawberry641]

as a new DM who's just starting to create their own world, this is SUPER useful and gives a LOT of inspiration! my world is FULL of magic and is INCREDIBLY new (2000 years old at most), freshly hand crafted by the gods, so it wouldn't make too much sense if it took into account stuff like plate tectonics, yknow? anyways, TYSM!!

[@orrhousecreative]

oh so its the same age as Earth

[@victor93532]

@@orrhousecreative wait a minute...

[@riabliobe2944]

Ben The Goliath **bc has entered the chat**

[@kaiamy9032]

There is no way you actually think earth is 2000 years old

[@magicallydelicious1673]

The few capitalized letters make me read this weird

[@Jinglestv-xz1hu]

Following the Bronze Age collapse, it appears that most of the settlements we have discovered were far inland, possibly leading into the theory of seaborne invaders. Perhaps the people of this world are afraid of monsters, marauders ore even great storms that roam the coasts.

[@Bluecho4]

Sea People, of course. The aquatic races have mighty empires. There's no trade by river or sea because all becomes claimed by the sea people. Anyone within spitting distance of the ocean is fair game for attacks.

[@jasperheartwood2586]

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please." -Mark Twain. This is an idea that I live by and is something I think all game masters should keep in mind. You don't have to follow the rules, but you should know them.

[@riabliobe2944]

DONT GOTTA FOLLOW THE RULES IF YOU DONT KNOW THEM

[@Sanquinity]

That's how I DM too. I know the rules, but if I don't like one, or think it detracts from the fun of a character or the game in general I change it to it liking. The key is being consistent. If you change a rule, the change should apply to everyone, be it player, npc or monster.

[@fakjbf3129]

For the city placement, maybe long ago each slice of the central continent was controlled by a different king. The kings all came together and agreed on the placement of their capitals so that each one exerted the maximum control over their realm without infringing on the other kingdoms. For example, if they placed a city by the river then not only would they influence the land behind them but also the land across the river that is owned by another king. By putting each capital in the middle it creates an unstable equilibrium held together by various treaties. Over the generations the kingdoms fell and the treaties were forgotten about, but the cities had grown large enough to be self sufficient and they continued into the present day.

[@BeaPlot]

Idea for how the world came into existence: When the gods formed by their mother; "The Great Void", their last sibling was stillborn. It's fetal corpse fell from the heavens, still connected to the umbilical cord. The unborn god became the central continent, and the umbilical cord became the islands spiraling around it. It is said that as you sail out through the islands, you find yourself closer to the heavens.

[@theradioactiveplayer3461]

Bit dark but okay

[@AdamTheGameBoy]

Inb4 you just predicted Xenoblade 3's main titan

[@CeeJayThe13th]

I like it

[@thebasileus4793]

Kinda fucked up but cool yeah.

[@Givemepeanutbutter]

Woah

[@DudeBeard]

I like to think the land shattered in that pattern because the god who created it had to intervene in some sort of conflict, and the one and only time he physically put a foot on the ground it shattered the land into a thousand pieces. Dang, ok I’m gonna go write a backstory now. Awesome map dude! 👍🏻

[@ShadowHunter-nh3rl]

To me that big ‘lake’ in the middle with all the rivers looks like a huge hole to me, with the river flowing into it from all sides. Maybe the water flows away from the centre in underground rivers, which lead to the surface with geisers, which then flow back into the sea.

[@mutedknght]

Could also be a massive portal into the plane of water, long unfettered it quickly grew and flooded the lands.

