History Main / LeftJustifiedFantasyMap

* GuildWars: all three continents, even though one of them is an ''island'' and really should have eastern and southern borders. However, Tyria's landmass features a gigantic western peninsula (its isthmus contains an entire country) whose furthest edge is cut off the map, suggesting that there may be more land to the west.

* ''TheWheelOfTime'', although there the main area is based on western Africa instead of Europe.
** ... ''what''?
*** The Aiel Waste, maybe? Though I would have said it was more like the American Southwest. ...populated by Aryan [[{{Dune}} Fremen]] Zulu Ninjas.
** The main continent -- the Westlands -- is based on Europe, with the Aiel Waste to the east being a desert warrior cultre and then an Asia-like landmass east of that. The Wheel of Time fulfills the trope, but is later undercut by the World Book, which features maps of the other landmasses and the entire world.
** The ''shape'' of the Westlands' continent is very roughly like that of Africa, but it would have to be much smaller to really match Africa.
*** Whoah, hold on. The Westlands are ''substantially'' bigger than the second-largest continent on Earth?
** And the Great Blight (which is more like a toxic jungle with EverythingTryingToKillYou) is in the north. If we equal the jungle with the tropics, does that mean the main continent is on the southern hemisphere?
*** No, it's in the north (according the the maps in the World Book). The Blight being warm despite being pretty far north is presumably another aspect of its corruption.
*** A major bit of [[{{Fridge Brilliance}}Fridge Brilliance]] here, the blight is stated to be constantly rotting and decomposing, having done this for over three thousand years. The carbon and methane emissions must have heated the local atmosphere to a horrific extent by now.

** Well, one couldn't sail to the sunrise from a West-facing coast, could one?

**** Rotating it 180 degress can give you a differnt view, Antiva is more closely related to Spain (the merchant with the elf son in DA2 Curses in spanish with clear spaniard accent and their behavior is distinctively medieval spain), Rivain/Portugal, Par Vollen/North Africa(they invaded Europe multiple times during the early medieval period), Seheron/Scicily, Corsica or o, Nevarra/Navarre(an ancient kindom in North Eastern Spain), Orlais/France, The Free Marches by relative location, England. The Tevinter Imperium by relative location(center) can be Italy (Origin of the old Roman empire) or by it's proximity to Antiva and Orlais can be the Spanish Kingdom of Aragones, Ferelden and the Dales can be Scandinavia by relative location in Europe and the Anderfels as Germany, the Balkans or the Byzantine Empire.

Also see: "PatchworkMap"; "StandardFantasySetting".

* The ''DungeonsAndDragons'' setting ''ForgottenRealms''. Avoided in almost all other settings: In ''Greyhawk'', ''Mystara'', ''Kara-Tur'', and ''Maztica'', the ocean is on the right (which is only natural in the case of the latter two: Kara-Tur is on the far side of the Realms' supercontinent while Maztica is another continent across the ocean to the west); while in ''Red Steel'' (a spinoff of ''Mystara''), the ocean is on the south; and in ''{{Dragonlance}}'', ''{{Eberron}}'', ''Al-Qadim'', and ''{{Birthright}}'', the map shows both coasts. ''{{Ravenloft}}'' in its original release features an ocean on its western side, though in a later edition the Mists that surround it expand out to reveal an ocean on the eastern shore. Somewhat justified in that ''Ravenloft'' is an artificial demiplane whose geography is subject to change, alteration, or erasure by the Dark Powers at the drop of a hat.

*** And the Great Blight (which is more like a toxic jungle with EverythingTryingToKillYou) is in the north. If we equal the jungle with the tropics, does that mean the main continent is on the southern hemisphere?

