Discussion: The World

[Wensleydale]

... oh, wait.

Well, whatever. Perhaps I should've reread before throwing my lot in again. My sense of scale is terrible.

[Poseptune]

Well which do you want? It is your choice. I'm not going to tell you, "you can't switch". I just keep the running tally.

 Here to give you an idea I am reposting the travel times for both planets sizes that are winning.

[spoiler= Mercury Size]

That would make 1 inch = 235 miles

Area : 1974293.75 sq miles A little less than the Roman empire.

Tavel times (walking):
Widest point ~ 67 days
Tallest point ~ 54 days

Tavel times (horse):
Widest point ~ 34 days
Tallest point ~ 27 days

Tavel times (cart or wagon):
Widest point ~ 95 days
Tallest point ~ 80 days

[/spoiler]


[spoiler= Pluto size]

That would make 1 inch = 100 miles

Area : 357,500 sq miles A little larger than Texas

Tavel times (walking):
Widest point ~ 27 days
Tallest point ~ 23 days

Tavel times (horse):
Widest point ~ 14 days
Tallest point ~ 12 days

Tavel times (cart or wagon):
Widest point ~ 41 days
Tallest point ~ 34 days

[/spoiler]

[Wensleydale]

Mercury, then. :)

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Yeah, Mercury's the way to go.  I'm officially throwing in a second vote ;)

[Poseptune]

Yeah, Mercury's the way to go.  I'm officially throwing in a second vote ;)

HAL: I can't allow you to do that, Dave...

[Túrin]

I really believe the new Empire shouldn't be too big on an absolute scale, especially given that it has been possible to run an even larger Empire that did actually work. So I have no problem with enlargening the world, but I'd really like to keep the Empire Texas-sized.

If you really want to do the vote-thingy, I suppose that's a vote for the "Pluto"-option.

I'd really prefer to have some more discussion though, as I haven't heard any reasoning for or against the Pluto or Mercury options.

Túrin

[Ravenspath]

I'd really prefer to have some more discussion though, as I haven't heard any reasoning for or against the Pluto or Mercury options.

Túrin

I like the 'walking' time for a Mercury size planet better than a Pluto sized one. If the widest point allows you to walk across it in a month then I think there would be a great deal more emeshing of various cultures while the Mercury size travel is doable, but will allow more of a separation of cultures.

[Túrin]

This is precisely why I think the voting is too early. I think I would actually like to see a Mercury-sized planet, but with a Texas-sized Empire, which fits neither option.

Túrin

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Well, I think we can figure a lot of things out if we set the empire size in stone.  For instance, if we decide that we want a Texas-sized empire, but then we want a larger world, we can keep the same map (no redrawing boundaries or anything), and just add on continents to fit.  We wouldn't have to say that our continent only takes up one quadrant of the world if that would make the world too big.. you know what I mean?  

So, let's get that empire down.  I'm personally for larger than Texas, but not necessarily as large as the old Roman Empire.  What if we double the size of the empire from Texas-sized to ... well... something that's twice the size of Texas. :)  Or maybe just a bit larger, maybe Alaska-sized?  That's 663k square miles, and 800 miles across at the widest point.  I think that would set us a decent sized empire without being globally massive.

Then, for the ancient empire-that-was, what about something India-sized? 1.2 million square miles.  That's twice the size of Texas, but only about 3/5 the size of the old Roman empire.  At it's widest point, India is a bit less than 1200 miles across.  That's pretty large, and would give a pretty large walking time, giving rise to such claims that "One could walk for many moons the stretch of Ancient BFG."

[Ravenspath]

That sounds like a great way to handle things. Lets see if I have it right

Current empire- about the size of Alaska
Old Empire- about the size of India
Add continents to world if need be to make sizes above fit scale of world.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Exactly.  So, if we decided on a scale similar to those I mentioned above, but then decided we wanted a smaller, Pluto-sized planet, we could just add 2 more continents that would fit into the space provided to make a Pluto planet.  And if our main continent takes up more than one quadrant on that sized planet, then so be it.

[Túrin]

As I see it, the new Empire has recently been growing quickly and is now running into some problems, possibly in terms of organization or logistics or maybe support from the masses. Being a bit more lawful-oriented than the old Empire, it is trying to use forced order or something like that to regain control. I see Cebegia as being written with a current date where there's a turning point: the order vs. chaos conflict reaches a height, and if the Empire wins it will expand and possibly rival the old Empire in size, if the tribes win the new Empire will crumble as quickly as it has risen. To me, this means that the Empire is not yet a huge power, even though it is currently the major power on the continent. I remain very much for the option of making the Empire approximately Texas-sized (using the 1:100 scale or something similar). The advantage here is that we can say that the old Empire actually covered the entire continent at some point, which makes sense: if it was successful, why would it have stopped growing after two-thirds or three-quarters of the continent were conquered? If we make the scale much bigger, a continent-spanning (old) Empire becomes unrealistic.

Túrin

[Poseptune]

I am just keeping a running tally at this point. When there is a majority leaning toward an idea and discussion dies down I then give a week for anyone to change their decision or continue the discussion (since the polls are not working). This one is still going strong.

I like the bigger than Texas Empire, because it allows for slower growth. The larger distance means it takes longer to get supplies to the armies. The Empire also has to take time to make sure that the land they just conquered is under control. So this expansion could have been going on about thirty or forty years now. This way the Emperor is making sure that the Empire is stable before continuing the expansion. Unlike the Old Empire that spread itself too thin and crumbled.

As for being too big to support itself, many peolpe have brought up one point to me when I say things are too big. The world has magic. If the Roman Empire could survive for many years without magic, magic should be able to help support a large Empire. :)

if it was successful, why would it have stopped growing after two-thirds or three-quarters of the continent were conquered?

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/6005/cebegiabm2.jpg[/img]

I can put it back to where the New Empire hasn't passed the second land bridge and make a few more regions. That way the Empire isn't as large, but we can have a bigger scale.
[spoiler] [/spoiler]

[Wensleydale]

That map looks good.

[Poseptune]

Ok I think I'm going to drop the planet size references. I thought they may help, but they seem to be causing more trouble than they are worth. I am going to post 2 (maybe 3) maps of just empire territory. This should make choosing a scale easier. (I hope)