all the tips I found for drawing a fantasy map are like :) “here’s a strategy to draw the land masses! here’s how to plot islands!” :) and that’s wonderful and I love them all but ??? how? do y'all decide where to put cities/mountains/forests/towns I have my map and my land but I’m throwing darts to decide where the Main Citadel where the Action Takes Place is
okay so i know i said most of this in the replies but it might be easier to actually reblog and say stuff instead lmao
Cities - go near water! freshwater lakes and rivers (rivers especially) are the best places for cities because A) source of water and B) travel and trade is much easier cus you can put your boats like right there. Basically ever relevant city ever was built on a lake or a river.
for rivers in general - because gravity, rivers run from mountains (forming from melting snow and ice (this is why they get fat in spring–more stuff melting)) to lakes/ocean where they can empty out (and even lakes will have rivers leading out that eventually get to the ocean), which can help when mapping out where those start and end. rivers are also much thinner and faster in steeper elevations and very slow and wide when the land is flat
mountains - i like to think of what the tectonic plates look like because that’s what makes mountains! mountains are also never standalone they’re always in mountain ranges (archipelagos are really just underwater mountain ranges babey). a cool trick I like to do is occasionally separate mountain ranges across continents, because over time the tectonic plates shifted and literally split the range in half. These mountains are really old tho so they’ve eroded and therefore it makes them smaller and rounder (like the appalachians) as opposed to relatively young mountain ranges like the rocky mountains which have taller and sharper peaks
Another mountain trick: if your mountains run along the ocean, the ocean side of the mountains will get a LOT of rain while the other side will be very dry–almost desert-like, in fact. think of temperate rainforests in British Columbia vs the drier conditions in the canadian prairies
forests - depends on how warm the area might be. coniferous forests are found further north (before you hit the tree line, and then it’s only tundra onwards) but as you head south you get leafier trees, and the leaves tend to get larger too
If you think about general elevation too, you’ll have places that might be swampy (wet + lower). if your world has an ice age like we did, then glaciers may have carved the land, leaving piles of soil in the south that was left when the ice receded and places where the bedrock has been bared north of that (like the Canadian Shield in Canada–the reason we see that is because of the glaciers)
You might also have a land that’s dotted in a shitton of freshwater lakes as well because the meltwater filled the holes that the glaciers scraped out (this is why canada has so many goddamn lakes)
and if the ice age was more recent than it was in our world, then you might not even have the forest re-growth and it could be a lot of open plains
tl;dr i like to think of major climate events that might have also shaped the land on top of some basic rules
Courtesy of https://acoup.blog/2019/07/12/collections-the-lonely-city-part-i-the-ideal-city/ I bring you a summary of the agricultural boundaries around your average city. The biggest driver here is transportation costs-so roads and especially rivers and ocean ports distort the map. While it might not make sense to travel 100 miles by donkey-cart to bring your apples to market, putting them on a ship and taking them across 100 miles of sea makes perfect sense.
-Closest in of all, sometimes inside the walls, sometimes right outside them, you’ve gotta have your horticulture and Dairy zones. Vegetable gardens, pen-fed animals, things that spoil quickly and need a lot of work to get the best results from. Milk goes off quickly, unless you start making cheese right away, so dairy maids need to collect from relatively dense farms that are sometimes inside city walls. This land is so close to market that there’s no reason to not wring every scrap out of it. That means you get irrigation, terracing, and lots and lots of day-labor when you need weeding, harvesting or other activities. The manure of the city and the animals brought into it can also be used as fertilizer. Classical high-inputs, high-outputs style of farming, that’s what you’re looking at.
-Forestry is the next ring out. “Forestry?” I hear you cry. “What kind of fresh nonsense is this?” Well don’t think of this as your typical stand of pines for construction material-this is forestry for firewood, and that means it’s highly managed and often squeezed into spaces between other land uses. Obviously, a city of dwarfs with a coal mine, or a city with magical steam-heating aren’t going to need as much wood, so this can vary in size depending on the climate and the supply needed. Trees in this ring are generally cut intentionally to produce long, thin branches, and cut on a cycle so that they are sustainably harvested. Wood is cheap, but it’s also heavy so transportation costs are high, and it’s thus ideal to keep them low with a constant local supply.
-Grain agriculture dominates the next zone out-well, grains, pulses, wine grapes, olives, whatever your dominant crops are. Obviously, at this layer, we have varrying densities of production depending on the exact productivity of the land, which can be mixed with the 4th zone if the productivity of the land is low enough. The dominant organizational structure out here is the village, each of which will have a cluster of houses and fields worked either communally or by individual families radiating outwards in some fashion. This is a HUGE area-a city of 500,000 people would need an area of land equal to the state of Massachusetts.
