A PoC Scion please? There is so much untapped potential here.

[WhiteArchmage]

Except it really is. The known world is roughly laid out as Africa & Asia with Europe missing.



Check my atlas, lol, that's rich.

Your map is ignoring one (two, really) glaring flaw: Meracydia (and the Southern Isles). You're comparing a map of "The Three Great Continents" which are mostly north of the (Hydaelin-equivalent) Ecuador line, to a World map which includes countries North and South of said line. A true comparison would probably include Africa, but only the northernmost part that stops with Egypt, which is WAY above the Ecuador line.

[Jandor]

Your map is ignoring one (two, really) glaring flaw: Meracydia (and the Southern Isles). You're comparing a map of "The Three Great Continents" which are mostly north of the (Hydaelin-equivalent) Ecuador line, to a World map which includes countries North and South of said line. A true comparison would probably include Africa, but only the northernmost part that stops with Egypt, which is WAY above the Ecuador line.

If I'm comparing the Three Great Continents with Africa and Eurasia, why exactly would I cut most of Africa off? The three continents look like Africa and Asia, Eorzea looks like Africa, is where Africa would be, and fills a similar purpose in the setting to Africa. That's it, that's the point.

Some place somewhere to the south that has maybe a couple paragraphs of lore written about it doesn't really have any impact on that.

For the record, I physically can't include Meracydia, there isn't any map showing it.

[WhiteArchmage]

If I'm comparing the Three Great Continents with Africa and Eurasia, why exactly would I cut most of Africa off? The three continents look like Africa and Asia, Eorzea looks like Africa, is where Africa would be, and fills a similar purpose in the setting to Africa. That's it, that's the point.

Some place somewhere to the south that has maybe a couple paragraphs of lore written about it doesn't really have any impact on that.

For the record, I physically can't include Meracydia, there isn't any map showing it.

The point is, you're comparing The Three Great Continents to Africa and Eurasia. When it's just Eurasia. I would grant that Ul'dah (rather, Belah'dia) has some Egyptian influence, but that's mostly on an Alexander the Great's conquests (after all, the whole Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt was Greek). Actual Ul'Dah has Moroccan influence, which again, yes, African, but NORTHERN Africa; as in, Right on the other side of Gibraltar strait from Spain.

If you're trying to say that Eorzea = Africa (as far as landmasses go), it's dead wrong. For comparison's sake, this is what I mean with the Ecuador Line.




The weather patterns don't add up. For the comparison to make sense, Limsa is too far North to be Madagascar, Gridania is nowhere NEAR the climate and culture of Sudan, and Ul'dah is not at all like Congo (actually, even further South, Zambia or Zimbawe). And it would also put Coerthas in Morocco... even pre-Calamity, Coerthan culture and weather where much more Scandinavian than Moroccan. It's NOT where Africa would be, Eorzea is TOO FAR NORTH. THAT'S why Meracydia is relevant (as far as we know): it's further South, and mostly unexplored, with some tribes trading with Eorzea's alchemists for materials; the fact that we haven't seen it in-game is besides the point.

And Eorzea doesn't serve a similar purpose to Africa, either. If anything, 1.0 to 2.0 is based on the Greco-Persian Wars, although the Garlean Empire is based on Ancient Rome instead of the First Persian Empire. And it follows much more closely with said wars (A bunch of scattered City-States joining together to drive back an invading Imperial force, which led to the founding of the Delian League, i.e. a treaty between the Greek City States against Persia) than the conquests of Africa. That's why I said I'll grant Ul'dah as being part of NORTHERN Africa, but it's ignoring the REST of the Cultures there; especially as Northern Africa has a lot more influence from the Middle East, Greece, and Rome (they were, after all, their direct neighbors).

[Packetdancer]

The point is, you're comparing The Three Great Continents to Africa and Eurasia. When it's just Eurasia. I would grant that Ul'dah (rather, Belah'dia) has some Egyptian influence, but that's mostly on an Alexander the Great's conquests (after all, the whole Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt was Greek). Actual Ul'Dah has Moroccan influence, which again, yes, African, but NORTHERN Africa; as in, Right on the other side of Gibraltar strait from Spain.

I mean, also, as fun as it is to theorize on and debate about cultural and geographical inspiration used to create the various regions in-game—I enjoy it too, because worldbuilding is fun!—it's sort of tangential to anything else. Lots of fantasy world authors will take real geographies and flip them or mirror them or squash them or stretch them, because it gives you believable coastlines and archipelagos and whatnot. None of which necessarily has any bearing on what they put in those lands.

In a story I wrote, the map I made for the world had a continent and subcontinent that were literally Africa (mirrored along the vertical axis and rotated counterclockwise slightly) with Australia above it (also flipped and then shrunk) as a northwestern subcontinental neighbor. It gave me a continental coastline that felt 'real' rather than "I poured uncooked dry macaroni on a sheet of paper and then drew a line around where it all gathered" (which, to be fair, is actually a surprisingly effective way of building landmasses for fantasy-world maps), but the cultures inhabiting those landmasses (and indeed, the climate of those landmasses) had nothing to do with the real-world landmasses I took coastlines from.

So even if the rough shape of the Three Great Continents were based on the real-world map as inspiration—erase Europe to make the Northern Empty, squash the general shape down so it's all in one hemisphere, make Madagascar larger and flip what's now Vylbrand to the other side of Eorzea so it's off the western coast of Aldenard, etc.—none of that necessarily has any bearing on what those lands represent in the world they've created.

[Iscah]

For comparison's sake, this is what I mean with the Ecuador Line.

Thankyou for the backup on the map discussion, but I need to nitpick terminology.

That line is the Equator, so called because it divides the globe into equal halves.

Ecuador derives its name from being on the Equator, but the line is not named after it.

[WhiteArchmage]

Thankyou for the backup on the map discussion, but I need to nitpick terminology.

That line is the Equator, so called because it divides the globe into equal halves.

Ecuador derives its name from being on the Equator, but the line is not named after it.

Ah, sorry. In Spanish we call it the Ecuador, guess I got lost in translation.