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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
A Semi-realistic Climate Model for the Ashes World Map
PavlovDead
Member
tl;dr The current Ashes world map makes the most sense with the sun rising in the west (opposite of the earth), and with some magical terraforming.
When designing a fantasy setting, it can often be difficult to get your biomes to make sense geographically with relation to each other. There is a fairly popular method for generating semi-realistic climate zones by youtuber Artifexian here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5lCbxMZJ4zA.
Just for the hell of it, I decided to try this method out on the Ashes world map to see how it holds up. I'm assuming Ashes takes place on a Earth-like planet, that the northmost coast is intended to be tundra, the southmost part of the "Jundark" should be Rainforest, and that the "Tradewind Sea" should have a tradewind. From there I made a best guess at which mountains are large enough to affect winds, and let the map fill itself in.
The above map shows where climate zones could reasonably go. Real world climate can be affected by a lot of things, so there's a good bit of wiggle room for exactly where the borders go, but the climates would still be in those general areas.
The most notable difference from the default map is where all the rain is. The Riverlands is, ironically, one of the driest places on the planet. The Sandsquall Desert is pretty thickly forested in the south. The dry looking area below the Dunzenkell Mountains would be as rainy as London. Peligoria is a Jungle, and half of the "asian" themed part of Elyrium is Sahara, as are half of the tropical looking islands on Vandagar's west coast.
There are also some cold deserts in places that look like they should have mountain greenery. The map seems to put a lot of evergreens in mountain valleys, and while you can get lush valleys in the small scale, in the large scale (like when your map spans from the tropics to the tundras), when the interior of a continent is surrounded by mountains, all of the rain gets stuck on the coast, and you get a desert.
But I realized that the rainfall issues are consistent enough that they can actually be resolved by making the planet rotate backwards:
Starting with Vandagar, the warm currents help the Jundark reach up the west coast like it's supposes to. The western islands are a mixture of subtropical and savannah. There's a proper cold desert south of the Dunzenkell Mountains, formed by a rain shadow (though there's also Steppe in the interior now, for the same reason). The rainy Oceanic climate is now in the forested northeast of the continent. The badlands-looking east coast is now a mixture of Mediterranean, Steppe, and Desert climates (all roughly suitable).
On Elyrium, the southern part is rainforest, with the rest mostly savannah. Note that in climate classification "Tropical Savannah" is the climate of central Africa, but it's also the climate type of Thailand, so if this place is supposed to be southeast Asia, then this works. There is still a desert north of that, but it's much smaller, owing to the warm currents up both sides of the landmass. There's a Mediterranean climate around an inlet that seems suitable for a trade port (thematic!), a rainy Oceanic zone in a place I see a lot of trees, and a lot of continental zone in a place that seems themed after inland Eurasia.
The Sandsquall Desert still has some jungle though, and the Riverlands is now even more of a desert. Both of those things are going to be true almost regardless of what we try though. The Sandsquall is right near the Jundark, at the same latitude, in the same waters. Barring exceptionally strange weather, their climates are going to be similar. Same goes for the island of Peligora, which is still a jungle. The Riverlands is just north of a jungle and surrounded on all sides by mountains. That's a desert from any angle.
But this is a fantasy setting, and magic can solve basically any problem. If there happened to be some sort of exceptionally powerful magical civilization who settled that area (wink wink), it could be they used some great magic to divert the wet winds from the Sandsquall to water the Riverlands. Then the Riverlands could have whatever climate you want, because it's magic. That spell weakening could be an interesting plot hook if the devs ever wanted a world event that causes climate change. Something similar could be the reason Peligora is a desert, but has a single lush spot surrounded by mountains.
I do think a hot desert in southern Elyrium may be warranted though.
On the whole, I do think the map holds up decently well though... assuming the sun rises in the west and there's some magic involved.
What do you all think?
When designing a fantasy setting, it can often be difficult to get your biomes to make sense geographically with relation to each other. There is a fairly popular method for generating semi-realistic climate zones by youtuber Artifexian here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5lCbxMZJ4zA.
Just for the hell of it, I decided to try this method out on the Ashes world map to see how it holds up. I'm assuming Ashes takes place on a Earth-like planet, that the northmost coast is intended to be tundra, the southmost part of the "Jundark" should be Rainforest, and that the "Tradewind Sea" should have a tradewind. From there I made a best guess at which mountains are large enough to affect winds, and let the map fill itself in.
The above map shows where climate zones could reasonably go. Real world climate can be affected by a lot of things, so there's a good bit of wiggle room for exactly where the borders go, but the climates would still be in those general areas.
The most notable difference from the default map is where all the rain is. The Riverlands is, ironically, one of the driest places on the planet. The Sandsquall Desert is pretty thickly forested in the south. The dry looking area below the Dunzenkell Mountains would be as rainy as London. Peligoria is a Jungle, and half of the "asian" themed part of Elyrium is Sahara, as are half of the tropical looking islands on Vandagar's west coast.
There are also some cold deserts in places that look like they should have mountain greenery. The map seems to put a lot of evergreens in mountain valleys, and while you can get lush valleys in the small scale, in the large scale (like when your map spans from the tropics to the tundras), when the interior of a continent is surrounded by mountains, all of the rain gets stuck on the coast, and you get a desert.
But I realized that the rainfall issues are consistent enough that they can actually be resolved by making the planet rotate backwards:
Starting with Vandagar, the warm currents help the Jundark reach up the west coast like it's supposes to. The western islands are a mixture of subtropical and savannah. There's a proper cold desert south of the Dunzenkell Mountains, formed by a rain shadow (though there's also Steppe in the interior now, for the same reason). The rainy Oceanic climate is now in the forested northeast of the continent. The badlands-looking east coast is now a mixture of Mediterranean, Steppe, and Desert climates (all roughly suitable).
On Elyrium, the southern part is rainforest, with the rest mostly savannah. Note that in climate classification "Tropical Savannah" is the climate of central Africa, but it's also the climate type of Thailand, so if this place is supposed to be southeast Asia, then this works. There is still a desert north of that, but it's much smaller, owing to the warm currents up both sides of the landmass. There's a Mediterranean climate around an inlet that seems suitable for a trade port (thematic!), a rainy Oceanic zone in a place I see a lot of trees, and a lot of continental zone in a place that seems themed after inland Eurasia.
The Sandsquall Desert still has some jungle though, and the Riverlands is now even more of a desert. Both of those things are going to be true almost regardless of what we try though. The Sandsquall is right near the Jundark, at the same latitude, in the same waters. Barring exceptionally strange weather, their climates are going to be similar. Same goes for the island of Peligora, which is still a jungle. The Riverlands is just north of a jungle and surrounded on all sides by mountains. That's a desert from any angle.
But this is a fantasy setting, and magic can solve basically any problem. If there happened to be some sort of exceptionally powerful magical civilization who settled that area (wink wink), it could be they used some great magic to divert the wet winds from the Sandsquall to water the Riverlands. Then the Riverlands could have whatever climate you want, because it's magic. That spell weakening could be an interesting plot hook if the devs ever wanted a world event that causes climate change. Something similar could be the reason Peligora is a desert, but has a single lush spot surrounded by mountains.
I do think a hot desert in southern Elyrium may be warranted though.
On the whole, I do think the map holds up decently well though... assuming the sun rises in the west and there's some magic involved.
What do you all think?
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Comments
So this is, for me, even more evidence in that direction.
I love this kind of thing.
But I hate the sun rising in the west!
So conflicted!