Map of a potentially crowded Azeroth

[Gadzooks]

One of the funny (and often irritating) is that fantasy maps ignore something called plate tectonics. While Blizzard blew any idea of basic climate out the window by having areas like Dun Morogh right next to Searing Gorge, Loch Modan, and Wetlands, they still ignore plate tectonics. We know the continents were once all one giant "Pangaea" but one of two things had to of happened to explain the continents splitting. Either:
1.) The water level rose and what we see now are effectively mountain tops.
2.) The plates under the continents drew apart (much like Earth).

Since Azeroth is now known to be a sleeping titan, unless the planet itself is an egg and the titan is within, plate tectonics don't work. Only way for plate tectonics to work in the case of the planet being an egg would be if the egg were cracking and thus hatching. Since it seems that's not the case, that means the water level rose instead. For Blizzard to bring back in new areas, the water level would have to effectively drop which would additionally mean areas like Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, Northrend, and Pandaria would be made larger. That would also mean an area like Vashj'ir might effectively be gone due to now being above water. Blizzard's not going to do that since it'd be too much work.

Going off the map in the chronicle book with the assumption of the water levels having risen potentially removes a good many areas where something could have been. That's not to say there aren't other areas we have yet to see. Kul Tiras is out there after all. But the map really shouldn't be cluttered because that would suggest then that the Azeroth "Pangaea" was just one giant mountain. It would effectively be a pimple on the back of the titan (or its egg).

Technically, with either explanation, land will be lost. You can't break apart something and not lose something along the edge. You have to cut it to avoid losing anything and even then you can still lose something. Plate tectonics isn't a knife. It breaks things. So even if the water levels don't explain the continents moving apart, plate tectonics would which would ultimately result in many areas being lost to the ocean. But the funny thing is, if you line the Chronicle map up with the current Azeroth one, it only suggests Blizzard really knows nothing about basic planet structure. The various areas line up almost perfectly. So that again only suggests the water level just rose.

So neither way for how the land masses work in Azeroth are possible. Blizzard shot themselves in the foot. The simpler way to explain the land masses (plate tectonics) is often outright ignored and Blizzard screwed up by saying Azeroth is a sleeping titan anyway which removes this possibility. Then the other way to explain it is just too time consuming to implement.

And that's just outright ignoring how the hell an area covered in snow can be right next to a barren wasteland which is likely hot given the wild life that lives there.

Blizzard should have hired geographers when building WoW originally or at the very least focused on the map as a whole. Having each continent or even sub area of a continent with their own climate system makes things severely disconnected.

Then again, Blizzard's not against just adding things. Gilneas wasn't really visible from Hillsbrad before Cataclysm. Timeless nor Isle of Giants were visible in Pandaria before they got added. Uldum wasn't visible from Tanaris. Twilight Highlands wasn't visible from Wetlands.

Bit of a rant, I suppose, but I'd rather Azeroth not be cluttered. That just makes the evolution of the planet boring for those of us that actually enjoy things like that. It shows the developers look at even small things. But hey, Blizzard's really into doing stupid crap lately so why not just bring back everything and give us the Azeroth Pangaea? Make it one big continent.

I'd like to introduce you to a term, it's "artistic license".

Hire geologists to design a video game. That has dragons, elves, and magic in it. Riiiiight.

Also, the maps for the game are not intended to be accurate, nor a tool to actually navigate. They're art for a mythical world, and are often exaggerated or condensed for design purposes - a full screen map with teeny tiny landmasses with no room for titles and landmarks doesn't really work very well to communicate information to players.

[Deleted]

I'm more interested in what a bird's eye view of Azeroth might look like in the actual game, though, if Blizzard were to continue to add new islands in the Great Sea and South Sea. But I understand that the world of Azeroth as it exists in lore will remain very different.

Flauna is fairly easy in that amount of time. But, we know that Blizzard's maps aren't final and never will be until they finish the damn game. Their maps are basically based upon what's known to the game at the time.

This map is taken from the Chronicles (which in turn was released this year) and shows the landmasses of shattered ancient Kalimdor, so all landmasses up until Cataclysm. Cataclysm may have risen new isles, but certainly not isles we have any lore about.

If they planned to stage an expansion in the South Seas (like for the next say 10 years) and needed some extra isles down there, they would had drawn some there. It’s not like they had to name each isle and be correct about it’s shape (since the Cataclysm could’ve altered that).

3 years of a time span is maybe enough to develop some sort of grass and maybe some bushes but the average trees should take much longer to naturally develop (without any druidic help I mean). It’s also possible that there will be some birds but in general newly risen isles lack of any bigger mammals which in turn are the most common animals we fight. And then what kind of humanoids do you expect to have settled on newly risen isles in a time span of 3 years besides naga?

