Eberrons bizzare maps

[Glyfair]

I had always just agree with keith about the factor of 10 after I saw him posting it- but you're right... 500 miles across seems too small...

IIRC, he has stated his intent was for it to be about the size of Europe. So, that's the factor by which I'd adjust.

Has a large scale version of the map ever been released? You know like they did in Dragon for Grayhawk and FRs.

Dragon had a poster size map, but it lacked details. The Eberron DM Screen has a much better map. The same map (I believe) is downloadable here.

 

[Vorput]

I just finished typing up an e-mail to my DM, since we were currently discussing this. I did some math which some might find handy, so the e-mail is included below I used the original factor of Khorvaire being 5,000 miles across, by 1,750 miles up and down. these are rought figures that i garnered by quickly using the scale of course- but I think they're pretty accurate.

'On shrinking by 10, if you're still following that post- this is an interesting point:

"1. The maps are erroneously multiplied by 10 (according to Keith). So this would make Khorvaire 500 miles wide, not 5,000. That would make Khorvaire way too small in my opinion; the entire continent the size of France."

that does seem too small.... the entire continent being twice the width of wisconsin? Not even as far across as Texas? 1/10th scale would make it roughly 87,500 square miles (roughly).

That's almost exactly the size of Minnesota... now I admit I'm biased by my cars and planes, but it doesn't seem realistic that you could have that many seperate cultures, cities, terrains, etc. in the landmass of Minnesota...

Maybe just halving it? Halving it would make it 4,375,000 square miles.

Europe is 3,930,000 square miles for comparison, The U.S. is 3,718,695.

that still seems big... but more reasonable, what do you think?'

 

[Vorput]

And then something to consider about magic, reducing it by a factor of 10 means that as soon as a Wizard gets teleport (9th level=900 miles), he can jump from coast to coast without breaking a sweat.

It would take a Druid using Tree stride roughly 2 hours to cross the continent- and that's assuming ALOT of trouble finding suitable trees.

A cleric using windwalk could do it in about 8 hours.

Now these require high level casters, which Eberron doesn't see a lot of- but it shows something about travel time.

 

[Yaksha_]

Yes, halving all the continents of Eberron seems very reasonable to me – then Khorvaire is close to the size of Europe.

The conundrum then though is the distance between continents and the poles. Let’s say Xen’drik and Khorvaire are halved, do you make them further apart or make the polar ice larger?

I think the best way to look at it is to just leave the Eberron world map as it is, but understand that with our modern eye this map is a lot like the maps we had in medieval times. If you look at old maps from this period they are pretty whacked out but still give you a general idea where continents and countries are.

One old map (some 400 years ago) for example depicts Australia as part of a giant Antarctic land mass. Could this be like the Eberron maps depiction of Xen’drik? Perhaps there is a whole other continent beneath Xen’drik? Perhaps Khorvaire is half the size that it is shown but Xen’drik’s size id pretty accurate?

I think halve the size of Khorvaire, assume the Eberron world map is the inhabitant’s erroneous view of the world, and leave some mystery about the “real” nature of Eberrons geography.

That will do me.

Now, about that population level……..

 

[megamania]

I was going to leave it as is. Why?

The general theme or plan for Eberron was to make a world that a DM could place ANYTHING into. To do this requires a lot of unused area to be found and explored by PCs. After reading sections of Forged in War, it seemed like nearly all the battles were somewhat close to the borders. Only a few deep incursions occured and then they had to retreat due to lack of supply lines or just plain biting off more than that army could chew.

As for the prices of travel versus commoners income.... look at the DMG. This is an issue for all games. It would drive DMs and Players crazy to work out "real" life style monetary costs and the such.

I remember the thread about adventurers building a city within a year based on money and taxes. Crazy stuff.

 

[megamania]

Has a large scale version of the map ever been released? You know like they did in Dragon for Grayhawk and FRs.

During the fall a poster sized map of Khorvaire was done and slipped into Dungeon Magazine (another thing I will greatly miss). I remember it since 1. I bought an extra copy besides my prescrip and 2. I have it hanging up beside the computer for travel / location referrences.

 

[Glyfair]

The general theme or plan for Eberron was to make a world that a DM could place ANYTHING into.

Leaving aside the intent of the original statement for now...

Don't mistake "anything" with "everything." The intent wasn't that you could throw everything from D&D into Eberron at once. It was that anything* in D&D has a place where you could put it.

In other words, you like a monster from the Monster Manual VII? Here is a place where it would fit quite well.

* In fact, it was supposed to be more limited than that.

 

[Jakar]

Thanks to all who answered my question.

Cheers.

 

[Gez]

1. The maps are erroneously multiplied by 10 (according to Keith). So this would make Khorvaire 500 miles wide, not 5,000. That would make Khorvaire way too small in my opinion; the entire continent the size of France.

Depends on whether it's the length or the area that's multiplied by 10... From 5000 to 500 is a factor of 100 as far as areas are concerned. What about 1700 miles wide?

 

[Klaus]

If Khorvaire is divided by 2, I'd keep Xen'drik, Sarlona, Argonessen and Aerenal at the same size, and I'd increase the distance between Khorvaire and Xen'drik (I always thought those two were too close).