Patchwork Map: Difference between revisions
→Tabletop Games
m (Mass update links) |
|||
(20 intermediate revisions by 9 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:PatchworkMap.png|frame|link=Xkcd|[[Alt Text|The place I'd least like to live is the farm in the background of those diagrams showing how tornadoes form.]]]]
{{quote|''I've always said, the best thing about dwelling in the desert caves is the easy access to the lush rainforest.''|'''Mike Nelson''', ''[[
In the real world, the landscape is determined by a complex combination of climate and geography. Deserts, for instance, are usually created because a mountain or valley blocks rain clouds from being blown over it (known as a "[[wikipedia:Rain shadow|rain shadow]]"). Tundra has to be at the right elevation and temperature to remain frozen. Rivers have to source their water from somewhere (usually from the same moutains which stopped those rain clouds from reaching the desert). Swamps are generally located in low-lying areas where the water collects rather than draining out.
Line 8:
Not so in the world of fictional geography, where you can have a vast jungle next to a desert with nothing separating them and no reason why the two should have different geological features aside from an invisible line. You'll also have swamps on mountain tops and caves full of ice slightly below a sunny surface.
Particularly notable in video games, which try to pack in a variety of environments in a relatively small space, especially because of the ease of doing it, especially in early games, a quick [[Palette Swap]] will turn green grass into yellow sand, white snow, blue water, and red lava without a hitch. Also tends to happen to maps of [[Magical Land
Something of an extreme opposite form of the [[Single Biome Planet]]. See also [[Hailfire Peaks]]. Also note that [[Left
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* The Digital Worlds of the ''[[Digimon]]'' franchise are almost always portrayed as this (the big exception being that of ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'', which had a very different structure).
** [[Fridge Brilliance]] when you think about how this is exactly what should be expected in a digital universe.
** Seeing as the Digital World is after all [[Exactly What It Says
* On [[One Piece|Grand Line]], there're 4 different kinds of islands - Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Islands. Obviously, that (partly) explains the ridiculously unpredictable weather changes. It also causes that [[Slippy-Slidey Ice World|Drum/Sakura Kingdom]] and [[Shifting Sand Land|Alabasta Kingdom]] to be neighbour countries.
** Played straight with {{spoiler|Punk Hazard that has [[Slippy-Slidey Ice World]] on its one side and [[Lethal Lava Land]] on another. It was caused by the battle between Admirals [[Playing
* At the end of every episode of ''[[A Piece of Phantasmagoria]]'' we see the titular planet, which is portrayed this way. [[A_Piece_of_Phantasmagoria_Planet.jpg|Observe]]. Justified on that the place is intended to be a [[Dream Land]].
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Madcap, nicknamed "the crazy moon", from the ''[[Firefly]]'' spin-off comic ''Float Out''. Wash uses the wet-to-cold-to-hot environmental changes to take out a pursuing ship.
{{quote|
* Justified with Battleworld, from the [[Marvel Comics]] crossover ''The Secret Wars''. It was literally cobbled together by landmasses from different planets, including one from Earth.
* The [[Green Lantern]] storyline ''Mosaic'' featured something similar when a renegade Guardian of the Universe stole parts of a bunch of different planets and pasted them to Oa. (They eventually all got sent home.)
* Turned [[Up to Eleven]] by the creators of ''[[Grim Jack]]'', in which the city of Cynosure consists of a more-or-less stable central region surrounded by areas -- "dimensions"
== Fan Works ==
* A minor example in ''[[
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[
* The film ''[[Return to Oz]]'' features the Deadly Desert being right smack-dab next to a thick lush forest. This is a carry-over from the original Oz books by [[L. Frank Baum]], which offers up perhaps both the original and definitive example of this trope: The land of Oz is a more-or-less perfect rectangle, filled cheek-and-jowl with every known and unknown variety of bizarre landscape and surrounded on all sides by wide expanses of desert. Baum should also be considered a patron saint of [[Continuity Drift]], but in one of the books he established that a passing [[A Wizard Did It|Wizard (Or Rather Fairy Queen) Did It]].
