Here on Earth, the European-descended cultures think of China, Japan, and that general geographic area as "the East" or "the Orient," even if, for example, folks on the West Coast of North America might happen to be closer by heading west. It's a cultural quirk inherited from centuries of the land trade heading east across Eurasia.
But on Golarion? If you head east from Avistan, you cross into Casmaron... which is a central- and south-Asia analog, but not east. As far as I can tell from the various sources -- and this may be wrong -- you'll hit an ocean before you get to Tian Xia. The main land route from Avistan heads north over the Crown of the World.
Tian Xia has been referred to as "the east," but is that really how the average Avistanian (Avistanner?) would think of the continent? "The north" isn't very accurate at all, but I can't think of a better term...
Here on Earth, the European-descended cultures think of China, Japan, and that general geographic area as "the East" or "the Orient," even if, for example, folks on the West Coast of North America might happen to be closer by heading west.
Europe is right in the middle. The Prime Meridian is right there. So by definition, Asia IS in the east.
But on Golarion? If you head east from Avistan, you cross into Casmaron... which is a central- and south-Asia analog, but not east.
Of course, it is east. You have to go east from the inner sea to go there.
As far as I can tell from the various sources -- and this may be wrong -- you'll hit an ocean before you get to Tian Xia.
There's those funny things they have for that. Ship! That's the word ;-P
The main land route from Avistan heads north over the Crown of the World.
I't still east. You think people from Avistan and Garund are stupid? You insulting them? Tell that to their face, man!
They can tell real direction from the way you'd have to walk, and know about those ships, too. Well, not those demagogues from Andoran. All they know is which way the wind is blowing. But most of the rest...
Tian Xia has been referred to as "the east," but is that really how the average Avistanian (Avistanner?) would think of the continent? "The north" isn't very accurate at all, but I can't think of a better term...
It's east. And it's farther away than Casmaron. Let's just call it Far East.
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Well in order to answer this question what we realy need is a global map of Golaron. Then it would make it quite clear how trade ideas and philosophies and relions would travel around the globe.
Oh by the way I just went to the Silk road exhibit in the American Museum of Natural History in NY. It was a fantastic exhibit. I got to see a water clock. I got to play with an astrolabe Yeah!
Do you think there is any chance such a gobal map might be commissioned if it hasn’t made it off a diner napkin? Or released if it has made it to someone’s tablet of graphpaper?
Are there any pathfinder Chronicles issues slated to give us a peek at Quadira, Vuldra and Tina shen?
thanks
Well in order to answer this question what we realy need is a global map of Golaron. Then it would make it quite clear how trade ideas and philosophies and relions would travel around the globe.
Oh by the way I just went to the Silk road exhibit in the American Museum of Natural History in NY. It was a fantastic exhibit. I got to see a water clock. I got to play with an astrolabe Yeah!
With some extrapolation - not hard in a fantasy universe - I think the Silk Road might become the Silk Sail Road in Golarion. An ocean between merely enhances possibilities.
Put differently, the region known collectively as "the Orient" in our Western society existed with little outside influence from other cultures. It could easily have a great gulf of water between it and another culture.
Here on Earth, the European-descended cultures think of China, Japan, and that general geographic area as "the East" or "the Orient," even if, for example, folks on the West Coast of North America might happen to be closer by heading west.Europe is right in the middle. The Prime Meridian is right there. So by definition, Asia IS in the east.
Which is sort of the point. North and South have somewhat objective referents. East and West are based on wherever the speaker happens to be sitting and opts to declare the Prime Meridian. Many others were put forward before the present one became the convention.
It doesn't make a lot of sense for a person sitting in California to call Japan and Korea the Far East. They're more like the Far West. I've been told that in India, the area of the Arabian Peninsula is the Near West, whereas in Europe it's the Near East or Middle East. The East Indies are to the northwest of Australia.
