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natalieironside · 11 months

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I'm so fucking good at characters

#speculative cartography

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jomindraws · 28 days

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2 Billion years of Tectonic History for Jom'Gol !!!!

After simulating the plate tectonics for an excruciating 2.5 billion years (not irl time, but might as well have been), I made this crude animation of the previous 2.5 billion years of tectonic history!

Although very crude, the simple borders represent landmasses, the scratchy lines represent orogeny or mountain ranges. Every frame is 50 million years (date listed at the top). (also little sounds in there too .w.)

I intend to add an additional space in between each frame for every 25 million years, then probably color them with a basic topographic map. Until then !!! I continue on !!!!

#art #digital art #artists on tumblr #worldbuilding #speculative biology #speculative evolution #spec bio #spec evo #jomgol #plate tectonics #oceanography #mapmaking #supercontinent #continents and regions #topography #cartography #animation #speculative worldbuilding

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luxudus · 10 months

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fuck it heres a map of what Irou, the homeworld of the Ikleud and Ruuik, looks like.

The Ikleudd hail from southwest Intrapa while the Ruuikk hail from Central north Intrapa

Also for a quick explanation on why the plant life of this world is yellow-brown Is because the main "flora" use Carotenoids to photosynthesize and the planet itself orbiting a K-type main sequence star

I went as far as drawing Ocean currents (before i knew how they actually worked) and used the Koppen Climate Classification to determine the biomes

Also let me know if i should either explore more about Irou itself first or do it's solar system first and have Irou's exploration in there.

#worldbuilding #my art #artist on tumblr #neo-anthropocene #speculative biology #art #planet #alien planets #cartography

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project-platina · 27 days

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Coming Soon, Project Platina

Platina is a world of extremes. Around its equator, blistering temperatures abound, and blinding sunlight pierces through the dense clouds. Volcanoes erupt almost every rotation, choking the sky with ash for miles. The poles are frozen wastelands, covered with ice and snow. Earthquakes are a common occurrence, and the tides are extreme and highly variable.

And yet, despite its extremity, Platina's environment has given rise to countless forms of life, evolving and diversifying at a blistering pace. Despite Platina's relatively short existence, it is host to highly evolved lifeforms, driven to adapt by its unforgiving conditions.

This project will dive into Platina's past, present, and future. It will explore life on Platina, as well as some of the phenomena that make Platina such a unique world. I welcome criticism and advice, and I hope you enjoy learning more about the world of Platina.

#speculative ecology #spec bio #spec evo #speculative biology #worldbuilding #original work #scifi #writeblr #writerscommunity #writer #creative writing #writing #writblr #writers of tumblr #speculative zoology #geology #cartography #intoduction #platina

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aswegoalong72 · 3 months

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Reyal At A Glance - The Desert Rings

Map by @nexelart (twit)

The Desert Rings - Oceanside Paradise

The Desert Rings are the second most densely populated location in Southern Reyal, outside of the Land of Tenav's Dawn. Here is the location where many Alkanites fled to during the early migrations of the then recently civilized Lyratet. Surprisingly, the area is very fitting for their beliefs, as Alkan itself is a fairly salty world!

Today, while still being heavily in Alkanite territory, much of the religion in the region has switched more towards those who believe Reyal has magical abilities, or just one of the many flavors of Tenavism. Religious tensions have died down with the rise of globalization, and it is now a much calmer, happier place than it used to be.

The Desert Rings are located around the Great Southern Ocean, which is Reyal's only ocean. While seemingly inhospitable at first, due to the Lyratet's love for smaller lakes and other bodies of water, they quickly adapted to the saltwater filled environment.

The rings formed as a result of colliding continental plates, and can be very easily compared to the Ring of Fire on Earth, albeit much more pronounced due to Reyal's heavier geological activity. The region is very prone to quakes and volcanic activity, although the Lyratet have come up with ways to deal with this.

To make matters more interesting, a few hundred million years ago, a large comet hit the northern half of the ocean, digging up enough soil to create a small island. This island is now known as Therikine, which is a fairly important hub in the region for trade, mining, and paleontology.

u'un Nea'terno

u'un Nea'terno, or the Primal Desert, is one of the most inhospitable places on Reyal for habitation. Due to the mountains in the region, moisture is constantly wicked away layer by layer, creating a desert that never sees any rain towards the center of the area. Temperatures can reach up to 29C with no cloud cover, and the average rainfall is less than half a centimeter per decade. There have been wet periods in the past, but they've been incredibly far and few between. During these times, however, the desert has come alive, sporting very unique lifeforms that take advantage of the temporary situation. They hibernate the rest of the time, sometimes for centuries. As such, the region is an amazing time capsule for life, and has been the heavy focus of paleontologists and biologists in recent years.

