#The basin

[michaeljclarke]

The never-ending churn of The Basin makes for a spot I am always awestruck with.

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[malerie-rose]

the basin

[pizzamanstan]

A Little Intro

Hi all! Now that I'm settling into this site a bit more and life has given me something of a break, I'm hoping to share some of my projects, which are primarily worldbuilding for D&D or just for fun. I'm pretty friendly and am trying my best to interact with others and would love to hear what you think of my work, as well as what you're working on! I've got a few different projects I'm working on or would like to work on, which I'll delve into a bit below the break.

Project 1: The Basin

The only project that is anything close to being actively used. This setting was used for a D&D campaign that's on an indefinite hiatus at the moment. The titular basin is a relatively dry area surrounded by mountains on three sides. A militaristic hobgoblin empire is the dominant power here. It currently defends its overstretched borders from lizardfolk and human raiders, and also deals with the plotting of its ancient foe, the remnants of an elven kingdom that once rivaled the Empire in power. Meanwhile, nearby powers outside the Basin attempt to take advantage of the preoccupied Empire.

I actually have a pretty decent map for this project at the moment!

Project 2: West-Marches Style

As the title implies, this project is the world for a West-Marches style of D&D campaign. It's currently in the early concept phase, so I'm figuring out exactly what is making the area so difficult to explore, and trying to define the main task that the players would have to tackle.

Project 3: "In-Depth"

This is the outlier project. I'll be making a world with too much detail totally from scratch, starting with the continents, including tectonic drift and all the geologic history that comes with that. It's not for D&D, just for my own enjoyment and it provides a neat opportunity to learn about a bunch of things I don't really know a lot about. At the moment, I'm really not sure of anything about this project beyond that. There will be magic involved, but I'm not exactly sure how.

I know this wasn't very specific about anything, but my hope is to explain a bit more through posts over the next few weeks. I'll mostly be talking about The Basin because that's the most developed project, but I might talk about the others if I develop them a bit more.

If you've read this far, thanks!! I'm really excited to share what I've been working on, and would love to hear what you have to say!

[grasshoppergeography]

Hey All,

I've been away for some time, as we've been working really hard on something quite exciting:

let me present to you the world's first ever global ocean drainage basin map that shows all permanent and temporary water flows on the planet.

This is quite big news, as far as I know this has never been done before. There are hundreds of hours of work in it (with the data + manual work as well) and it's quite a relief that they are all finished now.

But what is an ocean drainage basin map, I hear most of you asking? A couple of years ago I tried to find a map that shows which ocean does each of the world's rivers end up in. I was a bit surprised to see there is no map like that, so I just decided I'll make it myself - as usual :) Well, after realizing all the technical difficulties, I wasn't so surprised any more that it didn't exist. So yeah, it was quite a challenge but I am very happy with the result.

In addition to the global map I've created a set of 43 maps for different countries, states and continents, four versions for each: maps with white and black background, and a version for both with coloured oceans (aka polygons). Here's the global map with polygons:

I know from experience that maps can be great conversation starters, and I aim to make maps that are visually striking and can effectively deliver a message. With these ocean drainage basin maps the most important part was to make them easily understandable, so after you have seen one, the others all become effortless to interpret as well. Let me know how I did, I really appreciate any and all kinds of feedback.

Here are a few more from the set, I hope you too learn something new from them. I certainly did, and I am a geographer.

The greatest surprise with Europe is that its biggest river is all grey, as the Volga flows into the Caspian sea, therefore its basin counts as endorheic.

An endorheic basin is one which never reaches the ocean, mostly because it dries out in desert areas or ends up in lakes with no outflow. The biggest endorheic basin is the Caspian’s, but the area of the Great Basin in the US is also a good example of endorheic basins.

I love how the green of the Atlantic Ocean tangles together in the middle.

No, the dividing line is not at Cape Town, unfortunately.

I know these two colours weren’t the best choice for colourblind people and I sincerely apologize for that. I’ve been planning to make colourblind-friendly versions of my maps for ages now – still not sure when I get there, but I want you to know that it’s just moved up on my todo-list. A lot further up.

Minnesota is quite crazy with all that blue, right? Some other US states that are equally mind-blowing: North Dakota, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming. You can check them all out here.

