Building The Archaeological Remains Part II

Of course, at this stage we’re not advanced enough to have modern creatures. This is an intermediate stage. Still, it’s a place to start giving serious thought to creatures, flora, and fauna.

Is that it?

We’re not done yet. These landmasses are still shifting and changing. The image shows where the current plate boundaries (in red) are and what direction they’re traveling in. You might notice as well that there are more plates now than there were originally. I’ve added plates in the ocean in spots where things have been pulling apart for large distances. This is typically what happens on a planet. New ocean floor seeps up out of large cracks in the foundations.

After moving things around a bit more, we get what you see here. There are more underwater mountains in new areas, which might make navigation off those shores treacherous. More inland waterways are opened up, one river to the NW and a large lake to the SE.

What does all this change do?

Even though we didn’t rip any continents apart this time, we did change the environment in some areas. Ocean life that needs the depths will vacate areas where mountains are building. Creatures that need non-salt water will survive better closer to drinkable water sources such as rivers and lakes. Bug life thrives in marshy areas, so any land that raises into mountains becomes less buzzing and stinging, not to mention that creatures that need marshes will migrate to areas that aren’t rising out of the waters.

All of this creature migration creates a number of issues. Many animals try to maintain a certain amount of territory. There is also the issue of food. If many marsh plant eaters suddenly pack into a shrinking marsh area because the higher ground is not suitable for them, then some species may die out or at the very least there will be a change in overall population. Get too many predators packed together and you may end up with a food shortage, or fights between the creatures as they press for territory or have other interspecies conflicts.

More mountains mean more room though for creatures that don’t thrive in the marshes. The higher a species thrives, the more exclusive a territory it gets. So, some will adapt to become better suited to less crowded climes. This leads to a greater variety in types of creatures in your world.

The weather patterns even

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