It is inevitable, when writing fantasy, that people will want to see the world.
See it, not just read it.
While I have gone into detail before about how I approach world building, I only spoke briefly about how I develop my maps. This process has evolved a bit since then, and I am happy to share with anyone how I do things, if it’s helpful.
Maps have a grand tradition in fantasy, and even in some non-fantasy. It has become popular in other genres to include maps. I mean, if I wanted to write a detective story set in LA in the 1920’s, I might be referencing places that no longer exist. Maps are, therefore, helpful. Maps of Gotham City are also helpful for comic book readers. RPG players rely heavily on maps. Maps, it seems, are part of the package for genre fiction.
So let’s start with some basic tools and principals here;
Story always comes first. If it doesn’t support the story, it isn’t necessary.
There are plenty of ways to actually make your map. One is that you can pay an artist to do this.
Another is that you can make it yourself. You can draw the map, use photoshop, or manipulate real world maps. There is also map making software available. Inkarnate is free, but the licensing indicates that you don’t own the rights to your map. I use Wonderdraft, a one time payment and better than Inkarnate in every way! There are others available as well.
So let’s break down how I do this.
Step 1: Random Generation
The continents and land masses in the real world are randomly generated. When we settled on those lands, we took them as they were and cultivated them. The geography, resources, climate, and weather patterns shaped our cultures. You can’t build igloos in the desert, and you wouldn’t want an adobe house in Japan.
So it is with our fantasy map. I open wonderdraft and the first thing I do is put it on an Equirectangular setting. I do this for two reasons, one is that it gives me a realistic, whole world spread. Another is that I can take this and wrap the world around a globe! this helps me see my map in two ways, flat and round, and I can use tools to determine distance. If I tried this in anything but an equirectangular setting it would warp the map and it would cease to make sense.
So from here I go to the land tab and use the landmass wizard. I select the equirectangular pattern on the righthand toolbar and then click generate. In a few seconds I have a randomly generated world map. Easy as pie. I keep generating new ones, adjusting roughness and water levels until I find one I can work with.
Then, I set the map theme to “Terra” and use the paint tools to rough out basic temperate zones. Far to the north is ice, in the middle is an equator, and at the bottom is more ice, if there is a southern ice cap present. I just look at the temperate zones on our real world map and more or less put things where they make sense. Don’t take this part too seriously, it’s an alien planet after all. Just be sensible. The equator is hot, the north is cold. Forests grow in the northern and southern hemispheres. Jungles, wetlands and tropics are more or less south of the equator. Deserts pop up more or less on the equator.
Here is what I have so far. A map in both “Terra” and “Worn” themes, and a globe.
Step 2: Develop a Landmass
I set out with the intention of making a sort of Asian analog, a fictional nation that is based on oriental cultures. So I went to work looking over my continents until I found one I felt suited the story. Multiple islands, some continent, and plenty of seas to traverse.
I set the them to “Worn” and used a feature called Detail Map to select an area and zoom in on it without loosing any detail quality. Here, I decided that I had multiple potential nations present, but first I needed to figure out some more geography.
I placed mountains where I felt tectonic plates might collide, and from high elevation to low elevation, I used the river tool to place major rivers. A pro-tip here is that rivers don’t split, they merge, and mountains rarely form in a straight line, they tend to zig zag. Mountains and rivers are pretty much the only details I place, zoomed out this far, anyway.
So now I was ready to break down my nations, having natural boundaries to obey. I went online and found Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Thai names, twisted them a bit to make them more “Fantasy”. Then I placed my labels over their nations, the phonetic and geographic location indicating what sort of culture those nations may have.
That’s how I got this. It already looks believable, like an artist drew it, but it’s randomly generated. Again, I let “Natural Geography” do most of the heavy lifting. That’s how it worked in real life, isn’t it? So I let wonderdraft’s random generator perform a “Natural Process” and I have very believable landmasses to work with.
Step 3: Develop a Nation
Now I get to choose which one of these nations I want to feature in my story (STORY COMES FIRST, THIS IS JUST SET DRESSING).
I chose Ji-Yan. This is going to be where my story takes place (Not really, I just did this as an example). So I did another detail map and zoomed into Ji-Yan, and began to lay down trees. For my purpose here I did not do much detail, but I did place settlements in sensible places. Large cities, anyway. But the fun part here is that you get to be as detailed as you please!
Now, I knew that these nations occupied vast jungles, from step one. That tells me a lot about these people, islanders who live in the jungle. Sea faring people. In Ji-Yan, I made sure to place cities near the coast for fishing, at the mouth of a river for security, fishing, and one thousand other reasons. On the plains for farming, in the mountains for mining.
It isn’t complicated. Ask yourself why real world cities are placed where they are. What valuable resources are nearby? Water? Wild game? Wood, ore, spices, or oil? People settle where their needs are met, and trade routes are established according to what’s valuable. If the people at the mouth of the river need steel, they will buy it from the people in the mountains. This works the same with nations.
As for naming cities, I literally just take names that come from my base culture, in this case, China, tweak them a bit, and use them for cities. Why? Because cities are often named after the founder. People groups are named after ancestors. Geographical regions are usually named after whoever discovered it, or the people who have occupied the land for a long time. There are exceptions to this, but it’s a good rule of thumb, places are usually named after people.
So, now I have a map of Ji-Yan. My story may never go outside of Ji-Yan. Readers may never see the other nations, or the world. That’s ok, because this is all about the story, but when you think of it I just filled my tool box with all kinds of goodies. Maybe my story features a stranger from Goka, well, now I have plenty of strong indicators to tell me what people from Goka are like. I have political relationships simply because I have multiple factions. I have possible trade routes, war, allegiances, and all of that implies histories.
And that does not even account for the rest of the world map from step one. I have limitless opportunities to make my story FEEL like it’s set in a believable world, and all I did was hit generate, lay down mountains and trees, and purposely mess up real names.
So, that’s how I do maps, and it has a good amount of world building built in. For all the time we spend researching our worldbuilding and breaking ourselves over details, isn’t it just a breath of fresh air that we can just let it work itself out?
And if I wanted to, I could go back to the map I got in step one, find another landmass, and make a Viking based nation, or a Slavic based nation, or maybe Arab or European, or whatever. And the trick with developing those cultures is that you only BASE them in real world cultures. You do the same thing to the culture that I did to those names. Mix and match, add and subtract, tweak, and alter until it feels “Familiar but somehow foreign”.
Anyway, this is how I do it, and its a process that is constantly evolving.
As a side note, if you are a DND player and you want a map for your campaign, contact me. I would be happy to do something like this for you for a fee. We can talk, it will depend on how detailed you want things to be and how expansive the work is, but I would enjoy helping you out.
Hope you enjoyed this, hope it was helpful.
Of COURSE we want to see fantasy maps! A great tutorial, and a great result, even if it is only a quick example and won't lead to any actual stories!