[ SECRET POST #4331 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4331 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.



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02.
[Sabrina the Teenage Witch reboot]


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03.
[The Great British Bake Off, series 9]


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04.
[K/DA - POP/STARS - League of Legends]


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05.
[Pointless (Australia)]


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06.
[Penny Dreadful]


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07.
[Diablo Mobile/Blizzard]










Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 29 secrets from Secret Submission Post #620.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

01. https://i.imgur.com/WcRaeYE.png

[(Anonymous)]

I would just like to say that I don't think that there's any circumstance in which a lack of geological realism could ever be a problem for a fantasy novel.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know about that. Just because it's a work of fantasy doesn't mean there's no need for any logic whatsoever.

[(Anonymous)]

Even if that's true... does it really include the dang geography?

[(Anonymous)]

Why wouldn't it? It's not a bad idea for world building to make sense. For example, if a story is set in a desert environment, then the fact that it's fantasy doesn't change the fact that humans require a source of water, and so do any animals they keep. Crops can't be grown without water, so that will impact what foods are readily available to them. The author will need to come up with a credible explanation for how this desert community works and chances it'll look a lot like real world desert cultures because they've developed along those lines for a reason.

[(Anonymous)]

But, first, that's if you want it to feel like a realistic our-worldly desert culture in the first place.

Second, even then, most of the actual details that matter to readers are going to be above the level of agricultural practice, let alone the level of geological formations. I have a hard time believing that you need more than "yeah, there's uhhhhhh an underground river" or something to get the point across.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes? Because in most fantasy settings, life forms like human beings and animals still need food and water. That's not exactly complicated levels of realism. It's very basic.

Sure? But that's that's applying logic to the setting in a geographical sense. I didn't claim that the world building needed to have every minute detail spelled out, just that it's not a bad idea to consider geography. That's exactly what you're doing by proposing an underground water source to sustain this hypothetical desert community.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, but primarily narrative and aesthetic and character logic

[(Anonymous)]

It honestly never occurred to me to be bothered by this because it'd make sense in real life for mountain ranges to be the natural borders of kingdoms. Ditto rivers and other major geographical features.

[soldatsasha]

I'm less bothered by them lining the edges with mountains, and more bothered that the mountains and rivers never seem to make any kind of geographical sense.

[(Anonymous)]

Mountains were never the bit of fantasy maps that bothered me geographically. I just assume funky plate tectonics or the like. They never really look that much weirder than real mountain ranges do. I mean, Mordor's lovely rectangle looks odd, but in RL you could just stretch out the arms of the Carpathians a bit and you'd get a similar effect. Rivers aren't usually that bad either, since most people do at least grasp the whole 'runs from higher to lower ground' thing. It was always climates and biomes where things started looking wonky to me.

[(Anonymous)]

I was reading these two articles about just that not long ago:

Tolkien’s Map and The Messed Up Mountains of Middle-earth:

https://www.tor.com/2017/08/01/tolkiens-map-and-the-messed-up-mountains-of-middle-earth/


Tolkien’s Map and the Perplexing River Systems of Middle-earth:

https://www.tor.com/2017/10/10/tolkiens-map-and-the-perplexing-river-systems-of-middle-earth/

I like the mountain one, but the river one bugs me since he acts like there needs to be significant vertical relief between drainage basins when in reality drainage divides, even between major systems, can be very low and subtle (someone in the comments mentions the Traverse Gap, which was the first thing that sprang to my mind). As for the Anduin flowing parallel to the Misty Mountains, that makes perfect sense of there is higher ground to the west (see the Ganges and Brahmaputra flowing parallel with the Himalayas because of higher ground to the south) and this high ground is either too gentle to show up as mountains or was just left off the map. That brings up the issue of the mapmaker's knowledge. If a map is created by Bilbo or Frodo and they don't know a lot about what things look like in the east, then they won't be drawing lots of topography and tributaries and things on the map. I fully agree that the Entwash delta at its confluence with the Anduin is really goofy, though.

TL;DR the mountains of Middle Earth make no sense, but the rivers aren't all that bad.

[soldatsasha]

I don't have time to read those atm but they look super interesting and I'll probably read them tonight.

Maybe it's just bc I find geography super interesting, but I appreciate when creators take the time to get it right, and I also appreciate when fans over analyze things.

[ninefox]

well damn now I want to know if any of the historical supercontinents had an interior more or less completely surrounded by mountains

I mean with all the continental plates converging, you'd have a lot...

[(Anonymous)]

I think I know what you mean, but at the same time I get why they add the restrictions...
If you use open world video games as an example, there is a need to surround the area with mountains, water, or buildings. Otherwise, as Fallout is prone to do, you reach a point where the game simply stops you from continuing any further, even if nothing physically prevents you from doing so. Containing the map allows for some isolation within the storyline. It prevents outside forces from getting involved, or giving the characters a place to escape to.
Of course I'm not too familiar with the fantasy genre, so I might not understand where you're coming from exactly. But as you said, no one expects them to create an entire world for their fiction. Adding mountains is probably just the easiest way to contain their world, even if it isn't geographically sound by our standards;; Not to mention island life isn't a setting typical for most fantasy novels;;

[(Anonymous)]

I have a big Chekhov's gun problem with maps in fantasy novels. Don't show me a bunch of stuff that's not part of the story! I don't care how much effort you put into your world-building, I don't need to know the names of every kingdom and village and river if the characters never go there or mention them. Knowing where things are geographically in relation to each other is great, but only if it's something that comes up in the book. Broad strokes to create context are fine, but does it really matter that there's a specific mountain or lake or village over there that has no bearing on anything?