#soharic maps

[aeridanus]

Had surgery a week ago and after spending that entire week doing basically nothing, I thought I’d get back into the swing of things with some light map-updates... until it dawned on me that I used an impossible map projection for years without noticing. Yeah - seems like I have to learn Substance when I’m back at work and update those dimensions ^^’ Until then, this mostly color update works well enough :)

When the Last Light reached the planet 112 millions of years ago, two landing spots in different corners of the world were chosen and thus, Sohaereán harbors two fundamentally different variants of (carbon-based) life.

[aeridanus]

I’m sorry for showing these over and over, but now I’ve *really* finished Sohaereàn’s base map. The continent to the west has been scaled up, I added the gigantic crater from the Lodger War around the north pole, gave the landmass in the south more sense and adjusted the tectonic plates. Time for climate. :)

[aeridanus]

How in the heck have you figured out the weather patterns so well? That part's always my worst enemy!

It’s a step-by-step process and everything builds upon few but important foundations. Those are the basic properties of the planet (position within the habitable zone of its parent star, planetary size, axial tilt), shapes and sizes of the continents (including plate tectonics which drive orogeny), the composition and density of the atmosphere and the rotational direction and speed of the planet. The rotation dictates the general direction of the main winds, the axial tilt influences the ITCZand the pressure system it maintains, mountains block clouds and modify rain patterns, the distribution of land and sea dictates oceanic currents and their influence on global climate, and so on. It’s quite a bit to read and to learn, but it all comes together after a while and as soon as it “clicks”, it’s easy to understand.

From then on, it’s diligent but routine piece of work. I started with the base map of the continents, then added the ITCZ based on my data, then built the pressure system upon that, derived the rain patterns from the combination of atmospheric pressures and land/sea distribution, derived temperature from illumination angles and altitudes, and then mixed everything together to deduct the climate classification that’s used on Earth.

You have to want to understand and like the topic, though. If you find it interesting, yet intimidating, I really recommend watching student videos on those topics on YouTube. They explain everything well, and you get a good overview over the basics before diving into the meat of the topic. Does this help you further? :)

[aeridanus]

i've absolutely adored watching you work on your headworld planet. i'm one of those people that has to have anything i make up for a story be as accurate as possible, so i end up feeling like i do more research than creating, lol. seeing how you've gone about making a realistic, detailed planet has been so inspiring for making my own alien worlds finally exist with a degree of realism i can work with. thanks so much for all your hard work!

Aw, thanks a lot for the load of compliments. :) I relate to your attitude towards a good worldbuilding base for the fiction that takes place on it, it makes the world much more coherent. It also doesn’t feel constricting, I think it boosts creativity because it’s necessary to find cool answers for basic questions in that world.

(Climate’s also not finished, the fun starts just now - with the Koeppen-Geiger diagram, maybe also look it up if you like that kind of granular worldbuilding :) And then, the design process of all the stuff growing and living there can finally begin. Somewhere else, the maps for Aeskareion are also waiting for an overhaul, so... it never ends ;))