Left-Justified Fantasy Map: Difference between revisions
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Ever noticed how many [[Fantasy World Map|fantasy maps]] will detail the ocean on the left, western side? In many cases there won't even be an eastern or northern shore; however, there may be a southern shore.
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
The real reason for this, of course, is that [[Sturgeon's Law|ninety percent]] of fantasy settings are [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture
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.
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* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' could have started this phenomenon. [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]] had set out to create a mythology for Europe (the available myths, such as [[King Arthur|Camelot]] and [[Beowulf]], being alien to the modern English culture) and thus, in the context of the fantasy, Middle-earth is supposed to be western Europe as it was in the extremely distant past.
** 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
** Bottom justification happens on Dwarven maps such as the one in ''[[The Hobbit]]'', dwarves preferring the east as the chief direction as mentioned above.
* ''[[Inheritance Cycle|Eragon]]''{{context}}
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* Used in the book ''Gifts'' by [[Ursula K. Le Guin]].
** ''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]]''
** Actually, Emelan has a coast to the south of the country, and the rest of the land curves down and around the sea, making east and west coastlines in other countries. However there is a piece of land that juts out from Emelan, and Winding Circle (and the capital city) is located on the top corner of this jut, making the western coastline (from their perspective). It is said it is possible to get from Emelan, and the other countries surrounding that sea to other places, so it's not a landlocked sea. To the north of this continent, Namorn has a northern shoreline, IIRC.
** In the ''[[Tortall Universe|Song of the Lioness]]'' et al, the ocean is to the west of Tortall, and seems to be roughly analogous to the Atlantic... except that it has <s>Japan</s> [[Feudal Japan|the Yamani Islands]] in it.
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* The Sea of Knowledge in ''[[The Phantom Tollbooth]]'' is located to the east; to the west are the Lands Beyond (i.e., our world). This is no doubt linking the Enlightenment of knowledge with the rising sun.
* 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
* Although the only part of the ocean anyone talks about is to the west, the land in''[[Broken Sky]]'' actually averts this, being surrounded on three sides by the ocean. This actually becomes a plot point during the [[Final Battle]]: {{spoiler|when [[Big Bad|King Macaan]] activates a device that summons (and enrages) the very, very large sea monsters inhabiting the western ocean, the device is on the eastern shore, so the monsters will have to [[Taking You with Me|trek through (and destroy) the rest of the country on the way]]. One of the biggest, and craftiest, beasties is smart enough to swim around the country and approach from the opposite direction, showing up right at the high point of the fight.}}
* 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 ''[[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.
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