We inherit the usages that come with our cultural baggage, which is largely European. Golarion wouldn't necessarily have the same baggage, since it's not. (Though Avistan and Garund are geographic and cultural analogs for Europe and Africa, with Casmaron being a big hunk of Asia off to the side.) But then the people writing it and the people buying the books do have that cultural baggage and it would consume a great deal of word count and effort to come up with alternatives, which would be for little gain for Paizo. (Do we really need a White Wolf style glossary in the front of every book?)
Could be a fun fan project, though.
To be honest, at some point I'd love to see a curveball thrown in with something that doesn't have any direct cultural analog, or something inspired by something insanely obscure and then turned on its head (random example being a moche* infused south-east asian style culture). But I like wierd stuff. Goes with being a big planar nut. :D
*(pre-columbian chilean culture who worshipped "The Beheader" as a primary deity)
To be honest, at some point I'd love to see a curveball thrown in with something that doesn't have any direct cultural analog, or something inspired by something insanely obscure and then turned on its head (random example being a moche* infused south-east asian style culture). But I like wierd stuff. Goes with being a big planar nut. :D
The Inca Empire actually had a serious political problem in the overpopulation of mummies. Every emperor that died was mummified and treated more or less as still alive. So he had a big house, his family lived it up and played politics, he was wheeled out for big events. New emperors could only come from these families, but each time one of them became emperor, that started a new one. Since the mummies were not treated as dead, but rather immortal, they retained all their cool imperial property.
The monopolization of resources by the mummies, and their occupation of scarce good land, were major problems for any new emperor getting started even aside the fact that they were institutionalized political rivals. As Charles C. Mann put it: "Inka society had a serious mummy problem."
(Don't be misled by the title of the book like I was for a year or so after first seeing it. This isn't the guy who thinks that the Chinese beat Columbus, started the Renaissance, and probably as soon as his latest royalties taper off, landed on the moon.)
When I read about this I shared it with a friend who insisted it should be done with dwarves. :) Similar scarce space restrictions, similar environment, weird enough that most people wouldn't immediately recognize it, and the concept is compatible with enough fantasy tropes (immortality, undead [or not], scheming political houses) that it could fit in just about anywhere.
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To be honest, at some point I'd love to see a curveball thrown in with something that doesn't have any direct cultural analog, or something inspired by something insanely obscure and then turned on its head (random example being a moche* infused south-east asian style culture). But I like wierd stuff. Goes with being a big planar nut. :D
*(pre-columbian chilean culture who worshipped "The Beheader" as a primary deity)
Nex and Hermea are without any real world culture analogs (OK, Nex is an "undead rule, mortals tremble" shtick, but Hermea is something geniuinely new).
I love weird stuff but I'm also aware that full on weirdness doesn't sell that great (Spelljammer, anyone ?).
I love weird stuff but I'm also aware that full on weirdness doesn't sell that great (Spelljammer, anyone ?).
I loved it, and am still at collecting the stuff (got most of it by now). I also loved the tongue-in-cheek and somewhat silly Top Ballista for basic D&D (one of those Creature Crucible books, similar to the Gazetteer series). But, yeah, weird stuff is not a big seller. I´d love seeing common stereotypes broken by new and perhaps a little weird ideas.
Stefan
Which is sort of the point. North and South have somewhat objective referents. East and West are based on wherever the speaker happens to be sitting and opts to declare the Prime Meridian. Many others were put forward before the present one became the convention.
Good, so we just need a similar point of reference for Golarion.
Since the whole setting is primarily about the Inner Sea Region, it makes perfect sense to call that "The Middle". Absalom is even called City at the Centre of the World. That's your Prime Meridian right there. Azlant was the near west, arcadia is the far west. Casmaron is the near east, Tian Xia the far east.
We inherit the usages that come with our cultural baggage, which is largely European. Golarion wouldn't necessarily have the same baggage, since it's not.
I point again to The City at the Centre of the World. That's one giant hunk of baggage right there.
(Though Avistan and Garund are geographic and cultural analogs for Europe and Africa, with Casmaron being a big hunk of Asia off to the side.)
