Novia: Topography, Climatology and Society

Geography helps tell stories. But geography also is a story.

Topography and microclimatology, together, shape history. From the natural borders of a landmass – mountains, rivers, plains and so forth – discrete cultures rise, clash, mix and fall.

The purpose of this document is to infer from Novia’s topography the microclimatology of this island continent’s various regions, extrapolate out its impact on the cultures which settled in each region, and hopefully provide a deeper connection to the world of Shroud of the Avatar by providing references to real-world environments which may be similar. Just as with our own world, which has changed dramatically over a span of geologic time, so too are Novia and the other as-yet-undeclared landmasses merely the latest snapshot of a world which continues to change.

Before we begin, three notes:

1. I haven’t yet had a chance to read Tracy Hickman’s Blade of the Avatar (all I’ve used to help build this document are a couple of SotA fansites such as SotA Wiki), so if anything in this document conflicts with what’s already canonically established, then obviously Portalarium's stuff overrides mine. Likewise, if what I’ve written below in any way conflicts with what’s already planned for SotA by Richard Garriott or anyone else at Portalarium, then again my work should be discounted. I'm just doing this for fun, nothing else.
2. Shroud of the Avatar is a Portalarium property. Like everyone else here, I’m just a fan who’s excited to explore this new RPG world. If any of this is of any use to Portalarium, they’re welcome to use it. If not, then it was a fun writing exercise and nothing more.
3. Studying Novia’s topography in detail clearly illustrates something which should probably come as no surprise: whomever put together the Novia map has built a surprisingly logical and internally consistent environment. Anyone can draw a 2D map, slap a bunch of names down on it, and call it a fantasy world; but even a cursory glance at Novia shows, for instance, a remarkable grasp of orogenic systems. I’ve made some climatological extrapolations based on that map (which, again, may be completely counter to the story this game intends to tell), but I genuinely like just how well crafted Novia’s geography is.

With that out of the way, let’s dive in.

Let’s start with a couple of basic assumptions: the island of Novia is roughly the same size as Greenland – approximately 830,000 square miles – and sits at a latitude of 45° or so. I’ve chosen the latitude based on the generally montane look of the scenery, but the size question is an interesting one; Novia could in theory range from being as small as New Guinea to as large as Australia, but there are some logistical challenges. Make Novia too large, and the idea of crossing it on foot seems ridiculous. Make it too small, and the idea of city-states with completely different ethnicities and cultures becomes a bit of a stretch.

(Note: I’m aware that there are latitude and longitude overlays on the map graphic of Novia, and if they are accurate, then Novia is freaking huge. For now I’m working on the belief that Novia may end up being scaled down in terms of geographical size.)

Another basic assumption I’m going to start with is climatological: that the bulk of Novia gets trade winds from the northeast, although there are westerlies which just graze Novia’s southern border. These westerlies help produce a Sverdrup transport current along Novia’s southern border, turning into a meridional current at Novia’s southeastern edge which can potentially affect Novia as far north as the Eastreach Gap. Further, northwestern Novia is affected by a thermohaline circulation current from the southwest.

As we discuss each geographical region in more detail, the importance of these last three paragraphs will become clear. Also, before we begin, you may wish to have http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Köppen_climate_classification open in a separate tab, as you’ll want to reference it for each microclimate listed below.

Final note: for each part of Novia described below, as mentioned earlier, I've drawn inspiration and guidance from real-world analogues. These are listed as references below. When you see a reference, run a Google image search on the keywords in that image to get a sense of what I was seeing in my head when I examined each region.

I. Regalis

No discussion of Novia can begin without first covering its defining characteristic: the mountain range which bisects the island continent at its narrowest point, running from Blackblade in the southwest to Brittany and the Serpent’s Spine in the northeast.

This mountain chain exists due to a massive subduction zone which runs from Elysium, in southwestern Novia, all the way up to the western edge of the Spindrift Sea in northeastern Novia. At some point in the distant geologic past, Novia was actually two separate landmasses; they are now being pushed together, with South Paladis slowly disappearing under Midmaer, and the Serpent’s Spine growing slightly ever higher as a result with each passing year.

Reference #1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subduction

Note that this subduction zone is not perfectly uniform along the length of its fault; geologic stress is greater along the northern end of the subduction zone, causing the land which is presently North Paladis to warp and deform to the northeast; this is what gives the Spindrift Sea its somewhat odd shape and narrow mouth, and indeed in a distant future it may end up a self-contained lake, completely enclosed from the sea.

Even a cursory examination of Novia’s mountain ranges shows that virtually all of them run roughly parallel to the Serpent’s Spine; that is to say, they all more or less run from the southwest to the northeast. They are all the result of vertical faulting due to the “crumpling” of the crust as the two landmasses continue to collide.

Most dramatically, due to the uneven distribution of force along the subduction zone, the Blackblade region is experiencing pronounced lithospheric rifting, creating an ongoing hotspot for volcanic activity. This is actually a blessing in disguise, however, as the Blackblade region – one of the most volcanically active regions in all of New Britannia – serves to alleviate some of the geologic pressure which otherwise could produce (and, in the past, has produced) catastrophic results.

Reference #2: Google "Big Island lava entering the sea" to get a sense of what the Blackblade rift flowing into the Bay of Storms would look like.



Regalis itself benefits tremendously from Novia’s resultant topography. The more tempestuous windward storms from the northeast are broken up by the Sirens in Drachvald, while northern polar systems are blunted by the Serpent’s Spine. However, the presence of the Spindrift Sea and the gap between the Sirens and the Vauban ensure just the right amount of marine layer precipitation – particularly for Lake Equitas, which essentially is a giant catchment and serves as a major source of water for Regalis, North Paladis and – critically – the more arid South Paladis.

Reference #3: There are any number of high-altitude mountain lakes on Earth which could resemble Lake Equitas; my personal pick is Lake Titicaca.

