Have we ever gotten a map with some sort of scale on it? I'm curious. It's been likened to Europe before, which leads me to believe it might be a similar size as well. Ferelden around the size of France, Orlais something like the European portion of Russia, etc. etc.
I'm mostly curious because I'd like to figure out the approximate travel time in DA:O from place to place, on foot presumably.
It takes a couple of days to go from Redcliffe to Denerim. That's how long it took a forced march.
Assuming a march is around 5km/hr with around 12 hours of walking a day, that's 60km a day.
So the distance from Redcliffe and Denerim is around 200-300 km at most.
Lets take it as 250. That means the diameter of Fereldan is around 300.
Fereldan has a relatively square shape so its area is around 90000km^2
Fereldan is around 1/8th of the surface area of the known world.
So the known world has a surface area of around 720000km^2 (~Area of Texas)
So you see it's a pretty small world.
Val Royeaux is only ~12 days walking from Denerim.
The travel times given have always been fairly well out of whack in this series. In The Masked Empire, it took several days of magically-accelerated travel to cross a medium-sized chunk of Orlais. Kind of. And crossing the same distance on horseback took weeks.
I didn't account for topography, so the travel times are skewed. I assumed flat ground, but mountainous and snowy regions like Frostbacks can add a few days. You don't ride your horses on rocky or snowy terrain either, nor do you ride for 12 hours a day, every day.The travel times given have always been fairly well out of whack in this series. In The Masked Empire, it took several days of magically-accelerated travel to cross a medium-sized chunk of Orlais. Kind of. And crossing the same distance on horseback took weeks.
Firstly, assuming all maps in Thedas orient north, the continent is in the southern hemisphere (assuming Thedas exists on a planet). It stretches from the Korcari Wilds, which become antarctic as you go further south, to Par Vollen in the north, which appears to have a tropical climate presumably from being near the equator.
If the world of Thedas is approximately the same size as Earth, I'd assume north to south of the continent is about the same distance from the bottom of South America to Central America.
It also extends into unexplored steppes to the west, and the qunari's orignial nation across the ocean presumably to the north/north-east.
^ Yeah, it looks like that imo too.
And on the bottom of the map you can see ice regions, probably polar region starts there.
I remember similar thread after DA2 realease. I made this image back then so I'll repost it here
That's ofcourse was my interpretation, but I believe it is quite accurate.
Thedas has the same problem as Westeros in Game of Thrones. The actual size of the world/continent is so small that it becomes implausible. As you can see in the maps below - the actual size of these worlds are not big enough to populate enough cities, farms, houses etc. for making a believable world. In both Thedas and Westeros, there are lots of groups, houses, great houses, farmlands, organizations etc - but in no way the actual land mass to support this as believable real life comparison locations.
Thedas is slightly better made than Westeros in this regard. Also this problem of "small scale" would also affect wildlife, nature and available resources - not only human population - making it even worse. In George R.R. Martin and David Gaider's defense, there comes a point where you have to consider practicality over believability and realism. If the maps where made alot larger - then what would suffer would be details. Like "Do I want this small nation to be very detailed, with every area being important and matter? Or do I want to create a much bigger area that uses "filler" land for realism?" (As I picture it, that is my opinion on the possible thought process).
That's too many equations for this late in my day, but the logic is sound.It takes a couple of days to go from Redcliffe to Denerim. That's how long it took a forced march.
Assuming a march is around 5km/hr with around 12 hours of walking a day, that's 60km a day.
So the distance from Redcliffe and Denerim is around 200-300 km at most.
Lets take it as 250. That means the diameter of Fereldan is around 300.
Fereldan has a relatively square shape so its area is around 9000km^2. (Around the size of a small country like mine)
Fereldan is around 1/8th of the surface area of the known world.
So the known world has a surface area of around 72000km^2 (half the size of New York State)
So you see it's a pretty small world.
Val Royeaux is only ~12 days walking from Denerim.
In George R.R. Martin and David Gaider's defense, there comes a point where you have to consider practicality over believability and realism.
I definitely agree with this. For me the distance dilemma belongs to the same category as, say, lack of bowstrings or toilets. When you overemphasize/analyze certain, however realistic aspects, the game (movie/book) stops being fun and starts being a chore very quickly.
Not sure why you guys think those are "World Maps".
If I pull up a map of just the United States, I don't jump to the conclusion that it is a map of the entire world. The Thedas map we have seen is just a small area of much larger world, that we don't know anything about.
Not sure why you guys think those are "World Maps".