Casmaron is only half of Asia. Tian Xia is the rest. That's one of the little differences between Golarion and Earth: Asia is two continents!
But then the people writing it and the people buying the books do have that cultural baggage and it would consume a great deal of word count and effort to come up with alternatives, which would be for little gain for Paizo.
Agreed. Hence the focus on the Inner Sea, and all the other similarities. No use in having changes like this when they don't really add anything.
Therefore, Asian flavoured countries count as "The East".
On a related manner, the days are 24 hours long, there's 30 of them to a month, and 12 months to a year. And seven days in a week. And four seasons a year. Unless you have some really good ideas (like the seasons in Song of Ice and Fire), you gain nothing but confusion if you change stuff like that. You have people forever mixing things up if you change that stuff.
On a related manner, the days are 24 hours long, there's 30 of them to a month, and 12 months to a year. And seven days in a week. And four seasons a year. Unless you have some really good ideas (like the seasons in Song of Ice and Fire), you gain nothing but confusion if you change stuff like...
And don't forget that the planet that is Golarion rotates the same direction as Earth and travels around it's sun the same direction as Earth, so the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
By the way, is Absalom supposed to be the Golarion equivalent of Rome, because of it being the city at the center of the world and the "all roads lead to Rome" saying? Or is there another city that fits it better?
Anyway, Golarion is very Euro-centric in its construction, so any east or west sayings from our world that use the Mediterranean region as the central focus should work for Golarion as well.
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Remember that, so far, pretty much all that has been developed is Avistan, especially the Inner Sea region. So of course those folks are going to refer to things based on their point of view. Someday, once stuff on Tien Xia gets published, we may discover that they refer to Avistan as the Far West! There will probably never be (nor should there be) any definitive consensus on what to call things because everyone has a different point of view. Heck, in our own world there are still argument over what to call stuff; I just read about Iran and Saudi Arabia arguing over what to call the body of water that lies between them. And what do Asians call the Pacific Ocean? Do they literally translate it as the Calm Ocean, or do they have their own name for it?
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And what do Asians call the Pacific Ocean? Do they literally translate it as the Calm Ocean, or do they have their own name for it?
Don't know about other Asian languages, but for Japanese at least, yes. Their word for it is 'taiheiyou', 'taihei' meaning peace/tranquil, 'you' meaning ocean.
Their name for the Atlantic Ocean, 'taiseiyou', is completely different though (iirc 'taisei' has some connection to the Occident, though it's not as clear-cut as the Pacific Ocean meaning.)
The more you know! :)
I do agree with you though. The more view points the better.
Since it's a globe floating in space, Europe isn't in the middle except in maps geared to sell to the West. There's absolutely no reason why Asia couldn't be in the center of the map... or why we have to associate the North with being on top of the world and the South being on the bottom. See the West Wing episode about political geography for more on the ideology of cartography.
And don't forget that the planet that is Golarion rotates the same direction as Earth and travels around it's sun the same direction as Earth, so the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
Yeah. Though most people just know that the sun rises in the east.
By the way, is Absalom supposed to be the Golarion equivalent of Rome, because of it being the city at the center of the world and the "all roads lead to Rome" saying?
I don't think it's based off rome, beyond the fact that it's a really big, really important city.
Rome was the centre of a huge empire, while Absalom is just the one city (albeit one of the biggest on the planet).
And not all roads lead to Absalom. Only the really, really wet ones. ;-)
Anyway, Golarion is very Euro-centric in its construction, so any east or west sayings from our world that use the Mediterranean region as the central focus should work for Golarion as well.
Actually, only Avistan is Euro-centric. Garund is the equivalent to Africa, or at least an approximation.
Since it's a globe floating in space, Europe isn't in the middle except in maps geared to sell to the West. There's absolutely no reason why Asia couldn't be in the center of the map... or why we have to associate the North with being on top of the world and the South being on the bottom. See the West Wing episode about political geography for more on the ideology of cartography.