Water is a recurrent theme with Regalis in general and Brittany (the seat of Lord British) in particular: the Rivers Eylo and Shimano both flow from Novia’s southeastern mountains out to the Spindrift Sea, providing convenient means of shipping large quantities of goods for trade from Midmaer and Grunvald. Likewise, the rivers Fortus and Jaana flow into the Paladis regions from Lake Equitas, making Brittany the absolutely logical choice for trade across the bulk of Novia.

Brittany is also blessed with a naturally sheltered harbor, and indeed the shipping lane in the Spindrift Sea between Brittany and Drachvald’s Port Graff is one of the busiest areas of naval activity in all of Novia.

Of particular note, thanks to the volcanism that runs along the entire subduction zone, the surrounding areas of Lake Equitas are known for their hot springs. This one attraction alone is responsible for a constant influx of travelers to Regalis – some travel to the hot springs simply out of curiosity, whilst others consider it more of a spiritual pilgrimage which conveys therapeutic healing properties – ensuring considerable economic activity for the foreseeable future.

Reference #4: Look up Landmannalaugar hot springs in Iceland to get a sense of what Lake Equitas' hot springs would look like.

Regalis does have one particular vulnerability, however: the same geologic instability which has made it such a scenic and desirable location for human activity also makes it a high-risk area for earthquakes and unexpected volcanic activity. On rare occasion, when the trade winds die away and the westerlies are unusually intense, volcanic fog – “vog” – from Blackblade can engulf the lower Shimano valley, Brittany, and even parts of the Spindrift Sea. It is an altogether unpleasant experience, and coupled with the geologic instability of the region, they are painful reminders of the great cataclysm that so shook New Britannia not too long ago.

Reference #5: Vog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vog

Climatologically, Regalis enjoys a Köppen Cfb maritime climate, with relatively mild seasonal variances. Though it is by far the smallest of Novia’s major regions, it is one of the most scenic, desirable and economically important.

II. The Bay of Storms

The Bay of Storms is what remains of a collapsed supervolcano that made up the bulk of Novia’s southwestern subduction zone. At one time above ground, the Bay of Storms was formed when the lunar cataclysm, 400 years ago, dramatically disrupted Novia with a series of impact events (indeed, it is theorized that the Bay of Storms was the antipodal point for one of the worst of the impact events, triggering such a violent volcanic reaction).

Reference #6: Check out Lake Toba -- a supervolcano that collapsed after a massive eruption and subsequently turned into a lake -- to get a sense of the scale of the destruction.

The Bay, true to its namesake, is an exceptionally stormy and hazardous area. Volcanic activity along the seafloor keeps the Bay’s water temperature higher than the surrounding ocean, and the northeastern inner bay is often shrouded in vog from Blackblade. The surrounding mountains blunt much of the trade winds from Midmaer, creating a situation where colder air and water is introduced into the Bay by the prevailing westerlies to Novia’s southwest, which then mix with the warmer water of the Bay itself and the unpredictable trade wind patterns to form massive storm cells that blanket the Bay with sulfurous acid rain and churn the Bay into a tempestuous death trap.

Due to the pronounced tidal effects caused by the Daedalus Cataclysm, coupled with the exceptionally narrow straits to the south and west which are the only methods of entering or exiting the Bay, it is not uncommon for ships to find themselves either unable to enter the Bay, or -- worse – unable to leave until conditions improve.

The Bay of Storms – and, moreover, the supervolcano that collapsed to form this caldera – dominates southwestern Novia. Of particular note, the stormy conditions in southwestern Novia contribute considerably to the isolation of the towns of Artifice and Xenos, on Elysium Island. Elysium’s Köppen BWh arid climate makes life extremely difficult, with only the snowpack from the Rumor Peaks (so named because annually verifying the rumor of snow atop the mountains is literally a matter of life or death in such a harsh and isolated environment) providing any sort of potable water, and the tiny forested foothills serving as the only possible spot for cultivation. The nearby dungeon, Crucible, is so named because it is essentially a series of lava tubes that has never been fully mapped; the heat from the magma chamber below has claimed more than a few well-prepared travelers, and it is the one place in Novia which the Royal New Britannia Explorers Club describes simply as, “Hell.”

Reference #7: Santorini is the remnant of a collapsed supervolcano and site of the Minoan Eruption (which is the basis of Atlantis mythology). It's about as close to the Bay of Storms as I can find.

It is said that the people who settled Elysium did so because their ships ran aground, and they are cursed to stare across the straits at Longfall and Quel, forever tormented by the sight of land so tantalizingly close and yet out of easy reach.

III. Drachvald

The Drachvald Kingdom is a peninsula which takes up northeastern Novia, ranging from the Siren mountains in the north to the Vauban in the south. Blessed with an advantageous position relative to the trade winds which caress Novia, it serves as a major port of call and shipping hub both to and from Novia.

Port Graff, on the northwestern end of the Drachvald peninsula, benefits from sitting in the lee of the Siren mountain plateau to the northeast. Ships following a conventional southwestern course to reach Port Graff must be careful, however, to not chart a southerly tack too soon, lest they be driven ashore by a combination of a strong current and the trades, which whip around Drachvald’s mountain plateau with predictably strong force near the shore. The Sirens – so named because of the immense psychological pull of land and the promise of safe harbor to men who have spent weeks or months at sea – look down mercilessly at the wrecked hulls of ships whose foolhardy captains failed to show proper patience and skill.

Entry into Port Graff can be further complicated by tidal conditions; the Spindrift Sea, which experiences a very pronounced tidal effect thanks to Daedalus, at times earns its namesake when the winds shift from the north while the spring tide is out. Navigating the shallow approach to Port Graff at low tide is not advisable, and for this reason most experienced captains will enter the Spindrift Sea, anchor in the lee of Port Graff’s major islet, and make final approach from the south during slack tide.

Stormwater Lake, atop the mountainous plateau that dominates Drachvald’s northeastern area, is left over from the last major glacial period. Thanks to the trade winds which blow the marine layer up against the surrounding mountains, Stormwater – true to its name – is one of the rainiest areas in all of Novia, receiving on average more than 450” of rain per year.

