I suppose it was because there were so many kingdoms in the "Known World", which make up a relatively small part of the planet, when you see the whole thing. So many kingdoms in a small area must mean the whole planet is huge.
I mentally assigned large areas to these kingdoms, rather than actually measuring them on the maps and comparing them to an equivalent size earth country.
On the globe map, it states Mystara has a circumference of 19,448 miles (I assume this is the equatorial measurement).
Earth's circumference is approx. 24,900 miles - a fair bit larger. This is going to involve some re-thinking on my part. I wondered if anyone has already done a "real-life" comparison of any of the known world areas?
I suppose the obvious starter is Karameikos. I sort of assumed an area the size of the UK, but is it really only the size of Wales, for instance?
How big is Alfheim? Wales, or Iceland?
I could get my calculator out, but I wondered if someone had already done the work for me.
I can tell you that Alfheim is roughly of the same size as Portugal.
Just for fun, check out Shane Henry's observations comparing ancient Earth and Mystara:
http://www.mystaranet.jamm.com/vaults/html/primeval.html
I suppose it was because there were so many kingdoms in the "Known World", which make up a relatively small part of the planet, when you see the whole thing. So many kingdoms in a small area must mean the whole planet is huge.
I did check out the size of the Known World years ago and was a bit surprised to see how small it really is, especially in today's age where travelling 100s or 1000s of kilometers in a day is common. Here's some (rough) comparisions of the size of the Known World map from X1 (top half from the RC):
North America - If the top right corner of the map was placed on New York City, the bottom left would fall roughly on Austin, Texas (between Houston and San Antonio). Or, the western edge of the map would go from Los Angeles up to Portland and the eastern edge would still be over 200 km away from Minneapolis.
South America - This one's harder to relate, but the Known World would become the Amazon Rainforest!
Europe - (Remember this is approximately) Starting at the top right of the map, it would sit in the area of Cork, Ireland, east to Warsaw, then south to the "tip of Italy's heel", west over to an area about 100km SW of Madrid, and then back up to Cork.
Asia - (Have to use Japan in here for no particular reason
) The map would stretch from Tokyo on the eastern edge, to Peking in China on the western edge.Africa - The island of Madagascar is "taller" (N to S) than the map by around 300 or so kilometers.
Australia - The line between Brisbane and Melbourne would make the eastern edge of the map and the western edge would pass near Mt. Ziel in the MacDonnell Ranges (the middleish of Australia), a good 100 or more kms pass the famous Ayers Rock.
(I'd do anything to postpone starting the laundry!)
If we accept the figure given in the Alfhein gazetteer of 23,500 sq miles for Alfheim (434 hexes at 8 mile scale, if my counting is right), then the closest comparison I could find is Eire (Southern Ireland) at 27,000 sq miles - a bit big, but fairly close.
This means 1 hex = just over 54 sq miles.
Karameikos at 718 hexes (approx. - I had to figure in the coastline) comes out at just under 38,900 sq miles.
Portugal is 35,500, so is a bit too small, South Korea is 38,000, and Iceland is 39,750.
So we are looking at Karameikos about the same size as South Korea, assuming the Alfheim figure is correct and my 25 year old encyclopedia has the real earth sizes correct.
The Five Shires, at 13150 sq miles is bigger than Wales (8,006), but I haven't found a nearer comparison yet.
The problem is, do any of the other gazetteers have the size of the countries they are detailing in order to check these figures? I don't have them all, and could only find population sizes for individual cities in the ones I have.
Also, having forgotten most of my math, does 54 sq miles work out right for an 8 mile hex?
http://www.drking.plus.com/hexagons/misc/area.html
Assuming it's 8 miles between 2 sides, (and not corners)
We have 0.866 * 64 = 55.424
Gary
The problem is, do any of the other gazetteers have the size of the countries they are detailing in order to check these figures? I don't have them all, and could only find population sizes for individual cities in the ones I have.
The PWAs cover the approximate square mileage of all the countries, though I think they may be slightly off in some cases. At any rate:
Karameikos: 46,750 sq. mi.
Ylaruam: 54,180
Glantri: 89,713
Ierendi: 17,240
Alfheim: 17,950
Rockhome: 41,140
Northern Reaches: 61,040
Five Shires: 10,600
Minrothad: 8,120
Broken Lands: 11,600
Darokin: 81,900
Ethengar: 57,970
Atruaghin: 46,380
Thyatis (mainland): 42,300
Just curious, where are you all finding your statistics for RW nations? I've always been keen to do a comparison myself, but was never sure where to look.
The PWAs cover the approximate square mileage of all the countries, though I think they may be slightly off in some cases. At any rate:
Karameikos: 46,750 sq. mi.
Ylaruam: 54,180
Glantri: 89,713
Ierendi: 17,240
Alfheim: 17,950
Rockhome: 41,140
Northern Reaches: 61,040
Five Shires: 10,600
Minrothad: 8,120
Broken Lands: 11,600
Darokin: 81,900
Ethengar: 57,970
Atruaghin: 46,380
Thyatis (mainland): 42,300
Just curious, where are you all finding your statistics for RW nations? I've always been keen to do a comparison myself, but was never sure where to look.
Thanks for those figures.
I'm using an old Collins Gem encyclopedia from 1980 - it has entries for most countries, detailing size, population & main characteristics.
Thanks for that formula, Gary. It puts Alfheim at just over 24,000 - which is pretty close to the Gazetteer figure, but way out compared to the above list.
As comparison, Ethengar would be about the same size as Florida, according to the list.
Thanks for that formula, Gary. It puts Alfheim at just over 24,000 - which is pretty close to the Gazetteer figure, but way out compared to the above list.
Yeah- like I said, I don't think the figures from the PWAs are all that accurate, at least by my own calculations (and, evidently, yours). I'm not entirely sure how they got them, but I suspect that they might have used a larger scale map to derive the figures- 24 miles/hex, maybe- and thus aren't completely accurate. They serve as a good starting point, though.
Just curious, where are you all finding your statistics for RW nations? I've always been keen to do a comparison myself, but was never sure where to look.
Here's a cool site that I've used for my English classes numerous times that gives all sorts of data like this.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
The fact that it's the *CIA* Factbook sounds kinda scary, but it's really useful. ;)
Edit: However, it's not always accurate, and they apparently don't listen to people who submit corrections. I filled in the form about a year ago to tell them that "Scapa" is not a town in the Orkney Islands but in fact the name of the bay (Scapa Flow). Kirkwall is the town that should be marked... It's still not corrected.