If I pull up a map of just the United States, I don't jump to the conclusion that it is a map of the entire world. The Thedas map we have seen is just a small area of much larger world, that we don't know anything about.
Well I explicitly used the term "known world".
It takes a couple of days to go from Redcliffe to Denerim. That's how long it took a forced march.
Assuming a march is around 5km/hr with around 12 hours of walking a day, that's 60km a day.
So the distance from Redcliffe and Denerim is around 200-300 km at most.
Lets take it as 250. That means the diameter of Fereldan is around 300.
Fereldan has a relatively square shape so its area is around 9000km^2. (Around the size of a small country like mine
Fereldan is around 1/8th of the surface area of the known world.
So the known world has a surface area of around 72000km^2 (half the size of New York State)
So you see it's a pretty small world.
Val Royeaux is only ~12 days walking from Denerim.
Please multiply your results by 10.
300 times 300 is 90000, not 9000
Still pretty small though. I think it's supposed to be bigger and the marching times have been calculated wrongly. Also, you would need to take map projection issues into account. Some commonly-used map projections make areas near the poles appear bigger than they really are in comparison to areas near the equator, which appear smaller.
Please multiply your results by 10.
300 times 300 is 90000, not 9000
Still pretty small though. I think it's supposed to be bigger and the marching times would be longer.
Fixed
Also, you would need to take map projection issues into account. Some commonly-used map projections make areas near the poles appear bigger than they really are in comparison to areas near the equator, which appear smaller.
I assumed the map did not have projection due to its relatively small scope. I think the map is just a faithful representation of the location.
Does it strike anyone as strange that all the Blights have been in this region or "the planet"?
You mean the "known" blights. Something made the Qunari flee their homeland and come to Par Vollen.
Does it strike anyone as strange that all the Blights have been in this region or "the planet"?
The Blight started in the Deep Roads. Those probably aren't connected to other continents. That's why the Blight only affects Thedas I think.
I think the issue could be an overestimation of scale on Bioware's part. We are so used to the idea that we can zip along and travel from one side of our country/region in the course of a few hours/days (depending on their size). We no longer recognize how long it actually takes to travel even relatively short distances on foot. It takes a while to get anywhere on foot, really, and it's why you generally stayed longer than a day with the people you were visiting, unless they lived relatively nearby (like within a several kilometer radius).
Personally, I think Thedas is likely around the size of Europe, which means it would probably took a little longer than 5 days to get to Denerim from Redcliff. More like a full week, if they really hustled. Which they would be, because the capital city of Fereldan is being besieged by the Darkspawn. Then again, this is just my opinion, and the games and side literature tell a different story.
A tiny Thedas certainly explains why everyone's so apt to conquer other regions; they're being forced to fight over tiny parcels of land. 
I think we're just used to things happening in a rapid succession, so we tend to want to speed of the time-frames for when events occur in fiction.
You mean the "known" blights. Something made the Qunari flee their homeland and come to Par Vollen.
The Qunari didn't flee to par vollen, supposedly they still have a empire from where they came from, Par Vollen is just occupied territory.
As big as the current engine and designers can handle.
Thedas has the same problem as Westeros in Game of Thrones. The actual size of the world/continent is so small that it becomes implausible. As you can see in the maps below - the actual size of these worlds are not big enough to populate enough cities, farms, houses etc. for making a believable world. In both Thedas and Westeros, there are lots of groups, houses, great houses, farmlands, organizations etc - but in no way the actual land mass to support this as believable real life comparison locations.
Thedas is slightly better made than Westeros in this regard. Also this problem of "small scale" would also affect wildlife, nature and available resources - not only human population - making it even worse. In George R.R. Martin and David Gaider's defense, there comes a point where you have to consider practicality over believability and realism. If the maps where made alot larger - then what would suffer would be details. Like "Do I want this small nation to be very detailed, with every area being important and matter? Or do I want to create a much bigger area that uses "filler" land for realism?" (As I picture it, that is my opinion on the possible thought process).
Spoiler
It's very very small,. it all fits in a snow globe of some childs imagination. (Or at least that is how the series will end.)
@CrimsonHead: Odd thing #2... the Deep Roads don't extend beyond Thedas. Neither do the dwarven Thaigs.
#3 - the elven empire was 8000 years old. Nobody built a boat in 8000 years?
#4 - the humans came from Par Vollen first... with, err... no maps? If they were primitives - there's NO WAY they could have successfully colonized the land of an 8000 year old empire.
#5 - the Qunari are coming over from Par Vollen today.. not one Tal Vashoth has provided so much as a crayon drawing of the that land?
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