Reference #8: Any number of mountain lakes in the Swiss Alps could easily serve as a real-world analogue to Drachvald's Stormwater Lake.



The tributaries which flow downhill from Stormwater ensure that the villages of Spite, Brookside and Rhun practically never have to worry about fresh water. Further, the Meino plains of central Drachvald, thanks to Stormwater and being in the lee of the mountains, make for excellent farmland. Thus it is all the more important to monitor the activity around the Malice dungeon, near Stormwater’s northeastern shore, as nothing must be allowed to threaten this water supply.

The port town of Eastmarch, located at the mouth of the river Camaret in the southeastern corner of Drachvald, is the other major regional highlight. A natural harbor which is far easier to navigate into and out of than Rhun, Eastmarch takes its name from being the jumping-off port for nearly all Novia shipping to the east. Ships departing Eastmarch usually chart a southerly course along Novia’s shore until passing the lighthouse at the southern end of the Eastreach gap, then turn to the east and catch the prevailing current. (In winter months, when the westerlies are more common, ships can depart Eastmarch on nearly a due east course. Hence why the bulk of travel to Novia from the east occurs in the summer, and the reverse is true in the winter.)

Climatologically, Drachvald experiences a Köppen Cfc subpolar maritime climate. Snowfall is common in upper Drachvald, although seasonal variances are still relatively mild thanks to a strong oceanic presence.

IV. Grunvald

Grunvald takes its borders from the Vauban Mountains to the northeast, the Spindrift Sea to the north, the ocean to the east, the Spectral Peaks to the south, and the river Eylo to the west. Oddly, although central Grunvald’s plains make for excellent farmland cultivation, Grunvald itself is sparsely populated, likely due to its lack of a deepwater harbor for shipping. Most of the population is clustered in the main town of Desolis, situated atop a shallow lake on the River Atra.

Reference #9: On the map, Desolis looks like a rather muddy environment; the best analogy I can think of from our world is India’s Udaipur Lake Palace.



Grunvald does serve as a strategic overland link between Drachvald and Regalis, and often exports goods to Brittany by floating them down the river Eylo, but one gets the sense that most of the people in Grunvald are only there because they need to get somewhere else; those that actually reside in Grunvald, from the lowliest peasant all the way up to the Margrave, thus tend to harbor something of a don’t-tread-on-me complex.

Grunvald does benefit from one very interesting merchant service it provides: eastbound shipping from Novia is most easily achieved from Eastmarch, in Drachvald, due to the prevailing northeasterly trade winds which make departure from the Spindrift Sea a time-consuming affair. It is thus not uncommon for smaller ships to depart Brittany and hug the southern Spindrift coast, putting ashore near the mouth of Grunwald’s Brisace River. Merchant services then convey the goods up and across the Vauban until they are floated on the River Camaret down into Eastmarch, from whence they are loaded on larger vessels and shipped to other lands.

Further, the reverse is also true, though not as prevalent: ships which arrive in Novia at Eastmarch can hire merchant services to take their goods over the Vauban and down the River Brisace to the Spindrift Sea, from whence they are conveyed to Britttany. (Or, alternatively, overland routes to Desolis are another option.) As a result – along with certain other landmarks which travelers often visit – northeastern Grunvald tends to be a hotbed of economic activity, serving as a link between two of Novia’s major shipping hubs.

Desolis itself, situated near the mouth of the Eastreach Gap, is Novia’s most windward settlement and thus tends to encounter driving trade winds funneled through the gap along with frequent rainstorms. It is altogether a rather bleak, muddy environment. Were it not for two major landmarks to the northwest of Desolis, which continually attract outside visitors, Desolis could make the case for being Novia’s least-visited major town.

Grunvald has a a Köppen Csb “Cool Summer” Mediterranean climate. Summers are warmer and drier – particularly inland, as the maritime influence drops – and winters are mild to chilly.

V. The Perennial Coast

Novia’s southeastern corner is a remarkably isolated area, flanked by the Spectral Peaks and the Whiteguards from the Eastreach Gap all the way to Quel. Its relative isolation, coupled with the westerlies and the prevailing current that brought settlers from a completely different part of New Britannia, allowed it to give rise to a very different culture – which, although “easternized” to an extent by contact with Novia’s other cultures that originally came from lands to the northeast, is still a somewhat unique cultural experience on the continent.

The Perennial Coast draws its name from its Köppen Aw “Tropical Savannah” climate, as the prevailing warm current and westerlies along the south coast, along with a general lack of trade winds due to the southerly latitude, create a somewhat humid environment. Notably, it is the only part of Novia that receives monsoons, which are both a blessing and a curse: on one hand, the Perennial Coast really doesn’t ever have to worry about water supply, but on the other hand, large tracts of lowland are perpetually marshy.

Reference #10: The way Ardoris is described -- being built atop marshland at the mouth of a river delta -- reminds me quite a lot of Mont St. Michel.



Built along the marshy estuary coast, Ardoris is one of the most heavily-populated settlements in all of Novia. And with good reason: Ardoris is essentially the only safe port along Novia’s entire southern shore. Further inland and upcountry, nestled deep inside the Whiteguard mountain range, are the settlements of Solania and Celestis – the latter of which, situated in the middle of a mountain lake, is generally regarded as one of the most scenic settlements in all of Novia.

Reference #11: Slovenia’s Lake Bled could easily have been the inspiration for Solania and Celestis.



Overland trade mostly takes place between the Perennial Coast and Grunvald by way of the Eastreach Gap, as the journey to Midmaer is an arduous route and the roads to the west are fraught with peril thanks to the Necropolis.

VI. Quel

The denuded kingdom of Quel is arguably the least desirable place in all of Novia to visit. Blocked from the tradewinds by the Sawteeth mountains, and likewise blocked from the westerlies by the Crags, the Quel basin – more accurately described as the southeastern flank of the collapsed supervolcano that makes up the Bay of Storms -- is little more than barren lava field. Even the major river that runs from the Sawteeth to the Bay of Storms is of little value, appropriately named Barren.

