This is a map from my world.
For context: it's actually a flat, two-sided donut of continents, which are NOT connected by direct waterways. I also don't have a sun, but a sun streak, which is represented by the golden circle in the background. The continent on the left side is actually on the under side and the climate there is much colder, that's why it's covered in snow and ice.
What do you think about the general shape and look of it?
Crcle
I love the nonstandard geometry. It’s hard to see how that geometry fits in with this map though. If the donut has two sides, maybe two map rings will get that idea across better. I’m also a bit confused about all the black.
Edit: I think a native of this world would probably depict the two sides as long strips, rather than circles. Kind of how we put our maps on rectangles instead of overlaying on a sphere
You can draw a map of a torus as a square consisting of two wide rectangles, where the top rectangle represents one half, and the bottom represents the other, and the right edge of both leads into the left edge of the other. Like this map of D&D 5E's city of Sigil, which is a city built inside of a floating torus.
https://www.francescabaerald.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/FBaerald_CityMap_Sigil.jpg
One fun side effect of this, because Sigil is on the inside face of the torus, is that any position on one half corresponds directly to the same position on the other -- meaning, if you touch a spot on one map, you can touch the same spot on the other map, and whatever is under your finger is what you would see across from you on the torus if you walked outside and looked straight up.
Great idea, I didn't think about that. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to remake the map... but thanks anyway.
Ok so as an attempt to clear things up. This is not an in world map, but rather a map for me to plot the story. It's always easier to have something concrete places and distances.
Yeah, i also figured that, but as it stands there is no landmass on the "topside", where the icy continent "on the underside" lays, that's why for convenience I put in a single map (so mountains and tree sizes, hues etc. are all consistent)
Finally, the black is nothingness, just the normal stary night sky. So in a way, if you start sailing from the shore into the ocean. At some point, you'll reach the end of the world. I'm be honest with you, I didn't spend too much time on topics like the horizon we experience being a result of the curvature of the earth and how that translates to my world or what color the normal sky has, because normally it comes from the atmospheres' composition etc.
Is there any feasible transport between the continents or sides of the donut?
Does the sun strip ever dim/turn off to "night"? Or is it just always on?
Any moons?
Ok so this will be a bit of a longer answer:
Day/Night-Cycle: The sun strip is actually not completely sun, but rather only half, and the other half is the moon strip. Visualize them as 2 snakes devouring each other's tail. Also as I think I put in the flavor text, the sun (and moon) strip sit atop the "donut shaped" world, so there is always a light source.
Moons: No, there are no moons, BUT, you see the smaller ring structure? That is actually a smaller separate realm (which i also for convenience put into the same map, bite me :)), where there is a normal sun and moon. As to how they are connected. During this realms' creation, the entity doing the creating needed a light source and thus stole some pieces from the sun and moon strip from the underside (yes they have one too, imagine them like burger buns) and created the sun and moon out of those. That's the reason the underside is icy, cause their sun strip has been partially taken apart and gives off less light and heat.
Lastly, for the transport: Periodically ocean bridges appear between the continents. Small, a few hundred meters wide stripes of water. You could navigate them normally, but the standard way is to put some "sea horses" before the ship, to pull it, cause otherwise a small gust of wind could throw you off, or when there is no wind, you could be stranded there, until the bridge collapses. (There are other methods, but they are limited to divine individuals and not relevant for the main population)
Donut Earth Theory
Always a fan of fantasy worlds that aren't just Earthlike spherical planets, and this is a shape I don't think I've specifically seen before—if I'm understanding correctly and this is a flat ring. ("Donut" makes me think of a three-dimensional torus, but you say it's flat and two-sided, which a torus isn't, so I gather it's more a ring than a donut? Like a flat circle with a big hole in the middle?) I have flat worlds of my own; I have toroidal worlds, but I don't have any flat ring-shaped worlds.
You say the continents aren't connected by direct waterways... so are they connected by anything (aside from the sun streak), or are they just hanging disconnected in space? If the latter, is there any relatively easy way of traveling between them? (I assume the sun streak can't be used for travel—or can it?)
