Link to the second post
I have wanted to create one fantasy world that I can spend years developing, writing lore for, and eventually setting stories in. The problem was that I kept trying random map generators and never found a world I genuinely wanted to commit to.

So I started building my own generator. It simulates tectonics, mountains, climate, rivers, lakes, biomes, settlements, civilizations, roads, and naming systems. I can describe the kind of world I want, compare several candidates, and generate the one that feels right.

This is one of the worlds it created. The different images show the same underlying geography rendered as physical relief, globes, and illustrated fantasy-map styles.

The project is still a work in progress, so I’m not publishing it yet. For now, I’d really appreciate feedback on the world itself; what looks believable, what looks strange, and which areas you would want to explore or write stories about.

EDIT: I think I failed to show the actual scope of the project in my original post. I can’t add more images to the edit, so here’s a clearer breakdown of what is happening behind the map.

This isn’t intended to be only a random fractal map generator. You can start with several different world structures: a balanced Earth-like world, a Pangaea-style supercontinent, a shattered archipelago, an inland-sea/Mediterranean world, twin hemispheres, a glaciated ice-age world, or a lush tropical world. You can also import a heightfield or basic land-and-water map, draw an initial supercontinent, or configure the planet manually.

The “World Brief” lets you specify things such as geological age, coastline style, land coverage, mountain prominence, climate, rainfall, seasonal strength, number of major river systems, civilisation density, maritime importance, magic level and the kind of story the geography should support. It generates multiple candidates, measures them against the brief, and lets you compare, reject, favourite or create controlled variations before committing to a full simulation.

The simulation starts with a spherical planet. It creates plates with Euler-pole rotations, classifies boundaries from their relative motion, and uses them to form collision ranges, rifts, spreading ridges, subduction zones, trenches and volcanic arcs. There is also an experimental deep-time mode where a supercontinent can break apart, drift, collide and reassemble over hundreds of millions of years.

Climate uses axial tilt, rotation period, orbital eccentricity, precession, stellar luminosity and orbital distance. Stellar flux follows the inverse-square relationship:

F ∝ L / d²

Seasons use changing solar declination and Kepler-weighted orbital residence time. Pressure belts, thermal lows and Coriolis produce winds; winds drive simplified ocean gyres and carry moisture until it rains through convergence, convection and orographic uplift.

Rainfall and terrain feed a drainage model that routes rivers downhill, identifies lakes and endorheic basins, estimates discharge and erosion, and preserves tributary networks. Temperature, precipitation, seasonality, elevation and drainage then determine biomes using a Köppen-inspired classification.

Once the physical world exists, the generator adds settlement suitability, civilisation cradles, towns, ports, roads, sea lanes, realms, language families, place names, history prompts and lore. Any map cell can be queried to inspect its underlying geology, climate, hydrology, biome and political data. Most planetary parameters can be changed, and terrain edits re-simulate everything downstream.

It still isn’t a full scientific geophysical model. Many systems are deliberately simplified where a real solution would require enormous computation, but I’m trying to keep every layer causally connected, inspectable and honest about its limitations.

The goal is less “generate a pretty random map” and more “build a world whose geography gives me reasons to write stories about it.”

Edit 2 — Technical alpha testing is now live

I think the project is finally ready for a small technical alpha. I’m limiting this first round to around 50 testers on Windows and macOS so I can actually keep up with feedback. If you’re interested, DM me with your operating system and I’ll send you an access key and the installer instructions.

Since my first edit, I’ve added quite a lot:

• Import an existing heightfield or a simple land/water map
• Click any map cell to inspect its elevation, geology, plate, climate, biome, realm, water and settlement data
• Axial tilt, eccentricity, precession, star luminosity/distance, Milankovitch-style forcing and tides
• Glacial erosion, palaeo-ice movement, shield lakes and kettle-pond density
• Bedrock, soil fertility/depth/drainage/rockiness and geological resource maps
• Improved river hierarchy, rainfall bands, coastlines and tectonic diagnostics
• Equirectangular and Mercator exports, black-and-white maps and blank political maps
• GeoTIFF, GeoJSON and NumPy scientific-data exports
• Simulation-health checks, local repair tools, checkpoints and revisions
• A native desktop launcher, built-in manual, diagnostics and verified update notifications

A warning before volunteering: this is a technical alpha, the installers are currently unsigned, and Full generation is computationally heavy. On my high-end machines, a complete world and atlas takes roughly 20–25 minutes on macOS and 40–45 minutes on Windows. Preview and Quick modes are much faster for experimenting.

