Left-Justified Fantasy Map: Difference between revisions

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* Both ''[[The Belgariad]]'' and ''[[The Elenium]]'' provide world maps like this. Interestingly, their respective sequels both take place on the then-charted lands of the far east, complete with maps. It should be noted that Eddings takes world-building very seriously.
* Avoided in ''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]'' Pern is an earth-like planet, with oceans surrounding continents and such.
* ''[[The Riddle -Master of Hed]]'' and its sequels have a ''right-justified'' map with uninhabited Badlands to the West. (The realms of the High One were colonized by humans two thousand years ago from across the ocean, but their original homeland is never mentioned, nor has anyone ever found anything of note beyond the Badlands.)
* ''Literally'' inverted in ''[[The Tough Guide to Fantasyland]]''. At first glance it looks like an aversion, with the ocean on the right. But turn the book upside down...
* Subverted in the ''[[Earthsea]]'' series, where the ocean lies to the west, east, north, ''and'' south. In fact, the whole planet is ocean, aside from a dense scattering of islands.
* 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 Left Justified Fantasy Map because the Widdershins end of The Continent has never been shown past [[UberwaldÜberwald]]. [[Affectionate Parody|The use of this trope is likely intentional]].
* 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.
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* The Old World in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] is a not-very-subtle version of Europe (and beyond), so the layout is much the same as a real-world map. As the primary focus is on the Empire (Germany), Bretonnia (France) and the frozen, inhospitable wastelands only inhabited by desperate, drunk and brutal deformed humans (Scandinavia), that's what most of the maps show. If you look at a map of the whole world, it looks no less familiar (you just get approximations of the other continents as well).
* [[Exalted]]'s map works like this. In fact, there's literally nothing beyond the western border these days except the "Elemental Pole of Water" and primordial chaos.
* The ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' setting ''[[Forgotten Realms]]''. Avoided in almost all other settings: In ''Greyhawk'', ''Mystara'', ''Kara-Tur'', and ''Maztica'', the ocean is on the right (which is only natural in the case of the latter two: Kara-Tur is on the far side of the Realms' supercontinent while Maztica is another continent across the ocean to the west); while in ''Red Steel'' (a spinoff of ''Mystara''), the ocean is on the south; and in ''[[Dragonlance]]'', ''[[Eberron]]'', ''Al-Qadim'', and ''[[Birthright]]'', the map shows both coasts (Technically speaking all four in Eberron's case, since Khorvaire is an island continent ala Australia). ''[[Ravenloft]]'' in its original release features an ocean on its western side, though in a later edition the Mists that surround it expand out to reveal an ocean on the eastern shore. Somewhat justified in that ''Ravenloft'' is an artificial demiplane whose geography is subject to change, alteration, or erasure by the Dark Powers at the drop of a hat. ''[[Planescape]]'''s [[The Multiverse|primary setting]] has no maps.
** Faerûn's east coast at the Great Ice Sea does appear on some maps as well, although it generally fulfills the trope. Later maps do show the entire planet, however, so it's more a case that the Faerûnian continent 'traditional map' fulfills the trope, but the actual world and setting does not.