Yes, most of the Peruvian waters drain into the Atlantic Ocean. Here are the maps of Peru, if you want to take a closer look.

Asia is amazingly colourful with lots of endorheic basins in the middle areas: deserts, the Himalayas and the Caspian sea are to blame. Also note how the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra are divided.

I mentioned earlier that I also made white versions of all maps. Here’s Australia with its vast deserts. If you're wondering about the weird lines in the middle: that’s the Simpson desert with its famous parallel sand dunes.

North America with white background and colourful oceans looks pretty neat, I think.

Finally, I made the drainage basin maps of the individual oceans: The Atlantic, the Arctic, the Indian and the Pacific. The Arctic is my favourite one.

I really hope you like my new maps, and that they will become as popular as my river basin maps. Those have already helped dozens of environmental NGOs to illustrate their important messages all around the world. It would be nice if these maps too could find their purpose.

[aperturecity]

would give anything to be there rn

[mapsontheweb]

River basins of Africa

[aimeekb]

The Milky Way rising above the mountains in Badwater Basin, Death Valley National Park

[cdt-toomi-vangrizzle]

The Great Basin

Directly after the high peaks of the Wind River Range, there is a lower elevation desert called the Basin. 3 miles into the Basin is a historical site called South Pass City. This was an old mining town that also hosted a local representative who helped to write the women’s suffrage amendment in Wyoming, making them the first state to allow women to vote. He had worked on the article with a woman in South Pass, Esther Hobart Morris, who later became the first female justice of the peace in the United States. It was interesting to walk through the old town and see the preserved buildings and photographs. There was also a noteworthy taxidermy of two bobcats fighting that was kept in the old saloon. After leaving South Pass City, we walked out into the barren landscape, and were delighted by the rising super moon on the horizon. In the Basin, we woke up before sunrise and hiked by moonlight until we got to see the sunrise. This allowed us to log long miles in the flat terrain. Other highlights of the Basin included the spring pipes for cow troughs from which we would collect water. Cold and clear, even in this desert! The cows were pretty cute too. Some of them were friendlier than others, and would approach the water trough while we were filling our bottles. We also saw wild ponies, pronghorns, and tiny horny toads. We were lucky to get strong wind while we were in the Basin, which kept us cool during the hot, sunny days with no trees around. At night, we would try to shelter from the wind by camping on the other side of the hill. We were able to sleep with just the bug netting of the tent, and not the rain fly, which allowed for beautiful views of the full moon. Our longest day was 34 miles. Midway through the Basin we stayed in an oil town and frequent highway stop called Rollins. The hotel rooms there were only $55 and quite clean, so we decided to take a “0“ there. That meant we took a full 24 hours off trail. We ate at the surprisingly good Thai restaurant in town, hit up the local watering hole, and watched the Harry Potter marathon on TV. Owen and I had the crazy idea to buy scooters from the local Walmart, because there was a 35 mile road walk alt to finish the Basin. So as an anniversary present to each other, we bought cheap scooters from Walmart. It was terrible trying to scooter uphill, so we would put our pack straps over the handlebar and push our packs up the hill. Then, when we got to a flat or downhill, we would put our packs back on and ride the scooters! One of the days that we were out on the road, we got caught in a very cold wind and rain storm. We were pushing our scooters uphill into the weather, and it was terrible! A man stopped to ask if we wanted a ride, and unfortunately we had to decline. But he did give us some clif bars. We also met a GDT biker named Jesse who was delighted by our scooter method. He was about 80 years old and spry as all hell! He took our picture, and told us that he is redefining brilliance as “taking advantage of the obvious”. On our scooters, we had leapfrogged with our friend No Chill, who was just walking. But, when we got to the trail again, we all walked together. It was amazing to be back in the woods and on a trail! While we were in that section, Owen and I had our celebratory anniversary dinner; we had packed out tortellinis, tomato paste, and a box of Merlot. It was special and fun. We walked out of the woods and got a ride down from the pass into the tiny town of Encampment. It took a long time to get a hitch, but eventually a guy pulled into the parking lot and obliged. He had a wood covered trailer hitched to his diesel truck, and we rode in the trailer cage. It was an interesting ride that smelled distinctly of diesel fumes.