[@unruh_8470]

That's a nice idea. You could definetely build a story around that, like that there are some kind of dangerous monsters living there and it is like a dungeon-tower, where you have to go through various different layers to obtain some treasure that is extremely rare. And at the end there is some kind of overpowered dragon nesting there, and if ultimately disturbed by people who want to get the last treasure it is guarding, it will wake up and fly up from the hole and wreak havoc. To make that explainable, the "dungeon/tower" only has ways going down around the sides of the hole, and if you want to go down with ropes in the middle, you will inevitably fall victim to traps in the walls which prevent that. Or, you will simply get shot by some ranged monsters. Another possibility is that these ranged monsters simply aim for the rope, and have a way of destroying more reinforced ropes e.g some made of steel. Anyways, other than that, you'd have to supply an endless amount of ropes. But, if you clear an layer out of any danger (including traps ofc), you are safe to use the ropes and swing yourself to safety, by that I mean the way, the dungeon, or whatever you may call it, leading down to the area where nobody has progressed yet. I like the idea that you are constantly gazing down at the sleeping dragon while clearing out the dungeon, scared what'd happen if you accidentally woke it up by producing too much noise. But, you could say that it doesn't wake up from the noise because it is used to the sounds that the monsters produce, and, well, won't wake up until you do something that it doesn't like. -sorry, I just had to write that. I like day-dreaming.

[@outbreakperfected9374]

Water flows from the oceans towards the big lake at the center of the continent, where it then disappears in subterranean caves and rivers and gets filtered. Cities are built above magic wells, which are in turn built where underground bodies of water are closest to the surface. The now salt-free water goes deeper into the underground, where it meets with magma in underground caves and then re-emerges on the ocean floor from fumaroles, driven upwards by its extreme heat and enriched with the minerals it eroded while underground. As for the reason for the weird shape of the continent: it's a gigantic inactive caldera in an otherwise even deeper ocean; and the landmasses we see are the rims of the crater in the various stages of its life. The mountains we see are either spots where small amounts of magma can still resurface, or are made out of a particularly hard type of lava that withstood erosion better than the rock around it.

[@precisa_]

If a tectonic plate where to be spining (something that doesn't really happen on Earth) a particularly large Hot spot could form something resembling that, however the central landmass would most likely have a giant vulcano and there would be a clear tendency for the islands fardest from the center to get progressively smaller and flatter, something that can't be seen on the map Edit: basically a giant Hawai that instead of being a line, is a spiral

[@treyslider6954]

Spin it the other direction: the plate was spinning over a single point, but the spin is getting erratic over time, so the hot spot is moving outward in a spiral: the volcanic jungle island is the most recent fully-formed island as the spiraling continues (hence still having an active volcano and a lush jungle fed by the volcanic soil). The smaller islands after it on the spiral would be much younger volcanic islands that haven't been around long enough to develop floura/fauna.

[@gman1515]

The 2 "lonely mountains" could be the last bits of molten earth falling from the creation god's stirring device, cooling as they fell they pierced into the earth leaving the surrounding area full of deep dark crevices and cave systems where all the monsterous creatures of this world would eventually crawl out from.

[@aidenpilot8297]

Going on those settlements not being close to water: What if the rivers contained say, a weird chemical property, originating from the previously mentioned “great deity war”, and this chemical could be a sort of an acidic, say it eats at a certain solids, such as wood, flesh, or any animals. So in reality the water would be useless. Adding onto that, maybe there could be underground canals, or streams. Kind of like the Underdark in Faerun. So all of the settlements could maybe trade through a giant underground sea. But those are just my sudden thoughts about it.

[@kalleskit]

Bruh

[@aidenpilot8297]

kalleskit welcome to my mind buddy

[@midnightshadow7779]

And I believe that certain creatures could live there, mythological ones I’m thinking, so even if it were possible to live near the water, the people don’t want the risk of any of those creatures coming out of the water and attacking their cities. Or maybe settlements have been away from the water for so long that people have forgotten that they were there and have become oblivious to the fact that the waters are still there, they don’t travel to the water because of the knowledge of the chemicals in the soil and have not traveled near enough to see it

[@treyslider6954]

All the water in the mainland *is* fed from the tributaries on that one divine mountain stronghold...

[@aidenpilot8297]

Trey Slider exactly, he said that the mountain might be the grave or body remains of a dead god, so perhaps the acidic chemical could come from the gods corpse.

[@michaelmannon611]

The settlements are located in key positions to act as way stations to help promote or facilitate travel and trade where it normally might not occur. If there is no apparent source of water, there could be a well, underground springs in local caves, or perhaps a network of aqueducts, like the Romans used to build.

