Geography
Whenever I’m writing I use maps. Maps are the best. Every fantasy AND Sci-Fi book worth its salt needs a map.
With most of my worldbuilding, knowing the layout of the world is essential to understanding the subtleties and influence of cultures, cities, nations, and religions. I’d love to post a map of the entire planet of Saeris, but everything I have is compartmentalized. I have like ten maps showing different segments of different continents, and only one real large-scale single work, and it’s rather outdated:
It’s kind of low-res, but it should show up alright. This is the Northeastern Hemisphere of Saeris. Major regions are marked with large, underlined numbers, and cities are marked with non-underlined numbers. five-pointed stars indicate regional capitals or places of extreme importance while four-pointed stars denote major cities.
This map isn’t to scale, and although technically this map should show the equator as running straight through the number 7, I don’t think that’s how I want it to be. Everything is subject to change, here.
I don’t want this post to be too long, so I’m just going to talk about the majorly important regions.
1. The Arcadian Peninsula
Named for the founder of the regional religion, the Prophet Arcad, Arcadia has a Mediterranean climate well-suited for wheat farming and vineyards. The Peninsula is divided by the Tanic Mountains, which divide two of the three distinct cultural sub-regions of Arcadia. The lands south of the mountains are referred to as “Lower” or “Veridian” Arcadia, and (depending on the century) are populous and prosperous. The best wines in the North are made in Veridian Arcadia, especially around the major city of Primaveria (A name which means “Place of Endless Spring” in old Rondellian). North of the mountains are the other two regions: Inner Arcadia and Outer Arcadia. Inner Arcadia begins in the foothills of the Tanic Mountains and follows the course of the River Tanis about halfway up the remainder of the peninsula. Inner Arcadia is known for its great wheat fields and for the immense influence of the city of Sarimia, which is of great spoilerific importance. Outer Arcadia is heavily forested and rough. It serves as a natural border between the Peninsula and the rest of the continent.
3. Hrolfgard
Called “The Old Land”, Hrolfgard is, for the most part, cold and harsh. The small continent’s three great valleys hold warm enough climates to allow farming and herding in sufficient amounts to sustain civilization. Hrolfgard is an incredibly detailed place that I don’t have room to get into for now. It’s going to need multiple posts all on its own for the true complexity to come through. For now, though, the important things to note are that three major cities hold sway in the region: Hrolfthane (”the Ribcage of the North”), Norheim, and Cairnwilloch.
5. Suldafos
Another intensely detailed region, Suldafos is modeled on the Balkans during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. Sort of. It’s also kind of like the Basque people. But not really. It also needs its own post.
7. Alimathea
This jungle-covered continent is the origin of the Saeral species (the human-like species that lives on Saeris). It has been nothing but trouble ever since, serving as a convenient block between north and south and checking the ambitions of no fewer than five great Empires throughout history. It’s home to a lot of quite angry and dangerous things, but the people have a civilization of their own, independent of outside influences.
Numbers 8 and 9 can be folded into one for the sake of this post: Rondellon
The second largest continent on Saeris. The part of Rondellon that is shown in this map is slightly less than 1/12 of the continent’s land area. The continent is named after the immensely powerful Empire that dominates it as of the start of the novel series. The Rondellian Empire is, at the start of the series, in possession of all of Rondellon, including Suldafos and the large continent labelled with the number 4, as well as numerous colonies north of Alimathea in Carachaim and Lesser Arcadia. Rondellon is home to the widest diversity of cultures on Saeris, thanks to its many mountain ranges and inland seas (not pictured). Throughout history, Rondellon has been or will be home to no fewer than four of the seven great Saeral Empires.
10. Lantann
Similar to a warmer-on-average Russia, Lantann is a heavily-forested continent and also the fourth largest on the planet. Home to the enduring and resilient Lantann people. A HUGE pain in the ass for much of history.
11, 12, and 13 are all parts of the immense continent of Carachaim.
Pronounced “Carrack-Haim”, Carachaim is fucking MASSIVE. It’s approximately the same size as the next three continents combined, and boasts the largest mountain ranges on the planet. Savannahs, rainshadow mountains, deserts, steppes, tropical forests and jungles, taigas, tundras, grasslands, mangrove swamps, and a thousand islands all show their faces on the continent. Everything in Carachaim is big, from Striders (large flightless birds) forty feet tall to lion-like insects called Spiraxes, to artificial creations such as the Great Road and the city of Greyhaven. Any nation that can control Carachaim controls the world. The long peninsula that reaches across the top of the map is called the Carachaim Arm (or just The Arm),and is technically part of the continent at large, but the terrain and cultures make it different enought ot technically be a subcontinent of its own.
So that’s a basic primer on regions. I’m skimming over about 99.9% of information here, so it may look bare-bones but this world could pretty much function without me if it wanted. I didn’t want to make this post yet, but I really want to cover cultures in a big master post and t do that I needed to show some geography dammit.