I'm very interested in the coastal terra around Maidenpool, since I've been working on the Bay of Crabs to the north (also pinging
Nomorefun_ here, since he's been doing work to the south). I'd like us all to be consistent as far as realism is concerned. Some of this probably merits its own thread, but I'll mention it here first so you can keep it in mind when starting terraforming.
Like Dutch said, the Bay of Crabs is tidal, and moreover, seems to have a pretty large tidal range - with the ebb and flow of the tides creating a marsh as inland as the Saltpans area. This is moreso than many of the coasts around our current map, which have very small beaches at most. However, this actually seems plausible from the research I've done - open bays and estuaries often act as geographical funnels, amplifying tides, whereas enclosed bays and seas often disperse tides. This explanation also seems to accord with some of the other choices we've made around the map: Uffering having large tidal flats, Blackwater Bay (a sheltered bay) having a rather small tidal range, etc. Nonetheless, it would be nice to map out the tidal ranges of Westeros so we can be a bit more consistent with it.
Here's a map of Earth's tidal ranges for reference.
In my work at Wickenden so far, I've tried to represent a tidal range of about 4-5 blocks (i.e., 4-5 meters). For comparison: this is about the tidal range of Cape Cod, MA (one of my terra insps). The largest tidal range in the world is in the Bay of Fundy, about 13 meters. The world average is about 1 meter.
As far as the instantaneous tide itself, I've tried to represent Wickenden as being just about mid-tide, as I thought it would be easiest to enforce consistency if I avoid extremes in either direction. Tides don't need to be globally consistent around the whole map (think of them as macroscopic waves), but they should be locally consistent - so everyone working in the Bay of Crabs should take care to represent the same tidal range and the same instantaneous tide.
The main implications for Maidenpool: when creating the harbor, you should take care to reflect the tidal range somehow. Your docks should be built to be above the water at high tide (slightly above that to safeguard from storms, actually - though less of an issue if you have a harbour with a breakwater). Since the tide is at mid-tide, there should be a ~2-3 block gap between your docks and the water/boat level. I recommend looking into IRL harbours in areas with larger tidal ranges. Secondly, for whoever does the wetlands, these should also be depicted around mid-tide. I found a nice GIF of the tidal range in a salt marsh
here (this is from the Bay of Fundy, so the variation in the MP wetlands would be less extreme). The salt marsh I've created at /warp emotesaltmarsh shows one at low tide.
As far as the coast itself (other than the wetlands), what exactly are you intending? To the NorthEast, I've been creating some more elaborate coastal dune landscape. My reasoning is that the area Wickenden is built over would be largely glacial sediment left over from glaciers to the north, which would get eroded by storms, waves, and tides from the bay. Northwestern coastal winds would blow the sand and create parabolic dunes. To the SouthEast, near Dyre Den, the beaches would probably be a bit muddier and the coast more vegetated (so not as much dune landscape) due to the rainer micro-climate of the Cracklaw peninsula, but should still show the tidal range mentioned above. I believe this is what
Nomorefun_ is planning.
This still leaves the areas to the West, near Maidenpool and Saltpans. In their current state, these are unrealistic as they don't show the tidal variation necessary to create the wetlands west of Maidenpool. The Saltpans coast should probably be somewhat marshy as well, though this is beyond the scope of your project obviously. Something that's bothered me about the current wetlands is how the border seems so "clean", despite a lot of the land around MP and the wetlands being similarly flat. Trying to find maps for the wetlands though, I did find
something rather similar in the Scheldt Estuary. The border around the wetlands seems to be manmade to make way for agriculture. Something similar might work for around Maidenpool - a manmade coast/levee with some mud flats (shown at mid-tide) at the base, transitioning to the east to the muddier natural beaches along Cracklaw. This would also give a nice point of transition to the wetlands rather than the current tree barrier.
Anyways, I'm happy to help with the wetlands/salt marsh to the extent that I can, when you get to that point. It's one of my favorite ecosystems, and I've done a lot of hiking in them, so I know them pretty well and have lots of inspiration images.
