How do you handle elevated areas in maps? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by IndigoGollum@lemmy.world to c/worldbuilding@lemmy.world

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My world doesn't have many mountain ranges in a way that's easy to draw. Rather, the whole center of the continent is raised like one big mountain island.^1^

I'm drawing a map of an area about 200x219 km, to give an idea of the scale i'm working with, ranging in height from sea level to about 50km above that.

Single mountains or mountain ranges like the ones in the maps in The Lord of the Rings aren't too hard, but when one side of a mountain covers the entire map i don't know how to show that.

A map of Oz on Wikipedia has little hair-like lines to show elevation at Happy Valley (bottom left). Is there any other strategy for showing height differences on this scale?

^1^ This is because instead of tectonic plates, it has something like geophysical cooling that forms mountains. I won't get into that just now.

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[-] Canadian_Cabinet@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago

I'd do the topographic lines but add a bunch of them really close, as distance between lines denotes a steep change in elevation. You could also add numbers on each side

[-] lyralycan@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

This is a good reference for general rules of topography: https://www.sciencing.com/topographic-map-rules-6875833, and this is a more in-depth explanation of how frequent the lines are (contour interval) in Swiss-made maps: https://www.swisstopo.admin.ch/en/contour-lines. They are less frequent in steep terrain and small-scaled maps because it would otherwise be too noisy.

[-] IndigoGollum@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Thanks, that's very helpful.

[-] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 months ago

Topo lines.

[-] Vicinus@piefed.zip 2 points 2 months ago

From a quick look at elevation maps, your options seem to be colors and/or lines. So, not a bundle of options.

As an alternative, maybe a light shading based on elevation? I'm not sure if that would look good or not though...

[-] MantisToboggon@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Does it have to be from volcanism? Couldn't it just be magic fatasss demon crashed made a mountain?

[-] IndigoGollum@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

It's not from either of those. Imagine a hard ball wrapped in cloth in space. Now imagine the center shrinks but the cloth doesn't, so it buches up and wrinkles. Those wrinkles are landmasses.

If that's too easy, imagine the same thing but inside-out and you'll be closer to how it actually works.