[@trevorx7872]

"Trying to draw something fantastical" *draws Antarctica

[@IkkezzUsedEmber]

Exactly what i thought

[@Jegfil]

It could also be that there is just a lot of rain, so those settlements don't really need to be by the river (and maybe they have a pretty good way of storing that water). ps. But I guess next "realistic" question could be "why is there a lot of rain at those spots (or everywhere)".

[@Gunther930]

It could be that they use magic to draw in or even create rain water, and/or recieve rain from the god(s) in return for regular worship and rituals

[@SMon42]

The water cycle? Evaporation?

[@GodwynDi]

It's not just water source but travel as well. Before modern roads, rivers were the most important trade routes in land.

[@MastertheGamerpg]

I love the map and really like the story about the different islands being tied to different climates due to magic.

[@tobiasfilms8825]

Still doesn't hold a candle to my go-to landmass shape: THE PERFECT CIRCLE!

[@eveescastle5866]

I see your perfect circle and I raise you water world where there are literally no landmasses, it's just one big ball of water. How people survive is still a mystery as they are at the whim of the currents, some have been said to have been shunted into space because of it.

[@Taladar2003]

@@eveescastle5866 I wonder if one could have a world where the water currents are fast enough to achieve some sub-orbital velocities, some natural rising of some very hard rock launching the entire stream of water including boats on it into space and then arcing back down in some other part of the planet. Possibly even with some lifeform using that to have part of their lifecycle on the planet and part of it in space.

[@pixelmace1423]

@EveesCastle I see your ball of water and I raise you my go to island, A PERFECT SQUARE!

[@BKPrice]

A world created by a god with severe OCD.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Love this twisting landmass idea. My new homebrew setting has the characters starting in a floating city about a century after a surface apocalypse, and giving the surface this off appearance will make it that much more mysterious!

[@Philosopheful]

Love it. After spending all my time sticking to hard rules for mapmaking, seeing them thrown away is really cathartic, refreshing, and a breath of fresh air. Thanks for this!

[@hellstromarcus]

Watching your vids got me started on mapmaking! Although I follow the "rules" almost too well... most of the time it ends up looking like a sligthly different real-world place! You, however, really gets the creativity flowing!

[@OtakuNoShitpost]

For the cities I like the idea that long ago they were three tribes founded by three brothers who got along famously. They were in the middle back then. Enmity broke out between the tribes and they moved out to where they are now, so that the armies of their foes might not waltz over to them

[@Asandmanwithnosandplan]

Hm...Add a fourth and give them all different powers and make one tribe wanting to dominate the world and we have Avatar.It's a joke.

[@Rune_Scholar]

An eroded magmatic dome from a hotspot that has since then been partially covered by rising sea levels could actually cause a formation like this. An old crater is another possibility.

[@thatoneguynamedpatrick]

Watching you make fantasy maps while explaning them make me imagine more of what you explain and sometimes change up some of it, and you also made me amazed and intrigued on fantasy map drawings.

[@makibee2570]

About the settlement water thing, specifically going off of the theory that there was a great war that split the continent. Maybe one of the sides contaminated the water, making the main lakes and rivers unusable for drinking, so settlements would be based on smaller underground water sources, as far away from the poisonous main water as possible And due to legends of this great war, different factions have deep rooted cultural discrimination of the other factions, leaving the idea of trade in this world dead in the water.

[@yourdad7853]

Him: breaks another rule His reasoning: "THE GODS..."

[@Spoon80085]

9:04 After the bronze age collapse in the real world, most cities migrated inland to mountains to flee from ocean invaders. If there were a civilization or species that made coastal cities dangerous that would make sense

[@ik6non712]

*the sea people*

[@QTIP_AU]

here’s my idea, it is constantly a wet, rainy world for unknown reasons, there is always flooding and other disasters here (hence the odd formations of land) the settlements are in the furthest points from the water as it’s safest from the flooding, and they already get enough water from the rain constantly pouring down on them. the outer settlements are more like fishermen, they live more on boats than they do land, they get all their resources from the water and stay from the land. the central large mountain is unclimbable and no one is dared to attempt it. the elders tell stories that the curse of the flooding was made by a demigod angered by the humans becoming more powerful than him so he climbed to the highest point and withered away leaving his staff constantly shooting a water spell into the sky.