Quel, beset with a Köppen BWh arid climate, is simply a failed land. Too choked with vog and acid rain from Blackblade, too scarred from the volcanic activity that formed it, too still and dry to support any discernible life…even the offshore fishing, along the Great Novia Bight of Quel’s south shore, is little more than an exercise in futility.

Reference #12: The Mano del Desierto, in Chile’s Atacama Desert, is something I can easily picture as the landmark that tells travelers they’re entering Quel.



There is only one reason to visit Quel at all: Etceter.

The former pirate town of Etceter, along the Bay’s southeastern flank in northwestern Novia at the mouth of the River Barren, exists simply because it is the only suitable deepwater port in the region; it is not uncommon for ship crews to be holed up in Etceter for days at a stretch due to bad weather, and a major trade artery from Etceter to Regalis exists via overland route to the Upper Shimano river in Midmaer, from whence goods are floated down to Brittany.

Etceter itself, despite its best efforts to clean up its image, is still a rather swarthy town; it is generally accepted as fact that Etceter has more wanted criminals in it than any other place in Novia, simply because it’s usually not worth the trouble to pursue someone who chooses to flee to Quel. To live in Quel is perhaps a condemnation worse than death, because there is simply nothing to live for except the next meal.

Reference #13: The Monumento al Ahogado, in Uruguay. Can’t you just picture this outside Etceter, along Quel’s shoreline fronting the Bay of Storms?

VII. Midmaer

Midmaer could perhaps be best described as the bread basket of Novia; blessed with just the right amount of trade winds and rainfall, its Köppen Cfb climate is absolutely ideal for farming. Further, thanks to the Upper Shimano and Eylo rivers which flow from the south to Brittany at the Spindrift Sea, transporting goods to Regalis is astonishingly easy.

Although southern Midmaer is sparsely populated due to the higher preponderance of vog from Blackblade and the slightly more desolate environment, northern Midmaer also remains remarkably rural, simply because Brittany makes for a far more convenient location to urbanize. The one settlement of note is Kiln, so named due to its proximity to the Blackblade volcanic rift. It is said that one cannot truly complete the journeyman phase of blacksmithing without first forging a weapon or piece of armor at Kiln first, and even today, Kiln boasts the finest blacksmiths in all of Novia.

The Shimano Valley, in northern Midmaer, is one of the most heavily trafficked regions on the continent, thanks to its easterly trade with Grunvald and Drachvald, as well as the Hilt Pass Road, which is the major method of trade between western Novia and eastern Novia. As humanity begins to slowly spread and recover its numbers from the days of the Cataclysm, northern Midmaer is expected to be an area of substantial population growth over the coming years.

Reference #14: Devon rural countryside in England is more or less what Midmaer’s Shimano valley would look like. Alternatively, parts of rural France would work, as well.

VIII. South Paladis

South Paladis is a land of dramatic contrasts. Situated in the rain shadow of the Serpent’s Spine, it is largely an arid, Köppen BWk desert climate, marked with severe temperature extremes between day and night. The steppes of South Paladis are most easily traversed via the Jaana River, winding its way down from the western flank of Lake Equitas to the Bay of Storms, or the West Jaana, flowing from the city of Resolute in Highvale to join with the Jaana near the Bay.

Reference #15: The famed Mongolian steppes are a natural analogue for South Paladis.

It is at the intersection of these two rivers that the town of Jaanaford survives, at the southern end of South Paladis. Jaanaford is a rather mercantilist town; it exists simply because it is the logical point to place a trade hub for commerce between Brittany and Resolute, and it’s just far enough north to usually escape the vog that so plagues the Bay of Storms.

Indeed, those same stormy conditions actually benefit Jaanaford, as shipwrecks along the northern edge of the Bay are common; South Paladis’ southern border, also known as the Ash Coast, is littered with the decrepit hulks of unlucky ships, making the entire shore – from the Fogladden Riven in the west to the Blackblade rift in the east – a hotbed of scavenger activity, both legal and illegal. For those poor shipwrecked souls who do manage to survive, Jaanaford is the only real refuge they can find, leading to frequent tension between the merchants selling exotic salvage goods and the former sailors they were appropriated from.

In the montane northern heights of South Paladis, the city of Resolute, in Highvale, is renowned for being a city with more gemstones in it than any other in Novia, including Brittany itself. Highvale itself is a source of substantial mining riches, and thanks to the surrounding mountains – most notably the Pillars of Night – there is no shortage of mining operations in South Paladis. While life may be harsh and rugged through South Paladis, Resolute itself is a town of astonishing beauty, and is one of western Novia’s most important settlements.

Reference #16: Neuschwanstein Castle would fit the climate of Resolute, in Highvale.



That said, it is the city of Opalis, in western South Paladis, which ultimately benefits the most from trade; so named for the extensive opal mining in the surrounding mountains and foothills, Opalis is sited at a key point where the road from the west meets the West Jaana river, thus serving as a key trading hub for Resolute to the north, Jaanaford to the south, and visitors to the west.

Were it not for western Novia’s geography, Opalis would potentially rival Brittany for trade; as it is, Opalis is exceptionally important for overland commerce, as well as South Paladis’ survival. The land of South Paladis does not lend itself easily to cultivation and farming, but there is no region in Novia so ideally suited to mining as South Paladis. As a result, there is considerable trade between South Paladis and its neighbors to both the west and east, bringing vital agricultural supplies in exchange for ores, minerals, gemstones and precious metals. And it is Opalis, ultimately, which serves as the beating heart of that trading mechanism.

Bonus reference: Opalis reminds me a lot of the ancient Mongolian ruins of Khara-khoto.



IX. North Paladis

Due to its hemiboreal Köppen Dfb climate, as well as the lack of easy trade routes with neighboring kingdoms, North Paladis is sparsely populated. There is simply little reason to live in such an area, although North Paladis does serve as a major source of lumber for much of Novia.

