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seven44 — The World of Azeroth
Published: 2011-11-28 17:55:05 +0000 UTC; Views: 5859; Favourites: 44; Downloads: 981
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Description
So this is my boldest attempt at mapping Azeroth's geography. While this map does not include Pandaria from what can be deduced it is located south of Zandalar and northeast of Kezan. I tried my best to represent the topography of mountains and though it turned out much more stylized than i would have wanted it still looks pretty good.Related content
Comments: 16
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Just curious here: if Azeroth really looks like this from space, more or less, then how the heck can the climate keep warming up from Northrend to the South Seas? Is the Maelstrom going El Nino on the southern emisphere of the planet? o_O
I'm not bashing your artwork, I'm just trying to understand how Stranglethorn Vale can be at the same and opposite latitude of Northrend and still be covered by jungle.
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While the Maelstrom creating that impact on the climate is probably the best explanation given it's significance on the map, it being formerly the Well of Eternity, and it's connection to the Elemental Planes, there could be other contributing factors.
For example, the High Elves of Quel'thalas enchanted their kingdom to have eternal spring-time, regardless of the time of year, and the Night Elves can make it artificially night with a moonstone.
Add-in Human mages that can teleport blizzards from Northrend to anywhere on Azeroth , Druids that can make it suddenly rain or can together create a Tree larger than some Mountains, or the Undead who can freeze the area around them...
Since that kind of climate affecting magic exists and is so rampant, it's possible that's responsible.
It could be a direct spell, like with Quel'thalas.
Answering who's responsible for such a spell of that magnitude isn't possible given it's a guess, but maybe the Night Elves 10,000 years ago used the Well of Eternity to cast such a spell, and it's stayed in effect ever since? Maybe the Titans or the Dragonflights did it out of personal preference?
However, that's a bit of an unsatisfactory answer.
It could simply be a compounding effect from all these spells being cast around on the world, however working out exactly how that happens would require more data than we have about the setting. (How Azeroth's Air Currents are affected by Quel'thalas's endless spring alone! How the World Tree affects northern Kalimdor? etc.)
Staying away from the climate-affecting magic for a second, it could be that the tilt of Azeroth is such that the southern part of the world receives much more sunlight than the North.
I know that in WoW, how you see the Sun could disprove that, but, there is the issue that Azeroth lore-wise has two moons and they removed one for gameplay purposes, so whether or not the Sun is accurate lore-wise or just game play convenience is an issue.
Or it could be a combination of all these factors.
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If that's the case, then Azeroth could be a tidally locked planet orbiting a red dwarf sun, with Pandaria close to the substellar point and Northrend near the north pole on the nightside of the planet. The planet's climate pattern would actually make sense that way.
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Eh, it can't really be tidal locked though. There's still days and nights in the Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Pandaria and Northrend. If it was tidally locked, Northrend should be in perpetual darkness.
Not to mention the sun is portrayed like Earth's sun in the lore, rather than something like a red dwarf.
I don't think you have to go that far for a reasonable explanation though.
Just the combination of all the small factors will add up to affect the whole picture.
If Azeroth's tilt is off by a few degrees compared to Earth, and it's closer to its sun by just a smidge, and then you add the unique ocean currents and air currents that are going to be directly affected by things like the Maelstrom/Well of Eternty and places like Quel'Thalas, you probably will have enough things going on to explain the climate issue.
Figuring out how Azeroth's ocean currents work with the Maelstrom alone would paint a weird climate we're not accustomed to.
It is supposed to be full of energy, and hasn't stopped spinning in the ocean for ten thousand years. It actively threatens to pull in and destroy islands like where the Tomb of Sargeras is, so it definitely has a huge impact on the ocean.
There is a storm complex that stays stationary right above it, showing that the Maelstrom is creating a source of warm water for the storm to feed off of.
Depending upon currents going to and from the Maelstrom, that could explain how Northrend is cold, and how southern areas are tropical.
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That's true, but I think that having a red sun always sitting low on the horizon or never rising above it, depending on the region, would set the mood rather well for the kind of encounters you can have in Northtrend. Also worth mentiong is that non-magical plants all over the planet would need to have black leaves in order to survive under the light of a red star, just imagine the kind of place Grizzly Hills would be if that was the case.
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Oh, yeah, it would be really freaking sweet to be able to play on a planet that's in a red dwarf system.
That deserves its own novel honestly....and given the vastness of the human canon there probably is one that I just don't know about.
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That's probably because until recently even science fiction treated red dwarfs as background stars for the most part, mainly due to the widespread conviction any planet orbiting one in the goldilocks zone would inevitably be rendered uninhabitable by being tidally locked to its host star.
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This is pretty impressive. Would you be willing to redo it a bit larger with more labels and taking into account the twilight highlands and the Pandaria content?
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I think Pandaria would be on the other side of the map.
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I don't think that expansion will be available until next year. Suck cause then I'm going to need money for another one. >.<
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i stopped playing because of how much it costs : (
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That just doesn't make sense to me. If you have millions of people playing and just about millions are paying for it why up the price. I noticed and heard that a lot of people are quitting cause they are bored, or it cost too much, or something else.
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It's a beautiful map, but has one crucial problem: The equator. The equator probably should run through the southern ends of the continents we know so far.
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nope, this is azeroth from space [link]
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