# Geographical Orientation



## Kahle (Feb 21, 2014)

So most fantasy that comes out is based in the Northern hemisphere, aka north is cold, south is hot, with a few cases of worlds that span to both poles so to speak. Question is, how much would it throw people off if the perspective of the world was from the southern hemisphere-north is hot, south is cold? Ideas?


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## buyjupiter (Feb 21, 2014)

It depends on if you set up a world that has a different basis than Earth. You'd have to establish a different axial tilt to your planet, you may have to change the length of time to do one revolution around its Sun (a year is longer/shorter than Earth years).

At the very least you're going to have to ensure that you take into account shifting the wind patterns. Wind drives so much of year-to-year weather patterns.

If you do none of the above and expect a reader to buy that the planet has a hot north and you never discuss how that affects people--whether it's a cataclysmic event that sets this off (magical or natural) or the world's always been this way--you might lose some readers that way.


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## Penpilot (Feb 21, 2014)

Kahle said:


> -Also, I mean as a reader, not a writer, how much would that reversal interfere with the story? Would it constantly confuse or annoy you to have that information mirrored?-



I don't think it would annoy me. If you set it up clearly at the beginning, then I don't think it will be too confusing. It does go counter intuitive a bit, but maybe that's just a localized thing because so many of us live in the Northern hemisphere. In the Southern hemisphere on Earth. Going South means it gets colder and going North is where things get hotter.

Any Aussies around that can speak on this?


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## Roan Davidson (Feb 21, 2014)

buyjupiter said:


> It depends on if you set up a world that has a different basis than Earth. You'd have to establish a different axial tilt to your planet, you may have to change the length of time to do one revolution around its Sun (a year is longer/shorter than Earth years).
> 
> At the very least you're going to have to ensure that you take into account shifting the wind patterns. Wind drives so much of year-to-year weather patterns.
> 
> If you do none of the above and expect a reader to buy that the planet has a hot north and you never discuss how that affects people--whether it's a cataclysmic event that sets this off (magical or natural) or the world's always been this way--you might lose some readers that way.



I don't think the OP means an alternate earth. I think the OP means a setting like our southern hemisphere--think Buenos Aires in Argentina, where June, July and August are winter and December, January and February are summer. South is cold because it's the South Pole; North is hot because it's the equator.

To answer the OP: me, I'd be great with that setting. I'm sure South America can provide lots of inspiration.


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## Nihal (Feb 21, 2014)

Don't forget the mountain ranges. In hot places more than anywhere they provoke drastic temperature changes. The higher you climb the colder colder it gets, until you have something like the Andes:








They also block and funnel the rain, and the wind and the rain bring the cold. We're having an hellish summer this year because no rain came from the sea. Much like your Arctic Vortex, but the complete opposite.

You can have sunny beaches with a plenty of wind, quick rains and an adorable weather on one side and right next to it you can have a big monster desert. Keep moving inland and surprise, the world's biggest forest! Mind you, everything is in the same latitude. Yeah, that place exists and it's the North/Northwest of Brazil. The mountains that block the rains coming from the sea created that desertic region.







If you move south it gets colder and colder, you have big grassy highlands and our own version of a temperate forest where our ridiculously skinny-legged red maned wolf lives...







...then, ice. Welcome to Patagonia.







And yeah, cold South and hot North only sounds counter intuitive because you all live in the Northern Hemisphere. You don't need a new world with a tilted axis to have it, you know... All only need to come to the South of your own planet.


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## ThinkerX (Feb 21, 2014)

If I recollect right, the 'Dragonlance' novels were set in that worlds southern hemisphere.


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## Wanara009 (Feb 22, 2014)

Penpilot said:


> I don't think it would annoy me. If you set it up clearly at the beginning, then I don't think it will be too confusing. It does go counter intuitive a bit, but maybe that's just a localized thing because so many of us live in the Northern hemisphere. In the Southern hemisphere on Earth. Going South means it gets colder and going North is where things get hotter.
> 
> Any Aussies around that can speak on this?



Yes. I study in Townsville but my home is up in Cairns. The difference is slight, but Cairns tend to be have a higher temperature average than Townsville. I've also been to Sydney in winter then then travel up to Darwin within three days. The difference is quite startling (jacket, vest, and scarfs when in Brisbane then I had immediately go t-shirt and shorts when i arrive in Darwin).

So yeah, that reversal of the usual North-cold South-hot won't bother people too much if you set it up first in the beginning.


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## wordwalker (Feb 22, 2014)

Just remember, down under the sundials spin what we'd call counter-clockwise.

(And so does a flushing toilet.  )


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## Queshire (Feb 22, 2014)

The toilet thing is a myth. I learned in a class about weather that the Coriolis Effect, which would have been responsible for that if anything was, doesn't affect things on the scale of flushing toilets.


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## Asura Levi (Feb 27, 2014)

I love using Argentia as model. "the cold plains in the south" instead of the "cold mountains in the north".


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