North Paladis does offer an alternate trade route to South Paladis, which – for travelers from eastern Novia unwilling or unable to brave the journey through Hilt to the south – serves as a decent (if hazardous) detour. Further, for Regalis residents, North Paladis offers the most convenient lunar rift available for long-distance travel. However, as the ruins of the town of Libris (on the border of North Paladis and Regalis) can attest to, proximity to a lunar rift is not necessarily a safe thing any more.

Reference #17: The Orcadian Standing Stones of Stenness. Neolithic henges like this, and the archeoastronomical purpose they likely served, are almost certainly the inspiration for lunar rifts and the like.



X. Forsaken Vale

The Forsaken Vale, nestled between the Pillars of Night and the Mariah Mountains, is essentially the demarcation zone between central Novia and western Novia. It is a simple truth that for anyone wishing to travel across the western half of the continent, passage through the Forsaken Vale is all but a requirement; there is just no other way to make the journey without extreme difficulty.

The River Fallion flows from Highvale, at the northern end of the Pillars of Night, all the way to Point West at the southern end of the Naryad Channel. In return, the main road from Verdantis, in the west, starts from the town of Harvest and wends its way through the Forsaken Vale, across the Pillars, to Opalis. This is the main artery for commercial trade through western Novia, and it all flows through the Forsaken Vale.

Likewise, although it is possible to reach the peninsula of Longfall in southwestern Novia via the southwestern forests of Verdantis, the main route to Longfall, either by land or by river, is again through the Forsaken Vale.

Reference #20: Zion National Park immediately jumped to mind when looking at the topography of the Forsaken Vale.



The downside of having so many travel routes in such a geographic choke point is that it naturally lends itself to violence. Though the landscape is ruggedly beautiful in the Vale, the bones of countless corpses from various conflicts, both recent and long forgotten, are entombed in the soil.

The only real settlement of any kind in the Forsaken Vale is Vertas, home to the Vertas álfar (better known as elves in the modern tongue). The wilderness of the Vale’s valley is intimately known to the elves, who do not have the same need as humans for roads. It is thus said that any traveler going through the Vale is always being watched; this has inevitably led to exagerrated stories and myths, from the sheer numbers of elves in the forest to the forest itself somehow being enchanted by the elves to act on their behalf.

XI. Longfall

The Longfall peninsula, in southwestern Novia, is usually regarded as the windiest kingdom on the continent. The prevailing westerlies become a mountain-gap wind (known locally as the “Vendavelle” wind) between Elysium to the south and the mountains along the Fogladden River’s western bank to the northeast, which when coupled with the intersection of currents near the western entry into the Bay of Storms makes Longfall’s Köppen Csa subtropical Mediterranean climate a particularly tempestuous one.

Longfall’s main city, Aerie, makes ingenious use of its natural environment. A relatively newer settlement in Novia, Aerie is the continent’s westernmost population center (much to the consternation of Point West, in Verdantis) and is particularly noted for its extensive use of windmills.

Reference #21: The logical choice here is to go with the Netherlands as a reference, but if you've ever seen the famous windmill in the Santorini town of Oia, somehow I keep picturing that as Aerie, instead.



Aerie does face some challenges as a shipping harbor; it experiences the most pronounced tidal variation of any coastal town in Novia – in part exacerbated by the city’s proximity to the mouth of the Bay of Storms’ western strait – which means that only ships with enough sail power and experienced captains can safely approach. For this reason, the northern end of the peninsula, near the mouth of the River Blood, is often used as an anchorage instead.

Reference #22: Tidal variances in New Britannia are going to be a bit more erratic and severe than what we're used to on Earth, due to the lunar cataclysm as well as the apparently greater proximity of New Britannia to its remaining moon. The best analogy to what Novia sees in terms of tidal variance would be our Bay of Fundy here on Earth.

Nevertheless, Aerie remains a key shipping hub for Novia as well as more distant lands; although departure from Aerie by ship can only be safely attempted when the tide is high and going out during mild winds, it is possible to either chart a northerly route along the Verdantis coast, or turn south and then east to trade with Ardoris along the Perennial Coast.

At the northern end of Longfall, tucked away in the forests, is the hamlet of Bloodriver. Although technically part of Verdantis due to its location on the northern bank of the River Blood, the town of Bloodriver consistently identifies itself as part of Longfall. Verdantis would likely challenge this claim if Bloodriver held any strategic significance, but it is simply too remote a location to be of any real value to the rest of the world, which is exactly how the residents of Bloodriver like it.

The town of Bloodriver – and, indeed, the river itself – draws its name from the corpses of unlucky travelers whose bodies travel downstream to the ocean from the mountains that form the southern flank of the Forsaken Vale. Indeed, nearly all of the residents of Bloodriver are themselves isolationists; the town was founded by survivors of a failed expedition that never made it out of the Forsaken Vale, and over time it has become known as the town to settle in if one chooses to simply be ignored by the rest of the world.

XII. Verdantis

Verdantis is to western Novia what Midmaer is to eastern Novia: it is simply a bountiful land, perfect for cultivation.

Blessed with a Köppen Cfb climate due to the offshore thermohaline current which carries warmer conditions to such a northerly latitude, Verdantis – true to its name – is a land of plentiful farming. Although the northern reaches of Verdantis, such as Dysborg and the River Tears, become increasingly frigid land, this serves as a buffer for the Rivers Abundis and Fallion, which serve as major coastal shipping routes to the towns of Harvest and Point West, respectively, from the rural interior.

The town of Harvest is Verdantis’ primary settlement; situated across the Naryad Channel from the Norgard city of Estgard, Harvest is a major transit point for goods flowing to and from Norgard as well as all of western Novia. Harvest is, notably, the only town in Verdantis which is connected by overland road to western Novia’s interior; as such, it receives far more foot traffic than any other settlement in Verdantis.

Point West, to the southwest of Harvest, was at one time Novia’s westernmost town (a claim which has since been superseded by Longfall’s Aerie). Sited at the western end of the Naryad Channel, it is utilized most frequently as a shipping transit point; that is to say, content bound for Harvest or Estgard is transferred to smaller ships more easily capable of navigating the shallow and narrow channel, while content bound for long-distance shipping is transferred to larger oceangoing vessels.

