World Maps - Vectors on Projections

Time for more maps, this round, with the whole world map instead of the local area as it was in a previous post. I decided to use the Mollweide projection, but I admit that my estimation of vectors on the projection is simply, an estimation. I doubt they are very accurate. Why vectors for maps? Well forgive me for going overboard with the detail again, but I wanted to include tectonics in Eldwan's geography. In actual fact, I would say the tectonics helped, it made the generation of the map more procedural and less arbitrary.

I've got two drafts of Eldwan's map, the first was scrapped because it didn't account for a supercontinent breakup. 

1.0 - Tectonics of Eldwan, Draft 1

For the first draft, I began by drawing the tectonic plates, with no regard for surface geography at first. I simply started by marking out the divergent boundaries, where the crust spreads. From there I looked for convergent boundaries and marked out the general direction of each of the resulting plates. This was the step that had me terribly confused by vectors, particularly at the poles. I resorted to pencil drawing on my globe to visualise what would happen.

1.1 - Tectonics and Major Lands, Draft 1

After sorting out the tectonic plates, I proceeded to draw land masses, and added the consequent features of the tectonic map. The most straightforward were the mountain ranges, which would be at the converging boundaries of tectonic plates. There were also a couple of scattered volcanic islands.

 1.2 - Major Lands and Islands, Draft 1

I transferred the outline of the continents onto a fresh grid, to observe their form more easily and add details without the confusing subterranean tectonics. The inland seas are highlighted with a blue outline.

1.3 - Major Lands and Islands (C), Draft 1

And of course I coloured it in to see what the result would look like. The white circle is the location of the Cradle, the first home of the Evezhen in the Age of Harmony and the location of most of the stories in the Ages of Light and Water. After all this, I noticed that when the map is upside down, the central land mass looks like a strange ghostly creature with two antennae...

At any rate, it was soon apparent to me that the map did not reflect tectonics very well, despite how I had taken the plates into account. The land masses didn't appear to have any sort of relation to each other, in terms of their shape, to show their history. Hence I was prompted to redraw the map by a different process.

 2.0 - Age of Harmony Supercontinent, Draft 2

This time I began by drawing the supercontinent first, indicating the location of the Cradle by the circular mountain range. Some basic tectonic boundaries were drawn in order to break up the supercontinent in the required way. 

 2.1 - Tectonics and Major Lands, Draft 2

Next, I redrew the map after the breakup of the supercontinent, first by marking out the tectonic boundaries from the previous map. Here, the divergent boundaries are in red, and the convergent boundaries are in blue. One thing I should work out in a little more detail would be which plate subducts under the other at the convergent boundaries. That would determine the appearance of volcanic islands and so on more procedurally.

2.2 - Major Lands and Islands, Draft 2

Again, I transferred the outlines of the land masses onto a fresh map without the tectonic boundaries, then added more details. This step will probably be redone in draft 3, because I'm not really satisfied by the location of the islands and shape of the land in general.

2.3 - Major Lands and Islands (C), Draft 2

The map of 2.2, coloured in with simple blue and green. I hope to rework this map once again, then I should be able to proceed to name the major continents. I would also like to add in ocean surface currents, ice caps, precipitation pattens and rivers. Once those are in place, it'll be easy to generate climates based on temperature and precipitation. There is lots more to be done, but this framework will suffice for now. The Far Continent mentioned in the posts on the Elves is the land mass to the left, while the 'Old World' is the area with the Cradle of the Evezhen. So this map helps me to visualise the broad movements of history and I should be able to work on the actual writing for now. When I start looking at the Age of Rulers, then the varied climates will become important factors in the story.