I'll add also that, except for Russia, which I would call semi-Asiatic, what we call Europe is really just an area of islands and small, peninsular extremities (or perhaps one rather small peninsular extremity with a few smaller fingers, such Italy, Iberia, and Scandinavia) at one end of the Eurasian landmass. Anyone with no preconceptions looking at a world map would say that what we call Europe is a rather insignificant (at least geographically) constituent of the Eurasian landmass.
Since it's a globe floating in space, Europe isn't in the middle except in maps geared to sell to the West. There's absolutely no reason why Asia couldn't be in the center of the map...
That would look weird, though, with the Prime Meridian all off to the side there.
Actually, only Avistan is Euro-centric. Garund is the equivalent to Africa, or at least an approximation.
Anyway, Golarion is very Euro-centric in its construction, so any east or west sayings from our world that use the Mediterranean region as the central focus should work for Golarion as well.
Ah yes, that is right. I was having a blonde moment when I wrote that and was thinking just the mapped area was Golarion and not the name for the entire world. And I was going to call it Mediterranean-cenric, but that does not sound right to me. lol
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Since it's a globe floating in space, Europe isn't in the middle except in maps geared to sell to the West. There's absolutely no reason why Asia couldn't be in the center of the map...That would look weird, though, with the Prime Meridian all off to the side there.
The Prime Meridian is only where it is because some European drew it there and told their colonies it was 0 degrees. Other Euros went along with it and it stuck. But there's no geographic reason why the Prime Meridian has to be where it is, and nothing preventing some other country like Japan or China from declaring a new Prime Meridian that runs through their capital (except the momentum of customary usage and the problems associated with getting enough other people to go along with it... but Golarion doesn't have any one country dominant enough to force any standard on everyone else. In Avistan, it's logically accepted that Absalom is the center of things, but someone in Vundra or Tian Xia has no reason to go along with that.)
nothing preventing some other country like Japan or China from declaring a new Prime Meridian that runs through their capital (except the momentum of customary usage and the problems associated with getting enough other people to go along with it
Pretty big except right there. Thousands of metres high. (Yes, metres. Billions of micrometres!). Conventions like that are damn convenient, and changing them costs a lot of money. And for what?
... but Golarion doesn't have any one country dominant enough to force any standard on everyone else. In Avistan, it's logically accepted that Absalom is the center of things, but someone in Vundra or Tian Xia has no reason to go along with that.
But those countries don't matter. At least not to the scope of this discussion, which is about Inner Sea people and what they call things. Pathfinder Chronicles right now pretty much is just the Inner Sea Region and some "oh, those are there, too" places that haven't got much attention as of yet.
Other empires might very well consider themselves the middle, but to your average Avistani or Garundian, they're East and West and so on.
The Inca Empire actually had a serious political problem in the overpopulation of mummies. Every emperor that died was mummified and treated more or less as still alive. So he had a big house, his family lived it up and played politics, he was wheeled out for big events. New emperors could only come from these families, but each time one of them became emperor, that started a new one. Since the mummies were not treated as dead, but rather immortal, they retained all their cool imperial property.
The monopolization of resources by the mummies, and their occupation of scarce good land, were major problems for any new emperor getting started even aside the fact that they were institutionalized political rivals. As Charles C. Mann put it: "Inka society had a serious mummy problem."
(Don't be misled by the title of the book like I was for a year or so after first seeing it. This isn't the guy who thinks that the Chinese beat Columbus, started the Renaissance, and probably as soon as his latest royalties taper off, landed on the moon.)
When I read about this I shared it with a friend who insisted it should be done with dwarves. :) Similar scarce space restrictions, similar environment, weird enough that most people wouldn't immediately recognize it, and the concept is compatible with enough fantasy tropes (immortality, undead [or not], scheming political houses) that it could fit in just about anywhere.
NEAT. Thanks for sharing that.
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When I read about this I shared it with a friend who insisted it should be done with dwarves. :) Similar scarce space restrictions, similar environment, weird enough that most people wouldn't immediately recognize it, and the concept is compatible with enough fantasy tropes (immortality, undead [or not], scheming political houses) that it could fit in just about anywhere.
