• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!
Hi everyone, I am in the process of writing a story in, and world building the world of, a planet that just so happens to be flat. There are several magical places and abilities that are named after seasons, and as such my question is, should I include changing seasons, or should I simply have locations in which the seasons stagnate?
 
The earth is flat, didntcha know? Take the Flat Earth Society's word for it. And yet it has seasons.

Seriously, while the earth hasn't been widely believed to be flat for at least two or three millennia, there have always been segments of society that do believe that, and they don't find it inexplicable at all that the earth has seasons. A fantasy realm is no more unbelievable than a real life flat earth, if you think about it.

A flat fantasy world that has seasons has been done, too: Narnia. In Voyage of the Dawn Treader, they sail to the literal end of the world. Yet Narnia has seasons.
 

Queshire

Auror
Why not both? Have them progress normally in some places while others are a land of eternal summer or fall? You could also have fun with what causes the seasons in such a world. Maybe the sun is a giant heart that beats once a year. Summer lies at one end of the heart beat and winter at the other.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
I like Queshire's suggestion. Think about how your flat world and your sun interact and do something fun with the seasons. Do the planet, moon or sun spin and rotate? Do they swing in and out or pivot? How does the sun rise and set each day? Just a first impression, but instead of an equator you might have the center be the tropics and the far corners be cold. But that's not the only way to do it. Like maybe at night, when the sun is behind the world, maybe it's sometimes also closer, heating it up from behind, so that there's a whole season where the dark nights are hotter than the days. Like really play with your options a bit.
 

Chasejxyz

Inkling
Something that I draw on time and again in my world building is the history of scientific understanding. We used to believe the Earth was flat (and some people still do) and there's all these crazy theories as to WHY things like the seasons happen. So why not just....take those explanations? Let the Fine Minds at the Flat Earth Society do all the hard work of trying to explain how a flat disc Earth has seasons (sun goes faster/slower for some reason) and just use that yourself. It's not plagiarising because you can't copyright scientific theory :) Just tweak things to fit the world/tone of your setting!
 
So why not just....take those explanations? Let the Fine Minds at the Flat Earth Society do all the hard work of trying to explain how a flat disc Earth has seasons (sun goes faster/slower for some reason) and just use that yourself. I
That's actually true, from a geocentric perspective. The sun moves fastest, in its "orbit" around the earth, at this time of year (Aquarius month--the signs of the zodiac were actually designed, originally, as a means of measuring the sun's path through the seasons) and slowest at the opposite time of year (Leo month). Look at any horoscope column, and you'll notice that the dates for Aquarius make for the shortest month and the dates for Leo the longest.

What actually happens is that the earth's orbit is slightly slower at one time of year and slightly faster at another. That makes it look, to us, as if the sun were moving faster and slower. Right now, February, we're in the fastest part of our orbit.

For worldbuilding purposes, all you really have to do is make the geocentric perspective scientific truth.
 

K.S. Crooks

Maester
In real life seasons are based on the tilt of a planet's axis and its orbit around a star. The same thing can be used on your flat planet. Also remember aside from our normal spring, summer, autumn, winter or dry and rainy, it would be interesting to have other types of seasons (windy - little wind or volcanic eruption - no eruptions, high tide- low tide, etc.)
 
I have made my decision:
The way seasons exist on Arth depends on the geographical position- the Nordic lands are in eternal winter, due to the seasonal fields surrounding it- each geographical rectangle (for each rectangle of the map) has a little elf that controls the seasons - so in many places the seasonal cycles vary , for example, in the Eastern Isles, a very mischievous seasonal elf constantly changes the climate, which is the reason almost everyone lives in city states, where their wizards create force fields in which the seasons behave according to the needs of the citizenry .
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Flat is two-dimensional. So now I'm wondering, how thick is Arth? A mile? A hundred miles? What do the edges look like? Is it a rectangle (cuboid)? A circle? What do they see when they look over the edge?

Just idle curiosity here.
 
Flat is two-dimensional. So now I'm wondering, how thick is Arth? A mile? A hundred miles? What do the edges look like? Is it a rectangle (cuboid)? A circle? What do they see when they look over the edge?

Just idle curiosity here.
Ah, when I say "flat", what I mean is it is not a globe- it is possible to sail off the edge, but there are still mountains and caves. As for size, it is larger than Earth by a bit, but no exact measurements yet. It is a large rectangle, seperated into more rectangles. If you were to look over the edge? It would depend, I have one edge that is a gaping black and purple portal though.
 
Top