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Concept
Fantasy cartography
Summary
Fantasy cartography, fictional map-making, or geofiction is a type of map design that visually presents an imaginary world or concept, or represents a real-world geography in a fantastic style. Fantasy cartography usually manifests from worldbuilding and often corresponds to narratives within the fantasy and science fiction genres. Stefan Ekman says that, "a [regular] map re-presents what is already there; a fictional map is often primary – to create the map means, largely, to create the world of the map."
Whilst cartographic fantasy has been popularized by novels of these genres it has also become a standalone hobby and artistic pursuit. Cartographic fantasy has its historic origins in mythology, philosophy, literature and natural sciences. Although typically geographical, cartographic fantasy can include planetary, galactic, and cosmological maps; conceptual maps; and speculative maps. Fantasy maps are created and presented across different media such as books, television shows, movies, video games, tabletop games, and websites; and are characterized by aesthetics, themes and styles associated with the world or concept they are portraying. The increased popularity of geofiction and worldbuilding has led to and been supported by the emergence of design programs tailored to creative cartographers.
The roots of the history of fantasy cartography are shared with the independent histories of both cartography and fantasy as well as the general history of the visualization of ideas.
Cartographers of the Middle Ages did not see their profession as purely making accurate representations of geography. Often their maps were crafted as much as works of art as tools for navigating, incorporating imagery and symbolism from mythology, folklore and fantasy stories.
An early example of cartography created without intending to present a geographical reality is Dante's Hell. By the late fifteenth century, numerous illustrations inspired by Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy had been published based on descriptions from the text.
Official source
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