Reference #23: Ireland’s Kerry coast is essentially Verdantis’ coast, in terms of general topography and scenery.



Curiously, Point West also derives income from tourism; though it may be odd to think of modern civilization having any time at all for leisure travel, given the post-cataclysm wounds which are still healing, Point West is just sufficiently off the beaten path – yet close to a lunar rift – to warrant tourism from some of Novia’s wealthier inhabitants, particularly those who are interested in leisure sailing activities, for which the nearshore islands to the west of the Naryad Channel make for excellent sailing conditions.

XIII. Norgard

At one time, during the last major ice age when sea levels were lower, Norgard and all of the nearshore islands off the Verdantis coast were connected to Verdantis. Scoured by the retreating glaciers and Nor-Verdantis ice sheet’s disappearance as New Britannia emerged from that ice age long ago, Norgard emerged with significant isostatic rebound, producing some of the most dramatic mountains and scenery in all of Novia – whilst simultaneously cutting it off from Verdantis.

Norgard would be locked into a polar climate, were it not for the strong maritime effects of the thermohaline current to the west. As such, in stark contrast to North Paladis, Norgard enjoys a Köppen Cfc “cool maritime” climate.

Norgard has two major settlements: Estgard, at the mouth of the River Oso and directly across the Naryad Channel from Verdantis’ Harvest. The other, Valhold, is the northernmost population center in Novia. Estgard, as a shipping and commerce hub for Norgard, predominantly serves as a protectorate for the small amount of lowland areas in Norgard that are suitable for farming.

Valhold, to the east of the Thrones of Skekk, is not so much a city as it is a fortress; the warriors of Valhold are renowned throughout Novia and beyond as being some of the hardiest and bravest fighters in New Britannia, for their never-ending battle against the hordes of monsters that pour out of the Skrekk dungeon is a constant battle for survival.

Reference #24: Tajikistan’s Ismoil Somoni Peak in the Pamir Knot seems like a natural Thrones of Skekk analogue. Meanwhile, something like Germany's Hohenzollern Castle could double for Valhold.



With the constant threat of monsters as well as the relative lack of arable land suitable for farming, the people of Norgard are a resilient, exceptionally tough lot; it is a tough land for tough people, and Norges (as they refer to themselves) are enormously proud of their battle prowess. Were it not for Norgard, it would be safe to say that much of western Novia would already be overrun and unsuitable for human settlement. Given the perilously low numbers of humans following the cataclysm, Valhold’s role as a bulwark against incursion is extremely important.

XIV. The Hidden Vale

Although technically not part of Novia, the Hidden Vale is one of the closest landmasses to Novia, and was a site of significant human survival in the dark times after the Cataclysm.

While much is already known and documented about this island, is it worth adding as a footnote that the Hidden Vale is all that remains of a now-submerged continent, lost at the end of the last ice age.

Reference #25: There are two submerged continents on Earth. No, seriously. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submerged_continent

XV. Conclusions

No habitable land in New Britannia escaped unscathed the impact events which occurred subsequent to the Daedalus Cataclysm. Indeed, all of New Britannia remains under the constant threat of additional strikes, as pieces of the old moon settle into uneasy and erratic orbits around the planet.

That said, Novia’s recovery and repopulation is remarkable, if somewhat erratic and unevenly distributed. Though much has been lost, and even after four centuries (which is, to be fair, not even the blink of an eye in geologic time) life remains a hard struggle, Novia remains resurgent.

Perhaps, some day in a distant future we cannot comprehend, when the continents have reshaped themselves into unrecognizable masses and new civilizations have grown atop the dust of ours, some small pieces of our story will yet be unearthed. Yet for now, the many disparate cultures of Novia – indeed, of all New Britannia – are focused on growth and expansion, and man is never so happy as when he has an untamed frontier to test himself against.

 

Very interesting article, thank you for all this work Never had realized the many encoded reminiscences to the old Ultima games, like the rivers Eylo, Shimano and Jaana for example.

 

Excellent analysis (and first post), NorseGamer! Welcome to the community!

Still absorbing all that info, but just quickly: there's been a few discussions on the size of the world, here, and here in case you're interested. It may or may not change your analysis of the geography of Novia.

 

Welcome NorseGamer!

 

"A Truly Awesome Article NorseGamer!"

This is one of the finest articles written and the analysis of each area was so rich and full of accurate wonder that I thoroughly enjoyed the entire piece and I can't wait for your next article to be posted!

It is the fun of our gaming world that first draws us to it, yet it is the depth of our world and it's mysteries of history and science that will keep us. I'm truly looking forward to your expressed thoughts once you have read our game's Lore in the form of our Tracy Hickman's book.
I believe that many times when a gaming world is made, that there's not too much forethought that is placed as a center point for it's creation, and that many times, it's only after it's creation that we can truly see what our discoveries can find there within it's outcome. I know that out Ultima Online world scape ended up looking like some sort of freaky doughnut shape, though it looked like a simple map resembling England.
Currently our producer/creators have been very tight lipped on what the spheres in our sky will turn out to be, but I am certain (from the many questions that our Lord British has answered) that there will be "some spheres" as well as some astrology/astronomy that will go along with them. I'm still uncertain that anyone in our great Portalarium understands a thing about astrology other than what most common people know of the subject matter (of which there are many and much more things about astrology than just what is commonly sold in bookstores). "But I'm sure they will find out once I get my eyeballs on a known in game star map"

The reason I mention all of this is because your document is all about rhythms, "Very Long Rhythms", but rhythms none the less and it's the rhythms of life that the ~TL~ is all about

Here, check this out by a guy named Cryptomancer, and I'm sure something like these will interest you in your climatology interests as these would effect tides. These are not what is to come, yet it offers some insight to "what may come" that would effect such things. I do wish/hope that our creators are more forthcoming with such things, but I don't think they've built it yet, but that's the exact reasons, "as well as you own" that I believe they should place this information out to our general public so that we may not loose a chance to have such deep thoughts as you have described above enrich it.