-The final zone is that of ranchers, and pastoralist herders. Meat on the hoof travels *very* well, so it can be farmed at huge distances from the cities and then driven by whatever your equivalent of cowboys are to market. Or maybe your dominant animal is geese or pigs, but anything with legs can just walk itself to slaughterhouses. Grazing lands need to be big because you need both lowland and upland grazing to provide abundant pasture in all seasons. This is a FREQUENT cause for strife, because what looks like an empty field to you, a farmer, is a rancher’s wintering grounds and he will slit your throat if you bring a plow near it. However, agriculture tends to push less-dense pastoralists out in the long term-Unless You Are the Mongols.
here is a super helpful website for this kinda thing!
the first result isn’t always the one you’re looking for but when you press enter it’ll give you a ton of words related to your query that’ll probably have what you’re wanting, or something better
If it's not too much trouble, may I request a head canon of team rwby, coco and emerald seeing their s/o's pictures when they were younger. Then the s/o trying to hide his face due to embarrassment?
There you go.
Once again, so sorry for the long wait. I still hope you enjoy!
Headcanon > [Team RWBY] Seeing their s/o’s childhood pictures
r e q u e s t e d
“If it's not too much trouble, may I request a head canon of team rwby, coco and emerald seeing their s/o's pictures when they were younger. Then the s/o trying to hide his face due to embarrassment?”
I went with a gender-neutral reader, hope you enjoy despite the long wait!
Masterlist
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<<><<>><>>
Blake Belladonna
Blake has a pretty good imagination, so she would already have tried to picture her s/o when they were younger.
She would be amazed to see how you changed throughout the years.
She would constantly look between the pictures and her s/o in order to compare them.
Which would result in her s/o being a blushing mess at all the attention and trying to hide behind one of Blake’s books.
She won’t really comment on the differences she finds, mostly just humming every time she finds something that interests her.
When her s/o meets her family, it will definitely be her turn to be embarrassed about the large quantity of smol kitty Blake pictures there are.
<<><<>><>>
Coco Adel
Coco Adel is excited to see more of her s/o when they were younger.
As a fashionista, she can’t help analyzing her younger s/o’s outfits.
She won’t really criticize because she respect the fact that her s/o might not have the same fashion sense as her.
But she will laugh if she finds any clothes that does not fit with one another.
Of course, her s/o, embarrassed, would try to defend themselves by saying that they were younger then.
<<><<>><>>
Emerald Sustrai
As Emerald didn’t have any family growing up and mostly lived off of stolen goods, she didn’t have the chance to build up an album.
The closest she had to family was Cinder and Mercury and they were not, to say the least, keen on photography.
As such, she is amazed to see the pictures her s/o collected over the years of their life and is very happy to take a look at them.
She knows her s/o is embarrassed, having picked up emotional cues in her line of work and the way they are trying to hide their face from her, so she will thank them for allowing her to see the pictures.
She vaguely remembers her own appearance when she was younger, so she can try her best to show her s/o an image through the use of her semblance.
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Ruby Rose
The Rose-Xiao Long family is the biggest picture takers ever. As such, they have many albums filled to the brim with various photographs of the family and probably have some hidden throughout the family house.
Unless her s/o’s family is as enthusiastic about pictures as them, her s/o’s album collection will appear small compared to Ruby’s.
Ruby still enjoys taking a look at all the pictures even if her s/o keep insisting that it’s not necessary.
This bean will probably not notice her s/o’s embarrassment until she starts commenting on various things like the changes in hair and sees her s/o’s flushing face.
She will immediately comment that they are good changes and would comment less.
<<><<>><>>
Weiss Schnee
The Schnee family has never been one for keeping albums. Many portraits can be found throughout the Schnee Manor, but otherwise, not many pictures can be found.
She do knows of a few pictures in her mother’s bedroom of her and her siblings as babies.
As a result, she is really happy to go through her s/o’s albums. She is happy that her s/o was able to collect many pictures during their childhood, which she wasn’t.
She takes note of her s/o’s embarrassment but tells them that they should not be and should be proud of the changes they went through. It shows their evolution throughout the years.
As a Schnee, her father expected her to keep up with her appearance, so she remembers somewhat how she looked and can easily describe it to her s/o.
<<><<>><>>
Yang Xiao Long
As the Rose-Xiao Long family takes so many pictures, they have many albums filled with them.
Of course, Taiyang being Taiyang, he obviously will pull out the albums the second Yang’s s/o has set foot in the family house in order to embarrass Yang.
In return, Ruby will propose that the s/o show Yang their own childhood pictures. Which ended up with Yang cooing at every pictures and her s/o hiding their face in their hands.
She will pick up her s/o’s embarrassment and will tease them a little about it, but will lay off if she notices that she is going too far.