There wasn’t a lot going on in Encampment. There was a tiny hiker box run out of ammo can attached to somebody’s fence. We also hit up an antique store, went to the visitor center, and went to a restaurant. That is where we got our cheapest non-fast food burger on trail. Everyone in Encampment was extremely nice! Three or four people offered to give us rides without us asking. We coordinated with one trail angel named Janice to give us a ride after we had resupplied. The options for buying groceries in Encampment were pretty dismal. We ended up buying all of our food for the next few days from a convenience store. We also rushed to the post office in order to forward some packages to the next town. Then Janice dropped us off back at the pass, and we were off!

[annabelle--cane]

love that ianthe finally Won and was so proud to do her big villain monologue and explain how actually she'd been the world's most specialest girl the whole time and she was the best and her beautiful charismatic much beloved sister was just an unworthy facade of a person and she was the final boss most important real deal. only to then immediately be upstaged completely by cytherea's villain turn. and then spend the last twenty pages of climactic denouement passed out on the ground.

[qiinamii]

kermit debt

[thatdisasterauthor]

ONE WEEK. ONE PRECEDENTED WEEK. THAT IS ALL I WANT.

Anyways. Hope everyone is okay. I haven’t seen any causes for this discussed yet, and it is probably way too early to speculate, but Yellowstone itself is NOT erupting. There is no reason to panic.

[tonythr]

A tribute to my favorite quote from Hollow Knight. My biggest finished artwork so far

[pizzamanstan]

The Nations of the Basin: Part 2

Part 1 - Part 3

Below the cut is a brief introduction to two more of the major nations in my D&D campaign. Tomorrow I'll start introducing the minor nations.

The Lizardfolk

Lying in the deserts of the Basin, no one is exactly sure when the lizardfolk appeared or where they came from, though they claim to have been formed from the sand itself by their four dragon-gods; Ekhez, Talroz, Olkan, and Kheilki. For as long as the lizardfolk have been around, they have ambushed caravans that enter the desert and harassed the Empire as it encroached on their territory. But there is yet another group of lizardfolk, as swimming throughout the rivers of the Basin are the crocodile-folk, followers of their goddess Sthonis.

Population: ~240k. Lizardfolk, Dragonblessed

Faiths: Draconic Pantheon

Languages: Common, Draconic

The lizardfolk are quite meritocratic, one’s worth is determined how well one can support themselves and those they hold close. But some lizardfolk have the advantage of being blessed by their dragon-gods, and these long-lived dragonblessed take leading roles in their clan and provide some measure of continuity for the oft-short-lived lizardfolk. Each clan of lizardfolk has a slightly different culture: the crystal lizardfolk are wise and diplomatic, the bronze lizardfolk militaristic and honorable, the brass lizardfolk sociable and egalitarian, the gold lizardfolk secretive and devout, and the turquoise crocodile-folk individualistic and temperamental.

The Human Tribes

Entering the Basin in significant numbers a bit over a century ago, the twelve human tribes are each descended from a great individual and their followers who took part in a failed rebellion among their homeland to the southeast. The tribes have quickly adapted to life in the Basin, creating permanent settlements in the highlands of the southeast, and otherwise living a nomadic lifestyle. Six of the twelve tribes are the Athir, Bakar, Erdemir, Farida, Kamil, and Zuhr.

Population: ~350k. Human

Faiths: Ancestor Worship

Languages: Common, Human

Each of the tribes is divided further into clans, which are composed of about a dozen families. These clans are the main unit that humans travel in. A tribal meeting between all the clans in a tribe might occur once every five years, or if some event requires an emergency meeting. Every 20 years, a Grand Council is convened between all tribes, with the vast majority of the nomadic human population in attendance. Lingering inter-tribal conflicts are often brought to the forefront during the Council. However, a custom of ritualized dueling keeps most conflicts contained, with little risk of significant escalation to full blown war.

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Iriartea deltoidea in the Amazon basin in Ecuador.

(Image credit: geneward2 via Getty Images)

[snakepyre]

Dredge location postcards by Alex Ritchie, Creative Director of DREDGE

[amararala]

The research outpost

Hermittober #7 - Shimmer