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The biggest mistake I see on fantasy maps is rivers that split apart on flat ground.
Rivers almost never diverge unless they're in a delta near the coast, but I keep seeing them fork inland like some kind of highway interchange. If you want your map to look believable, just let the rivers merge together instead. Has anyone else noticed this bugging them too?
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beth_baker694mo ago
YES! It drives me absolutely nuts. Every time I see a river splitting in the middle of a continent I just want to yell at the map. Like where is the water even going? It doesn't work like that. And the worst part is when people do it just to make their map look more interesting or complex. I've totally caught myself staring at a map and completely losing focus because a river forks out of nowhere for no reason. Just let the water flow downhill people!
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sam_rivera4mo ago
Actually river bifurcations do happen in real life, theyre just way less common than maps show. Theres a spot in Canada where the Columbia River splits and part of it drains into the Pacific while the other part goes to the Arctic Ocean through the Fraser. But yeah, most maps overdo it for sure, making rivers fork like crazy when really it takes some super specific geography for that to work.
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