Hey y'all,
This just dawned on me suddenly today as I was working on my world map. Maps of old had "centers", that is to say, they centered on a specific nation, country, or continent that would be the center of attention. In most maps we see today, the center is Europe. When I lived in Latin America, the center was the Americas. In China, maps were centered on themselves.

This is often something we can miss in our current maps. I should know: the center of my world map is ocean

So, have y'all centered your maps? How so? What nation?

Personally, I centered my map on the capital of Sannahet. This nation is advanced and thus my world map is "from" that nation - the names are also in this language.

e.g: (Oh, you get to see my top-secret massive map-in-progress )

If you trace out the middle, you'll see it's in the ocean just south of the 'M' in Munkaan!


Much better. The center is now Areol, on the island of Sannahet. (This was quickly done using Photoshop's offset filter, thus the ugly seams )

So, just a small way to add some realism to your maps What do you think?

eru

I haven't done a full world map so far, just a "known world" map, so I can't center that one due to physical limitations. However, that is a good idea for world maps.

(By the way, very nice map. )

Yes, this is a very good idea, Eru. I never thought about it before. In fact, if you looked at some of my maps, you might find that the center was the ocean in them. Oh well, they're not the official ones... Neat map, by the way!

My map, too is a "known world" map (though that's "known to me" rather than "known to the inhabitants," since by the end of my Outline of History they're well past expanding into space), consisting of two very large continents and centered on the comparatively small land bridge connecting them. But this is a point that I hadn't even thought to consider

What did British maps of Europe before the discovery of the Americas look like, I wonder? It'd be a trifle ... obvious ... to center a map on a place on the edge of the area you're concerned with. (As my map would be, unless it were the Enemy, or one of the lesser countries in the middle, making the map.)

@Jonathan: Ah, that makes sense

@Milly: Right--it just dawned on me as I was looking at my map that the ocean was centered Hence this thread

@Kingjon: I believe most early European maps were centered on Roman/Greece, particularly Greece. Most early historians were Greek/Roman and that makes a fairly logical center for Eurasiafrica.

I tried to aim for a fairly technologically advanced nation, one that would be seafarers and mappers by necessity

@all: Hopefully the map'll be done soon

eru

Yes, map centers are really important indicators of the balance of power in a world! I know when I used to live in Japan, all the maps were centered on Japan, with the Asian continent on the left and the Americas on the right (with some overlap).

As for my world, like many, it's a known-world map. I'm not sure about anything much beyond its borders--perhaps just The End. In which case, it's centered in that the continent of the known world is splat in the center

@Evenstar: Known-world maps are always nice

eru

Slightly off-topic, but are y'all just maptastically/artistically gifted, or do you have a program that you use (other than just plain photoshop) to design your landmasses? While I can muddle about pretty well in web-design, I'm not much of an 'ar-teest,' and so mapping is not one of my gifts.

@Roundelais: You do web design too? Cool

As to your question. I design my landmasses with the pencil tool in Photoshop, using a mouse. Yes, that breaks every rule of graphic drawing, but that's my point. It turns out a really unsteady line. Then once I've come up with a basic coastline and have filled it in with a color I go back along the borders with a small brush and add coves, inlets, the works

I am not an artist either, but the brush tool is your friend

eru

Well, I do a bitsy - nothing terribly fancy. I minored in it, but they didn't even have a course on Dreamweaver until after I graduated, and Perlscript was just coming in. ^_^;

Thanks for the tips on mapmaking. So far I've just been snagging bits of actual geography and altering them. (Such as taking a couple of counties and lumping them together.)

Ooh - counties is an excellent idea, I hadn't thought of that. Cool

eru

When I think of counties I think of democracies. Remind me. Are there any democracies in Enderion?

Some. Most democracies are so in name only. A few true democracies exist along with a smattering of republics. Monarchy is the most common option, however - Flerré is the most progressive of the continents, Tbuga the most backwards.

eru

*nods*

Once I finish up my map, I'll put it up. My map is centered on the center of the world, the pinnacle. This is where the two trees are and where the flame of the elves is. The world is divided in two by a line that passes directly through the small pinnacle island. It was simple to center it because the pinnacle is important in every culture, but for different reasons.

Sounds cool, Aldara!

eru

That's neat, Aldara! I can't wait to see your map!

I never thought about it, so my map is centered on the middle of the world viewed from orbit, or Utontol or Evenfar, which is a spot in the ocean. Then again, my map so far is only meant for me and other writers.

My map is centered on an ocean. But then, of course, it was made by the sea people....

I had never thought of this before. Good thing to bring up.

Depends on who's making it.

The dwarves are expert surveyors, have explored the entire continent, and have divided it into numerous quadrants, each of which have been meticulously mapped. Naturally, each map focuses on the center of the quadrant. Maps combining multiple quadrants focus on the geometric center of the combined quadrants.

The men explore a lot, but have extremely poor relations with each other and the other races, and therefore many areas are off limits to them, and maps of these areas are difficult to acquire. Man's maps are generally limited to local regions, and are centered on significant inhabited areas, such as a capital, fortress, or metropolis.

The elves are nomadic wanderers, no surveying skill, and little skill in writing. They make no maps. They do, however, leave rock structures with carvings at the "entry points" to various areas, which encode a basic description of the areas geography and the location of important objects, like water sources or dangerous places. These generally include astronomical, directional, and descriptional information, which is more than adequate for any elvish shepherd to find his way.

*edit*

I think I killed another thread by over-posting. Beg pardon, all.

Currently, I only have a country map. Because the different races are a bit scattered along the edges of the country, the center is rather bare (although it just happens to be where my characters end up [honestly, a complete coincidence]). However, on the world scale, which I have yet to draw out, the inhabited country is always in the center in my mind.