Funny. Whenever I have played around with overlaying fantasy races over real-world history, I always thought of making the Inca as dwarves. I was mostly basing it on the advanced stonework, but the mummy thing fits nicely. BTW- in my imagining, the Inca-dwarves were from the same root stock as other dwarves but tunneled REALLY far (under the ocean) and the tunnel collapsed. This too kinda' fits with the Quest for Light thing in Golarion, especially if you stick this bunch of dwarves in Arcadia. I'd hate it if human cultures vary greatly across the globe but dwarves are the same everywhere.
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Pretty big except right there. Thousands of metres high. (Yes, metres. Billions of micrometres!). Conventions like that are damn convenient, and changing them costs a lot of money. And for what?
nothing preventing some other country like Japan or China from declaring a new Prime Meridian that runs through their capital (except the momentum of customary usage and the problems associated with getting enough other people to go along with it
That's totally true NOW. But 500 years ago (okay, maybe 800 years ago), the Prime Meridian running through Europe wasn't a given. Good chance it could have run through Mecca or Baghdad. I think Golarian is in a similar time now.
But, basically I agree with you. Everything we've seen so far has been very Avistani-centric - not because it is Correct, but because that's really the only point of view we've been exposed to thus far.
That's totally true NOW. But 500 years ago (okay, maybe 800 years ago), the Prime Meridian running through Europe wasn't a given. Good chance it could have run through Mecca or Baghdad. I think Golarian is in a similar time now.
Probably could have been true more recently than that. If another city or country had had more influence than the British Empire at the point in history when time zones were standardized, the Prime Meridian could have ended up somewhere very different. Besides, shouldn't the International Date Line be more important than the Prime Meridian anyway?
Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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Arcadia and turbulent oceans (to say nothing of the remains of sunken Azlant) block travel between Avistan and Tian Xia in a westerly direction from Avistan, so that part of the world is largely terra incognita.
The farthest reaches of Casmaron (east of Avistan) contain a sprawling Tian colony nation called Kaladay that trades with Vudra. From thence come much of the Tian artifacts sold in markets like Katapesh and Absalom, and the trading vessels of Tian Xia proper are more common in places like Kelesh and Vudra, hence the association of all things Tian as being of "eastern" origin.
The northlands of Varisia and the Lands of the Linnorm Kings and elsewhere that sees some trade from across the Crown of the World are themselves remote enough from the Inner Sea that they haven't changed this dynamic, which has existed for centuries upon centuries.
Funny. Whenever I have played around with overlaying fantasy races over real-world history, I always thought of making the Inca as dwarves. I was mostly basing it on the advanced stonework, but the mummy thing fits nicely. BTW- in my imagining, the Inca-dwarves were from the same root stock as other dwarves but tunneled REALLY far (under the ocean) and the tunnel collapsed. This too kinda' fits with the Quest for Light thing in Golarion, especially if you stick this bunch of dwarves in Arcadia. I'd hate it if human cultures vary greatly across the globe but dwarves are the same everywhere.
I'm with you. It's a genre convention, but it's weird that humans show more or less real world levels of diversity across a campaign setting (at least a sufficiently large one) and humanoids rarely do.
The game I was thinking to use the Inca dwarf mummies in was going to be more monocultural (focused on a single, isolated kingdom and its surrounds), so all of the dwarves would have been like that since they share a common culture and history. But flipping that around makes just as much sense, especially in more cosmopolitan settings.
The Prime Meridian is only where it is because some European drew it there and told their colonies it was 0 degrees. Other Euros went along with it and it stuck. But there's no geographic reason why the Prime Meridian has to be where it is, and nothing preventing some other country like Japan or China from declaring a new Prime Meridian that runs through their capital (except the momentum of customary usage and the problems associated with getting enough other people to go along with it... but Golarion doesn't have any one country dominant enough to force any standard on everyone else. In Avistan, it's logically accepted that Absalom is the center of things, but someone in Vundra or Tian Xia has no reason to go along with that.)Since it's a globe floating in space, Europe isn't in the middle except in maps geared to sell to the West. There's absolutely no reason why Asia couldn't be in the center of the map...That would look weird, though, with the Prime Meridian all off to the side there.
