History Main / LeftJustifiedFantasyMap

* ''Titan'', the (main) [[Fighting Fantasy]] world has the majority of adventures take place on the West Coast of Allansia, particularly "[[WretchedHive Port Blacksand]]".

* Since ''Dies the Fire'' and it's squeals mostly take place on pacific coast, it also follows this trope. However, ''The Scourge of God'' takes place in the midwest, and thus has no coasts (Unless counting the Great Lakes) and then the ''Sword of the Lady'' roams from the Mississippi to the East Coast, thus avoiding the trope. Also, since it takes place on an Alternate History Earth, there do exist several maps that detail the rest of the world, at least in universe.

This trope can lead to a QuestToTheWest if the characters are interested in crossing the sea.

* Used in the book ''Gifts'' by Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin. ''Gifts'' and its sequels ''Voices'' and ''Powers'' are now collectively known as "The Annals of the Western Shore", which may or may not be [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]].

*** And in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'', where the ocean is '''everywhere'''.

** That conception became less clear as time went on, so that some believe that by his death Tolkien no longer intended Middle Earth to be in any way related to the real world. Besides that, he had maps that showed the rest of Middle Earth, its just that the events of both ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' take place in the west, at least partly because it was closer to the Blessed Realm and Númenor and because that was where the Kingdoms of the Noldor and of Thingol were.

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' could have started this phenomenon. Creator/JRRTolkien had set out to create a mythology for Europe and especially England (the available myths, such as [[KingArthur Camelot]] and Literature/{{Beowulf}}, being alien to the modern English culture) and thus, in the context of the fantasy, Middle-earth is supposed to be western Europe as it was in the extremely distant past.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' takes this concept (like so many other concepts from plain ol' fantasy ''Warhammer'') and takes it [[RecycledInSpace into space]]. No noticeable geographic features, obviously, and exceptions apply, but the galaxy of ''40k'' is divided into Segmentum including, for example, Obscurus (up "north", featuring Fenris, planet of the space Vikings and Vostroya, the planet of space Russians) and Ultima (out "east", featuring the {{Animesque}} Tau and Mongol White Scars).

* ''[[Literature/InheritanceCycle Eragon]]'': the part of Alagaësia where all of the action takes place has giant woods flanking it from north and north-east, mountains in the south and east, and sea in the west and south-west.
* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}''. Although occasionally when we see a full map of the Northlands, such as in ''Martin the Warrior'', we do see a northern and eastern coast as well. It's just that the bulk of the action takes place in Mossflower, which is on the western coast of the landmass and further south - it's roughly triangular, like Great Britain, on which it's based.

* Inverted in Creator/CSLewis' ''Literature/{{Narnia}}'', which is right-justified with the sea on the east; an interesting departure from the Avalon-in-the-West orientation pervading Tolkien and his imitators; and all the more remarkable because CS Lewis was friends with Tolkien. One explanation for this is that the sea is in the west in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' because the world is fading like the setting sun. The sea is in the east in Narnia because things are always getting brighter and better. Due to Lewis's aforementioned relationship with Tolkien, this led some to theorize that Narnia was in fact the other half of the continent Middle-earth was a part of, though they clarified this wasn't the case.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Westeros is the westernmost landmass in the world. It is the fantasy equivalent of the British Isles, though continent-sized and contains equivalents to other parts of Europe. The western sea is called the Sunset Sea, and there is no known land in that direction (Beyond the point where it wraps around to Essos' eastern shore, of course). Lord Gylbert Farwynd of the Lonely Light, the Westernmost of the Iron Islands and point of land, claims there is a paradise-like land to the West many of the Iron Islanders don't believe him and think him mad. Westeros sits off the western shore of Essos, which is the fantasy equivalent of Eurasia. Essos extends beyond the eastern limits of all official maps, so its eastern shores are never seen. The limitations in the maps are meant to reflect the limitations of Medieval maps.

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' by Robert Jordan: {{Grim Up North}}? Check. {{Hordes From The East}}? Check. Ocean on the left? Check. [[TheSavageSouth Hot jungles at south]]? Che-oh wait, no jungles. There is, however, a swampy southern shore. The series plays with the convention in two ways, though: the protagonists spend a fair amount of time off the eastern edge of the map, in what turns out to be a harsh desert; maps of this area are never shown, and there's another country even further east that is never explored. Secondly, although there are several factions that could qualify as HordesFromTheEast, the ones who do the most damage throughout the series actually come from the ''west'', over the sea. ''Nobody'' sees this coming.

* Entirely ignored in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', despite being set in what is obviously a European analog. Amestris is land locked, and surrounded by lots of much larger countries. There is mention of an island nation beyond Xing, however, and the larger map of the world briefly glimpsed in episode 64 of Brotherhood showcases a small amount of ocean touching upon Aerugo, the nation to the south and east of Amestris, thus making the Fullmetal World a bit more of a right-justified map (an even briefer glimpse of a chalk drawing of the world is glimpsed in the flashback to King Bradley's childhood, showing continents similar to Earth's with Europe, Africa and Asia kind of merging a bit around the Middle East, which is likely where Amestris and its fellow nations are located)

** Oddly averted in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', there is no coast or ocean. The largest body of water is Lake Hylia, which is land-locked (and to the south).

%%* ''[[Literature/InheritanceCycle Eragon]]''

* Subverted in the ''Literature/{{Nightrunner}}'' series. Interestingly, it does somewhat resemble Europe, but from a Greco-Roman perspective. The civilized nations are mostly concentrated on landmasses extending from the south of the continent with the Gathwayd Ocean stretching beyond and other (unnamed) nations on its far shores. Heading north, east or west, takes one into unsettled, barbarian or just flat-out mysterious territories.

* Tad Williams' series MemorySorrowAndThorn gives us vast unexplored ocean [[http://www.tadwilliams.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/osten-ard-map-english-1000x750.gif to the west]] of main land-mass where all the events happen.

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'', where the Hoenn region has water and numerous islands to the east.
** Somewhat played straight with Kanto, Jotho, Unova, [[VideoGame/PokemonRanger Fiore and Almia]], where the ocean is always in the south.
** Orre from [[VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness Pokémon XD]] plays it completely straight by having the ocean to the left.
%%* ''VideoGame/{{Elona}}''

* Justified by Hyborian-age Earth in the original ''[[ConanTheBarbarian Conan]]'' stories, as Robert E. 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.

** Note that what we're looking at in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' is the drastically reduced version of it--the cataclysm that ended the First Age at the end of the main text of ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' destroyed about half of that particular landmass, with the Grey Havens being about the border of what was left from before.

%%* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''

* {{Literature/The Wheel of Time}} by Robert Jordan: {{Grim Up North}}? Check. {{Hordes From The East}}? Check. Ocean on the left? Check. [[TheSavageSouth Hot jungles at south]]? Che-oh wait, no jungles. There is a southern shore, and it's hotter than the mainland, though.

* Both ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' and ''TheElenium'' 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 ''TheDarkEye'', while Aventuria is bordered by ocean on all sides except northeast, the more prominent (and earlier fleshed out) settings are located on the western part of the continent. Justified in-universe, as the settlers of the now dominant nations first landed there.