1. Assuming that Krynn is a planet of roughly the dimensions as Earth, how is it that a "continent" ( or large island ) like Ansalon can be kissing the Antarctic polar regions at its southern extremities, and yet 900 miles further north accomadate the tropical jungles of Karthay? I don't have the exact figures at my fingertips but I know that in Earth's southern hemisphere it is several thousands of miles from the Antarctic circle to the Tropic of Capricorn. The best explanation I can come up with on the fly is this : the southern regions of Ansalon are affected by an unusual oceanic current system which circulates frigid water and polar weather conditions up from the Antarctic, and the northern coast experiences a similar system cycling in warm water from the tropics. Does anyone have any better theories?
2. I don't have the DLCS yet, but I'm told that Krynn is described as having 5 major continental land-masses. So far, only Ansalon and Taladas are detailed, and we know that both are very small continents by Earth standards ( Taladas, though larger than Ansalon, is still only about 1,600 miles E-W and 1,270 miles N-S ). So we can speculate that : a) continents 3,4, & 5 are much larger, perhaps on a par with the Americas and Europe/Asia, which means that Krynn has a fairly Earthlike ( or Toril-like ) land/ocean surface distribution. b) continents 3, 4, & 5 are of similar sizes to Ansalon & Taladas, which means that Krynn is an ocean-world with a very high ratio of water to land. Interesting but very different from the typical D&D planet. c) Krynn is a small planet, perhaps the size of Mars, but with otherwise Earth-like gravity, atmosphere etc. This allows the small continents and a normal sea/land ratio. Rather weird, though.
Personally, I think that the map scales for the revised DLCS should have been retconned to make Ansalon ( and Taladas ) a larger and more plausible "continent", but I'm assuming this isn't the case. If so, what do people think about the geographical issues and problems that I've raised here? Should an attempt be made to address and clarify such matters if and when an Atlas of Krynn or similar publication is produced?
I'd be grateful for any serious thoughts folks have on this,
thanks
It takes about a day to walk from Palanthus to the High Clerists. I made the continent much larger. I'm not sure on the scale I enlarged it to but it takes a week to walk from those two locations.
To me, the Continent can be it's current DLCS size and still be realistic. I think we, in our modern era, with cars, public transit, Mass transit and industrialized advances, have give ourselves rose colored classes thinking the continent is too small.
For example, The San Francisco bay area, or Manhatten as huge cities. But look at Newyork when the power went out. Think of how bad if the bridges leading out of Manhatten weren't there. that's INSANE. it would literally take WEEKs for a person to get from manhatten to long island.
I sound old saying this, but i lived in Reno Nevada. And i use to take a buss to school. one day i missed the bus and had to walk home. 5.18 miles. and it took me 2 hours over desert sage brush. even with roads, it took me a looooooong time. I would just die if i had to commute from richmond to san francisco without bridges, cars, and mass transit. Can you imagine travelling even by horse AROUND the sanfrancisco bay.
Just imagine how messed up it would be trying to get from palanthas to Solace. by land, you have to somehow cross over the straits, or walk around the new sea and into neraka and sanction, or take a ship to palanthas under a planet with three moons. The tidal forces on the planet must be crazy. look at earth, the crazy weather, and we only have one moon doing it.
In any case, when i lived in reno, I knew quite literally, what Ansalon should seem like. Smaller valleys with local folk (we called ourselves stead valley, golden Valley, Lemon Valley, Red Rock, Panther Valley) who lived north of reno. Reno itself was like Palanthas. And a trip to San Fran or Sacramento is like a trip to Mount Nevermind. My school was in Stead Valley, and i needed to cross Lemon Valley to get to my home in Golden Valley. and it took me 2 hours by foot, walking over sage brush (with potential rattle snakes). And that was a space of about 5 miles.
Ansalon is about the size of Austrailia right? Ask any australian what it would be like to cross ausrtalian by foot, or even by horse or wagon. he would call you insane. :-) in my mind, the Continent does have plenty of room.
it's the size of the planet that bothers me. I see it earthsize. And i see wide spaces of ocean. And i think a huge mass of water would lead to elevated levels of rainfall in the northern Karthay region. which would explain the jungle geography.
Like wise, i also think that Ansalon's south is not near the arctic. i think Ansalon got hit with a major meteor, and it's experiences an ice age. Look at the ice ages of Earth. they pretty much covered the mediterreanian sea and covered most of canada and northern US. :-)
god, it takes two hours to go from san jose to sacramento (my home and my college). In ancient days it would have taken more than a week, almost a month, given how far around the bay i'd have to go in a time without bridges.
Ansalon is about the size of Austrailia right? Ask any australian what it would be like to cross ausrtalian by foot, or even by horse or wagon. he would call you insane.in my mind, the Continent does have plenty of room.