Therikine

Therikine is considered to be the holy grail of Lyratet life. During early settlement, the region was discovered to sport a very unique biosphere, due to being so isolated from the rest of the world; many new types of food were discovered, with the most important of them being the components for ajjen. Ajjen is a traditional herbal brew which contains several stimulating chemicals, much like coffee here on Earth. Since its discovery, it has spread through the world like wildfire, and is on par in terms of consumption with just regular water.

On top of this, Therikine has one of the largest known reserves of rare earth minerals that are easily extractable, and is home to a series of caves that house some incredibly well preserved fossils, which were discovered by a team of scientists and engineers from the Global Resource Committee much by accident. They were searching for new phosphorus deposits initially, but two scientists used some ground penetrating radar to discover the caves after finding some loose fossils on the surface.

Gallak

Gallak, meaning "Long Shore" in the native tongue of the region, is the capitol of the Gallak United Territories. The city is the most populated in the region by far, boasting around ~163 million people. Gallak is the Alkanite's equivalent to Tyrateol, albeit much smaller in comparison to the hulking giant. Founded by settlers during the third exodus of Alkanites from the Land of Tenav's Dawn, Gallak quickly grew, slowly absorbing surrounding villages, all before turning into what it is today.

As religious tensions died down heavily over the centuries since its founding, Gallak has become more of a tourist town for those who wish to bathe in the warm, sunny waters of the Great Southern Ocean. On top of this, Gallak is known for its algae based dyes, which are only able to be grown in this area. The byproducts from bleaching the algae are added to food, leading to a unique yet savory and nutritious style of food. That's it for this entry; thanks for reading! Next week, we'll cover Therikine in more detail! Until then!

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umbrasdoodles · 4 months

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I'm trying to experiment with drawing maps, and to start here is the 2.0 map of the (currently unnamed) world of my Midnightverse project! It's a future Earth so I traced over Earth's geography and adjusted as I pleased. I plan on adding biomes, nations, etc. later

#map #cartography #fantasy #future earth #geography #speculative geography #art #csp

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mr-orion · 11 months

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So I really like looking at character art and worldbuilding, and I understand my input isn't always welcome nor can I go through a hundred posts a day. So, I might as well give it to people that actually want it!

If you want me to critique a part of your work you can always submit it to my ask box with a little context. If it's a link to one of your posts I ask that you do not submit anonymously.

I'll publicly respond to these so if you want privacy use the anonymous option.

You can also ask for and give advice, not to mention ask questions. I promise I know what I'm talking about! Especially when it comes to these subjects:

Worldbuilding

Cartography

Speculative Biology

Speculative mech

Sociology

Architecture

Organization

OC's

Character design

Outfit design

NSFW

Relationships

Art

Traditional art

Painting

Digital art

Color theory

Writing

Brainstorming

Honestly the worst that happens is I don't have a clue, and that's okay

Additional note: I don't have any input on fandoms and such.

Happy creativity :D

#creature design #worldbuilding #my ocs #character art #art #concept art #writing #cartography #speculative science fiction #speculative biology #speculative mechanics #outfit design #digital art #traditional art #drawing #ocs

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russellmoreton · 1 month

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Spatial Practices : Tate Modern. #7 by Russell Moreton Via Flickr: OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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detroitography · 6 months

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Detroit Land Value Tax Map 2023

by: Pat Sier With Mayor Duggan’s split value land tax proposal currently stalled in the state legislature, both advocates and opponents have raised questions about what the plan would mean in practice for Detroit taxpayers. At a recent charter-mandated meeting, the mayor’s office previewed a tool for anyone to receive an estimate of how property taxes for their address would change under the…

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#2024 #cartography #data #Detroit #geography #land #land value #land value tax #map #Pat Sier #speculation #tax #taxation

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thebookofm · 9 months

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There's a Map For That

I just realized that for the story I'm working on, I need/get to make a map!

#speculative fiction #fantasy #writing #cartography

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natalieironside · 7 months

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On this post you can ask me questions and I'll respond in character as THE WIZARD.

#speculative cartography #masters

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jomindraws · 2 months

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Now that I've gotten these important cornerstones down, I can move on with more processes. There may be a time period where I have to work on additional topography and oceanography before getting BACK to the biodiversity of Jom'Gol, but rest assured more speculative alien critters on the way soon !!

#art #digital art #artists on tumblr #worldbuilding #speculative biology #speculative evolution #spec bio #spec evo #jomgol #mapmaking #maps #planets #topography #oceanography #cartography

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cryptotheism · 2 months

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So I was reading a book on the history of double-entry bookkeeping in early-modern Britain today ("A History of the Modern Fact", by Mary Poovey), and the author mentioned offhand that numbers, far from being afforded universal respect in the late 16th century, actually carried pejorative associations with necromancy and black magic. Can you comment on this?