IIRC ancient kalimdor was supposed to be one continent not the only continent, therefore if they any unknown landmasses they could introduce very well another on the other side.

[mitotic]

Oh sorry, I should have been more clear: by "add new islands," I meant add new islands to the game from pre-existing lore, like Zandalar or Kul Tiras, not make up new islands that we've never heard of before. It's true that the Cataclysm may have risen up new islands, but I'd kind of prefer to explore the ones that have always been there. That said, finding a brand new continent on the other side of the planet could be just as awesome if it was done right. I wonder what they would do with the in-game map in that case -- probably just choose a side, either west of Kalimdor or east of EK.

[shade3891]

Scale is off, some islands are not as big as you draw them.

From the books:

[RedNight at MMOC]

The Broken Isles are not cradled underneath Northrend as you have depicted:

[Ragedaug]

We often hear the complaint that the Azeroth map is getting increasingly crowded...

First, who is "we"? I don't recall people complaining about crowding. Secondly, yes, it sure looks extremely crowded when you draw everything oversized and smooshed together.

[Deleted]

It would be nice if we could fly (or swim) through all that, since I don't feel like loading screens are immersive in any way. And yes, I want to see more and more isles added onto the map.

[hablix]

The Forbidding Sea... the name kind of implies that it is not well traveled or fully explored. There might be something out there.

[Deleted]

Oh sorry, I should have been more clear: by "add new islands," I meant add new islands to the game from pre-existing lore, like Zandalar or Kul Tiras, not make up new islands that we've never heard of before. It's true that the Cataclysm may have risen up new islands, but I'd kind of prefer to explore the ones that have always been there. That said, finding a brand new continent on the other side of the planet could be just as awesome if it was done right. I wonder what they would do with the in-game map in that case -- probably just choose a side, either west of Kalimdor or east of EK.

Yeah, but the only unexplored preexistent isles in the South Sea are Zandalar, Tel’Abim (SW of Kezan) and maybe Kul’Tiras in addition to the rest of Kezan and possibly minor isles around the maelstrom.

All of them are quite apart from another. I can’t see another expansion in which the zones are divided by boat trips, loading screens or portals because Blizzard considered the spread 80-85 zones a failure. If anything, these could be patch contents (like Kul’Tiras possibly in Legion to follow the Jaina storyline)

[mitotic]

First, who is "we"? I don't recall people complaining about crowding. Secondly, yes, it sure looks extremely crowded when you draw everything oversized and smooshed together.

When the Broken Isles was announced, there were many threads complaining that making the Broken Isles a huge continent would make the oceans too crowded, and it wouldn't make sense in terms of the lore because "Why haven't we found them before?" Like these posts, for example. The same thing happened when Pandaria was announced -- people were upset that Blizzard placed it in the South Seas, since that's where Kezan, Zandalar, etc. were supposed to be. My only point is that maybe it's not a bad thing that Azeroth is getting so crowded! Since that was my point, I did try to emphasize the crowdedness of the map quite a bit.

Yeah, but the only unexplored preexistent isles in the South Sea are Zandalar, Tel’Abim (SW of Kezan) and maybe Kul’Tiras in addition to the rest of Kezan and possibly minor isles around the maelstrom.

All of them are quite apart from another. I can’t see another expansion in which the zones are divided by boat trips, loading screens or portals because Blizzard considered the spread 80-85 zones a failure. If anything, these could be patch contents (like Kul’Tiras possibly in Legion to follow the Jaina storyline)

Yes, I couldn't agree more! That's why I'm arguing in favor of a more crowded map, so that the islands of the South Seas can be close enough together to put them on a single server and allowing flying. Ideally, the waters below the islands would have some content too, but I understand that underwater zones are not everyone's favorite, to say the least.

Scale is off, some islands are not as big as you draw them.

From the books:

A few people have made this same point, and of course it's true that the islands are small according to the lore. This crowded map is trying to reflect the actual in-game size of the zones, though. If your map was to scale, then the Lost Isles would be the size of the tiny island in the middle of Azshara -- but we know that's not reflective of the actual in game size of the Lost Isles, which is more similar in size to Azuremyst Isle. Likewise, the Broken Isles is around the same size of Pandaria in game, even though it's smaller in lore and on the map that you pasted. It's a great point, but there definitely is a difference between "to scale" in terms of the lore, and to scale in terms of the game.

By the way, awesome Hunter UI in your sig!

