Constellations and the Night Sky

[Catapult]

Well, it appears to me at least that Eorzea is in Hydaelyn's northern hemisphere - at the end of at least two of the ARR trailers where it pans out to show Hydaelyn from space it seems to show Aldenard and Vlybrand in the northern hemisphere of the planet. But it's not very clear after all (if I can find a screencap of the trailer in question I'll post it here).

EDIT:



It's not the best (I had to increase the brightness to show the planet's detail), but I managed to pull a screenshot from this trailer, and you can see Aldenard and Vlybrand quite clearly - although the sun is obscured behind Hydaelyn the light bloom on the top right corner of the planet hints at it's axial tilt, thus showing that Eorzea is pretty conclusively located in the northern hemisphere.

Unless the camera is oriented "upside down". I dare you to reconsider your perspective.


I'm Australian. It's a thing.

[ArkhamNative]

Unless the camera is oriented "upside down". I dare you to reconsider your perspective.

I'm Australian. It's a thing.

That map is so awesome. I like the way it tugs on preconceptions I wasn't even aware I had. ("I already feel the blood rushing to my head," and "Obviously the world's not like that, or we'd fall off. You know, because gravity pulls down, and if we're not on top of the 'ball', we would fall off into space.")

But back to topic, because Eorzeans have called "North" the same half of their globe that Eorzea is in, it's in the Northern hemisphere. And they also chose to represent "North" as "up" on maps.

I guess we'll see in Phase 3 (lolpun) if or how SE has altered the oddity of the moon being seemingly random phases in v1's sky each night. And I'm looking forward to info about constellations or whatever astronomical/astrological lore they have in store.

[Anonymoose]

I dare you to reconsider your perspective. I'm Australian. It's a thing.

It may be argued that, because the Earth is a giant magnet, that "positive" and "negative" poles are arbitrary labels, and thus so are the "North" and "South" poles. Why, so much land is in the Northern Hemisphere. It's no wonder that those who developed these standards would fall to the bias of their own area being in the north, right?

But what about the compass?

Even in the hemisphere labeled "southern," the compass points to the "north" pole. This is the direction that magnetism flows. Our Eorzean minimaps have compasses, and if they're to be believed, then our maps consider the direction magnetism flows to be "north," as well. To say otherwise would be to say that Eorzeans interpret their compasses differently, and then make all their maps upside down because, hey, why not?...

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...

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NORTHERN HEMISPHERE REPRESENT!

/sprint
/doorslam