There is another issue with this, not so much the Prime Meridian itself but the line 180 degrees opposite: The International Dateline. The Prime Meridian was drawn through Greenwich in part because this way aside from a small, mostly uninhabited, bit of Siberia the Dateline runs through the Pacific Ocean. The US tried to get the line to run through Washington DC but it got vetoed because then the Dateline would run through the middle of Asia causing some serious timekeeping headaches.
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Erik, thank you for dropping in on the boards. Thank you for taking the time to explain some of Golaron’s geography. Is there any possibility of showing us a global map? We would love to see one, even if large sections have blank areas, and notations like “there be monsters here” or “beware the Kracken”. Thanks
Please leave blank spots!I wouldn't be too surprised to see a "global" map pop up some time in the next year or two.
Of course, we've got to draw it first. :)
Here there be dragons and monsters!
At the risk of asking a dumb question, when you say "blank spots," what do you mean specifically?
Areas intentionally left not detailed, or "blank" on the map, so that DM's have a few places they can plop their own region or country for interacting with the rest of Golarion.
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At the risk of asking a dumb question, when you say "blank spots," what do you mean specifically?
Just swaths(swathes?) of map conspicuously covered up or marked off like Gamer Girrl said, to leave parts of the map wholly up to GMs to play with and define without canon expectations from anyone else.
Don't get me wrong, I love me some canon fluff and I want it to keep coming, but it's fun to have a blank slate playground on Golarion into which you can unload all sorts of crazy without players having to worry about putting previously known facts out of mind or the GM having to wrestle with how his changes are going to mesh with how things were before his additions.
Plus it's just fun to have spots on the map labelled "Weird Crap Going On Here, Steer Clear" and "Mysterious Happenings About" and then asking the players who just got their boat "Where ya wanna go?"
Please don't leave any literal blank spots on the map. Maybe a few large tracts of sparsely populated wilderness, but no unexplored lands that sages conveniently know absolutely nothing about.
I have to agree. I'm for GM-freedom as much as the next person, but I want a global map because:
1) I suck at map-making
2) I want to know the geography -- it matters
3) cut-out voids/white spaces would make Paizo's veeerrrry-pretty maps rather ugly.
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Thanks Erik for the description! I too would prefer the map to be of the whole world, without blank spots, with two caveats-
1) Just 'cause there is a map of something doesn't means it has to be detailed in text. I can make up cultures and countries better than I can draw color world maps. Give me a map with some textually undescribed areas and I will fill in the details I want, but please don't give me blank swaths on the map.
2) Just 'cause there is a map of something doesn't mean the map is accurate. Think of all those old maps showing California as an island. As explorers get to places like Arcadia, their first maps are rough. Later maps correct errors and improve details. In game terms, this means that just because you draw the coast of Acadia or the Australia-analog one way doesn't mean that you can't change it some in future maps. Heavy populated areas like Avistan and Casmaron ought to be pretty accurately mapped, but areas new to Avistani explorers less so. Maybe the first few world maps (pre-views) could look more hand-drawn and parchmenty to give them that map-in-progress look. Ooo, or even a few maps that are contradictory (with expadition titles below).
2) Just 'cause there is a map of something doesn't mean the map is accurate. Think of all those old maps showing California as an island. As explorers get to places like Arcadia, their first maps are rough. Later maps correct errors and improve details. In game terms, this means that just because you draw the coast of Acadia or the Australia-analog one way doesn't mean that you can't change it some in future maps. Heavy populated areas like Avistan and Casmaron ought to be pretty accurately mapped, but areas new to Avistani explorers less so. Maybe the first few world maps (pre-views) could look more hand-drawn and parchmenty to give them that map-in-progress look. Ooo, or even a few maps that are contradictory (with expadition titles below).
