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

[DND_Reborn]

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.

Do we know whether this is in the norther or southern hemisphere? If it is southern hemisphere, the shadows would fall partial south of the buildings (as well as east-west depending on the time of day) during the cold part of the year.

If it is in the northern hemisphere, it is pretty wrong all the way around.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Here is a diagram to help:

If it is indeed located near the equator, the sun will form shadows on the south side of buildings, etc. during the summer (see red oval). Given the shadows on the map are along the south and western sides, the map could easily represent morning time in the summer.

There is really no reason to think the Sun goes north-south instead of east-west like on Earth.

 

[Dausuul]

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.

The light is coming from the top left (that is, northeast), not straight from the left-hand side.

Look at the southernmost tip of the mainland. You can see that the sun is shining on the coast there, which is facing the top of the map (east). But if you look down at the bottom, the coast which is facing the bottom of the map (west) is in shadow. That shows the sun is in the northeast rather than the north.

This is consistent with a moderately tilted axis similar to Earth's, as @dnd4vr lays out above.

 

[Demetrios1453]

But, that means that Oerth's orbit is wonky as all hell.

Oerth's orbit is definitely not wonky, simply because it doesn't have an orbit. Oerth's system is geocentric, so Oerth is stationary and its sun revolves around it...

 

[TheSword]

If you look at the scale you’ll see that even some of the smaller buildings are 100 ft long. It makes sense that these aren’t individual dwelling but rather collections of dwellings like terrace houses or tenements. Large ramshackle buildings with dozens of families.

 

[Parmandur]

If you look at the scale you’ll see that even some of the smaller buildings are 100 ft long. It makes sense that these aren’t individual dwelling but rather collections of dwellings like terrace houses or tenements. Large ramshackle buildings with dozens of families.

Zoomed out, somewhat abstract map, actually...

 

[dave2008]

Here is a diagram to help:
View attachment 124774
If it is indeed located near the equator, the sun will form shadows on the south side of buildings, etc. during the summer (see red oval). Given the shadows on the map are along the south and western sides, the map could easily represent morning time in the summer.

There is really no reason to think the Sun goes north-south instead of east-west like on Earth.

Of course that assume it has an earth like tilt to the planet.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Of course that assume it has an earth like tilt to the planet.

No reason or indication not to, but yes.

Technically, as long as there is any tilt, it works the same way. Now, you go to the extreme, and have a planet like Uranus which has nearly a 90 degree tilt, it gets more crazy...

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Actually I read recently that Oerth is supposed to have a different tilt. Maybe someone else remembers what it was exactly?

Edit: Ah, it's 30 degrees: Oerth - Greyhawk Wiki But apparently magic prevents it from throwing off the weather.

 

[Helldritch]

Oerth has always been a strange place... Heck.. it has two moons. That is enough to drive your Lycanthropes crazy when both are out in full!