The map as a story
Also said as Map logic, Geography as history, Fantasy map
Geography explains history: towns grow at river crossings, borders follow mountains, roads go around the marsh. A map that follows those reasons tells a story before anyone speaks.
Players read maps as they read faces. A town placed for no reason feels like a level marker, and one sitting on the only ford for 50 miles comes with its own wars, tolls and rich families.
Say it
“Put the towns where people would have settled: at the river mouth, at the one ford and at the mountain pass. Then the road between them explains itself, and so does why they hate each other.”
Where you’ve seen it
Hollow Knight makes its maps part of the place: you buy them from Cornifer, a cartographer you track down in each area, by following the trail of paper he leaves behind.
Not to be confused with level layout
Level layout is about how a space plays. A map as a story is about why anyone would have settled here at all.