Belariath

I think it would be a good idea to have basic information about Belariath's geography, astronomy, calendars, meteorology and so forth listed somewhere on the site. I've been here for four years and until the mention of the pending double-eclipse was posted yesterday, I was unaware Belariath had two moons. And surely I'm not the only one.

And what about the continent on which the empire is based? Are there other empires elsewhere in the world? How far does the empire extend? Obviously it'll be difficult to ever get a definitive map of the entire world or even the entire continent, since one has to make allowances for characters' backstories. (For example, Callie hails from the Ulma Valley, which is 50 kilometers south or so of the empire's southern border). But a little idea as to, at the very least, the scale of Nanthalion and Valencia Provinces would be helpful.

a list of know constellations, recurring astronomical events, such as the meteor shadow supposedly on the 7th of January, in the original vulpine racial write up, by Dante known as starsfall day. Though since hey a second moon! is a glaring omission some may have missed, i'd suggest adding the second moons cycles to http://belariath.com/info/calendar.html for clarification, and just another spot to add this occasionally mixed game lore fact.

Partly my fault because Brane / Taomiel has done some good work that I haven't posted on the site yet but I will get to it... soon.

In general though the moons were on the site years ago, been there since the game started

While it's useful to have some information for people to play with, too much is both unlikely and restrictive. We have a people with limited means of travel who mostly never go 10 miles from home, yet they're supposed to have a map of the world? Unlikely and to most, irrelevant. In addition, by being too precise we limit the options for the future.

The empire is fairly well mapped and some of the lands around it but beyond that, information drops off rapidly, which is as it should be. It emulates the type of knowledge that would be common and it allows us to create roleplay by exploration and expansion. We have maps of other areas of course, like the Minotaur homelands but their exact relationship to the location of the empire is sketchy, which represents visitors to the empire who know where they came from but may have been travelling for years before arriving here.

No more exact mapping of the world is planned without roleplayed exploration to back it up but the empire itself will gradually become better mapped and described, for coherent roleplaying by those who live within it.

Matwyn wrote: i'd suggest adding the second moons cycles to http://belariath.com/info/calendar.html for clarification, and just another spot to add this occasionally mixed game lore fact.

If Stormbringer would kindly check his email. That um.. addition is sitting in there waiting.

Yep, that's on the post-xmas get-to-soon list

Roleplayed exploration sounds like a great idea, count on Phaing to get involved.
In fact, that's why she is trying to get a ship that she likes.

Who would be allowed to run a quest like that?

Stormbringer wrote:In addition, by being too precise we limit the options for the future.

When I called attention to the thread in the OOC room, someone made this argument, and actually on second thought that's something I agree with.

Sushi wrote:Roleplayed exploration sounds like a great idea, count on Phaing to get involved.
In fact, that's why she is trying to get a ship that she likes.

Who would be allowed to run a quest like that?

Ship quest/trading and piracy have been established now thanks to the work by dev and Vlad in particular. You can fairly well make up the destinations as you go along. More formal exploration and mapping is generally done as part of big storylines and there's at least one of those on the horizon.

Stormbringer wrote: More formal exploration and mapping is generally done as part of big storylines and there's at least one of those on the horizon.

ah, coolness, so is my ship.

I'll keep an eye out.

I figure this is the right thread to ask, but one questions that occured to me, and something I imagine most people owuld know, but how big is the Empire, Valencia and Southlands included? No particular number but just a 'ballpark' is it the size of France? Or more like the US? Or even Russia sized?

The original empire was envisaged as being about the size of Germany. So with additions like Valencia, France or a bit bigger would be a fair guide.