Through the whole ordeal will encourage her to take even more pictures of s/o. Sometimes with herself in them, others not.
Recently, I was standing outside my son’s classroom waiting to talk to his teacher. I stood on one side of the hallway, not even close to the center. At some point, a man came walking along. I was standing right in his path, but the hallway was empty, so I logically expected him to swerve around me. Instead he kept walking right toward me, got to me, and stopped, as if waiting for me to get out of his way. I didn’t; I just smiled politely at him. He finally walked around me, clearly annoyed that I hadn’t leapt out of his manly path.
Now I’m wishing I’d leapt aside, taken off my jacket and laid it on the floor before him, then bowed deeply and said, “My Liege!”
I also work at a college campus. I smack shoulders sometimes, but I find that if I stare straight ahead and follow the advice below, people get the heck out of the way.
Honestly this post changed how I carry myself when walking alone in public, or in a situation where I’m the one leading. People definitely move for the murder gaze.
Confirmed. I once had to rush back inside a convention hall as the con was closing in order to a retrieve a sick friend’s medication, and I didn’t understand why people in the crowd were jumping out of my way (literally—one guy vaulted a table) until I realized I was dressed as the Winter Soldier and doing the Murder Walk because that’s just how I walk in those boots. I got the meds, got out, and made a mental note.
I repeated the experiment later, wearing the boots but otherwise my usual clothing and mimicking the expression I thought I’d had at that moment. People parted like I was Charlton Heston.
I now wear that style of boots whenever possible. I recently had a man do a double-take as I walked by and ask me, politely, where I had served because I “looked like a soldier.” I’m not current or former military. I was wearing a flowy purple peasant top and looked as un-soldierlike as possible.
Moral of the story: wear comfortable shoes, square your shoulders, and walk like you’ve been sent to murder Captain America.
IT’S BACK!!!!!! I was searching for this to show my daughter the other day and couldn’t find it. I’m so glad IT’S BACK!! I will always reblog the Murder Strut!!
In case you were wondering, yes you can do this in a wheelchair. Same look in your eyes and let ‘em know you will run them down. Just picture yourself in a sports car accelerating towards someone with the intention of flattening them.
If there’s anything more satisfying than watching Abled men leap out of my way when they realize I’m not moving for them, I can’t think of it atm.
WONDER WHY THOSE ALL DON’T LOOK LIKE THE SAME COLOR? BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT
OTHER THAN BEING PART OF THE SAME FAMILY OF BLUES, THEY ARE NOT ALL THE SAME FUCKING COLOR! WHY WOULD THEY ALL BE THE SAME FUCKING COLOR! DO YOU THINK WE JUST NAME NEW COLORS FOR KICKS!?!?!?
WHEN DESCRIBING A CHARACTER’S GOD FORSAKEN EYE COLOR, PICK ONE YA GODDAMN HIPPIE
About an hour and a half ago I felt a cat jump on my bed and settle down, curled up next to me. Ten minutes ago the cat started meowing quite a bit, and it occurred to me that this didn’t sound like the meowing from the cats I own
Yeah, kids talk. If your kid doesn’t talk to you, it’s because of one of two reasons:
You’ve created such a hostile/unwelcoming home environment that they don’t feel comfortable enough to talk
You have signaled to them somehow, some way, that you don’t care about what they have to say. That what they have to say isn’t important.
Kids are not stupid, not at any age level. They pick up on shit and they remember and then when they grow to be teenagers, they know who they can talk to about stuff and who they can’t.
My 13 year old nephew is not particularly affectionate with his mother and he rarely talks to her about anything important, but there are times I can’t get that kid to stop hanging off me and he has those serious conversations with me, like when we discussed his friends coming out to him as bisexual.
It’s not even that hard to make a kid feel loved and welcome. I don’t even know what my nephew is talking about half the time with his games, but they’re important to him, so I let him talk and I make appropriate noises of shock and sympathy when they are needed.
He watches a lot of YT channels, so we’ve discussed the importance of regulating your media, because I don’t want motherfuckers like PewDiePie shaping his world view.
He reads anything from Stephen King to manga and he does that because I’ve been reading him books since he was a baby. I do it with all of my nieces and nephews; when they get school-aged and old enough to read on their own, our “us” time is going to the bookstore and letting them pick out a drink and a book.
Because reading is important to me and I want it to be important to them, too. Now, it’s not something I suggest, it’s something that my nephew asks for.
“I finished my book, Aunt [Dessie], when can we go to the bookstore again?”
And when I tell him a date, I make sure to keep it.
Saying, “You can talk to me about anything” and “you can rely on me” is all well and good, but words are just words. You have to mean it and you have to show them that you mean it.
Otherwise, when it gets to those important moments in their life, they’re gonna shut you out rather than let you in.
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