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Worlds of Design: Modern vs. Medieval Maps
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<blockquote data-quote="Ixal" data-source="post: 8787587" data-attributes="member: 7030132"><p>To be fair Westeros is England + an enlarged Ireland glued together and then mirrored.</p><p></p><p>One thing to keep in mind is that maps have different uses and they change over time and with technology.</p><p>Many maps were only intended to show what exists and not for actual navigation. Those are the picture book maps with illustrations but way off proportions.</p><p>I am not totally sure, but I do not think that maps were intended to be used to navigate on land. If you want to go somewhere on land you followed the road or river to your next stop. So the only thing you needed to know was which towns you had to visit in order.</p><p>And for zoning purposes you placed physical markers with a increasingly elaborate system.</p><p>Maps for navigation were at first only for coastal and later sea travel and could get quite accurate and detailed, especially as the importance of sea travel increased in the age of sail. So much that maps were often considered state secrets.</p><p>Still, keep in mind that a map isn't either completely accurate or completely i accurate, but the accuracy decreases the further away you get from where the original creator lived, unless they have a very good system to transport and store information so that they can make accurate maps from faraway lands.</p><p>So when arriving in a foreign country it might be a good idea to occasionally get a new map.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Detailed land maps only came later once kingdoms centralized and mathematics and measurment instruments increased (and sometimes had disappointing results as the first detailed maps of France apparently showed that the country was 1/3 smaller than what tve king thought).</p><p>With such detailed maps zoning also stopped relying on physical markers and could be done by mapping.</p><p>This made also overland travel apart from roads much easier (not that many people wanted to do that, but it could be a shortcut when you are in a hurry).</p><p></p><p>Later as cannons started to dominate warfare elevation became more important. It wasn't enough to know that there was a middle sized hill, no generals wanted to know exactly which hill is higher and how steep they are. So elevation lines got added to at least military maps.</p><p></p><p>And as the maps became more accurate the question of projection came up. While not a problem for local maps, larger maps had the problem that you cant accurately represent the round earth on a flat piece of paper. So some inaccuracy had to be accepted. Most commonly maps use a mercator projection. Meaning the size of land is distorted, but you can draw a straight line between two points on the map and actually arrive where you intend to go by following that line.</p><p>Other map types exist where the sizes are correct, but the shortest path between two points on the map would be a curve.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ixal, post: 8787587, member: 7030132"] To be fair Westeros is England + an enlarged Ireland glued together and then mirrored. One thing to keep in mind is that maps have different uses and they change over time and with technology. Many maps were only intended to show what exists and not for actual navigation. Those are the picture book maps with illustrations but way off proportions. I am not totally sure, but I do not think that maps were intended to be used to navigate on land. If you want to go somewhere on land you followed the road or river to your next stop. So the only thing you needed to know was which towns you had to visit in order. And for zoning purposes you placed physical markers with a increasingly elaborate system. Maps for navigation were at first only for coastal and later sea travel and could get quite accurate and detailed, especially as the importance of sea travel increased in the age of sail. So much that maps were often considered state secrets. Still, keep in mind that a map isn't either completely accurate or completely i accurate, but the accuracy decreases the further away you get from where the original creator lived, unless they have a very good system to transport and store information so that they can make accurate maps from faraway lands. So when arriving in a foreign country it might be a good idea to occasionally get a new map. Detailed land maps only came later once kingdoms centralized and mathematics and measurment instruments increased (and sometimes had disappointing results as the first detailed maps of France apparently showed that the country was 1/3 smaller than what tve king thought). With such detailed maps zoning also stopped relying on physical markers and could be done by mapping. This made also overland travel apart from roads much easier (not that many people wanted to do that, but it could be a shortcut when you are in a hurry). Later as cannons started to dominate warfare elevation became more important. It wasn't enough to know that there was a middle sized hill, no generals wanted to know exactly which hill is higher and how steep they are. So elevation lines got added to at least military maps. And as the maps became more accurate the question of projection came up. While not a problem for local maps, larger maps had the problem that you cant accurately represent the round earth on a flat piece of paper. So some inaccuracy had to be accepted. Most commonly maps use a mercator projection. Meaning the size of land is distorted, but you can draw a straight line between two points on the map and actually arrive where you intend to go by following that line. Other map types exist where the sizes are correct, but the shortest path between two points on the map would be a curve. [/QUOTE]
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