Talk:Cartography

I'd like to know more about the source of this map, before thinking to call it "canon". I'll have to look through my notes, but there was someone that actually ran calculations based on the FR Atlas program that estimated the size of Toril. That estimation had Toril to be larger than Earth. The information came from a thread at Candlekeep.com's forums. Wenin 14:51, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

If this is the case then the map will not be canon, unless deemed so by Ed or Wizards at a later date. Whatever the case here, I'd still like to praise Fizzygoo for taking the iniative to create the page and contribute to the wiki. Fw190a8 15:02, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I tried to be careful in stating things as "approximations". I remember reading that Toril was "an Earth sized planet", but when I went searching through the FRCS I couldn't find that quote and so it may be in pre 3.0 material or I just forgot where in the FRCS it is. The accuracy of the map hinges on that "lost" quote and the Waterdeep at 45 degrees lat quote. The fact that the planet takes 365.25 days to make one revolution is also another indication that Toril is very close to being Earth sized (though not a guarantee in and of itself). The Atlas, as far as it's overland maps are concerned, is unreliable since 3.0 as the maps have been drastically changed (at least drastically from a geological standpoint). There's an editorial article of the map-changing process in a Dragon Magazine (or possibly online at Wizard's of the Coast's website) and there's a note about having to change the scale and layout to make it more accurate for a spherical world (see old vs. new maps of the Shaar especially). Of course, one "magic-explanation" from a good source can throw all this out the window, heh. (As a side note, I'm at work and so my access is limited to memory...so hopefully by early morning tomorrow all my ramblings will have sources cited or be deleted).

As far as canon/non-canon. I completely understand that it's not strictly canon. It is however, a logical extrapolation from the limited information provided by canon material (assuming I can find the sources to my madness, hehe) and is, after all, only lines on an imagined sphere. Hopefully within a day I'll find the citations needed to best make my case. --Fizzygoo 23:35, 26 July 2007 (UTC)