Question about scale of Athas

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

OskarOisinson

Feb 25, 2015 15:48:48

Hi everyone, I was looking at an expanded map of Athas today and did a rough measure of the scale of it using my pinky. After measuring, I figured, the entire area of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting is comprised of roughly 25,000 miles sq. Again it's a rough number but if you look at what that is in the real world, it is roughly the size of South Carolina, accounting for only .0125% of the entire earth surface (including oceans). So, I'm curious. Do you guys have any ideas on how to explain the scale of Athas? I'm thinking of it mostly from a world-building perspective. If the Expanded DS CS only takes up roughly 1/10,000th of the earth's surface, what about those other 9,999/10,000ths?

 

That's assuming Athas is the size of earth though, but even so, a whole plane the size of South Carolina? Just looking for perspectives, explanations.  

 

I kind of figured the Deadlands are actually massive, as is the Silt Sea, kind of like Australia and the Pacific Ocean respectively. THe Crimson Savannah, I thought of as possibly a central Asian steppe-sized place, with maybe some other, younger cultures are trying to survive beyond it. To the North... I'm not sure. In this way, the Tablelands becomes kind of like historical Japan in a post-apocalyptic setting, too remote to come into contact with many other areas of the earth with any frequency and with all Athasians experiencing relatively extreme deprivation, individually and societally, that would prevent far travel. 

 

 

 

#2

cowleymen

Feb 27, 2015 3:47:02

OskarOisinson wrote:
#3

cowleymen

Feb 27, 2015 3:47:24

OskarOisinson wrote:
#4

Cyber-Dave

Feb 28, 2015 9:05:52

Since Athas has about the same day cycle and gravity cycle as earth, I don't think it is a very small planet. On the other hand, most of the planet is just inhospitable deadlands. I treat the rest of the planet as either dead or unreachable (due to distance over deadlands and an inability to carry enough rations to keep you alive or forage for rations while traveling that distance) from the section of Athas that is mapped. 

#5

RalofTyr

Mar 06, 2015 13:28:23

Planetary rotation and gravity are not a factor to size.  Mars is a quarter of the Earth's mass and has a similar day (25 hours) to Earth's.

I tend to agree with this map

http://forum.rpg.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=16084&d=1254434522

 

 

Athas could be the size of the Earth, but perhaps the Tyr Region is the only area with water.  What if everything else is silt?

Also, having as much silt even in the regional map would cause global-dust storms that could block out the sun for months.  For silt to have the properties descibed in the books, it has to be made out of a special material.

#6

Grummore

Mar 15, 2015 20:09:35

Yup, I'm with RoT on this one. And you have a nice startup on several maps here : http://ds.daegmorgan.net that was never fulfilled to the end (sad).

#7

OskarOisinson

Mar 20, 2015 1:08:41

I've seen those maps before but, I guess that begs a further question then of why  The Tablelands have more or less always been the cradle of civilization, do they seem the relatively least affected by the ravages that so denuded the rest of the planet? Also, the scale of even those planetary maps are not really equivalent/scaled properly (at least based off the wizards one I was estimating from). I guess I'm kind of looking more for conceits to explain it. I don't use silt in my campaign I use water contamination (oil, nuclear, etc. sludge) so I thought maybe this somehow interrupted the water cycle and only the areas nearest the SK's remained relatively uncontaminated, artifically. I also thought of maybe the wars, while depopulating, also scattered or pushed far away and decultured most of the other Athasians who became mutated by the global pollution/contamination. 

#8

RalofTyr

Mar 22, 2015 13:57:56

 http://ds.daegmorgan.net

 

 

Thanks; I have been looking for those.  Though I like my own templats symbols I made because they resemble the first Dark Sun Map, the Adobe-based symbols are easier to use!

#9

BRJN

Mar 27, 2015 17:37:27

I've always thought of the Sea of Silt as being like one of the Great Lakes, probably Lake Erie (the shallowest).  The silt is not polluted sludge, it is a substance with non-natural elemental properties.

I've also thought of Known Athas being surrounded by utterly inhospitable terrain, like an oasis in the Sahara Desert.  You could even make it a spinning mote in the Elemental Chaos.

If there is a listing somewhere of travel times between cities, that can be used to get distances and hence scale. 

If that savannah is normal savannah, the outside world will discover Known Athas via it, sort of like Marco Polo discovering China.

One Dark Sun expansion pack placed two cities of cannibals just off the north edge of the map, to prevent any PCs from getting ideas about travelling off that direction.