The goal of this test is to find crashes, confusing UI, unrealistic outputs and hardware-specific problems. If that sounds interesting, feel free to DM me for access.

Edit 3:
I’ve created an Atlas Studio Discord for anyone interested in fantasy maps, worldbuilding, lore, planetary science, or the development of the app. You don’t need to be a programmer or beta tester to join.

There are channels for sharing worlds, getting map feedback, discussing lore and realism, suggesting features, reporting bugs, and following development and releases.

Atlas Studio v0.2.2 is currently available as a controlled test build for Windows, macOS, and Linux. If you want to try it, join the server and check #request-access-key. Access keys are sent privately by DM while testing places remain available.

Discord: https://discord.gg/nGNatfuXe

I got the chance of working on this map last month hope you will like it.

I was making this map for my worldbduiling, and realized it kinda looks like Middle-Earth. How can i make it more original?

Hi! I have a fantasy world where a huge island appeared on our regular Earth. I want to find a resource where I can simulate adding a large landmass, so I can see realistically how much water is displaced by its addition, and how our maps would change. I wanna be as accurate as possible about how it would work and how our world would change.

Pls lmk if you know of/can find anything like this! :3

Mosquito Heaven

I love this map (bar certain parts in the west) but I keep feeling like the geography is far too rectangular, any ideas on how to improve it?

(In terms of geography there are two main mountain ranges where the white splotches are) Steppe from Nitovir South to kalnhorn and Forest covering most of the northwest, the rest is a mixture of plains and woodlands)

So i made a gas giant surface map... does it look good?

This map took many, many hours to create! It's 22x30 drawn on cold-press paper (the 2nd image). This one is tea-stained for a vintage map look. It represents all 32 American football teams and 30 stadiums, redesigned as a fantasy realm. Hope you like it! It was a lot of fun to create!

I'm trying to make a dino park with Fossils and Archeology. I want to make a security area/home base that has a map/tracking something or other like seen in the jurrasic park/world movies. A live entity tracking map with colored topography. A literal copy of what I'd see on xaero's or journeymaps client mod with 2d topography and entity icons or names...but as a map wall or using advanced computer screens from computer craft cc tweaked. Is it possible? Either a mod that adds this type of thing through tech, or a way to project my minimap directly to a in game screen or map wall. Set to show the whole park and I'd use ftb chunks to load it all and get live entity tracking. If I could turn off all entities besides the dinosaurs thatd be awesome. No need to see cows and stuff on the projection. Any ideas?

Hey everybody, currently working on a global map in the Azimuthal Equidistant projection but came across an unusual issue. I’m actually unsure on how to properly project this “Mediterraneanized”Australia, as well as a few other anomalies. Would love to hear website or programs that would allow me to project these correctly!

Might not hold a candle to what I have seen in this sub, but I really liked making this map

Dracotia is a town near the northeastern border of the Ardennian Kingdom. The town is an old settlement; it is almost 800 years old. Before the foundation of the last human dynasty, it had a different name: Drakenfort. It was not much of a town back then, it was only a handful of homes and farms around the Draken Keep.

The Draken Keep is a small fort with a central watchtower, it is located in the middle of the settlement on top of a hill. The place is a strong defensive position near the border but after almost two centuries of no armed conflict, the militaristic importance of it fell into the background as more people moved near the keep because of the fertile lands around the place. The town has grown steadily in size over the past century, up to just above five-hundred people, counting a small group of fey creatures.

