hogarus

Hi.

I've checked the maps, but if you had a link for the files in a higher res' that would be great. Especially the world map it's kinda hard to see what's what.

I like the overall feel of the map, it feels clean and well thought of, you have overall variety an some distinctive features too. Seeing that this is 5E's medieval fantasy setting however, there are a few things that could use some consideration.

First, the size of the territorial entities. If this is a planetary sized world, then each individual territory spans tremendous stretches of land, despite the massive geological features within themselves.

Of course, if we are talking biomes rather than countries it is more plausible, though some of the larger ones could clearly and logically be fragmented (mainly through relief). I we are talking countries, then not only it is harder to believe that in this era you would have as many "empire level nation states" capable of unifying great stretches of land, but I also feel that it "robs" you of the opportunity to create emerging power dynamics and instability from the map alone. Everything feels very balanced and neat, which will make it a bit harder to create natural points of tension for the story.

This also has to do with the overall map design (from a solely visual perspective). Though the biomes are diverse, they are somewhat monolithic, with few diversity within biomes. Also, there is a strong sense of simmetry between the four central blocks (west and east, then the two islands). The two big ones are basically of similar size and shape (a large landmass thinning out towards the south, divided by a main mountain range). Same goes for the middle islands, apparently having a single biome or being countrolled by a single entity. They are also of similar shape and basically very centred in the ocean. The southern block breaks the equilibrium a bit, but not enough in my opinion, ans you have very few small islands (1), fragmented peninsulas or city states (none) that could bring a bit more variety.

If I were to give any advice (from my individual perspective of course, it can be discussed), that would be to break simmetry and disrupt balance. Have countries or biomes of more various sizes, and likely more of them. Reshape landmasses to avoid the " left half right half" feel that makes it feel less natural. Bring more randomness!

Hello to the mods, and thank you for your implication too!

I would say, to get busy with something else. Having to do other stuff and not get any time to work on your world will eventually gnaw at you. When you finally get your hand on a writing implement and two hours of free time, then you will get a rush of creativity and progress.

Hubris leads to doom. Usually occultists or zealots trying to control powers beyond their comprehension in my fantasy settings, or scientists and politicians trying to control -natural- powers beyond their comprehension in my SF settings.

I don't have a single unified process, but I usually create name in focused sessions, trying to come up with all the toponyms for a region in one go for instance. This to avoid having names that sound too similar or too different, while still having some unified approach and feel.

I will take basically whatever the place inspires me, including dank memes and private jokes, and twist it until it fits with that "feel" that I'm going for. As a result, many names in my projects are recycled and adapted from previous projects.

On a different note, tbh AI to me is a tool, if it lets you focus on what you dig in your WB, that's great. Art has always been about reinventing what others did before, following and improving on existing patterns. AI made the process much more accessible, giving people without artistic skill the power to express themselves in a visual fashion. Personally I find this awesome and liberating.

Actually I'll second that question. I used to conlang marginally just for the map and naming process, and it always ended up so cheap and awkward.

I use a Remarkable 2. It's a bit pricey, especially when factoring in the cost of the stylus and the keyboard-case accessory. However, for my use which includes taking meeting memos at work on top of my worldbuilding, it's actually very well suited. I wouldn't have gotten it just as a hobby device I think. The battery is great, stylus is very close to a paper feel though the tips gets blunt rather quickly... Aaand I'm starting to sound like I'm trying to sell it. Tbh the software is very minimalistic so there are probably more versatile options out there, but for the purpose of having basically a blank page at hand whenever required, I must say that it's nailing it totally.

I used to write on basically any piece of paper that would come my way, up to and including stuff that I should really have kept clean. Stupid amounts of halfway filled notebooks, bills and receits, work memos and sometimes even important docs wrong face up on the desk... Never the proverbial napkin though (pen goes right through that crap). After ending up with huge folders that ate too much space and basically made it impossible to find my way through stuff I got an e-ink tablet. Now it's just as much of a mess but I can at least cary it around and I don't have to worry about some kind of work related stuff randomly having alien morphology specs on it. When I'm in good spirits, like most people here it seems, I will try to make sense out of it and put it on an organized Word file.