[@tobinferrall6897]

I love ur maps they're really cool and they act as an inspiration and guide for my own. Keep it up!

[@amethysttalon3507]

My first thought for that shape of landmass would be that the outer ring is the edge of a huge, ancient impact crater, and the central landmass is more recent, having formed from volcanic activity. The outer ring is more broken up because it is very old and has eroded over time whereas the centre has grown up over time.

[@pettersonystrawman9291]

Maybe giant monsters live in the water, so only way to not have your town sweeped from the ground on regular bases, is to build it far enough from the rivers and oceans. Water might be pretty valuable commodity, if that's the case.

[@gloomy2830]

Man your maps are just like "wow". They make my brain melt into fantasy worlds !

[@codyrobinson8987]

Imagine if our current form of society is destroyed, and 10,000 years later when humanity is rebuilding this is one of the only remnants of what the land looked like before.

[@TooTechnicalDev]

Thank you for your videos. I'm creating the world map for my solo game dev project using a lot of input from your channel. I broke all the rules by starting with a layout of 33x33 hex battlefields then trying to make a world map that ties them together. It's coming along nicely and I wouldn't have known where to start without your channel, so once more, thank you.

[@NotMithical]

Stirred into being with a Comically Large Spoon.

[@pixelmace1423]

“Hey can a get some islands” “Only a spoonful”

[@Ando2k10]

I haven't played D&D in over ten years, but listening to you narrate as you drew the map, I came up with the land mass being created by an event known as The Godstorm which was the result of an artifact being shattered, forming a vortex so powerful that it reshaped the land. There would be many different areas for the rules of magic...some magic dead areas, some areas of wild magic, even areas in which magic is hampered, or buffed. I subbed to see more of your work. Great job.

[@Sway22]

"No Lonely Mountains" Tolkien: WTF

[@maximilianbeyer5642]

Well, its known as the lonely mountain because it's the only one and that makes it special. So this is actually pretty well done I think

[@Sway22]

@@maximilianbeyer5642 did you even watch the video?

[@frenziedfox9106]

Great map! I love the spiral shape, it really adds something. One quick thing: Endor is a moon.

[@sigspearthumb3904]

Most everyone: Actually interesting ideas Me, Bored: Why are your settlements practicing social distancing?

[@AdamTheGameBoy]

Maybe each region carries but is immune to a virus, and the adults in all the other regions are super vulnerable so they have to stay 60 miles from each other(because the viruses are demon-viruses). The story centers around 2 lost children from different villages meeting and falling in love, living together in the wilderness near the lake for 5 years until they near adulthood. Then they are found by their villages and forbidden from seeing each other and they run away trying to reunite, ultimately being forced to kill some of their villages' leaders and being subsequently labeled and hunted as criminals. So they both are running through the center island alone, evading the assassination hunting parties and looking for clues relating to each other's locations. They go to all the other islands in their search, blah blah, attack and dethrone god, blah blah, and ultimately find each other. Turns out as adults they are both immune to the virus from both of their respective regions and slightly resistant to the virus from the other two regions due to living by the lake for 5 years and this revelation leads to their villages forgiving them and a shift of parents forcing their children to marry children from other villages... which is really messed up, but nobody listens to their requests for this practice to end and they must decide to attack all the villages to stop them by force, brain wash the people to believe they must segregate for some other reason or kill themselves to clear their conscience.

[@AfronautWasTaken]

I like your thought process. Tying geological properties to the fantasy rules of the world is a great way to convey a story in an immersive way.

[@WaLLy_]

When he took the Netherlands as example I had to laugh. It's so normal for us to have that it never occured that it was weird compared how nature worked. But than again, half the Netherlands is below sea level and should be sea.

