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How would a Flat World work, visually?
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<blockquote data-quote="Merkuri" data-source="post: 4174040" data-attributes="member: 41321"><p>What a nifty thread... I was pondering this question myself a little while ago. I like having flat or otherwise non-spherical fantasy worlds to separate them from the real world. I just feel like it's too easy and too familiar to put your world on a sphere and have it orbiting the sun. If you want to instill a sense of wonder in your world you have to make it significantly different, yet familiar enough for your players to understand it.</p><p></p><p>I imagine that in places where you could normally see a horizon on Earth (like a very flat plane or over the ocean) there would no longer be a clearly defined line between ground and sky. Due to dust, water, and whatnot in the air there would come a point somewhere that the air would appear an opaque white or pale blue, like a haze or fog in the far distance. The sky would just sort of fade into this fog from the top and the ground or the ocean would fade out of it on the bottom. On really clear days over the ocean you probably wouldn't be able to tell what was ocean and what was sky. It might look like somewhere in the distance the ocean curved up and actually became the sky over your head. (And in a fantasy world, who knows, that might actually be what happens!)</p><p></p><p>In most cases, though, you usually can't see further than a few miles due to objects blocking your line of sight (buildings, trees, hills, etc.), and in those cases a flat world would be no different from a round one. </p><p></p><p>Really, I think the only time it would really matter would be in the case of the ocean or really tall objects. Tall objects could probably be seen from quite a distance, but eventually they'd simply become small enough that the human eye couldn't pick them out from the sky, or they'd fade into the horizon-haze. If you were on top of said tall object then it would probably be similar to looking out over the ocean, where things just fade into haze after a hundred miles or so, and far enough out you'd only be able to see really big features anyway, since everything else would be too small to pick out.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Merkuri, post: 4174040, member: 41321"] What a nifty thread... I was pondering this question myself a little while ago. I like having flat or otherwise non-spherical fantasy worlds to separate them from the real world. I just feel like it's too easy and too familiar to put your world on a sphere and have it orbiting the sun. If you want to instill a sense of wonder in your world you have to make it significantly different, yet familiar enough for your players to understand it. I imagine that in places where you could normally see a horizon on Earth (like a very flat plane or over the ocean) there would no longer be a clearly defined line between ground and sky. Due to dust, water, and whatnot in the air there would come a point somewhere that the air would appear an opaque white or pale blue, like a haze or fog in the far distance. The sky would just sort of fade into this fog from the top and the ground or the ocean would fade out of it on the bottom. On really clear days over the ocean you probably wouldn't be able to tell what was ocean and what was sky. It might look like somewhere in the distance the ocean curved up and actually became the sky over your head. (And in a fantasy world, who knows, that might actually be what happens!) In most cases, though, you usually can't see further than a few miles due to objects blocking your line of sight (buildings, trees, hills, etc.), and in those cases a flat world would be no different from a round one. Really, I think the only time it would really matter would be in the case of the ocean or really tall objects. Tall objects could probably be seen from quite a distance, but eventually they'd simply become small enough that the human eye couldn't pick them out from the sky, or they'd fade into the horizon-haze. If you were on top of said tall object then it would probably be similar to looking out over the ocean, where things just fade into haze after a hundred miles or so, and far enough out you'd only be able to see really big features anyway, since everything else would be too small to pick out. [/QUOTE]
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