Okay, this one was a tough one, and I am not sure how realistic the result is. Nils presents: The prevailing winds of Arnâron! Red circles are high pressure areas, blue circles are low pressure ares; the thin black arrows are prevailing winds. The thick black line is the intertropical convergence zone.

These maps are based on the general idea that the north is colder during the “beginning of the year”, aka “January”, while the south is warmed in the “middle of the year” aka “July”. I also used the ocean currents as a basis of where to place high / low pressure areas.

Arnâron - Winds in January

Arnâron - Winds in July

The ITCZ should probably extend far to the north in the middle of the year (lower map).

Looks confusing? Yes, to me too. But it’s giving me some ideas for climate zones already; for example I think the eastern half of the south-eastern landmass may be a desert, as its coastal mountain ranges will likely shield it from rain in the “beginning of the year” phase (”January”), and the wind will go the other way in the “July” phase. The southern half of the western continent is probably desert, too.

It is also worthy to note that seasonal changes will in general be more gentle than on Earth, because the year is much longer.

Laying down climate zones is the next logical step, too. Once I am done with that, I’ll be able to determine where people originated, where civilizations rose, and where humans stagnated. This is also where we join the Shakespeare & Dragons podcast again.

More maps = good. This time: Stirring up the oceans!

Arnâron - Ocean Currents

I should probably note that oceans on Arnâron were never as deep as on Earth. I figure maybe a kilometer or so at the deepest.

Wind patterns should be fairly easy and somewhat less static than ocean currents. Nevertheless, I’ll put wind patterns off until tonight or so, and then I’ll finally be able to determine what location will have what climate.

And you know what’s the kicker? This is still ancient Arnâron. Soon, the oceans will dry up, the wind will change, and climate will be radically different. I’m creating this water-rich, pleasant garden world just to destroy it.

Nobody said that every deity is benevolent.

Here’s the third draft of my map. I fixed the issue with the Northern Plate I noticed while I was posting the second draft. I think I am quite happy with it now.

Arnâron - Plate Tectonics

Using the above, I’ve marked the major zones of volcanism on the following map. I am not quite sure yet whether or not the divergent zone between the Eastern Plate and the Northern Plate would have major volcanism, my current understanding is that it doesn’t. Man, geography class covered this sort of thing… but high school was sixteen years ago…

Arnâron - Volcanism

Of course the details of this map may change depending on the needs of further developments – we’ll see.

I worked a little more on the basic map. Here’s the result:

Arnâron - Plate Tectonics

As you can see, I rearranged the plates a little, and the map is more detailed now. Light blue is continental shelf. Dark blue are trenches. The brown spots are mountainous areas. The names of the plates are quite arbitrary, I could have just as well numbered them.

Basically, there’s one major divergent plate boundary, between the Northern Plate and the Eastern Plate. It’s the most active zone on Arnâron, especially the south, where the New Plate is being born from violent volcanism. The Western Plate is being pushed up on both its western as well as eastern convergent boundaries. The Western Plate is the most stable of the plates of Arnâron, and has a good chance to stay in place for a long time, until dynamics of the planetary interior change.

I’ll actually have to change the graphic again – as I write this, I notice that the Northern Plate should be pushing northwards as well as eastwards, and this in turn should be what’s pushing the Polar Plate southwards.

This is a fairly simplified picture of plate tectonics, but it should suffice for my purposes.

Here’s my first attempt at a map of Arnâron. It depicts the time when oceans still covered its surface. No climate zones or mountain ranges have been placed – this is very much a work in progress, but I figured I’d share it to document the progress. Besides… we need more graphics on this blog. ;)

Arnâron - Continental Outlines

Arnâron - Plate Tectonics

Since the Earth’s continents drift over its surface, the planet is slowly changing its familiar view. Everybody thinks the dinosaur lived on “our” Earth, when in fact the Earth looked completely unrecognizable millions of years ago.

Some geologists and palaeontologists have attempted to reconstruct Earth’s map at various points in the past. Two efforts have reproduced beautiful and useful maps. The first, the Paleomap Project of Christioher R. Scotese offers maps that are functional but somewhat plain. Dr. Ron Blakey, on the other hand, has created beautiful “satellite views” of ancient Earth. An example is this map, from the Middle Devonian:

In a world building context, these maps are highly useful if you create a setting that is set in the past or in a parallel universe that is based on historical Earth. But there are other uses: For example, these maps could be used as alien planets (except for the very recent maps, in which Earth’s continental outlines become quite recognizable).

I have actually used the Middle Devonian map to create the map of an Earth-like fantasy world, which I call Arth (in honor of Starflight):

Pretty, no? And nobody who saw the “Arth” map by itself would suspect that it is merely our own planet Earth, just 385 million years ago.