[@AKatz17]

Thank you for posting topical videos EXACTLY when I need them.

[@tomshotton4737]

11:01 AAAAAARGH ENDOR IS A MOON NOT A PLANET (ik I sound like a picky nerd, which I am, but come om... it’s the forest MOON of endor)

[@MYCHEM1CALR0M4NCE]

For the land form, there could be some weird system where the central island is almost like a weird igneous province that is extending in all directions from the centre, and then subducting under tectonic plates surrounding it, to produce island arcs that create a spiraling pattern. The lake at the centre could be a huuuge hydrothermal system

[@sharksuperiority9736]

I like to imagine that a god punches the continent in the center. That’s why it’s so weird and spirally. And the lake in the middle is the crater of the punch

[@grinningtaverngaming395]

Nice work. As you were outlining the land my brain inverted the shapes and I started imagining jagged mountain ridges or, alternatively, plummeting canyons and ravines radiating a pangea.

[@noflare1714]

Nate:I don't want to draw anything on Earth Proceeds to accurately draw Ethiopia 😂😂😂

[@jTheN77]

Having a reason gives story ideas - adventures seeds. Just watching and listening to this and reading a few comments gave me some really new and novel (for my experience at least) ideas. No DM has to "follow the map" - but a DM might glance at a map, read a few details and come up with THIER OWN ideas. I love these hand drawn maps I am seeing on KZbin.

[@emmmaplays]

For the cities being away from the water, it would be cool if the water was like poisonous so it wasn't useful to the residents, or something else is that the residents of the city don't need water to trade or even to survive (like there is some magic way of trading or the creature drinks berry juice primarily). Idk just an idea 😁

[@damn7208]

This is the most exciting thing I've seen in a while, the concept of a god stirring the world with a spoon is so clever and every time you add something to the map I can't help but smile

[@ValentineC137]

My headcannon is that some large being drew it

[@pixelmace1423]

And multiple times says “The gods did...” Not knowing they themselves is the god

[@-RandomPlayer56-]

World idea, it was and still technically is a near perfect circle, but due to extreme elevations, both close to the ocean level and high above it in random parts of the circle, and due to ocean levels rising, the lower elevations of the giant island sunk, only leaving the colder, higher elevations left standing, forcing inhabitants to adapt to a climate most probably weren't used to, glimpses of the lower elevations can still be seen from rivers and lakes, dead tress can be seen strutting out of rivers where they used to be long ago, and visiting the outer islands can faintly show the outline of the old island that used to exist back then.

[@cringeitself]

Wait, That's illegal.

[@trollsmyth]

More like this, please! Creating and incorporating cool fantastical terrain is always a challenge for me.

[@BobAndRhoe]

It's magic, you don't need to justify your world's map xD

[@justatallguy]

You don't need to, but coming up with justifications creates an in-depth world and inspires campaigns. So it's a nice exercise.

[@leogunnemarsson4178]

But the maps are improved if you do. The justification can be magical in nature, that's a cool way to do it. But it still deepens and improves the worldbuilding if you have some reasons behind why things are the way they are.

[@grayfox6930]

Easy for you to say kyubey!

[@jesperohlrich7090]

If the mountain river carries a form of minerals that makes the rivers toxic, you can easily explain why people don’t live next to or use the rivers. Or perhaps the minerals are needed for creatures to mutate into magical monsters?

[@seyeruoynepotsuj]

As a cartographer and tectonophysicist, this map irks me. XD

[@webley3140]

great vid man! keep it up. ur a really underrated channel. :D

[@lordlazza]

Who else got triggered when he called Endor a planet?

[@josephdavis9234]

Technically, Endor is a planet. It just happens to have a moon that is also called Endor.

[@terranovarubacha5473]

But it's the moon that is all forest, no?

[@josephdavis9234]

@@terranovarubacha5473 You can't say I didn't try.

[@terranovarubacha5473]

@@josephdavis9234 Wouldn't dream of it

[@damien7079]

Forest moon of endor!!