Interesting, but this doesn't help DMs much. (In fact, AFAIC, it outright harms much more than it could ever help in an actual published product.) IMO, the responsibility in such a product is strictly to the DM first and foremost.
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Director of Brand Strategy
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Please don't leave any literal blank spots on the map. Maybe a few large tracts of sparsely populated wilderness, but no unexplored lands that sages conveniently know absolutely nothing about.
+1.
I'm all for leaving whole continents or regions fairly undetailed to allow both GMs and Paizo to customize them later as needed, but I would not be satisfied with a "world map" that didn't show the whole world.
Please don't leave any literal blank spots on the map. Maybe a few large tracts of sparsely populated wilderness, but no unexplored lands that sages conveniently know absolutely nothing about.+1.
I'm all for leaving whole continents or regions fairly undetailed to allow both GMs and Paizo to customize them later as needed, but I would not be satisfied with a "world map" that didn't show the whole world.
+2
As much as I like the idea that maps are inaccurate, that's not really feasible in a published product. Think of it this way. In 1200, they may not have known the exact shape of the world and the continents, but they existed. Those shapes haven't changed much today. The PCs might not get an accurate map of the world to play in, but the GM should have one.
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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Ok, this helps me zero in on what people want. I can absolutely ASSURE you that the first draft of a global map will have HUGE "blank" (or to use the trade term, "untagged") areas, but my preference would be to include the actual outlines of all of the continents.
Well, except for Sarusan, which has a strange feature in that even those who have traveled there cannot accurately remember more than the bare rudiments of their journey.
So, for example, while a "global" map of Golarion might have a huge superconinent labeled "CASMARON" that might include the named places we've mentioned so far (Lake Castrovin, Ninshabur, Iobaria, etc.), there would be a TON of area with no marks on it at all, because it will literally take us years to get around to detailing the whole place.
Is this what you guys are looking for?
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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Ok, this helps me zero in on what people want. I can absolutely ASSURE you that the first draft of a global map will have HUGE "blank" (or to use the trade term, "untagged") areas, but my preference would be to include the actual outlines of all of the continents.
Well, except for Sarusan, which has a strange feature in that even those who have traveled there cannot accurately remember more than the bare rudiments of their journey.
So, for example, while a "global" map of Golarion might have a huge superconinent labeled "CASMARON" that might include the named places we've mentioned so far (Lake Castrovin, Ninshabur, Iobaria, etc.), there would be a TON of area with no marks on it at all, because it will literally take us years to get around to detailing the whole place.
Is this what you guys are looking for?
Yes. And could we have it yesterday?
Ok, this helps me zero in on what people want. I can absolutely ASSURE you that the first draft of a global map will have HUGE "blank" (or to use the trade term, "untagged") areas, but my preference would be to include the actual outlines of all of the continents.
Well, except for Sarusan, which has a strange feature in that even those who have traveled there cannot accurately remember more than the bare rudiments of their journey.
So, for example, while a "global" map of Golarion might have a huge superconinent labeled "CASMARON" that might include the named places we've mentioned so far (Lake Castrovin, Ninshabur, Iobaria, etc.), there would be a TON of area with no marks on it at all, because it will literally take us years to get around to detailing the whole place.
Is this what you guys are looking for?
Yes please. Untagged, with at least major geographic features (names not necessary - yet).
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I can absolutely ASSURE you that the first draft of a global map will have HUGE "blank" (or to use the trade term, "untagged") areas, but my preference would be to include the actual outlines of all of the continents...
Is this what you guys are looking for?
Works for me. I'm happy with drawn but untagged areas. Outlines are good too.
Next question is, when an official world map is released will we get any kind of official word saying which undeveloped areas on the map will stay that way and which will eventually get published content? I have seen others complain about how Forgotten Realms started with lots of undefined areas but were then filled in with published materials and when these areas got defined by TSR/WotC that their FR campaigns were thrown into chaos as the empty area they were using suddenly had official content.
