Discussion Main / PatchworkMap

• "Lampshaded by David Eddings in The Rivan Codex, where he states that because he's not a geographer or climatologist, the map of his world is probably geologically impossible. At least it's not as blatant as some of the examples here.
  • Somewhat Justified in that the geography at the time the books are set was caused by an insane evil god trying to use a magical source of power to kill his enemies and ended up Breaking the World, a cataclysm that kills most of the human race, raises mountain ranges and splits the crust of the planet so a new sea is formed when the oceans flood the gap, cooling the magma rising up from beneath into new crust (which in turn appears to lower the sea level a great deal). If you look at the world map from before the Breaking of the World, found in Belgarath the Sorceror, it's a lot more geologically plausible."

In Belgrath the Sorceror, Eddings spends a few paragraphs discussing how the Breaking of the World affected the climate of the affected continent(s). He did an excellent job without getting bogged down. I was impressed myself that he mentioned that breaking a continent into two and the resultant new sea would have an effect on the whole world; I've come across several authors who will ignore everything outside the immediate affected area, keeping it essentially the same, even if logic would dictate otherwise. (Piers Anthony is good at recognizing wide-spread effects as well.)

I'm not sure if this would be better in Troper Tales, but there's no troper tales page for this page and I don't know how to start one, so here's my little anecdote: I created this fictional world called Elementia, and it's divided up into not four but ten sections: Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Metal, Wood, Electricity, Ice, Dark, and Light. Needless to say, it was largely a Patchwork Map. P. S. If anyone knows how to start a troper tales page for this trope, please do so, and move my discussion post to it, sans the P. S. ... thing.