** ''[[Wicked (
*** Alternately, one could view the Oz in ''Wicked'' as a counterpart to the United States, with urban, forest-filled Gillikin as the Northeast; agricultural Munchkinland as the Midwest; swampy Quadling Country as the South (more specifically, the Mississippi Delta and Florida Everglades regions); and the barren Vinkus as the Mountain West. Even Oz residents' opinions of certain regions mirror American regional stereotypes. Quadlings are seen as filthy and uneducated. Gillikin is where the best universities are and the Gillkinese come off as snobbish. The Vinkus is seen as wild and untamed, and something of a wasteland... etc.
* Appears in ''[[Star Trek]] [[Star Trek III:
** In the
* In the comedy ''[[
* The titular [[Zootopia]] is created just this way, with a tundra-like area sandwiched between a jungle-like and a desertic one. It's justified as it was intentionally planned that way, to make up the most of its space and resources.
== [[Literature]] ==
* In the SF novel ''Midnight at the Well of Souls'' by [[Jack Chalker|Jack L. Chalker]], the surface of the Well World is divided into regular hexagons, each featuring its own environment, often startlingly different from its neighbors in climate, biome, atmosphere, gravity, or even achievable tech level, with no apparent separating mechanism other than force walls that just about anyone can shove through without noticing. [[Justified Trope]] as the construction of [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]].
* Christopher Paolini's ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'' has rivers having no source and going nowhere, as well as rivers running in weird directions in relation to the mountains. This recap of [[The Movie]] [http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Eragon.aspx?Page=4 sums it up nicely:]
{{quote|
* Referenced in ''The [[Discworld]] Mapp'', when Stephen Briggs quotes Pratchett as describing traditional fantasy novel mapmaking as "putting the wiggly river through the pointy mountains," before adding that when he showed Pratchett the first draft (which was indeed drawn that way), he got the response "Do you know what a rain shadow is?" and a brief lecture on climatology.
* J.R.R. Tolkien's [[The Lord of the Rings
** The ''Atlas of Middle-earth'' subjects it to a climatic analysis and takes into account regions such as Lorien and Mordor as being "subject to the influence of Secondary World powers".
** If the west side of the Misty Mountains is moist enough (as the name implies) and the mountains aren't too tall, there should be plenty of rainfall left to support a forest in the east. Compare the situation with the Scandinavian Mountains, the mountain range implied to be what the Misty Mountains are called in the present day. Also, not every area with trees is marked on the map, only significant old-growth forests. The east side of the Misty Mountains was once one continuous forest, but almost all of it was cut down by human settlers. During the time of the story Mirkwood is undergoing the same process.
** The route of Anduin is also a lot more explainable if you think about what Europe might have been like in the mythical past when, among other things, the sea levels were lower, such that the shallow Baltic Sea didn't exist.
* In the ''[[Everworld]]'' novels, the world was created by the mythological gods of our world, with each pantheon having its own territory. So African gods would create an area of Everworld that resembles sub-Saharan Africa, and Norse gods one that resembles Scandanavia, and if the cold, forested mountains instantly give way to hot, arid grassland, who cares? This is one of many bizarre, illogical characteristics of the universe that the characters [[Lampshade Hanging]] by saying, "Welcome to Everworld."
* In [[Arthur C. Clarke
* In ''[[The Neverending Story (
** At another point, it's explicitly mentioned that it's indeed possible in Phantasia that an icy area borders a hot desert. It's Phantasia, after all. In fact, drawing a map would be impossible even if the country wasn't infinite - it's written that the borders between lands aren't always even determinable.
* In Clive Barker's ''Weaveworld'', the odd bits and pieces of terrain incorporated into the Fugue were stuck together in a frantic rush, creating ''literal'' patchwork geography.
Line 61 ⟶ 65:
== [[Machinima]] ==
* Parodied in ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'': "The Burning Plains are next to the Freezing Plains? I bet there's some pretty wet plains in between." And it turns out there are some pretty wet plains in between, since after going through the burning plains, but before the freezing plains, they cross a swamp. OK, so it's not exactly a plain, but still, [[The Ditz|Caboose]] [[Dumbass Has a Point|got something right]]!
