[AU] Poor geographic feature or ?

[Wombat]

You know, given that FR has a large, arid Sahara-like desert in the extreme north and a number of other impossibles, I don't even worry about this one.

Only a couple of companies have done serious work on geography in rpgs. Columbia Games (Harn) and Biohazard (Blue Planet) come to mind -- most of the others make little or no sense to anyone trained in geography.

So if we accept FR and Greyhawk, why not this map? It's no worse...

 

[KDLadage]

psst: It's called being WAY too oversensitive, dude.

Psst: No, dude, its called being... no, never mind. Henry has spoken.

 

[DiFier]

I don't know It sorta looks to me like the river bed was gouged out by a glacier. probablly a low point in the mountains and the ice pushed through eroding it when the ice melted The water traveled along that path creating a river.

 

[couldbeanydm]

I personally don't need perfect geography for my fantasy worlds, but if you need an explanation:

As has been mentioned, glacier activity can produce similar geography. For instance, the relief maps below show New York state.

map


This is at least somewhat similar to what is shown in DT. Now, of course the mountains that are "split" in NY are actually different mountain ranges. Different not just in name, but also in the way they were formed. But it wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that the north/south parts of the "split" DT mountain range are actually different mountain ranges.

 

[BlackMoria]

It's a massive gorge, something akin to the grand canyon.

 

[WayneLigon]

I like realistic maps that have sensical geographic features, but doesn't this seem really silly? That the Elder Peaks would just stop and then pick up again further south for a river to conveniently run straight through their middle?

I think you need to look at it as 'the river runs through there because that area is between two ranges'. I'd like to take a closer look at it, but either my network or Monte's provider is being terribly slow; I can't get the PDF to open so I can zoom in closer.

But I think you're looking at an area (in both cases) that is both mountains and hills and it's not really clear where one begins and ends. As long as one section is higher than another one, you'll get water flow which will eventually wear down anything; look at the Grand Canyon. The area where the river passes through probably looks like that; lots of softer stone plus a very insistant river equals a breakthrough somewhere.

 

[Negative Zero]

i'm confused. it starts in the mountains, and ends at the sea. the way the map is drawn looks like there's a valley between the mountains. (and i hadn't seen the map till just now.) not trying to be a wise- but, Zerakon, is there a geological reason this can't happen?

~NegZ

 

[Zogg]

I think Zerakon picked up all his toys and went home.

 

[WayneLigon]

And I'm not sure I would blame him.

 

[Nightfall]

Yeah I think he probably went back to Kalamar. Apparently they make perfect geographical sense.