My field of science is in Anti-De'Sitter Space Time, yet I am also "very well trained" in astrology because of the similarities within it's used mapping, but also for knowing what has been found in the past by it's many uses in unexplained effects of plant, animal and human dispersion and migration within a very long expanse of time as well as in the short of it all.

In particular of your look into our geography, it's the fault lines such as the Serpent's Spine that I found related to such things as I have pointed out. Radon gas and rising electrons creating atmospheric and ionospheric anomalies in the way of heat, as well as some UFO sightings, have been associated with earthquakes as much as 3 days before the earthquake hits. As this may seem a bit far fetched when it comes to effecting our game, these styles of anomalies could hold a great use in the ways of events being programed. Our game is said by our creators, to be a hands free world requiring no, or almost no GM involvement to special occurrences (aka special events). Yet such things also are expressed in the form of old castles having emissions that are said to be the cause of apparitions being sighted. It is thought that when heavy things have a fault line within them, that these same effects that are recorded around earthquakes do occur.

Astrology is our way of timing certain events because they all have a natural rhythm that they follow. The earthquakes of the Asian Rim and their beginnings were first recorded in China using astrology/astronomy to time the event and a big jar with a tremble switch to find where it did hit, observers that were recorded within the Chuang Tzu under the passage of Freedom, were exact in predicting associated earthquakes off the shore of where the more recent tidal wave (tsunami) hit southern Asia not so long ago. There the passage within the book accurately to the day predicted that a following earthquake would strike in the Indian Ocean and then proceed to move up the coast line in the following years to effect Japan and come to rest near Korea. The Asian way of measuring very long times dealing with such things as well as crops is the old animal sign astrology... but people born were also considered crops at that time as well.

What you speak of within your article, is not so very different, as it is a look back through time by way of looking at the geometry and population areas, to determine population growth as well as weather and migrations of people as the continent or island masses collided to create the mountains and volcanoes you describe through their history.

Arthur M. Young (the inventor of the fist production helicopter) said, "The helicopter was going to be invented by somebody, but first we had to get rid of all the old concepts and the mathematical engineers that were in charge of nothing but crashed vehicles. Then we built it with vision, with what we learned from our barn".
So maybe our game needs to get out of the barn before we can discover what it truly wants to become. Arthur was also a great writing astrologer and used his vision of vortexes to further enhance the science or insights to astrology.
I find it funny that our NASA classified the hexagon vortex Voyager first found on Saturn as Top Secret, until over a decade later it became well known that sacred geometry pervades all over the every universe we've ever seen in an astronomer's telescope and all we ever got from the Moon is a box of rocks to sell on e-bay.... But that's always been the failing of science, is that we think we know everything, until it becomes obvious that we don't. Who would have ever thought that indeed, "The Moon is made of a Cheese called Helium", and now all us rats can't wait to figure out how to get it back to earth from the lab rat trap we call space.
"Our game will have to get out of the lab, before we can truly mine it for all the fun it has just waiting to be discovered"

So, I'll be watching for more of your insights to these and other subjects as we all move forward into our very great game full of discovery.
A truly great article NorseGamer, Big Kudos and a very welcome aboard to our growing community !
~Time Lord~

 

Excellent work. Good to have people with knowledge of all sorts of subjects to contribute! Can't say enough about how much I enjoyed this.

I hope that this is reviewed and incorporated into place descriptions. Would add a richness that might not otherwise be there, especially for those writing stories and lore for the game.

 

Updated the original post with graphics (from Wikimedia Commons) that may help illustrate the real-world analogues I saw in my head when poring over the map of Novia. There's a fifteen-image limit per post, else I would have been able to illustrate additional areas. Feel free to run Google Image searches on any of the boldfaced Reference items to see more, though.

To reiterate -- this is strictly what I'm seeing based on my own study of the Novia map. If it's of any use, great; if not, it's just a fun writing exercise from an excited fan. Very thankful for the positive feedback it's received so far.

 

Very nice!

 

Don't forget this little freaky thing, "The Darkstarr MoonDial" and what it has to say on those trade winds and tides It's a fun mental endeavor NorseGamer
~Time Lord~

 

Fantastic article, NorseGamer.

I agree that geography is a huge part of the story, and really enjoyed seeing someone else key in on that. Great stuff.

 

I've been spending a lot of time working through probable scenarios involving the Daedalus Cataclysm; the collision of two orbiting moons, and the resultant impact events which reshaped all of New Britannia, are absolutely central to Shroud's narrative. Particularly since, frankly, 400 years really isn't a lot of time to recover from what is darn near an extinction event; that so much of civilization remains is likely due to some aspect of magic which doesn't have a 1:1 correlation with our universe's physical laws.

For fun, let’s start with some base assumptions: since the world of New Britannia is capable of supporting human life and comparably Earth-like environments, it is thus roughly the same distance (93M miles, or 1 AU) from its sun as we are to our sun, following a roughly similar orbit, orbital period and axial tilt as Earth. However, New Britannia is notably different in that it had at least two moons, both of which appeared to be much closer to the planet than Earth’s moon is to us. Granted, they may not have always been so close -- we only have a fleeting glimpse of the celestial collision in the trailer cinematic to give a sense of proximity to New Britannia -- in which case a lot of assumptions go out the window.

However, it's worth noting that in the game itself, one of the NPC technicians -- Lisel -- who takes care of the Ardoris Lunar Tower talks (with great pride) about how they harness tidal energy to power their devices. Indeed, wandering around the city and looking at the architectural embankments earlier today heavily implied that it was built around the concept of substantial tidal variation.

(NOTE: Although the surviving moon has a name – Daedalus – I cannot find any references to the destroyed moon’s name. For convenience purposes, I’m naming it Perilune, which is not only the scientific term for a celestial body’s closest approach to the moon, but also fairly RPG-ish and fitting for a body which caused so much destruction.)