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* Can be truth in fiction when the reason for desert/not desert is not obvious. For example there are parts of the world where there is no rain, but copious mist. This condenses on the trees and waters them. However, if all the trees are cut down, the saplings can't take advantage of this and nothing can grow. There are attempts to make artificial rain catchers (sails) to get the trees kick started again. Such an area could have a forest in one place and a bare desert next to it.▼
* Likewise rain forests may be self sustaining but can be destroyed. For example the rich soil is continuously used and replaced, thus once the trees are gone the soil is also gone in 2 or 3 years. Farming is abandoned, leaving bare ground that radiates far more heat than the forest ever did, preventing rain. I.e. forest and desert are the only two stable equilibria, and could theoretically be close to each other.▼
* Another example occurs with the largely sheltered canyons of, for example, eastern Washington state, which allow you to have a large river running through bone-dry desert/[[Insistent Terminology|xeric shrubland]].▼
* The Eastern U.S. has a relatively continuous climate that gradually changes from cold in the north to hot in the south, and from wet in the east to dry in the west. The West is mostly desert, everywhere, except for Washington, Oregon, and Northern California, which are strongly defined by the complex boundaries between forest and desert. You can stand almost anywhere in Silicon Valley and see brown hills on one side and green ones on the other. If you park off I-84 in Oregon you can walk from forest to desert, along a big river flowing sideways through a mountain range. It does happen.▼
* [[New York]]'s [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/26_-_New_York_-_Octobre_2008.jpg Central Park] (warning: huge file) has a perfect transition with the cityscape. It's manmade though.▼
* Israel. In a country smaller than New Jersey, there are snow-capped mountains, a desert, coral reefs, and the lowest point in the world.▼
** This is partially due to the immigrating Jews who made some changes in the scenery, like drying up some swamps to avoid certain diseases (notably malaria in Hadera) and planted trees native to their homelands due to being homesick. A notable example of both was planting eucalyptus trees to drink up the swamp water (though few Jews actually did come from Australia), an attempt that was [[You Fail Biology Forever|mostly a failure]], as the trees drank water from the ground and not the swamps themselves. (They eventually resorted to using other types of trees.)▼
* [http://www.desertofmaine.com/ The Desert of Maine], 40 acres of, well, desert-like landscape surrounded by mixed forest with little brooks. TECHNICALLY it's not an actual desert as much as it is the product of over a century of [[Idiot Ball|utter agricultural mismanagement]]. And technically it's glacial silt, and not sand. It doesn't stop them from having a huge Fiberglas camel on site for photo opportunities.▼
* In [[Australia]], parts of South-East Queensland have small pockets of sub-tropical rainforest in water catching hollows and along creek beds in what would be relatively dry eucalypt forests.▼
** On a larger scale the Great Dividing Range separates the relatively well watered eastern seaboard from the dry plains that gradually transition into the deserts of the interior. The transition as you go over the range can be fairly abrupt, especially as you go further north.▼
* Using the Indus river as a dividing line, Pakistan has lush farmland to the eastern banks (the Punjab), desolate wasteland on the western banks (Balochistan), the sea shore and [[Mega City]] of Karachi in the south, and snowcapped mountains in the north (Khyber-Paktunkwha).▼
* One of the reasons so many production companies love New Zealand so much is it's large diversity in a relatively small area. You have cities, mountains, beaches, forests, and pretty much everything ''except'' desert wedged into a couple of land masses roughly the size of Colorado. Watch a show like ''[[Power Rangers]]'' (post ''Ninja Storm'') to see just how diverse New Zealand is.▼
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The ''Known World''/''Mystara'' setting for ''[[Dungeons
* ''[[Settlers of Catan]]'' is played on a map made of hexagonal tiles, each tile depicting exactly one biome (mountains, hills, forests, pastures, grainfields, and desert); the map is laid out randomly at the beginning of each game. Thus, it more or less runs on this trope.
** Even better, if you look at the odds, the desert is most likely to appear in a coastal region. It's a 12/19 chance (63%) that the desert appears right next to the sea. Oh, and this is all on a single island.
* You just gotta love those rivers in the ''[[Dungeons
* D&D setting [[Eberron]] has the continent of Xendrik, which works like this explicitly, with such occurrences as sweltering deserts abutting arctic tundra. [[A Wizard Did It]], in that it's all caused by a magical cataclysm in the continent's past.
