PBS is celebrate Earth month with several great videos, and one about maps and projections. It tells the story of Mercator and how he created a new type of map. Might not sounds that interesting or relevant to fantasy cartography but I think it is.

Battling with how to make maps of the world of Greyhawk that are located on a spherical planet, really appreciates this video. It tells the story about why and how the modern Mercator based map was created, and with it the way to create maps made to be a navigational aid. Something unheard of before, and something we takes for granted today.

For fantasy roleplaying are needs are different, we don't need maps to navigate the world in a "real" way, using compass, bearings, sextants and such. Out needs are more, in my opinion, to understand the landscape in order to improve our play. I think this means that maps that are area correct are preferrable, over angle accuracy. No need to be able to calculate a course and then follow it in the real world, fantasy navigation needs to understand distance, lay of the land, obstacles, ease of way, biomes, climate. This is why I prefer Orthographic Projection that is based on what an area would look like seen from space, it s accurate in the center but errors creep in the further away from the center you go. This means that Ortho projection works great for regional maps an smaller, city, provinces and most countries, but for the whole of the Flanaess the errors might be a bit too large at the fringes. I'm referring to reference maps here, the ones used primarily by the GM as a planning and worldbuilding tool, and then if it is detailed enough can be used during play as well. Inspiration and understanding being its most important attributes.

The PBS video shows examples and tells a bit about maps made before Mercator and projections were invented. I'm often wondering what kind of maps like hat would be made by the Flan during the age of Vecna, by the cartographers of Rauxes during the heyday of the Great Kingdom or by the Olmans. The Great Kingdom's mappers would use Rauxes as their center point at the later sages, and probably Rel Astra before that. I can image a map with Rauxes at the top and everything else show below it to show its reign of the world.

One day I'll create that map just because.... 🙂

Thank you so much for your support!