Damta: A collaborative world

[Nachtuil]

I like that idea too.
The more I think about it elk for riding sounds like a more and more cool idea.(Visions of Yakul from Monoke Hime- who yes, doesn't actually look like an elk) Maybe that is something that occurred in the colder more northern climates and the duckbill dinosaur thing in the south and central continent? I suppose then we have dinosaur like creatures at the least?

[k1234567890y]

ok but I am not sure

and let’s see what others think.

[brblues]

The suggestion of elks in the north and dinosaur-like creatures in the south sounds good to me! However, I would propose that we do not overdo it with the dinosaur-like creatures, so as to not make the world *too* different from earth. But duck-billed dinosaurs in various sizes, and possibly with different temperaments, would not only be fine, but also a childhood dream come true :D If only I could draw, I would be all over that!

[brblues]

Are we actually assuming earth size for the planet?

I am liking duck-billed dinosaurs more and more, though they would need, I guess, a very warm habitat. Possibly equitarial rainforests would do?

[k1234567890y]

Are we actually assuming earth size for the planet?

I personally would assume it i.e. it is an alternative Earth.

[brblues]

Are we actually assuming earth size for the planet?

I personally would assume it i.e. it is an alternative Earth.

Okay yeah, me too, just wanted to make sure!

[k1234567890y]

The main country of the Sitr speaking peoples is Kompalia, it is on the northwestern area of the continent and is a major political and cultural influence of the area,.

Kompalia was founded 2,000-3,000 years ago(maybe older) from the unification of city states, the Sitr script had been invented before the unification.

[Nachtuil]

Sounds good Ky!

Warm and moist environments sounds right to me for duck billed dinosaurs haha.

My apologies for not being more active in this project. It isn't from a lack of interest but a lack of time.

[k1234567890y]

Sounds good Ky!

Warm and moist environments sounds right to me for duck billed dinosaurs haha.

My apologies for not being more active in this project. It isn't from a lack of interest but a lack of time.

that's ok, take your time for whatever you need to do in real life.

[brblues]

Yeah, no rush, Nachtuil! There will still be plenty to do when you will have more time on your hands again

Thread opener MirandaBrawner hasn't been on here for a few weeks now? I hope there's no serious reason behind it, but also just plain lack of time or something like that!

[brblues]

A question about the map: I assume the darker shaded area are not only mountains, but also highlands?

I'm trying my hand at a bit of climate, just shading the white, low areas according to climate zone. However, I doubt that the result will be very usable, as it's my first time doing something like that and also I have no idea about graphics programs.

[k1234567890y]

A question about the map: I assume the darker shaded area are not only mountains, but also highlands?

yes

[brblues]

I've now just to see for myself as a trial run filled in where I think the major zones would go based on Mark Rosenfelder's "Planet Construction Kit", with an admittedly less than ideal colouring scheme, which was one of the first few google hits I got, apparently the one used by the US Naval Academy: https://www.usna.edu/Users/oceano/pguth ... coding.htm


So red is "rainforest", light pink "savannah", yellow "steppe", orange "(hot) desert", bright green (on the eastern part of the continent primarily) is "subtropical", dark green "mediterranean", the large swathe of land on the western side of the continent that's a slightly different green is "marine", the very light blue is "humid continental", the band above it in darker blue "taiga" and the pink above "tundra" and "polar cap".

EDIT: I've overhauled the map a bit after Davush kindly assisted me!



I've entered what I thought was the equator and the 30° and 60° line, which might be a bit off, which would affect everything then in its wake of course. Also, I've completely ignored highlands, and mostly used straight lines for delineation without any nuances.

What do you guys think?

[k1234567890y]

I've now just to see for myself as a trial run filled in where I think the major zones would go based on Mark Rosenfelder's "Planet Construction Kit", with an admittedly less than ideal colouring scheme, which was one of the first few google hits I got, apparently the one used by the US Naval Academy: https://www.usna.edu/Users/oceano/pguth ... coding.htm


So red is "rainforest", light pink "savannah", yellow "steppe", orange "(hot) desert", bright green (on the eastern part of the continent primarily) is "subtropical", dark green "mediterranean", the large swathe of land on the western side of the continent that's a slightly different green is "marine", the very light blue is "humid continental", the band above it in darker blue "taiga" and the pink above "tundra" and "polar cap".

EDIT: I've overhauled the map a bit after Davush kindly assisted me!



I've entered what I thought was the equator and the 30° and 60° line, which might be a bit off, which would affect everything then in its wake of course. Also, I've completely ignored highlands, and mostly used straight lines for delineation without any nuances.

What do you guys think?

nice (: this can be a good referent

[Zekoslav]

I've got some comments regarding climate:

1. Taking the 30 and 60 degree lines into account, this continent turns out to be the size of Eurasia. The southern peninsula (really, subcontinent) is a lot thinner than Africa, but still does add to the continent's overall size.

