When writing an article for Mythic Scribes (about maps), I realized that most fantasy worlds are implicitly, if not explicitly, flat. ASoIaF is one such, since George Martin has definitely used Wall as a measure. Tolkien has included a scale on map of Middle-Earth, and has used it to calculate travel times. Now, both of these would work on small country scale with no issues. But we are talking continents here. Which means map distortion. Which means that a) either scales included cannot be used for measuring distances reliably, or b) worlds are actually flat. But if the world is flat, what would that mean for people living on it? P.S. I found this on navigation in flat-Middle Earth, and may do some more research when I get the time. I am not sure whether I will have my own world be flat - but the map already is.
I'm not sure fantasy world are flat per se - its just that most of them have a medieval feel and medieval maps were drawn as if the world was flat because that was the belief at the time
I guess you could also make the world simply a drawing that was done by a map-maker. The world will end when The Great Artist in the Sky folds up the Map to carry it to the Shop, and the world implodes on itself.
I always was curious when the world is depicted as flat: What's on the other side? You could have fun with it if you end up having to completely different societies(Steam punk style Atlantis and Middle Earth Style Fantasy) and have something happen that allows them to have access to the other side.
That's a myth - medieval people didn't believe the world was flat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_flat_Earth
Yep, and I understand when Galileo made his pronouncements to that effect and was put under house arrest by the church for it, they knew better too, but were forbidden by church protocol to admit it.
One implication of a flat world is that you would be able to see all the way to the edge, if your eyesight was good enough. There would be no horizon. Things would just get smaller and smaller as they moved further away, until the fell off. What happens to the water at the edge? If it falls off, why doesn't it run out? Day and night will be the same length for everyone, regardless of position in the world. Likewise, depending on your justification, seasons will be as well. More to the point - because such a thing is a physical impossibility, the effects would be whatever you want them to be.
Gallileo wasn't arrested for saying the earth was round. He was arrested for his heliocentric theory, stating that the earth went around the sun, not the other way aroumd.
Well yeah, but that pretty much makes it clear the earth can't be flat and must be a sphere. You're right though—it was the fact that the sun doesn't go around the earth they objected to. My bad.
Considering it would take a long time to navigate the entirety of the planet when you are simply sailing around it. Lots of issues along the way, besides just trying to survive long enough to achieve the feat, given the circumstances. Add in say, a bit of magic, and it might be a bit easier, since they could use the wind to their advantage. Potentially speeding up the process a lot. Or if Gryphons, Dragons, Pegasus, exist then maybe that would be a mode to go on a long journey of full world navigation. So even with a lack of magic and mythical creatures they could prove the earth isn't flat. However since they would be limited or unwilling to explore outside of their known lands, they could speculate they are the only land(s) that do exist on a ball of mainly water. We have known for nearly 500 years BC, so that bit of information has traveled ~2500 years to the modern day. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/ancient-greeks-proved-earth-round-eratosthenes-alexandria-syene-summer-solstice-a8131376.html So in the Medieval days they knew the Earth was a globe.
As I have noted, many authors use maps to calculate travel times and distances. Such as the 300-mile Wall being used to measure Westeros in ASoIaF. But that should be impossible if world were round, at least on the continental scale. I am not sure he was even arrested for his heliocentrism. Rather, the issue was the manner in which he promoted his ideas. I also remember that Giordano Bruno was not burned for his advocacy of heliocentrism, but rather due to his pantheistic views (that God and nature are one and the same; Christianity OTOH is either classically-theistic or else panentheistic).
Why would that be impossible? All you are doing is using the beginning and end of the wall as a reference point and correlating it to the width of that part of westeros.
Not the other side per se, but a comic based on the earth being hollow with another world inside: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warlord_(DC_Comics)
The answer is very simple. When you draw your map, assume that you are drawing it projected correctly so that the distances are in straight lines. I don't know what that type of projection is called. If you're that bothered by it, draw your map flat, then scan it and wrap it around a sphere. I'll repeat again - your readers won't care. If you're doing this for your own enjoyment, fair enough but no author's world needs this level of detail.
in a medieval (and thus comparable fantasy world) most distances are established by how long it takes to travel them... it lies a days ride hence my lord... if you know that it takes 6 days to march the length of the wall, the wall then becomes a convenient short hand for '6 days march' The origin of the word mile, was the roman 'mille passus' = one thousand paces (of a marching legionary)
The Great Wall of China is much longer, and it exists in the real world. https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/facts/how-long.htm
We're able to navigate the USA using flat highway maps that presume that longitude lines are parallel.
I'm talking about using wall for measurement, not about possibility of existence. But even that is secondary. I'm more interested in potential implications of a world being flat. Because on a flat map projection of a contitental scale, same distances on maps will have different distances in reality, depending on latitude. I am aware. And honestly, I don't much care about it. It did give me thought that I could make my own world into flat one, and that got me thinking about implications of doing so. E.g. how do you prevent all the seas from spilling out? Should there be a mountain range surrounding the world, and if so, what will that mean for day-night scenario, climate and so on? What about long-distance navigation? These all are questions I have trouble answering, and there are likely some I didn't even think to ask.
Okay, going in that direction, then my question is how deeply into realism one wishes to dig in order to question how this world would work? At one level of realism, my question returns to the one I refuse to stop asking about colonizing Mars - What about the magnetosphere? Earth has a magnetosphere, a live dynamo that protects us from solar wind and cosmic radiation. Without it, the Earth is an outdoor microwave oven and the solar wind quite literally blows our atmosphere away, as happened on Mars. Mars has no dynamo*. This is the single most important item to tackle when talking about going to Mars, because without this item being addressed, everything else is at the mercy of some very unforgiving forces. On a genuinely flat world with an actual sun providing heat, light, the origin of all energetic transaction, where is the dynamo protecting Flatlandia? Also, what gives rise to the phenomenon of gravity on such a world? And speaking of gravity, on a structure as large as a proposed flat world, what force is keeping gravity from collapsing this structure into a sphere? Ceres, the dwarf planet within the asteroid belt, is much smaller than either the Earth or the Moon and has well enough mass for gravitational spherification (hydrostatic equilibrium) to unquestionably be in play. But it's not the smallest. Miranda, a Uranian moon, appears to be the smallest object in the solar system that's under hydrostatic equilibrium, spherical by dint of its own gravity. But, again, the real question is: Is this the floor you wanted to get out on, a higher floor, a lower floor? * Mars and Venus both have an induced magnetosphere, created by interaction with their respective ionospheres (part of the atmosphere) and the solar wind. The energetic source of the phenomenon is the solar wind itself as it distorts, wrapping around the planet and ejecting via the far side through the magnetotail. This is different to an intrinsic magnetosphere like on Earth, where the energetic source for the phenomenon is the interior structure and dynamics within the planet itself. An induced magnetosphere allows the solar wind to penetrate to a considerable depth, permits the stripping of atmosphere, and equates to fried chromosomes unless you're lucky enough to be a tardigrade. Flat-out not the same as what Earth and the other planets with an intrinsic magnetosphere have.
clearly the fantasy sun that shines on the fantasy world doesn't put out rays in a harmful wavelength... or the fantasy inhabitants have evolved to tolerate microwave radiation and are actually energised and rejuvenated by it. things are kept to the surface in a gravitational manner by an ancient enchantment know as the rite of 'whoca resany way' which was passed by the first of the mages the sacred 'nooneg ivesaphuc'
In one setting I've seen, the seas do flow out over the edge, but they are renewed by the Well of the World in the centre. Where does the well come from? It's fantasy.