** Happens in Khorvaire too. Consider Karnnath and The Mror Holds, who have weather like northern Europe or Canada, with lots of snow. Slightly East of them are Lazhaar Principalities, with a Caribbean-like weather and palm trees. Must be a ''really'' warm ocean. Regalport (the main Pirate town in a tropical weather) is further north than Frostmantle and Rekkenmark, both of whom are described as cold. So warm ocean indeed. Similarly, Breland is supposed to be a tropical, rainy country, but most of the neighboring lands are depicted as temperate. [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/eberron/images/f/f4/D%26D_-_4th_Edition_-_Eberron_Map_Khorvaire.jpg Khorvaire] also has rivers that start nowhere and occasionally go nowhere, and lakes alone in the middle of nowhere.
* ''[[Planescape]]'' has the ultimate example in Limbo, the Plane of pure Chaos, where pieces of the plane randomly and seamlessly shift between being completely dominated by one element or another.
* ''[[Legend of the Five Rings]]'' is horrible about this trope. Rivers go any which way (including uphill), cities and whole geographic features are outright misplaced onto the wrong ends of the Empire because the mapmakers weren't paying attention, and to top it all off, it
** The ''Magic of Rokugan'' supplement, when discussing what makes an Imperial road instead of a plain old road, mentions many roads that are on no maps are actually forgotten Imperial roads to the point and there's too many such roads for anyone to sort out which aren't Imperial roads. This leads to an implication [[Lawful Stupid|the maps are horrifically wrong and nobody is allowed to question them]].
* Fully justified in the [[Ravenloft]] setting for [[Dungeons
* In one fan-created variant of ''[[Magic:
* [http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l612/Dezeroth/Creation_Map_v71a.jpg Creation] in ''[[Exalted]]'' goes with having four major climate forms (desert and volcano, ocean, tundra and glaciers, plains and forests and jungles) and simply confining them to each of the cardinal directions (with the central island continent being largely mountainous). Justified by the fact that things like climate and geography are controlled entirely by gods, as well as by the fact that Creation was designed by beings with some pretty odd ideas about how a world should work.
Line 95 ⟶ 86:
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', this is justified and enforced. It is justified in that the world was forged by god-like creators: an entire continent was blasted to smithereens to form three smaller ones, and magic plagues/life-giving trees/[[
* Extremely evident in ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
** ''[[Spirit Tracks]]'' does much the same, but partly averts it with the snow realm by having it gradually change from "snow everywhere" to "it looks ''sort'' of cold" as you get close to the border.
** Whoever designs the map for the Zelda games clearly has [[You Fail Geography Forever|no idea how rivers work]]. They do normally start high and end low, which is better than a lot of examples on this page, but they do all kinds of crazy stuff on the way. The worst offender is probably Twilight Princess, where two rivers ''cross''.
Line 104 ⟶ 95:
** ''[[Links Awakening]]'' also has some crazy map parts. Most of the island is single-biome woods and mountains, but some levels feature volcanic activity that's nowhere else on the map. Also a mini desert next to a swamp and the friggin ocean.
* ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'' suffers quite a bit from this; Ragnarok Wisdom [http://adultimum.net/rw/62/ comments on it].
* ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]'' somehow manages to get around this one by placing the desert and the forest in different land masses.
** Not surprising, since it's based on California (notice the redwoods?) and Arizona, which really do look like that.
* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' (well the 3 GBA games at least) does this slightly differently, where forest and other [[Geo Effects|terrain types]] are spread out in a ridiculously random way.
* ''[[
** Jungle next to tundra.
** ''[[Final Fantasy Mystic Quest]]'' was an even greater offender; the world is divided into four climate zones of identical size, one representing each of the four classical elements, by a pair of planet-spanning mountain ranges that run directly along the equator and the prime meridian.
** ''[[
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls III
** Averted in the next installment, ''[[Oblivion]]'', where it was mostly just meadows and forests, with snowy mountains to the north.
*** Note, though, that it still counts in-game: Cyrodiil is on the equator, and is surrounded on most sides by steaming jungles and swamps. It was in fact supposed to be a tropical rainforest for the first three games, but then [[A Wizard Did It|a god stepped in]] and turned it into Ye Olde Fantasy Europe.