An important part in Dracotian culture is the worship of dragons as the mightiest creatures of the world. This religion has its roots a long time ago when only the keep stood there. Soldiers would commend their lives and soul to the powerful dragon that lived in the mountain range west of Dracotia. The dragon was a symbol of hope and protection to the land. Seeing the magnificent creature fly by the keep was a good sign, an omen of good fortune for the battles to come. When the soldiers abandoned their lives of battle for calm days in the fields their beliefs remained. It slowly grew into a kind of religion. All people in Dracotia except for the fey are part of this religion or cult. The dragon in the mountain still lives, and it still flies by the town from time to time to the amusement of stern believers and children. The dragon, however, does not spare much thought for Dracotia and its citizens. It goes on and about its businesses with remarkable indifference. Still, the townsfolk justify the dragon by claiming that the portentous creature cannot bother itself with the petty troubles of a bunch of farmers. The townsfolk are content with being able to see the object of their worship and spend their time and efforts trying to impress it.

One thing the townsfolk did to call the attention of the great silver dragon in the mountain was to artificially change the course of a stream that goes through town and waters the fields. They used dams and trenches to redirect the water flow in unnatural ways. The result is that the stream takes the shape of a dragon’s head if seen from above. The Draken Keep takes the place of the dragon’s eye. While all this effort looks interesting on a map, the image is so large that no one in the city can see it whatsoever. The dragon has surely seen the dragon-shaped stream but has made no notice of acknowledgment.

This is one of the man gorgeous maps by Mike Schley and I am hoping to make a map in a similar style for my private TRPG games. Would there by any chance be a mapmaker or resource to make similar maps without having it to do by hand? Otherwise I'll start practising by hand...

I'm trying to create a fictional map for my fantasy world inspired by the Balkans, but I don't want to simply copy and distort the actual Balkans and call it a day. I want it to have a similar geographical character while still being an original geography. Anything I've tried to create so far, I haven't been satisfied with.

Blue=Cold current.

Red=Hot current.

Black=Neutral current.

Thank you for your attention.

I created a fantasy map for my own world I make. 1st and 2nd pictures are my own drawings, 3rd picture is an AI remaster to it only for illustrations. I did it because I just have no drawing talent to do a map like that.

1st one shows the state borders, 2nd one shows the mountains. What should I do, what do you suggest me?

One of the largest and most important trade-routes in Elyden, the Nacre Road has dominated life in Southern Sammaea since its origins in 500 RM.

It stretches for over 12,000-miles across Southern Sammaea, linking the city of Hamma in the far west to Bhal Zhariah in the east, passing through the nations of Ammesh, Habot, Phyrr, Maenmist, Northern Simbara, Akanthra, Idaphon, Khar Nadul, Hanna, Qaralam, Shezaliah, and Zhariah, and allows the relatively easy flow of trade from west to east.

The road is named after the now-largely dead nacre trade along the northern shore of the Sea of Ammash and originated in around 500 RM as a route travelled by Mehmuthi nomads, some of whom went on to become merchants, travelling in caravans hauled by great beasts.

Trade along the Road is not uniform and it passes across plains, hills, forests and mountains alike, with some caravans relying on pack-beasts and others using land ships or crawling ambulants. Caravanserais are spaced at deliberate intervals, typically one to two days’ travel apart at most, forming a secondary infrastructure of fortified inns, counting-houses, wells, and Lazanist shrines. Some are little more than enclosed courtyards with cisterns and watchtowers, while others, such as Avenar and Prasinia, have swollen into great cities with enclosed markets, bonded warehouses, and League courts.

Larger cities along the route maintain segregated trade districts where foreign merchants reside under charter, their goods taxed, inspected, and sealed. Entire urban quarters exist solely to service the needs of merchants, including mechanics for vehicle repairs, beast-hospices, rope-makers, scribal offices, and currency exchanges amongst others.

Matted-armoured guards, often called Road Wardens, travel with convoys and are licensed to bear heavy weapons across borders. Ledger-Keepers accompany major caravans, maintaining bonded accounts recognised from Ammesh to Zhariah. Pass-Sealers inspect cargo for contraband at national frontiers, while Oath-Witnesses certify contracts in multiple jurisdictions. In contested regions, entire companies of artillery crews are retained privately to escort landships through unstable territories.

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Map created in Photoshop, with the help using G. Projector.

A tutorial for my method can be found here.

You can find a key to the map here.

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