I have been working on this Fictional Planet for about 4 years and reset a couple of times along the way. I started working on maps of the whole planet with themes. So far, I have land features, tectonic plates, political map, and language groups completely finished. I also have watersheds, climate, and elevation almost done. And I know I have to do land cover, land use, population, and precipitation. What other map themes do you think would be interesting to make? I used the Nystrom Atlases at my school to think of a lot of these.
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1$\begingroup$ Welcome PeanutbutterCat. At present you've asked for opinions/discussion, that's not what we do here. If you've a specific problem that you can describe in sufficient detail for us to identify a single correct answer, then we can help you. See the How to Ask section of the help center for further clarification. $\endgroup$– Escaped dental patient.Commented Mar 30 at 23:35
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$\begingroup$ What is the purpose of the project - novel, computer game (type?), tabletop RPG? That may help with determining what is useful, but you have asked what is interesting - there we can't help you because one person's gripping map of interest will cure the insomnia of others. $\endgroup$– KerrAvon2055Commented Mar 31 at 0:36
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2$\begingroup$ VTR. Yes, this query is "opinion based". So is almost every other query here. The topic in general and the query itself prescribe a limitation on respondents' opinion more than sufficient to meet WB.SE's stringent requirements! $\endgroup$– elemtilasCommented Mar 31 at 5:22
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$\begingroup$ What could i do to re-open this question and make it more science based? $\endgroup$– PeanutbutterCatCommented Apr 6 at 1:00
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2 Answers
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Make historic maps. As in draw a map of the political landscape every 100 years. Write a past, with characters, religions, lifes, dynasties - rise and falls. If it helps, take our world as example. Here is a dynamic map of europes history:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY9P0QSxlnI Behind every move of those lines are lifes lost, tragedies, victories, cities founded and others laid low. And the borders produce conflicts, friction- resulting in trade and innovation. Weave a tapestry you can reference in passing in stories, even far in the future.
You don't even have to tell the whole backstory everytime, just mention a famous conqueror or a outrageous atrocity. Which is then understood by everyone, or "debated" depending on origin stories of there characters. Its like with a person you meet out in the world today. Yes they are a life in the world of today, but the story of how there parents met, where they were born and how that place came to be, is like an iceberg.
Build that iceberg- and map it out.
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Do whatever maps are useful for the story, and don't do maps which are not useful for the story.
For example, my limited imagination cannot imagine any story-telling use for a map of tectonic plates.
On the other hand, maps of major religions, or maps of major trade routes, or maps of economic activities might be quite useful (where do they grow wheat, where do they grow maize, where do they grow dates, where are the major ship-building yards, where are the major iron foundries, where are the major commercial ports and so on).
Again, the point is that maps are only useful if they are actually useful. Before starting to work on a map, think about how you the author would use it to tell the story, and how a reader or a watcher or a player may find it a handy reference.
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$\begingroup$ I used this one too, but you can't accept two answers. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 6 at 15:23