Actually that is pretty insane, but its also been done. Most of our great explorers were a little "touched" in the head - it more or less came as part of the job description!:D However, Ansalon is not about the size of Australia, its a lot smaller.
The ice age idea is a plausible one to explain the glaciation in the south of Ansalon, but would make it even less likely that tropical jungles could exist in the far north ( only 900 miles N of Icereach ) - unless that strong current system I speculated about is dumping even more warm water on the north coast and islands.
If the 5th Age maps did triple all the distances on Ansalon, then that's exactly what the setting needed! An impressive continent, ( somewhat larger than Australia in fact), which could easily have near-Antarctic conditions in the far south and a sub-tropical climate in the north. Does anyone know where I could find a 5th age map of the whole continent?
1) what if a mile in ansalon is like a league in the middle ages, roughly three miles in our accurate-and-can-use-satiltie-GPS-to-really-see -how-accurate-we-are -system? Seriously, i do some surveying in the local area, and we get surveys on property with direct ownership back some 200 years and the way they did distance calculations were insane. One example had this as a property corner: "Where the hole in the ice first forms in Spring on the little stream from the pond." So I would say you could safely triple distances and blaim poor surveying techniques.
2) I know this might be far fetched, and I have no idea if it could really work, but how much heat does the moon reflect onto the earth from the Sun? Could having three moons do anything to heat up the air?
3) What if the planet wasn't earth sized? Didn't someone mention this? what if it was like half earths size? Or mars size? but still in the habitable zone of its star?
Rosisha
Rosisha
Originally posted by L33t Angel
Oh and that planet size causes problems. What about gravity? A small planet has much less gravity.
Not if the core was composed primarily of substances with high mass/density. If the core were made of a substance like mercury, as opposed to the proposed molten-iron one like the earth has, gravity would be very similar. The thing that I would be more worried about would be the fact that it is a small planet with three moons, which would equate to tsunami(or whatever a big wave is) size waves in the oceans. No wonder there have been few if any travelers from Taladas, fifty foot waves don't make the ride very comfortable.
Originally posted by Twilight Herald
Actually that is pretty insane, but its also been done. Most of our great explorers were a little "touched" in the head - it more or less came as part of the job description!:D However, Ansalon is not about the size of Australia, its a lot smaller.
I can only assume those exploerer were the stuff of Adventurers. :-)
Originally posted by Twilight Herald
The ice age idea is a plausible one to explain the glaciation in the south of Ansalon, but would make it even less likely that tropical jungles could exist in the far north ( only 900 miles N of Icereach ) - unless that strong current system I speculated about is dumping even more warm water on the north coast and islands.
That's how i see it. Northern Ansalon gets a lot of rainfall (in the map, Tropical weather), and an nuclear winter may be that cause.
Krynn get's hit with that meteor. Taladas on the other side gets a nasty wound. Rain can't happen without dust. it takes a microscopic amount of contaminant for water to condence around particle. The water collects into larger pockets we see as clouds. when that water condences into ice, that's when you get rain. the ice crystals become water when they travel from high altitudes to the ground. Well the meteor means more dust, which means better water condensation, which ultimately means more rainfall, which helps plants and animals grow better. As good example of a ice age is that when the ice was covering most of canada and Europe, Africa 's sahara desert was a tropical jungle.
Here's another earth-like example. The island of Taiwan has a lot of jungle, that they're on the tip of the circle of cancer, which is 24 degrees north of the equator. For all we know, Ansalon's northern tip might reach just past their Tropic of Capricorn line, which is still over 1600 miles from the Equator on on an earth sized planet. :-)
As good example of a ice age is that when the ice was covering most of canada and Europe, Africa's sahara desert was a tropical jungle.
Very good point, but even then the Saharan jungle was still a couple of thousand miles south of the polar glaciation limit. Karthay and Ansalon's north coast are just 900 miles north of the Icewall glacier. Even in the midst of an ice age or "nuclear winter", there should not be such a dramatic climatic variation over such a small arc of latitude. ( unless the previously mentioned factors such as polar / tropical ocean currents exist and give Ansalon a unique and self-contained "micro-climate").
I like Rosisha's idea of using leagues instead of miles. Perhaps the miles quoted in the DLCS map scales are actually an archaic "Imperial Mile" dating back to old Ergoth and Istar, which actually span a league ( 3 normal miles ). This would fit nicely with the greater distances mentioned in the 5th age boxed sets, and resolve most of the climatic inconsistencies discussed in this thread.
Originally posted by Granakrs
[b]
I sound old saying this, but i lived in Reno Nevada
I would love to live in Reno if your cops where anything like they are in Reno 911. Frankly, I think most are anyway.