Desert.

Done!

Another Inkscape work-in-progress:

Desert.

I really do suck at this: I first had the right side (the top of the dune) colored green, luckily a buddy of mine did a color check for me.

More photos from Wikipedia / Wikimedia commons. Again, you can click on them to get to the source + high resolution version.

Settlement in Wadi Rum, Jordan. Photo by Steffen Sledz.

Judean hills. Photo by David Shankbone.

White Sands, New Mexico, USA. Photo by davebluedevil.

Salar de Talar near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. Photo by Luca Galuzzi.

Valle de la Luna, Atacama desert. Photo by Reinhard Jahn.

PS: I am done with the photos, I swear! ….well, okay, unless I find something extra-cool like Antelope Canyon.

A bit of a follow-up because I was told off-blog that the map is a little hard to read without any explanation… the different shades represent different heights. Here’s the basic idea, not to scale:

Arnâron - Elevation

The colors are the same as in the map.

As the oceans weren’t as deep as Earth’s, the continental rise also isn’t as deep. Still, with the greatest depth in the ocean at 1-2km, this still means at least a hundred meters for the continental rise, and that’s quite a slope. Places where this slope is greater will be natural barriers for migrations, caravans, and invading armies; locatations where the slope is not as steep, not as high, or where it has been worn down by erosion or other factors will be natural choke points where the before-mentioned can travel, and so they may be of strategic interest. Something to keep in mind when I draw the map in greater detail – and it shows the importance of thinking about such things: The more you work on something, the more ideas present themselves…

Here’s the second draft of the “desert world” map:

Arnâron - A Dying World

The features are a little small, but I think you can make them out. This is the previous map, but edited – I remove the climate / terrain types again and added locations of ancient and modern cities, and I placed the global canal network (the black lines).

I am also playing a lot with “shadows” to make the map easier to read, and I think it came out pretty well if I may say so myself.

Here’s a first glance at Arnâron, the desert planet.

Arnâron - A Dying World

Pretty much all of the once world-spanning ocean has dried up. There are small ice caps at both poles. They will vary greatly over the course of the year. In the local winter they will expand towards the equator to cover most of the zones marked Taiga and Tundra.

The surface of the world is mostly covered in rock and sand – much of it is former ocean floor. In locations with water, sparse vegetation and steppes thrive. The former western continent features the only thick vegeatation on the planet, along a wide river that runs off from the vast mountain range that covers the continent.

A vast salt flat is located in the northern hemisphere, between the two continents. This is the most hostile area on the planet – the absolute lack of liquid water and the searing temperatures mean that nothing can survive here.

The map shows Arnâron without the influences of man… which will be our next map, coming up sometime this weekend.

I know, I know. I almost post too many Wikipedia photos (and there will be a few more). But these I thought were really great in captivating the mood I think Arnâron should have.

First, the Antelope Canyon, which is located near Page, Arizona. Judging by these photos, it must be an eerie, beautiful site:

The Antelope Canyon in Arizona. Photo by Lucas Löffler.

HDR image of Upper Antelope Canyon, Page, Arizona. Photo by Luca Galuzzi.

Inside Lower Antelope Canyon, looking out with the sky near the top of the frame. Photo by Moondigger.

The second canyon of note is, of course, the Grand Canyon. I always felt that this looked like a very alien landscape, and I guess the association with Valles Marineris comes naturally. Except of course that the later is so big that you probably won’t even realize you’re in a canyon. Sometimes, less is more.

The Grand Canyon from Moran Point. Photo by Doug Dolde.

Grand Canyon, Photo by Doug Dolde

Grand Canyon from Navajo Point. Photo by Doug Dolde.

Neat, huh? I always wanted to see the Grand Canyon in person, I’ve today added Antelope Canyon to that wish-list.

More desert imagery… Again, you can click on the photos to get to the source.

Namibian Canyon. Photo by Tjeerd Wiersma.

Texas Desert by Monahans. Photo by Klaus Bertow.

Arnâron isn’t a completely dead world… like on Earth, life clings on wherever it can:

Namibia national Park Namib Naukluft. Photo by Patrick Giraud.

Namibia national Park Namib Naukluft. Photo by Patrick Giraud.

Sand dunes in Namib Desert, Namibia. Photo by Thomas Schoch.

There are so many beautiful desert photos, I am sure I’ll post more in the future.

To get into the right mood for designing Arnâron, I’ve collected some desert photos from the Internet – in this case from Wikipedia.They are all available under a free license of one sort or another – Click the picture for details. (Wikipedia also has the original size images if you wish to obtain one in high resolution.)

Libyan Desert. Photo by Roberdan.

Ancient dunes from the Namib-Naukluft Park in Namibia, Africa. Photo by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen.

Sand dunes of Wan Caza in the Sahara desert region of Fezzan in Libya. Photo by Luca Galuzzi - www.galuzzi.it.

Near Ouarzazate(Marocco). Photo by Maxme.

Photo of the Moul n'ga Cirque in the Tadrart region, Southeast Algeria. Photo by Pir6mon.