* Played straight in Myth: The Fallen Lords who's map also looks very similar to that of the Simirillion

* So far, every ''[[{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]'' map has had its ocean to the south. Justified for Kanto and Johto being adjacent countries, but that's it.
** Except for Hoenn, which is an island, and Sinnoh, which has ocean on every side. Also, it is based on Japan's topography -- I suppose the important cities are just on the southern side of the main island.
*** That's exactly right. Nearly all the locations in the Pokemon games are based on real Japanese areas, cities and landmarks. Kanto is based on the area around Tokyo, with Johto around Kyoto, and Sinnoh is based on the northern island of Hokkaido.
*** Have a [[http://archives.bulbagarden.net/wiki/File:Japan_Regions.png map]].
** [[PokemonBlackAndWhite Unova]], being geographically based on New York, both follows this tradition and inverts the trope, as the ocean is to the south and east.

* Justified by Hyborian-age Earth in Robert Howard's ''Conan'' stories, as Howard's mythos was set in a time after Atlantis sank but before known ancient civilizations had arisen, using Europe, Asia, and Africa as a model.

* Both ''TheBelgariad'' and ''The Elenium'' provide world maps like this. Interestingly, their respective sequels both take place on the then-charted lands of the far east, complete with maps. It should be noted that Eddings takes world-building very seriously.

*** In Japan, the ocean can be on whichever side of the map they want. It's a group of islands.

** Averted in the other Ivalice games. In ''Final Fantasy XII'', Ivalice (this time a region in the same world) resembles a horizontally-flipped Mediterranean, while in Tactics Advance, Jylland is formed from two peninsulas jutting towards each other (despite the presence of Goug city suggesting it's the same area as the original Tactics' kingdom, just in a different time).

* The Old World in {{Warhammer}} is a not-very-subtle version of Europe (and beyond), so the layout is much the same as a real-world map. As the primary focus is on the Empire (Germany), Bretonnia (France) and the frozen, inhospitable wastelands only inhabited by desperate, drunk and brutal deformed humans (Scandinavia), that's what most of the maps show.

* The ''DungeonsAndDragons'' setting ''ForgottenRealms''. Avoided in almost all other settings: In ''Greyhawk'', ''Mystara'', ''Kara-Tur'', and ''Maztica'', the ocean is on the right (which is only natural in the case of the latter two: Kara-Tur is on the far side of the Realms' supercontinent while Maztica is another continent across the ocean to the west); while in ''Red Steel'' (a spinoff of ''Mystara''), the ocean is on the south; and in ''{{Dragonlance}}'', ''{{Eberron}}'', ''Al-Qadim'', and ''{{Birthright}}'', the map shows both coasts. ''{{Ravenloft}}'' in its original release features an ocean on its western side, though in a later edition the Mists that surround it expand out to reveal an ocean on the eastern shore. Somewhat justified in that ''Ravenloft'' is an artificial demiplane whose geography is subject to change, alteration, or erasure by the Dark Powers at the drop of a hat.
** Faerûn's east coast at the Great Ice Sea does appear on some maps as well, although it generally fulfills the trope. Later maps do show the entire planet, however, so it's more a case that the Faerûnian continent 'traditional map' fulfills the trope, but the actual world and setting does not.
** On the subject of tabletop RPG settings, ''{{Exalted}}'' also follows this trope.
*** Which is especially weird, since the map for ''Exalted'' is literally the map of the entire world. Although considering it's not a planet, and each edge is dominated by its respective element, the fact that the area near the Elemental Pole of Water is the only ocean isn't particularly surprising.

The real reason for this, of course, is that [[SturgeonsLaw ninety percent]] of fantasy settings are {{Fantasy Counterpart Culture}}s of [[MedievalEuropeanFantasy Medieval Europe]], where the ocean was, naturally, on the left. Or that ''LordOfTheRings'' [[FollowTheLeader also did it]]. (Note: The Frank Baum series of OZ books had maps illustrated with east and west flipped. However, the only ocean, the Nonestic, is in the far east as Oz proper is technically land-locked.)

*In the ''FireEmblem'' series, Elibe (''The Binding Blade'' and ''The Blazing Blade'') and Tellius (''Path of Radiance'' and ''Radiant Dawn'') are left-justified. Magvel (''The Sacred Stones'') and Jugdral (''Ancestral Crusade'') have oceans on all sides of the map, and Archanea (''Shadow Dragon'') has an ocean to the south.