After playing around with designing my own campaign world and comparing it to Earth and Golarion, it seems to me that Golarion itself is a pretty small planet.
The southern edge of the Mwangi Expanse to The Crown of the World is roughly 2800 miles and encompasses climates from deep tropical jungle to arctic wasteland.
By comparison the Equator to the North Pole is 6000 miles.
This also made me think about realistic travel times between cities in Golarion. As far as I know from just reading the Inner Sea World Guide and a few other reference books, there are no established transit systems like air ships, locomotives, gryphons, etc. So assuming steady horse travel, just to get from Almas in Adnoran to Egorian in Cheliax (as the crow flies) would take around 19 days using the map on page 7 of the ISWG and 48 miles/day for light horse movement. That's two cities relatively on the same latitude.
Take Katheer in Qadira to New Stetven in Brevoy (two cities on the same longitude). Easily a month.
On the one hand, this makes the isolated genres of each nation a little bit more believable, but it's hard not to imagine some enterprising wizards/engineers coming up with a more efficient way of travel between civilized areas. That's one of the coolest things about World of Warcraft (disregarding the many, many things to dislike about it): the somewhat believable systems of rapid transit whether it be gryphons, zeppelins, or underground gnomish trams.
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Golarion is actually the same size as earth. The equator is south of the bottom edge of the Inner Sea map, while the arctic circle is north of it. Irrisen is really the only land along the north that's all about ice, but that's partially because it's a land of magical eternal winter.
Golarion is actually the same size as earth. The equator is south of the bottom edge of the Inner Sea map, while the arctic circle is north of it. Irrisen is really the only land along the north that's all about ice, but that's partially because it's a land of magical eternal winter.
Wow, thanks Mr. Jacobs. I would never have guessed, but after looking at the "probable" map of the other continents it maks a little more sense. Thanks for the clarification.
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James, I know it is a "bit" late after the relatively recent publication of the Inner sea Guide and the Inner Sea primer, but a map with latitude bars and a weather table like the first edition Grayhawk map would be greatly appreciated.
Probably it is the old boardgamer in me, but having a complete weather table with modifier for latitude and area climate would be greatly appreciated.
Maybe you could do a booklet with that and some article on magical weather?
Probably it is the old boardgamer in me, but having a complete weather table with modifier for latitude and area climate would be greatly appreciated.
Maybe you could do a booklet with that and some article on magical weather?
Sounds like something that could go in the back of an adventure path somewhere. That seems to be their main outlet for short Golarion articles.
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Creative Director
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James, I know it is a "bit" late after the relatively recent publication of the Inner sea Guide and the Inner Sea primer, but a map with latitude bars and a weather table like the first edition Grayhawk map would be greatly appreciated.
Probably it is the old boardgamer in me, but having a complete weather table with modifier for latitude and area climate would be greatly appreciated.
Maybe you could do a booklet with that and some article on magical weather?
A lattitude bar version of the world would be a great blog post... but one that requires a fair amount of interdepartment back-and-forth, and thus isn't one that'll probably be showing up that soon.
So assuming steady horse travel, just to get from Almas in Adnoran to Egorian in Cheliax (as the crow flies) would take around 19 days using the map on page 7 of the ISWG and 48 miles/day for light horse movement. That's two cities relatively on the same latitude.
Take Katheer in Qadira to New Stetven in Brevoy (two cities on the same longitude). Easily a month.On the one hand, this makes the isolated genres of each nation a little bit more believable, but it's hard not to imagine some enterprising wizards/engineers coming up with a more efficient way of travel between civilized areas.
By everything I can tell, the main form of long-distance travel is by sea/river, with the Crown of the World being an alternative, but not carrying a fraction of the cargo or passengers as the world`s ocean-going fleets do. Both of your examples would most likely involve sea travel for a typical NPC.
Low level magic to speed travel by sea certainly exists, at a reasonable price premium. This does imply that people in Taldor don`t know as much about what`s going on in Brevoy, and don`t care that much about it if they do know, since it`s a rather far journey unless you really are intent on going to Brevoy. That seems consistent with how the world is set-up, in terms of fractured flavor / divergent setting themes/technology.High level wizards, and to some extent engineers, certainly do travel the world at high speeds via the means available to them. There just aren`t that many of such high level Casters in Golarion at large, and it hasn`t apparently been transformed via some anachro-capitalism to a mass market service.
A lattitude bar version of the world would be a great blog post... but one that requires a fair amount of interdepartment back-and-forth, and thus isn't one that'll probably be showing up that soon.James, I know it is a "bit" late after the relatively recent publication of the Inner sea Guide and the Inner Sea primer, but a map with latitude bars and a weather table like the first edition Grayhawk map would be greatly appreciated.
Probably it is the old boardgamer in me, but having a complete weather table with modifier for latitude and area climate would be greatly appreciated.
Maybe you could do a booklet with that and some article on magical weather?
Maybe add horizontal scale distortion notes to that one? There's no way that the east-west scale of miles is accurate at both the north and south of the Inner Sea map.
I would love to see someone craft a Golarion globe, but I'm not sure if we know the scale of entire world yet, since the known world map clearly says it isn't to scale. Maybe that's why Golarion is gone by the time we get to Starfinder ;-).
Knowing that Golarion and Earth are the same size (which you'd have to assume since the calendars match), I think using Earth as a measure over the maps would be more realistic, especially regarding the Inner Sea vs the Mediterranean.
I would love to see someone craft a Golarion globe, but I'm not sure if we know the scale of entire world yet, since the known world map clearly says it isn't to scale. Maybe that's why Golarion is gone by the time we get to Starfinder ;-).
Knowing that Golarion and Earth are the same size (which you'd have to assume since the calendars match), I think using Earth as a measure over the maps would be more realistic, especially regarding the Inner Sea vs the Mediterranean.
Read this. In which John Mechalas (with some help) has built this.
Read this. In which John Mechalas (with some help) has built this.I would love to see someone craft a Golarion globe, but I'm not sure if we know the scale of entire world yet, since the known world map clearly says it isn't to scale. Maybe that's why Golarion is gone by the time we get to Starfinder ;-).
Knowing that Golarion and Earth are the same size (which you'd have to assume since the calendars match), I think using Earth as a measure over the maps would be more realistic, especially regarding the Inner Sea vs the Mediterranean.
What a great resource! I like how the actual maps were laid on the known world map as well, to add more context. We can only hope to get more piece of the puzzle down the line. Thanks for the link!
Considering that 9th lvl spell scrolls are available to purchase in every large city or metropolis with a 75% of finding per week, no it's really not an argument. Find a rogue or bard with UMD or a lvl 8 wizard that can roll a 10 on his CL check and just buy the scrolls and poof, you've still done it.I think you have the answer hereI'm more curious why there aren't more teleport circles. It only takes a single lvl 17 wizard
I think the availability of 9th level scrolls should be taken as gameplay/setting segregation.
It's the same nonexistent NPCs who created all the magic items in AD&D 1e, when crafting was near impossible.
As far as I can tell, the best known, easily accessible wizard of that level on Golarion is Felandriel Morgethai, the provost of Almas University in Andoran. The others are, well, a bit harder to pin down, unless you feel comfortable asking the Whispering Tyrant or the Harlot Queen of Geb to do your crafting for you.
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Oh, and I completely forgot. Golarion does have established teleportation gates: the Aiudara network.
IIRC, that's mainly under the control of the elves. So there might be some barriers to common use of that network.