FISTBUMP THE MAP
WORLD BUILDING AS A NOOB
One does not simply make a world without a map
Welcome back, traveller. This post is a bit of a Behind the Scenes of how I made a map without wanting to. It’s pretty self explanatory that any world, especially newly created fantasy ones such as Fistbump the Sky, needs a map, or a few of them. I used to draw maps all the time as a kid. However, I simply could not have been bothered this time around. I wanted the world to be a cake from the beginning, only it was originally going to be one of those three layered ones you see at weddings. Drawing a realistic map is tricky enough as it is, but how do you draw one for a single location split into three layers and six surfaces? I know, I scrapped the idea within a week.
If you’re as obsessed with world building as I am, you might have heard tips and tricks from campaigners (Dungeons and Dragons players) or hears about sites like World Anvil. But when it comes to maps for written content, you’re going to have to do it yourself. Especially if it’s Sci-Fi or Fantasy. But here comes the next thing that stopped me from drawing my own map: Hard world building vs. Soft world building.
Hard world building vs. Soft world building
This refers, in the absolute simplest of terms, to the strictness of your created world. Worlds with already established laws and ways of life use hard world building, while those where the world order is discovered by the readers as they go along use soft world building. Take, for instance, J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” Here you have a clear hierarchy and political system. You can already guess where the characters might get their supplies or who they follow in times of war. Typical, established hard world building. The opposite would be any of the Studio Ghibli films, such as “Spirited Away.” You understand the just of how the world functions and are open to accepting whatever new information you receive. Yet, if someone asks you to give them directions, or what the religions are, could you do it? That, my friend, is soft world building. There’s a bunch of videos on this topic, though I would definitely recommend those of Hello Future Me.
Fistbump the Sky has its laws and religions, but it most definitely falls in the category of soft world building. This can become problematic if you focus on adventure stories and need to keep the locations mentioned the same throughout multiple books. So, yay me, I needed to draw a map. Or did I?
That’s right, I used the map of planet Earth. The first thing I did was reverse it, so that there would be water where there’s land and land where there’s water. Being born and raised in Sub-Saharan Africa, I simply didn’t know what to do with all that water. It had to go. I then divided the large (now) land mass into different territories. Then discarded about half of them as there were simply too many.
This worked wonderfully! Being on a cake, the territories would naturally have to be joined in some way and a reversed world map gave me just that. Finally, the water was also divided into different oceans, each with its own characteristics and, dare I say, personality. That’s when I started building.
Most fantasy world maps tend to have towns and roads built around, or from, a central city. I decided to use the oceans instead, not only for coming up with terrains but creatures, too. Territories near the Eastern Ocean would be drier with creatures suffering memory loss. Territories surrounding the Southern Ocean were the opposite as its the only ocean with drinkable water, meaning lush lands and energetic folk. That’s it. That’s how I made a world without having to make one from scratch. I’m still relatively new to all of this, but I’m learning as I go along. Most importantly, I’m happy.
So, if you have a passion project you’ve been wanting to work on or a world waiting to be built, then do it. Trust me, you’ll feel great at the end. Even if the results were not what we expected, these projects allow us to tap into our truest of human nature - curiosity and the thrill of creation.