Yeah, a two-sided flat ring is probably more closely to the truth.
No there a no direct waterways but periodically a water "bridge" forms, which you can sail across. But you need some blood sorcery to bind some sea snakes, that pull your boat, because out there the weather is wild, and you don't know if a storm will want to throw you off the bridge or the wind will stop completely. And you are stranded until the bridge collapses, and you fall into the void. (because both sides have gravity, you would probably just fall to the center line of the world and could sail from there, but I haven't really explored that part xD)
I think I should have also included a 3d sketch, cause there are actually 2 sun streaks, which lay above and below the world (like burger buns), so to provide light to both sides. In that way, you cannot travel across it.
Curious how night cycle and season work there
There are no seasons, but there is day and night, as the sun strip is actually 2 halves. One is the sun and the other the moon.
This is super interesting!
Thanks!
The hero’s journey ahh world map
very impressive
Assuming im a native, does it mean this world is more like floating continents/islands in a void?
Exactly! I mean, the normal void does have a night sky with stars, so as long as you stand on land, you probably wouldn't notice that..
It looks cool af. Just one question, if the yellow circle is your "sun", wouldn't that cast most of each of your continents in permanent night, since the light is coming from below and not moving. Even if the light has a way of lighting up the ground, again, it would always be daytime because from what I understand the sun is not moving
Thanks! The sun strip is actually only half sun and the other half is the moon strip, and they rotate to create the day night cycle :)
I'm so confused. And thats a good thing.
I definitely wanted the structure of the world to be irregular. On the one side it opens up story telling potential, but on the other It's kinda hard to stand out, these days. Not that a "normal" map is boring, but to catch the attention of someone, you more often than not have to go a little crazy.
Do you have any question, that may clear up your confusion?
I do!!!! what happens if you "fall off"? elsewhere you mention waterways that act as bridges, where do you end up if you're on them when they disappear?
edit: oops. you already answered that. what about space then? is there anything in the void?
No, there is nothing else, except the stars, which are placed upon the inside of a sphere. Their light raining down on the world and fueling the magic of the demigods.
A note to that "falling off" scenario. As it is the case with earths gravity. If you don't account for air resistance, you would be able to fall "through" the earth and come out on the other side. In much the same way, you can "fall" to the other side, but obviously doing it in a controlled way has a much higher chance of success than randomly jumping into the void.
It's always tempting to have something beyond the horizon, but I purposely limited my world, to everything you see on the map. This way, I won't feel the urge to somehow insert some alien species deus ex machina later in my creative process.
I love it, it looks like something new and fresh. Also I spotted the northenmost landmark looks quite simmilar to the former Austria-Hingary, or some variation of it as I am spotting the borders of modern day Czech Republic, so I might be a little biased...
Can you tell us more about it?
I am glad you like it :). Yeah, if you spot some landmass looking like a part of our world, that is not intentional. I tried hard to avoid known shapes.
I am not sure what exactly would interest you, so I'm just gonna dump some stuff here ;) Even though the shape of the world is quite high fantasy, the in world magic is not. Furthermore, it's not spread evenly, meaning each of the 3 regions you see (left, icy side / round part at 6. o clock / right side continents) have their own magic and technology level. I don't mean some have spaceships, but they do use different technologies.
For example, in the icy region, one can only grow food and survive in the vicinity of hot springs. Thus, the demigods build cities atop those and guided the steam from the ground through the Stone for heating. So they have some steampunk esque flavor.
The round region at the bottom, is shaped by very hot winds. Much inspired by the high storms of the stormlight archive. These winds burn almost anything but leave a very nourishing ash behind. So their technology is much more primitive, but they can harness this amazing ash for some biomechanical stuff.
If you look around the comments i also answered questions about the travel between the continents and day and night cycle and so on...
Do you have something in pedicular that interests you?
Well mainly the travel between them, the state of magic and tech and if you plan to write books, or some DnD, overall what is your plan with this world in the long run?
To ask a follow up qurstion to your previous comment, how does the water bridge form? You said that you might fall from the bridge into the void / center of gravity. However, how does the water get there?
