Left-Justified Fantasy Map: Difference between revisions

There are several possible reasons for this. For European writers, the Atlantic Ocean is on the left, so this may come into play toward influencing the [[Left Justified Fantasy Map]] as well. Also the Mediterranean Sea is on the west side of Israel and the Biblical lands. In the United States, the Pacific Ocean is on the left, but most of the population of the United States is in the east, so why do we hardly ever see Right Justified Fantasy Maps? Because [[Hollywood|LA]] [[SoCalization|is on the west coast]], perhaps? Hmm... this might be a good opportunity to [[Inverted Trope|invert a common trope]]...

 

 

An interesting historical aside: Throughout most of the middle ages, maps were drawn with ''East'' at the top, rather than North. (This is how the word "orient" came to mean "face the correct direction.") A fantasy map that followed this convention would be ''bottom''-justified, instead of left-justified.

== Comic Books ==

 

 

== Literature ==

 

** 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 ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' take place in the west, at least partly because it was closer to the Blessed Realm and Numenor and because that was where the Kingdoms of the Noldor and of Thingol were.

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

** Bottom justification happens on Dwarven maps such as the one in ''[[The Hobbit]]'', dwarves preferring the east as the chief direction as mentioned above.

* ''[[Redwall]]''

** Although occasionally when we see a full map of <s>Scotland</s> 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.

* ''[[Shannara|The Sword Of Shannara]]''. Justified: It's actually the Pacific Northwest [[After the End]].

* ''[[Bored of the Rings]]'' (But mainly because it was aping and satirizing the style of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. The map actually has less relation to the story than to the [[Rule of Funny]].)

* ''[[Spellsinger]]''

** ''Gifts'' and its sequels ''Voices'' and ''Powers'' are now collectively known as "The Annals of the Western Shore", which may or may not be [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]].

* [[Tamora Pierce]]'s ''[[Circle of Magic]]'' series -- the sea is to the west of Emelan and Winding Circle, which is set, Greece-like, on the shore of a landlocked sea.

* 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 Altenate History Earth, there do exist several maps that detail the rest of the world, at least in universe.

* While [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' is fully-designed, it started out as a left-justified fantasy map because the Hub is analogous to the North and [[The City|Ankh-Morpork]] and the Circle Sea are on the Turnwise (I.E., west-analogous) side of The Continent. Despite having created a China-esque continent surrounded by a South Pacific ocean (which is, [[The Longitude Problem|oddly enough]], the first major land mass ''turnwise'' from A.M.) and a continent which [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|in no way is intended to resemble Australia]], though it may be a bit Australia-like here and there, it remains a [[Left Justified Fantasy Map]] because the Widdershins end of The Continent has never been shown past [[Uberwald]]. [[Affectionate Parody|The use of this trope is likely intentional]].

* Justified by Hyborian-age Earth in the original ''[[Conan the Barbarian|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.

* Andrzej Sapkowski never delivered an official map of [[The Witcher|the Witcherland]]. The various maps that have been created, however, are left-justified.

* The ''[[Arcia Chronicles]]'' is guilty of this trope. The author has averted it, however, in her other series, ''[[Reflections of Eterna]]'', which provides a map of the entire continent (and the country central to the plot spans most of it).

* [[Andre Norton]]'s early ''[[Witch World]]'' novels had a map that just showed Estcarp and its hostile neighbors to the north and south, with ocean to the west and mountains to the east. Justified in that the inhabitants of the western lands were all under a spell. The folks living to the east of the mountains didn't want the western lands' problems spilling over to their territory, so every time they westerners wondered what was east of the mountains they immediately forgot that they had. The spell was finally broken by the Tregarth triplets, who ventured east and had adventures there. Later maps showed continents on ''both'' sides of the western sea, and another sea far to the east.

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', the primary setting of Westeros is the westernmost landmass. Even though the Ironmen live off that west coast and are the dominant sea-farers in that part of the world, sailing West is never even presented as an option.

 

*** And in ''Link's Awakening'' and ''Wind Waker'', where the ocean is '''everywhere'''.

** Both Oracle games have the ocean to the south.

** ''Warband'' expansion retconned the geography, now making the game play this trope straight to some extent: the sea covers both the north and the west, and the cold area is still on the east.

* In the ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' series, Tellius (''Path of Radiance'' and ''Radiant Dawn'') is left-justified. The majority of the maps in the series have ocean on all sides, however.

* Justified in ''[[Fallout]]'' and ''Fallout 2'''s westcoast-based setting, since the available speed of transportation and danger of long distance travel left out-of-state travel out of reach for most.