So, for most of human history, math has kinda been associated with magic. The fact that you can write a bunch of shapes on paper, and then manipulate those symbols to make a really good bridge, is kinda fucking crazy when you think about it.

"England in the late 16th century" is right about when John Dee died. It was after his death that his wizard notebooks were discovered and published. The fact that one of the queens most trusted confidants was actually literally trying to talk to angels with magic, was kinda the story of the century. It was around this time that Shakespeare wrote The Tempest, which featured a heavily John Dee inspired Prospero.

Dee's most significant contribution to England was actually his skill at cartography. Simply by correcting some astronomical math and pouring over charts, he figured out how to shortcut weeks off trade routes to India. The relationship between astronomy, mathematics, and Dee being a wizard, was not lost on English pop culture.

So, if you were an old guy in 1626 with a beard who spent all of his time cloistered in a big castle, and all you did was weird math, people might half-seriously speculate that you might be doing some wizard shit.

Additionally, this is a period where many mathematics texts from the Islamicate world were making their way to England. And you've gotta understand that like 25% of these Arabic math textbooks straight up had spells in them. Any English collegiate mathematician at this time would at least be tangentially aware that Islamic polymaths were doing some pseudo-religious stuff with mathematics. But that doesn't mean it was taken seriously beyond commonplace orientalism.

So I'm not sure if I would go so far as to say that numbers themselves had a negative association with magic. Like, accountants had normal boring math to do all the time and nobody cared.

I would say that mathematics were occasionally regarded with suspicion under specific circumstances.

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project-platina · 24 days

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The Proof You Wanted

Look, I know it's blurry, but that thing in the picture? It's one of the tamer things we've found on Platina. I've attached a scan of some of the lab results we got testing one of these things. There's more platinum in that creature's shell than you'd find in tens of thousands of kilograms of Earth's crust.

This is the proof you wanted, right? That report about Aurum's surface composition wasn't just hot air, it's all true. I can get you more, but I'm going to need assurances. They've already tracked the leaked survey of Aurum to this department, and if I'm caught making scans of more lab results, it won't be hard for them to put two and two together.

If you can guarantee that I won't be hung out to dry for this, I can even get you the geographical survey results for Platina that are compiled so far. There are a lot of eyes on Platina right now, with that archive project launching soon, and it's only a matter of time until people find out that the ISIAL wants to sit on a literal gold mine and do nothing with it.

That won't stand for long, and everyone's going to want a piece of the action. What I'm offering you is a leg up on the competition. I can get you the info you need so that on day one, you and your bosses can claim the best mining locations, collect samples of the most important wildlife, and steer clear of the locals, too.

I just need to know that I'll have somewhere to go and a job waiting for me if ISIAL gives me the boot.

LAB_RESULTS_TIDECRAWLER.PDF

#speculative ecology #spec bio #spec evo #speculative biology #worldbuilding #original work #scifi #writeblr #writerscommunity #writer #creative writing #writing #writblr #writers of tumblr #speculative zoology #geology #cartography #platina

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talonabraxas · 5 months

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"An esoteric cartographer accomplishes their work by developing a non-conceptual affinity with the ground. This allows aetheric imprints to accumulate as immersion into the ground is cultivated. The aethers are just the winds of the ground blowing through phenomena, no more and no less. What is ultimately realized is that the ground, the winds, the apparent phenomena, and the viewing of it are not separate and are beyond any condition of being or non-being. It is a dream with no dreamer.

The mapping can commence if the imprints can be transferred from the invisible to the visible domain. This requires the ability to glimpse the imprints in their invisible condition, which is the most difficult part of the process. This does not involve the imagination, as is popularly believed. It is a gift from the aethers to the cartographer and cannot be fabricated or imagined." -David Chaim Smith

“From the earliest developments of the Western Esoteric Tradition, a great deal of material has become vulnerable to fantasy and the excesses of the imagination. Ceremonialism tends to fall into a kind of “self esteem theatre” based on the glamour of its imagery, and metaphysics tends to fall into the absurdities of fanciful speculation. The allure of these excesses is precisely what the ego craves when the truth of its own inadequacies cannot be faced. A clear and honest connection with the infinite is impossible when these concerns are dominant. The proof is evident in contemporary “occulture,” which (more often than not) functions a fashion statement and a shadow of something lost long ago. Whether anything more profound remains depends upon those who work quietly beyond the occult mainstream. The efficacy of their efforts can only be judged over time in the spiritual lives of those who benefit from their endeavors.” —Esoteric Cartography

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umbrasdoodles · 2 months

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And now for a new iteration of the Midnightverse map, featuring a small sampler of the nations present! Notably I mostly wanted to avoid out-and out fantasy ethnostates even if some places have a large population of such and such species. (...excepting the Frog Council)

#map #fantasy #cartography #geography #speculative geography #fantasy map #countries #art #csp

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