2. Given this information, we need to take into account some climatic features of large continents:

a) To the northeast of the large mountain/higland zone in the middle of the continent, there would be a cold desert and quite a bit of cold steppe due to rainshadow.

b) There would be a strong monsoon on the continent's southeastern half. That is, the bright green zone would have a veritable monsoon climate and not a generic subtropical one. The peninsula that descends into the tropics in particular looks like a nice India analogue.

[brblues]

Thanks for your reply Zekoslav!

That cold desert makes a lot of sense to me, I will make the part of the E2 quadrant to the east of the mountain range a (cold) desert, or do you reckon it would extend further east? To the east, I would then probably have some cold steppe for quite a bit.

I'd originally coloured that peninsula on the eastern half of the continent you mentioned as a monsoon area (dark red in this colour scheme), but nothing else (and then even changed that back). Would there be a monsoon climate above E4 and F4 in your opinion?

[Zekoslav]

I'm suggesting this based on impression, most notably this picture of Asia, this climate map of Earth, and some general principles. Someone somewhere surely knows better, so don't take this as definitive.

The prevailing winds blow westwards between 0 and 30 degrees, eastwards between 30 and 60 degrees and again westwards between 60 and 90 degrees. This means that any piece of land between 30 and 60 degrees which is far away from a western ocean will be relatively arid. The picture and the map of Asia show this well: steppes pretty much replace humid continental once you reach Kazakhstan and continue nearly all the way to the Yellow Sea, even if it's less arid near the Pacific that far from it. Therefore, all of humid continental in quadrants E, F and G Should probably be steppe: E and F will be very arid like the Asian steppe, while G will be more like the American prairies since it's open to the southeastern ocean and monsoon winds will bring at least some moisture that far. Depending on how tall the mountains/highlands are, there should be a more or less extreme cold desert in quadrants E and F directly to the northeast of them. If the mountains are huge it will be like the Taklamakan desert, if they are smaller it will be like the Gobi desert. There is this video which shows how to deal with humid continental, cold steppes and cold deserts in a similar way as we've unintentionally done: make a belt of humid continental and reduce it by putting steppes and deserts in the middle of large continents and in rainshadows.

Now, the taiga is peculiar in that it doesn't receive much moisture from the sea, but it doesn't loose it either because it's very cold and evaporation is low. If the mountains in quadrants D and E are tall enough then the steppe should extend much further to the north than on Earth, maybe even connecting to the tundra. This would be a boreal steppe, or "mammoth steppe" which were very extensive during the Ice ages but barely exist now. So, if you keep dinosaurs you can equally keep mammoths alive too! But the mountains in quadrants D and E will have to be bigger than the Urals.

The whole southeastern coast, from quadrant E4 to quadrant H3, will have a monsoonal wind pattern: from sea to land in summer (moist winds) and from land to sea in winter (dry winds). This means, roughly, that E4 and F4 will be like India, F3 and G4 like southern China and H2 and H3 roughly like northern China and Korea. Inland H2 would likely have the so-called manchurian climate.

However, the northern coast of the H2 peninsula might be wet all year round. This looks like a good candidate for an exotic climate zone: I've already discussed it here. In winter, the northern coast would likely be drawn into the boreal low pressure belt situated in the H1-I1 northeastern ocean and be hit by boreal easterly winds... receiving lots of snow. In summer, it would be hit by winds drawn from the southeastern ocean by monsoon. So, even if it's located on the eastern coast, due to it being a peninsula it would have a peculiar sort of oceanic climate, and be covered in boreal rainforests!

All in all, if I got this right, you've invented a very interesting "Asia but not Asia" with some exotic climates.

[brblues]

Thank you for such a detailed response, I will implement the advice and then post the overhauled map, and ask what everybody is thinking

[Zekoslav]

For a proper take at climate, you'd have to decide which of the gray areas are plateaus and which are mountain ranges. I propose that plateaus be light gray, and mountain ranges be dark gray. Which mountains are high and which are low should also be agreed upon, although not necessarily marked on the map. I'll leave that to those who were on this project since the beginning :)

[brblues]

I think I would leave that to people who know more about the formation of continents / mountain ranges than me, in particular the creator of the original map, k1234567890y.

However, I've already amended a map version where I tried to implement your suggestions, including the mammoth steppe, which presupposes that there will be very high mountains in D2 and E2.

I also entered some fairly ugly scribbles (based on your explanations as I understood them).



This hasn't really made the map more beautiful, but I hope that it's steadily improving!

I'm still unsure where the people for my conlang will be placed, but I know that the three other conpeople will be on the western part of the continent - so even if I go with the east, there would still be more than enough space for a good number of other concultures and conlangs in general!

It's obviouly not me who runs anything here, but I think we would all be happy with some more participants if anybody wanted to join as well?