[@iwersonsch5131]

6:41 Wow. Intuitively, that lake already looks to me like it's below sea level so it has the ocean and the rivers as sorces rather than drains. It's crazy how the natural occurences on Earth shape our intuition

[@salzich9990]

Well, the bronze age collapse is an example for people abandoning the coasts. Raiders where running rampant on the mediterranian sea and people draw back from the shores to more defensible positions, for example hill tops or secluded valleys and such. So beeing afraid of invasions can be a pretty good reason to keep away from the coast.

[@aaronwilder2775]

This is awesome, I love this rule breaking fantasy map. Also, I love your style :)

[@princessthyemis]

I LOVE THIS! This is what I wanted and needed--maps with wonder!! Thank you so much!!!

[@AidanXavier1]

Rules are meant to be broken, but learning the rules well helps you break them well. I love this map. Stirring the world into existence is legit

[@15firekid]

Maybe the spiraling mega sea-river hybrid has a really strong current or the islands are constantly rotating kind of like a mini galaxy or both, and that makes docks an absolute nightmare to build because the endless current from the great stirring just washes them away, and the only way to get from the centre island to the outer ones is to follow the spiral over the small gaps where the current is weakest for some reason.

[@storyspren]

When you first made the coast-to-coast river I winced so hard, but the story potential in something that looks at first glance like a river, but really is just a complex network of straits, is really interesting. It's like a reverse of great lakes. With giant lakes, it looks like a sea but you can drink it, with strait networks, it looks like a river but you can't drink it.

[@toughnerd]

This map is giving me lots of inspiration for a four elements vibe. Each of the outer islands is associated with an element: fire for the volcano island, air for the island with the lonely mountain, earth for the very mountainous island, and water for the shattered island.

[@kaiserfranzjoseph3937]

for the settlements: maybe if the water is salty, then not alot grows around it but if you go inland far enough, you might have plants and maybe some other watersources

[@RedRebel_99]

The world I'm currently working on is actually a "flat" map where the material plane actually is a plate in an astrological device that holds all of the other planes of existence as well. I very much enjoy your map making :)

[@_nixxie_]

I could see this being an area on a larger globe referred to as storms eye, created long ago by a storm gods last act before being destroyed or imprisoned, possibly even bringing landmasses from different planes into the material plane. I can see the lake being where the staff struck the land and fragmented the lands in a spiral pattern (could also explain the way the rivers are splitting and shaped). Ships have to be careful navigating the area otherwise can get caught in a vortex swirl of turbulent water flowing around the islands.

[@stoicshield]

regarding the settlements: Maybe they're at some holy places. If they still know that is another thing, but they were originally founded at those places.

[@TheZentegi]

I could see settlements popping up in the middle as they do if there was some resources that are more easily mined. Being equidistant allows the workers to work the resources and not be far from home the resource is then moved across land to ship or perhaps the island settlements are like the vikings of yore and attack settlements near water. This happened so often that people moved further and further inland to escape the butchery.

[@robertjervis7443]

I love the idea that there is an artifact in the very center of the middle island that the entire world is spiraling around, maybe it's also conituing the spiral so as time goes on the islands break more and get farther apart

[@kballwoof00]

A cool way to flip this on its head is the idea that rivers and freshwater water are toxic or cursed or something so they're not usable for trade, but the shattered island's rivers are saltwater so trading settlements with highly advanced trades developed, and to gain access to the best equipment you'd have to travel to the island and commission it.

[@TheStrandedAlliance]

I actually kinda like this approach to map making. It gives the possibility to have an interesting story for the origin of everything. Partly something that made Tolkien's world so interesting...

[@michaelwells529]

I once had the idea to make a world where the coastlines and shape of the continent changes every 100 years. Islands and coastlines rise from and fall into the depths seemingly randomly throughout the world, your map reminds me of that. It would also explain why there are no settlements near the water, it would be pretty risky to settle on the coast knowing there is a chance that it would be destroyed in the next century.

