D&D 5E It's Canon - Greyhawk's Sun rises in the South and Sets in the North (or possibly the other way around)

[Hussar]

I am a HUGE fan of the Ghosts of Saltmarsh book. Love it to pieces. All sorts of goodness there. But, one thing that has always bugged me was the Saltmarsh map:

I hate that the map is set with North to the left of the map. It's always been a sort of proud nail thing that just annoyed me. But, I could never really understand why it bothered me. So, I was looking at the map, and it hit me.

Look at the shadows.

All the shadows of the building are to the right of the map. IOW, the sun is on the left - either morning or afternoon, we can't really know which. But, that means that Oerth's orbit is wonky as all hell. The sun rises (or sets - again we cannot know from this map) in the north. This means that Greyhawk's polar ice caps are in the east and west,. All the descriptions of the climate printed before has just been retconned. You can't have a cold north when the planet is tilted 90 degrees to what our Earth is.

This just blew my mind. It's a wonder that no one has twigged to this before.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

What bothers me about it is that there is no way to fit the population of 5,000 into that map (even if you assume that half of that population is actually living in surrounding villages). It also bugs me that they call Saltmarsh a "village" when according to the DMGs Village/Town/City divisions, 5,000 is towards the high end of Town.

I've decided that almost all of the space between #27 and the wall is filled with dwellings.

I think we really just have to either apply the unreliable narrator concept here as an unreliable cartographer, or we have to look at it as a thematic "Highlights of Saltmarsh" map.

Still, the map is pretty enough that I'm tempted to spend all day (because let's face it, that's how long it will take me) in GIMP copying houses all over the place. Then I'll have to decide whether those shadows are sufficiently distracting that I want to erase them or not.

 

[dave2008]

I am a HUGE fan of the Ghosts of Saltmarsh book. Love it to pieces. All sorts of goodness there. But, one thing that has always bugged me was the Saltmarsh map:

I hate that the map is set with North to the left of the map. It's always been a sort of proud nail thing that just annoyed me. But, I could never really understand why it bothered me. So, I was looking at the map, and it hit me.

Look at the shadows.

All the shadows of the building are to the right of the map. IOW, the sun is on the left - either morning or afternoon, we can't really know which. But, that means that Oerth's orbit is wonky as all hell. The sun rises (or sets - again we cannot know from this map) in the north. This means that Greyhawk's polar ice caps are in the east and west,. All the descriptions of the climate printed before has just been retconned. You can't have a cold north when the planet is tilted 90 degrees to what our Earth is.

This just blew my mind. It's a wonder that no one has twigged to this before.

I wouldn't jump to assumptions about canon based on one map. The "shadows" are probably just a graphic tool and have nothing to do with the relationship between the world of greyhawk and its sun.

I'm with @Sword of Spirit though, that is not a map of a village / town of 5000 residents. Either the map is wrong on the # if residents is.

 

[Flamestrike]

There is probably some sinister secret at play here.

 

[CapnZapp]

Just change the number of inhabitants to 500 instead of 5000 and the map makes much more sense.

Is there any story development in the adventure that relies on thousands upon thousands of townspeople being present?

 

[DEFCON 1]

The 3.5 version of the map in the DMG II had many more buildings in it, more than enough to support 5000 I'd imagine.

 

[CapnZapp]

The 3.5 version of the map in the DMG II had many more buildings in it, more than enough to support 5000 I'd imagine.

Okay?

Again, is there a particular story need for a specific population?

Cheers

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Just change the number of inhabitants to 500 instead of 5000 and the map makes much more sense.

Is there any story development in the adventure that relies on thousands upon thousands of townspeople being present?

The way the town is described, with different factions, a town council, wealthy merchants, etc, does sort of require the larger number. It's not at all a tiny fishing village.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

All the shadows of the building are to the right of the map. IOW, the sun is on the left - either morning or afternoon, we can't really know which. But, that means that Oerth's orbit is wonky as all hell. The sun rises (or sets - again we cannot know from this map) in the north. This means that Greyhawk's polar ice caps are in the east and west,. All the descriptions of the climate printed before has just been retconned. You can't have a cold north when the planet is tilted 90 degrees to what our Earth is.

This just blew my mind. It's a wonder that no one has twigged to this before.

Once you're sufficiently close to the arctic circle the sun does in fact rise and set in the north in the middle of summer.

 

[the Jester]

Once you're sufficiently close to the arctic circle the sun does in fact rise and set in the north in the middle of summer.

If memory serves- I no longer have my old WoG boxed set from 1e- Saltmarsh is set fairly close to the equator.