Now that I think about it, is there some seasonal trade between the continents? Like some merchants that travel clockwise around the donut?
The water bridges are of a magical nature and connected to some sea creature that "drags" the water behind its enormous body. The sailors actually need to use blood magic to bind sea serpents, in order to get them to tow the ships across. In theory if someone binds these sea creatures, they could more or less freely travel on their own water highway. But as of now, the people haven't figured this out, and thus the water bridges form as a result of the normal life cycle of the creatures every few months, when one of them crosses the gap between the continents.
On the trade topic: yes and no. There is trade, but not free or equal trade. The power balance lies with the countries from the north continent, which figured out how to bind these sea serpents, and thus started to colonize the other continents.
I already wrote one book (working on the second draft). Essentially it follows a slave, a blood shaman and a noble ruler on an expedition to the continent in the south, which is previously unknown. All 3 have their own reasons to be on the expedition (in case of the slave, its not a reason but an obligation). That's the grist of it. The (working) title is "the path of the selfless".
Originally I wanted to follow 8 characters, but I realized that were too many. I have the following story outlined roughly. This map is supposed to help me, find concrete locations and travel distances. Its kinda hard to do this stuff without a map...
Iam not sure what you mean by state of magic, but in general there was a period of "high magic", which ended roughly 1000 years ago. Before that magic could only be used be the demigods. But after that humans gained access, however, to a "lower" less powerful form of magic (speaking in very general terms here). But as humans do, they innovated on that.
For example: I gave the sailors blood bonding sea serpents as an example. Even though humans couldn't bind any creature this way, because they only got access to a lesser kind of blood magic, they breed smaller creatures in a way, that they became of a singular purpose. Much like a muscle. And they put those into oversized iron suites, thus having blood magic powered mechs (stealing from sanderson again, with the shardplate). The reason this works is, that the lesser the animal you want to bind, the easier it is and the less blood it requires, hence the wormlike creatures, whose only purpose is to "contract".
Reminds me of Mushoku Tensei's map for some reason.
Looks loke a cool HoMM3 campaign
This shape is cool as hell.
I find it interesting, especially the sun streak, but I have no idea how you would naturally write in the odd laws of your world in a natural, readable way that people would both appreciate or understand.
I love it its a cool concept and you did a great job making this. However, wat is lore reason for the circle is there like a storm or a black hole in the center? Uncrossable sea currents, massive impassable fog clouds, or maybe a hidden continent on the inside for book 2? Giving it a purpose does wonder for lore
There is a reason. Let me try to explain it in as few words as possibly (im german, so concice lore dumps in english are hard for me).
I have no creation god, but a stream of infinite creational potential. It contains all power and ideas, however every idea gets swept away as fast as it hoped into existence. Until a part of the river, formed a meander, which like the normal process of river formation, curled itself into a ring and separated from the main stream. That was when the world was created. And because until that point it was still just an idea, the separation from the main stream caused the concept to condensate, and it formed this ring shaped world.
Afterwards, many entities, which formed in the stream of creation, saw this world as a opportunity to escape the river and "jumped" into the world. With them, they brought new creation potential, which they used to create other stuff. For example, the first entity to arrive and leave a mark on the world, was the "light bringer", who created the sun and moon strip.
this map has a lot of dead space. I like the concept, but I feel that a simple 2 dimensional map like this can't really do it justice. If I was reading a book, I'd rather have individual maps of each continent and an artistic abstract depiction of how they all 'fit together'
I get you and i was thinking the same. This is primarily a map for me, to plot the story and location and because it looks cool :), but for example in my book (working on the second draft) the characters only explore a tiny fraction of one continent. Furthermore, a massive theme of the world in general is colonization, inspired by the Spanish and Portuguese treaty, which split the world for them to conquer. I have something similar, where 2 small countries from the top continent, learned how to travel between continents and are now conquering them in clockwise direction.
But they have not seen all, thus an in world map would probably show only the 4 or 5 landmasses on the right side and in wicked proportions, which spots missing :)