An online resource for building imaginary worlds.
Here are all of the articles we've published on the topic of fantasy maps.
The Lord of the Map. The writer skilled in cartography is an explorer. They can spend hours fleshing out the design of their world. This is a crucial skill because it visually unites all of the other skills.
Vancano's map generator is a Photoshop tool that will help you create a map of your imaginary world.
If you’re looking for a little something to spice up your maps then I've collected a number of great map resources from around the web. Most are free but I’ve also included a couple of premium options when they’ve been great.
This is a quick article to introduce The Authors Guide To Drawing Maps. The guide currently features 4 of the tutorials on drawing maps that can be found on The World Building School, however they are all presented on a single page so it’s now even easier to follow the tutorials and draw your own […]
The worlds weather is driven by both the Earth’s rotation and the seasonal variation in solar energy that each hemisphere absorbs. However patterns do form in the weather and they will play an important role for your civilisations, characters lives and the stories you write. So the next step in building your world is to […]
Continuing on from last week’s tutorial on Tectonic plates we’re looking at how the plates affect the landscape of your world and so the environment your characters will see and experience. If you’re following the tutorial and drawing your own map then you will have the main islands drawn along with the tectonic plates of […]
Tectonic Plates are sections of a planet’s lithosphere (the crust and mantle of a planet) that your world continent will then sit upon. They are what separate the land from the molten lava below. Because the lava flows and moves under the surface due to different temperatures in the earth core they slowly move these […]
Brandon Sanderson (the writer of Mistborn and the final 3 books of Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel Of Time” series) gives a lecture on basic geography for world building maps. He covers some very basic tips and fundamental mistakes that many n00b writers and world builders make when they first start out designing their maps. I […]
A simple illustration technique for representing landmass on a map. Also helps to create interesting organic coastlines.