*** [[The Other Rainforest|It's still a rainforest.]] The term "rainforest" is defined by precipitation and foliage, not temperature. It rains practically every other day in ''[[Oblivion]]''.
** A sort-of example in ''[[Skyrim]]''. The terrain ranges from [[The Other Rainforest|wet conifer forests]] in the south, to rocky plains further north that look like something out of [[The Lord of the Rings (
* ''[[
* ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' had swamps, snow, and volcanoes all within a few minutes of each other, but the speed of the elevators probably means they were fairly far apart.
** The recent impact of the Phazon meteorite (aka the Leviathan), coupled with Phazon radiation, probably have a role in all of this.
** Justified in ''Metroid Fusion'', as the game takes place on a biological research vessel, and the various environments have been artificially created to support creatures that need a watery area or a fiery area.
* ''[[Just Cause (
* Video game ''[[Civilization]] IV'' has a map option called "fantasy world" where the terrain types are strewn about randomly. Any given tile is as likely to contain tundra as forest, desert, etc.
* Averted somewhat by ''[[Sid
* In ''[[
* Also [[Averted Trope]] by ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'', which pays attention to things like rain shadows and biomes when generating worlds. Generating a new world can take about a quarter of an hour, depending on the size of the world and the number of potential worlds rejected for not having the right terrain distribution. On the other hand, the world generation is very powerful and flexible and you can set parameters that create worlds with glacier, sand desert, swamp, and mountain range all rubbing shoulders. Regions in half the map bursts into flames as soon as the game starts and the other half freezes every living thing dead within a minute are statistically uncommon (you really do have to make the effort) but not otherwise unusual. However, bugs in some versions can cause unusually powerful fluctuations in water temperatures.
** "Fluctuations" means creatures spontaneously melting on contact with water, if you weren't aware.
Line 129 ⟶ 120:
* Averted in ''[[Phantasy Star III]]: Generations of Doom''. {{spoiler|The starting "world" is actually one of three isolated pods of a [[Generation Ships]]. Some have unusual climates: an early first generation quest suggests the ship's weather control system regulates the climes.}}
* ''[[Hostile Waters]]'' takes place entirely on an island chicane (artificial archipelago) located somewhere around New Zealand. The environment varies from hot to frozen over. [[Justified]] by the chicane undergoing rapid, hostile (un)terraformation. Especially visible in the last mission.
* Unavoidable in ''[[
* Justified as a major plot point of ''[[Suikoden Tierkreis]]'', starting from the opening scenes where a forest mysteriously appears near your village. Sometime later, a massive savanna pops into existence ''in the middle of a snow-covered mountain range''.
* An extreme example in the graphic chat/MMO, ''[[Furcadia]]'', users can make their own maps (called dreams) that other users can explore, chat, and RP on. Quite a few users have made dreams based on the [[Warrior Cats|Warriors]] series by Erin Hunter. In the books, the four clans of wild cats live in slightly different territories, such as one clan lives in moorland while another lives in a forest. In these fan-made dreams, however, the differences in the territories tend to be very drastic. It is not at all uncommon to find a Warriors dream with a barren desert, murky swamp, snowy tundra, and lush forest all sitting right next to each other with little or no transition in between, made even more drastic by the fact that the area of the dream would probably wind up being only 15 square miles or so in real life.
* Justified in ''[[Endless Frontier]]'' {{spoiler|which ends with five different worlds getting mixed together in a fairly haphazard way}}. Of course, Nature is soon to start asserting itself, so...
* Morning Land in ''[[Billy Hatcher and
* [[Simon the Sorcerer]]. You have a temperate forest right next to a swamp right next to some icy mountains, and so on, and so on, in it's defense, it IS a magical world.
* In ''[[
** Isn't helped by that fact that a bright and sunny, almost Mediterranean fishing village (Catherby) is positioned right next to a snow-drenched arctic-esque craggy hill. Might be justified by the altitude, though - if the world wasn't compressed for player convenience (to the point of two longitudinal or latitudinal minutes being the minimum distance a player can travel, doing so in 0.6 seconds at walking pace), the White Wolf Mountain would possibly be quite high and capable of being cold. Ice Mountain is located at the same latitude.
