Has anyone ever created a world map similar to the various Roshar ones?

[Aurimus_]

Yea, as the title says. I’m looking to create a world map for my own worldbuilding project that’s similar to the Silver Kingdoms map, but I’m kinda struggling to do so. I’m wondering if anyone has attempted something similar and/or seen/made a tutorial of some kind that would be of use? I’d love to see any examples you have come up with, or any stories of what happened when you attempted stuff like this. 

[+Extesian he/him]

I'm not entirely sure I understand the question but in case you're not aware Roshar is based on a slice of the Julia set. Similar fractals could provide some nice inspiration if you're looking at inspiration for a shape. My profile pic is the Mandelbrot set which can also provide some nice slices to get a natural looking shape that indicates motion. 

 

But you were probably looking for something different, in which case my apologies

[Elandera she/her]

You might consider looking into how DMs create maps for different D&D style maps. One trick I've seen for that in particular is having a large grid paper (like what you'd see in a presentation), then throwing down a ton of dice or small objects. You use the shape they land in as an outline for the map basis. 

You could also look into what type of environments influence shorelines. Part of it depends on how similar your created world is to what we know in modern science, but things like temperature and precipitation all impact the geography of an area.

I once created a map for a book I'm working on, but seem to have lost it. It wasn't the complete continent, just the section that mattered for the content of the book. I just started in one spot, and drew a somewhat jagged line in a general shape that I thought might consist of a shoreline. Then I placed mountains, plains, forests, rivers, etc. depending on where it would be needed in the story or would plausibly show up in an earth-like place.

Edited September 2, 2018 by Elandera