Hand-drawn Draft Map

Doing more research tonight on climate and thinking more about geography/geology. I used the handy OGF Scale Helper to find some interesting/inspirational places in the real world. Those images gave me a very broad idea of what I was thinking for each region. You kind of have to use your imagination as some of the real world features would be mirrored or oriented differently on my map. I would 10/10 recommend using the scale helper to really get a sense of how big your space is, or if you're not mapping on OGF use some sort of real-life barometer, because I definitely thought my country was smaller than it really is!

Region 1 & 2: Upper Third

I'm thinking since the mountain range is running NW>SE, that the northern part of my country will be a coastal part of the range, which glacial valleys/fjords and rocky islands. The mountains would gradually move away from the coastline as you travel south so you would get more land in the glacial valleys and some nice river plains, for which I took inspiration from the Vancouver, BC and northern Washington, U.S. areas.

Regions 3 & 4: Middle Third

The middle third is still very much up in the air but I know as the mountains get father away I want to have sort of gradual formation of a big river valley and estuary, sort of thing. This definitely needs some more ironing out, but I used the Anchorage/Denali glacial valley as inspiration, as well as the coastal cities of Stockholm and Oslo.

Regions 5 & 6: Lower Third

I'm so excited to have a peninsula because I'd love for it to be inspired by the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, U.S.A. The mountains won't be as high I think because I'm still figuring out the geology of mountains being there in the first place. I'm still experimenting but I'd like to have some islands off that inner edge of the peninsula, kind of like the interior of Puget Sound. The skinny "bridge" between the main body of the country and the peninsula will probably be just low lying coastline, sort of like the outer coast of WA and Oregon? Maybe some nice beaches for my future citizens to relax on.

Now putting it all together on paper for the first (ish) time, I drew this little map. Ignore the letters for now:

If you are very good at interpreting scribbles you might be able to make out what's going on here. If not, you'll just have to wait until next time.