[Zuben]

I liked Draenor as a continent and the lore that accompanied it, but to me Warcraft is all about Azeroth. So yeah, the more crowded it gets the better.

[FertsBlert]

Go to Ulduar, walk into the hallway leading to Algalon, look at Globe right after you go through the door. Enjoy globe of Azeroth made by Titan so up until Wrath it'll be very very accurate since Titan made, it may even be accurate for now since significant events happen in Ulduar so Blizz may have updated it.

The other globe in that hall that interests me is the other possibly habitable planet in the Azeroth system, if you assume that the planets represented are the planets of Azeroth's solar system and you assume that a greened world with large areas of water likely indicates a habitable planet.

[RedNight at MMOC]

This crowded map is trying to reflect the actual in-game size of the zones, though.

How do you know the size of the zones when they are actually NOT in the game??? And if they are, there is no way you can even get to them.

[mitotic]

It would be nice if we could fly (or swim) through all that, since I don't feel like loading screens are immersive in any way. And yes, I want to see more and more isles added onto the map.

Definitely, I feel like the more isles that are added, and the more crowded the map gets, the more likely it is that we might potentially be able to fly between the zones without loading screens. That would be fantastic, although sadly it might be unlikely to happen.

The Broken Isles are not cradled underneath Northrend as you have depicted:

Yes, I posted this same picture a few posts ago. I was trying to make a point about how cool a potential crowded map of Azeroth could be in the future, though, not trying to reflect the current state of the game! It don't think it's a stretch to put the Maelstrom south of the Broken Shore (since the Broken Shore did get hit hardest in the Sundering), and to put Azshara by Azshuna and Val'sharah, since they're all parts of the Queen Azshara storyline. That also leaves room for Galhara to be east of the Broken Isles and northeast of the Maelstrom.

But I absolutely agree with you that, on the in-game map, the Broken Isles are definitely south of Howling Fjord, not Dragonblight!

The Forbidding Sea... the name kind of implies that it is not well traveled or fully explored. There might be something out there.

That's a good point! And the Veiled Sea implies that it might be veiling something in that direction too. The fact that they have different names might suggest that there's a continent between them on the other side, or it might just be because Azerothians have never tried sailing across it.

[Bigbazz]

The map misses out the fact that the continents/zones are not to scale and actually the Broken Isles is quite tiny in comparison to say Northrend from a lore point of view. If you had everything to scale then it wouldn't look crowded.

[mitotic]

The map misses out the fact that the continents/zones are not to scale and actually the Broken Isles is quite tiny in comparison to say Northrend from a lore point of view. If you had everything to scale then it wouldn't look crowded.

Yes, although the point of this thread is that I'm trying to make it look crowded : )

That said, the Broken Isles are around the same size as Pandaria -- definitely not in lore, but rather in terms of in-game size. It takes as long to fly across the Broken Isles as across Pandaria, and the map suggests this too:

[RedNight at MMOC]

Yes, although the point of this thread is that I'm trying to make it look crowded

/faceplam /threadquit

[mitotic]

/faceplam /threadquit

Sorry? I state in my first post that I like the idea of a crowded, compact Azeroth map, and that I made a map to illustrate this idea. I totally understand if you don't like this idea! No worries. But yes, that was the point of the thread...

[RedNight at MMOC]

The Cataclysm can move things around. Continental drift in Azeroth is not at all the same as in our world.

The Chronicle map is just after the Sundering, so it is 10,000 years in the past.

[THEORACLE64]

This map is taken from the Chronicles (which in turn was released this year) and shows the landmasses of shattered ancient Kalimdor, so all landmasses up until Cataclysm. Cataclysm may have risen new isles, but certainly not isles we have any lore about.

If they planned to stage an expansion in the South Seas (like for the next say 10 years) and needed some extra isles down there, they would had drawn some there. It’s not like they had to name each isle and be correct about it’s shape (since the Cataclysm could’ve altered that).

3 years of a time span is maybe enough to develop some sort of grass and maybe some bushes but the average trees should take much longer to naturally develop (without any druidic help I mean). It’s also possible that there will be some birds but in general newly risen isles lack of any bigger mammals which in turn are the most common animals we fight. And then what kind of humanoids do you expect to have settled on newly risen isles in a time span of 3 years besides naga?

IIRC ancient kalimdor was supposed to be one continent not the only continent, therefore if they any unknown landmasses they could introduce very well another on the other side.

And like I said, Blizzard's maps are never final - they're literally just the most recent they've made. i.e. the classic map in game not even having Northrend, Pandaria, Kezan, The Wandering Isle on them despite them being there... The same with Kul'Tiras being on this and not in-game. In a couple of years that chronicle map will be outdated.