*** Additionally, the very northern reaches of the world are so cold, the player takes all-stat damage. The Ghorrock fortress is located even further north. Squeeze past an ice block into the Wilderness, and without changing latitude, you'll reach a scorched land with surface lava features in seconds.
* ''[[Pokémon]]'' provides a near
** Unova, from Pokémon Black/White. Route 4 is essentially a small desert, surrounded by forests, with the transitioning area being about as long as a building.
** There are other examples throughout the series. For example, in Sinnoh (where the fourth generation takes place), a snowy city is fairly close to a tropical island, and in Hoenn (third generation) there is a rainy route near a desert route.
** In both the anime and the ''FireRed''/''LeafGreen'' games, there are tropical archipelagos not too far south of the icy Seafoam Islands (or at least, they're implied to be icy, given that that's the only place in Kanto where a lot of Ice-type Pokémon, including Articuno, are found. In Pokémon games in general, the "icy cave/island" which forms the Ice-types' lair tends to come out of pretty much nowhere).
*** That said, we are dealing with Pokémon here - they can shape their environments. Particularly in the case of the legendaries which are responsible for everything from time and space to earth and sea to life itself. If Articuno wants a frozen cave, Articuno damn well gets a frozen cave. See also: the second movie where Fire/Lightning/Ice islands are all close together with very different climates thanks to their respective Pokémon overlords.
* ''[[
* Somewhat deconstructed in ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]]''. Since the two worlds merged together, the climates have gone insane. Deserts are freezing over and the north pole is melting.
* The island in ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Football 2006]]''.
* Averted in ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online
* ''[[King's Quest V]]'' takes place in the land of Serenia, which is mostly forest, but it is bordered by a hot desert to the west and a cold mountain range to the east.
** Sort of. The mountain is not on top of the forest; it's stated the screen's a few hours later. It's still implausible, but not ''quite'' bordered.
* Done so blatantly in ''[[Banjo
* Averted in ''[[Diablo II]]'', where there's a specific 'travel gap' between the different Acts - an (unseen and assumed) caravan takes you from the temperate Rogues camp to the desert of Lut Gholein, then an unseen boat takes you from the desert to the jungle of Kurast, then the end of that Act opens a magical portal directly to Hell. If you have the LoD expansion, a helpful angel teleports you directly from Hell to the fifth Act in the snowy mountains.
* Lampshaded in ''[[Paper Mario (
* ''[[Impossible Creatures]]'' is set on an island chain called Isla ''Variatas'' which manages to contain polar, forested and desert islands.
* ''[[Brutal Legend]]'' has about half a mile and a deep chasm between icy mountains and sweltering jungle. Most of the other transitions are better, though.
* ''[[Minecraft]]'' can get ridiculous with it's biome generation. In rapid succession, you can walk from a temperate forest, to a tundra, to a sandy desert, to a tropical rainforest (which for some reason, has livestock instead of the normal stuff). Without skipping a beat.
** Not as obvious, though, as of the 1.8 update. Biomes are much, much bigger now, so it's not as stark. Still, you can see a desert that shares close boundaries with a very large, temperate forest and ocean.
* ''[[
* ''[[Wonder Boy III
* The lower areas of Paradise City in ''[[Burnout]] Paradise'' are tropical and resemble Florida, then there's the geologically implausible California-style mountains with a parody of the Hollywood sign, and temperate forests/vegetation.
* ''[[Halo 3]]'' not only has jungle with [[Misplaced Vegetation]] and savanna right next to each other, but Mt. Kilimanjaro is way too close to the Tsavo/Mombasa area. And let's not talk about the rings themselves.
* ''[[An Untitled Story]]'' has it's entire world compressed into few hundred screens. As such, there's a [[Slippy-Slidey Ice World|snowfield]] that borders with a sunny town and a grassy (and moonlit) hill without ''any'' barriers, or a [[Lethal Lava Land|lava]] covered [[Eternal Engine|factory]] that borders directly with [[Under the Sea|a water grotto]], a grassy plain from above and ''a tree''.
* Notably averted in ''[[Mabinogi (
* ''[[
* ''[[
* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in ''[[
* Very common in most games by [[Nifflas]]. The geography tends to change ''halfway through a screen,'' indicating a new area.