If we go with the assumption that New Britannia's moons orbited much closer to it than our own moon orbits the Earth, this produces some interesting results. Gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance, and tidal power is the cube of the distance. On our Earth, the tidal force of our moon is about 2.2 times larger than that of the sun; the ratio of the tidal force of the apogee and perigee is about 1.4 by the elliptical orbit of the moon. This is why we have spring and neap tides; when our sun and moon are working together, the tides are larger.

(If you want to have some fun with lunar tidal calculations, check out http://keisan.casio.com/exec/system/1360312100)

So, in New Britannia, which had two moons, we’d have solar tides, lunar tides, and Perilunar tides, with the latter generating (8 x 2/3) as much force as a normal high tide. Thus, a full-power spring tide, with all three celestial bodies working together, would be about (1/3 + 2/3 + 8/3 = ), which is about four times as high as a high spring tide on Earth today. In short, society in New Britannia would have gotten used to coastal tidal variations which averaged probably around 50 feet or so. Keep in mind that that’s probably a conservative estimate.

(If this sounds crazy, remember that there are already places on Earth which experience severe tidal variations. The Bay of Fundy, for instance.)

Further, it would not be at all surprising to see sustained and spectacular volcanism on Perilune’s surface. Io, for instance, is Jupiter’s innermost moon, and is the most volcanically active celestial body in our solar system. How much impact two moons would have on New Britannia’s plate tectonics and subsequent volcanism is an interesting question (which I’ll leave for the Rare Earth supporters to debate), but coincidentally, Io also happens to be roughly the same size and mass as our own moon. So, if we imagine that it orbited at a Lagrange Point around New Britannia, in much the same way Theia orbited Earth’s L4 or L5 in the Giant Impact Hypothesis, we can see how such a system might have evolved.

(Giant Impact Hypothesis, further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_impact_hypothesis)

Rather than collide with New Britannia, though, Perilune collided with Daedalus. This suggests that Daedalus was the inner moon (possibly explaining why it evidently has a liquid core), and some sort of significant orbital perturbation caused a collision. Orbital perturbations are not uncommon – we’re still trying to figure out some of the perturbations of our own moon’s orbit – but something significant had to occur in order to pull one celestial body out of its orbit and cause it to crash with sufficient velocity into another celestial body to produce the cataclysm seen fleetingly in the SotA trailer.

Where it gets interesting in the world of Shroud is that there are references to a dark prophecy which foretells of this event, and evidently substantial aspects of the world's magic system are somehow tied to this lunar body. Reinforcing this is the conspicuous use of Tesla towers throughout Novia; the body of a planet like ours is an electrical conductor, nearly spherical in shape, insulated in space. It possesses an electric charge relative to the upper atmosphere, beginning at about 50 kilometers elevation. When a second body, directly adjacent to Earth, is charged and discharged in rapid succession, this causes an equivalent variation of Earth's electrostatic charge, resulting in the passage of electric current through the ground. But in New Britannia, these towers are referred to as Lunar Towers -- and, if memory serves, there are "shard falls" from impact events scattered throughout New Britannia, to say nothing of lunar rifts which are used for travel.

(In case anyone wants to read further on Tesla towers, I recommend http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_Tower as a starting point.)

Clearly, in the world of Shroud of the Avatar, the rules of gravity and electromagnetism (along with possibly the weak and strong nuclear forces) are dramatically affected by this moon, from which both electricity and magic are intertwined. Once I've wrapped my head around SotA's magic system a bit more, I might try a deeper dive on this subject.

Where it really gets deep, though, is the sociological question of how an agrarian society develops when a magical system is overlaid atop it; when an incantation can cure a wound, for instance, there is no need for a medical practitioner to do the same thing -- which leads to larger questions of disease vectors, pandemics, et cetera. When a wormhole can transport someone across a great distance, there is no need to develop artificial forms of transportation. Thus, it could be argued that magic is at best an alternative means of societal development, and at worst an inhibiting factor that causes developmental stagnation.

Gah; what I really want to do is pull a Jared Diamond and write the New Britannian equivalent of Guns, Germs and Steel (reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel). Just need to get more solid data about how things work in SotA, first. And, granted, a spare lifetime or two to write something like that would probably help...

 

"Time forward, backward or in stagnation. De'Sitter vs Anti-De'Sitter does ~Time~ march on in our world?"
The one thing that strikes me about the Daedalus Cataclysm, is the effects or differences in tidal forces, given that Daedalus has lost it's condensed mass and gained some mass from Perilune (a great chosen name btw) within it's scattered field. Daedalus has not had a great time to pull itself back together yet and may possibly not ever gather the entirety of it's mass back together. Of course that's a very long time that will outlive us both and all current New Britannians. But the loss of Daedalus's gravity due to it's shattering, would have likely caused those greater tides in the before time to subside into what is now seen, where some walls very close to the oceans seem a bit high to the waters below them.
Another observation is how high our Avatars can jump. The average person (unless we're Bruce Lee or Jet Lee) cannot jump higher than the height of our kneecap, yet our Avatars can jump the height of a standing person. But also, our current sky (which could and will probably change as Lord Richard has stated), in our current sky, our days are twice as long as our nights (could change), and our planet seems trapped in a elliptical orbit where the days are long and the nights are short. If the Sun was on the horizon as it is in northern latitudes, then this could be explained as not being an elliptical orbit at all, yet our sun rides high in the sky. But the Sun itself seems a bit odd, as if it's a binary star with very tight orbits around itself, yet also seems to have it's partner being of less mass than it's other sibling (?)...
The above observations lead me to believe that there is some form of distortion/s within time on the planet, which could have an effect on the psyche of it's inhabitants, where prophecy could take the form of visions within the mind, as well as echoes of past histories and light forms of memories that don't seem to fit the native. Some of the peasants of our world do seem a bit confused or unmotivated to do anything but walk around town as if they just came from an early insane asylum, while others seem a bit more normal, yet as you say, stagnant or devolving within their technological or educational discovery.









It's an interesting world we will live in...
~Time Lord~