[@averagegamer1684]

The spaced settlements date back to the various tribes that worked on the canals to share the wealth of the rivers. These tribes (not wanting to "own" a river by being yo close to it) settled in the center of the the areas they worked on with the land in between being theres and the rivers being neutral territory to all, which enables all access to the "heart" (center lake) of the world. Lots of religious connection to that center lake

[@janehates]

Naturalistic explanation for settlements being so far from the water: for whatever reason the waters are not only poisonous (sulfuric vents perhaps?), but also will poison the land surrounding it for miles. Maybe even it’s poisonous as vapor, creating deserts cloaked in choking fog. I liked the idea some other folks proposed where the settlements are built on top of natural water springs.

[@annamcguire9107]

The tectonic plate actually spins tearing parts the land from itself and this process caused many cracks in the crust causing volcanoes and more islands.

[@briannawalker4793]

The KZbin mentions gods were with me today - this video is so thought-provoking and inspiring, I can't wait to explore the whole channel 😍

[@isaacmartin2481]

Pretty solid idea about why the settlements would be away from water is that water serves some kind of threat. Maybe Massive flooding is common or maybe there is some kind of dangerous aquatic pest that ransacks settlements near coasts and rivers.

[@tiagotiagot]

The island with saltwater rivers doesn't have to be barren, there are plants that live on the coast; and under certain conditions, there's even some sort of filtration that makes the salt content of the water go down the further it infiltrates the ground away from the coast.

[@JasperJanssen]

The thing about defensibility is that it *absolutely requires* a ready source of water that ideally *cannot* be cut off by a besieging army. Hence, next to freshwater is generally more defensible, not less. For hill based castles, you need a spring, but those generally cannot support a whole city.

[@Omega_Orion]

As for not settling near rivers I went with more of a combination between Viking raids on Paris and Roman Aquaducts. Could even see the points on the rivers I'd select. Just design it so the main island slopes and youre golden

[@sabersibertiger1520]

How about there is a giant sea serpent creature that circles the islands, creating giant currents that erode the land. Most people are afraid of it, so they settle away from the water. Every year the creature swims to the lake in the middle of the islands to gain more power. The creature keeps everything under control, taking note of over and underpopulation.

[@FaeriePrince]

My reasoning for the landmass is that the lake in the center of th ether continents was caused by a swirling meteor. The gods, or some powerful magic caused the summoning of a meteor as their wrath, the meteor however, was a strange shape, and the pull of outside forces caused the twisting meteor to spiral. When it hit the ground, the divine/magic influence and the spiral shape caused the continent to split out in a spiral from the center. The reason that the large landmass held together is because local deities tried their best to hold the land together to the best of their abilities. After the meteor, it took much time for this continent to settle down, so the deities wandered and warred. Eventually, some made peace in the center island of the continent, leading to the diverse biomes we see there. While in contrast, some deities took other islands to be their domain, leading to them only having one biome. However, later great " heroes" seeking glory would try to kill the local gods of the island. Eventually, this practice came to an end when the god of a major southeast island was killed. Without the god of of the island, it split, leading to the seawater river crossing all over it that left it uninhabitable.

[@josephjewstar3145]

I'm just getting into D&D and I'm thinking of using this as inspiration and drawing something similar and have it be the "center of the world" so to speak and build outwards from it with new maps creating an entire world.

[@AatiNiiranen]

*Looks at the finished map with great anger*

[@A_Moustached_Sock]

I had a similar hurricane like swirl of islands for one of my maps a while ago. Basically it acted as a black hole slowly swallowing that surrounding island breaking it up into more and more pieces as it chipped away at it. At the center was a violen raging storm where all planes of all realities converged in on each other. Basically it was an easy way for me to have outside things like dark souls or Elder Scrolls somehow have a hold in that world or if the party got bored they could venture in that storm and find themselves playing a tabletop version of one of those realities

[@TheVojvoda]

That lake in the middle def feels like an important spot. Like an area thats there the whole time but you can only safely traverse after doing a whole adventure.