== Webcomics ==▼
* Seen [http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=225 here] in ''[[The Noob]]''.▼
== [[Western Animation]] ==
Line 172 ⟶ 166:
* You know how there's always snow on the ground in ''[[South Park]]''? When they went to Nebraska the snow gave way to green fields, with the boundary being ''exactly'' at the Colorado-Nebraska state line. Or was the state line being placed exactly on the snow-grass boundary?
* Similarly, there was a [[Bugs Bunny]] cartoon where the drab, unpleasant Northern U.S. was separated from the verdant, flowered South precisely at the Mason-Dixon Line.
* ''[[The Flintstones]]'' did it in one episode. Rain up until a border.
* Justified in the ''[[Star Trek:
* ''Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1,001 Rabbit Tales'' has a lush jungle near or in the middle of an Arabian desert.
▲== Webcomics ==
▲== [[Real Life]] ==
▲* Seen [http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=225 here] in ''[[The Noob]]''.
▲* Can be truth in fiction when the reason for desert/not desert is not obvious. For example there are parts of the world where there is no rain, but copious mist. This condenses on the trees and waters them. However, if all the trees are cut down, the saplings can't take advantage of this and nothing can grow. There are attempts to make artificial rain catchers (sails) to get the trees kick
▲* Likewise rain forests may be self
▲* Another example occurs with the largely sheltered canyons of, for example, eastern Washington state, which allow you to have a large river running through bone-dry desert/[[Insistent Terminology|xeric shrubland]].
▲* The Eastern U.S. has a relatively continuous climate that gradually changes from cold in the north to hot in the south, and from wet in the east to dry in the west. The West is mostly desert, everywhere, except for Washington, Oregon, and Northern California, which are strongly defined by the complex boundaries between forest and desert. You can stand almost anywhere in Silicon Valley and see brown hills on one side and green ones on the other. If you park off I-84 in Oregon you can walk from forest to desert, along a big river flowing sideways through a mountain range. It does happen.
▲* [[New York]]'s [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/26_-_New_York_-_Octobre_2008.jpg Central Park] (warning: huge file) has a perfect transition with the cityscape. It's manmade though.
▲* [[Israel]]. In a country smaller than New Jersey, there are snow-capped mountains, a desert, coral reefs, and the lowest point in the world.
▲** This is partially due to the immigrating Jews who made some changes in the scenery, like drying up some swamps to avoid certain diseases (notably malaria in Hadera) and planted trees native to their homelands due to being homesick. A notable example of both was planting eucalyptus trees to drink up the swamp water (though few Jews actually did come from Australia), an attempt that was [[You Fail Biology Forever|mostly a failure]], as the trees drank water from the ground and not the swamps themselves. (They eventually resorted to using other types of trees.)
▲* [http://www.desertofmaine.com/ The Desert of Maine], 40 acres of, well, desert-like landscape surrounded by mixed forest with little brooks. TECHNICALLY it's not an actual desert as much as it is the product of over a century of [[Idiot Ball|utter agricultural mismanagement]]. And technically it's glacial silt, and not sand. It doesn't stop them from having a huge Fiberglas camel on site for photo opportunities.
▲* In [[Australia (2008 film)|Australia]], parts of South-East Queensland have small pockets of sub-tropical rainforest in water catching hollows and along creek beds in what would be relatively dry eucalypt forests.
▲** On a larger scale the Great Dividing Range separates the relatively well watered eastern seaboard from the dry plains that gradually transition into the deserts of the interior. The transition as you go over the range can be fairly abrupt, especially as you go further north.
▲* Using the Indus river as a dividing line, Pakistan has lush farmland to the eastern banks (the Punjab), desolate wasteland on the western banks (Balochistan), the sea shore and [[Mega City]] of Karachi in the south, and snowcapped mountains in the north (Khyber-Paktunkwha).
▲* One of the reasons so many production companies love New Zealand so much is it's large diversity in a relatively small area. You have cities, mountains, beaches, forests, and pretty much everything ''except'' desert wedged into a couple of land masses roughly the size of Colorado. Watch a show like ''[[Power Rangers]]'' (post ''Ninja Storm'') to see just how diverse New Zealand is.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Valetonia (Roleplay)]]▼
[[Category:Did Not Do the Research]]
[[Category:Paratext]]
[[Category:Patchwork Map]]
|