In reviewing the submitted questions, this issue of geography and politics seemed paramount in importance. It arose in several questions, in various ways. Let’s deal with this directly.
Maps are tools. Nothing more. Nothing less. Standing in the Ashlands, a wayfinding map is a tool of survival. Able to assist you in finding your way to safety. Similarly, a ship’s map may aid a sailor in finding a calm harbor far from home.
But political maps? Maps that claim to represent the truth of land claimed by force of blade and spell? These maps aren’t tools for the reader. They’re tools for the mapmakers.
They speak of great strength when perhaps none exists. They speak of boundaries and borders that may exist only in the minds of people burdened by over-heavy crowns. To offer a contemporary example, have you ever seen a map of “the front” in the war between the three alliances? Do you believe that map was accurate for more than a day? At most? And, as always, remember that every written thing you read is subjective. Even the words of Divath Fyr.
This is all context. With that in place, the historian’s question is easily answered. The Great Houses have skirmished to claim the length and breadth of the peninsula in the same way they have warred for control of Vvardenfell, or Stonefalls, or Deshaan. Any maps that claim to fully represent political control of a region as heavily contested as Morrowind are guidelines at best. Even today, as the Three Banners war rages, my people continue their great game of strike and counterstrike. Gloved hands grip gilded blades, as the strong vie to rule the weak.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/63811In reviewing the submitted questions, this issue of geography and politics seemed paramount in importance. It arose in several questions, in various ways. Let’s deal with this directly.
Maps are tools. Nothing more. Nothing less. Standing in the Ashlands, a wayfinding map is a tool of survival. Able to assist you in finding your way to safety. Similarly, a ship’s map may aid a sailor in finding a calm harbor far from home.
But political maps? Maps that claim to represent the truth of land claimed by force of blade and spell? These maps aren’t tools for the reader. They’re tools for the mapmakers.
They speak of great strength when perhaps none exists. They speak of boundaries and borders that may exist only in the minds of people burdened by over-heavy crowns. To offer a contemporary example, have you ever seen a map of “the front” in the war between the three alliances? Do you believe that map was accurate for more than a day? At most? And, as always, remember that every written thing you read is subjective. Even the words of Divath Fyr.
This is all context. With that in place, the historian’s question is easily answered. The Great Houses have skirmished to claim the length and breadth of the peninsula in the same way they have warred for control of Vvardenfell, or Stonefalls, or Deshaan. Any maps that claim to fully represent political control of a region as heavily contested as Morrowind are guidelines at best. Even today, as the Three Banners war rages, my people continue their great game of strike and counterstrike. Gloved hands grip gilded blades, as the strong vie to rule the weak.
My takeaway... I believe that land of Tamriel is much larger than the map indicates, and is much larger than what we will ever have access to. Each "area" is a representative area of a location. There simply isn't enough land in the game that we have access to that can sustain a large and diverse population, plus allowing a large scale war, given the technology we see in the game. There's probably hundreds of thousands of acres not accounted for by the map, which appears to just be a rough representation of the traversable area. The map you see is just the blueprints to the prison your mind constructs if you take it literally, setting the expectation that what you see on the map is the only area you'll ever travel to, when there is likely much more space that isn't on the map. Think of TES 2's map vs what we have access to in ESO. If you don't want to accept this as an explanation, here's a pretty picture of an older world map
I know this is going to sound petty and totally not important in the grand scheme of things and I am fully aware of that. But I have to get this off my chest because reasons.
I don't know if it's because of a certain personality trait I have but the fact that High Isle has a larger area than the Telvanni Peninsula which in turn is about half the size of Stonefalls yet their sizes on the map is totally out of sync with their actual area size just does something to my brain that makes me feel very anxious and uncomfortable. When I look at the density of wayshrines on the map and see how inconsistent they are across zones it just fills me with an ominous sense of dread and it is very distressing. I hate it! It doesn't make any sense! My entire sense of reality is crumbling! HELP!!!!
I'm sorry that you have this issue. I don't pay any attention to stuff like that. A zone is what it is. I don't look at it in relation to other zones.
I just approach a game like this as basically "it is what it is". Zones are their own "compass" - and.... well.... they don't have to be "coherent" for me.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/63811In reviewing the submitted questions, this issue of geography and politics seemed paramount in importance. It arose in several questions, in various ways. Let’s deal with this directly.
Maps are tools. Nothing more. Nothing less. Standing in the Ashlands, a wayfinding map is a tool of survival. Able to assist you in finding your way to safety. Similarly, a ship’s map may aid a sailor in finding a calm harbor far from home.
But political maps? Maps that claim to represent the truth of land claimed by force of blade and spell? These maps aren’t tools for the reader. They’re tools for the mapmakers.
They speak of great strength when perhaps none exists. They speak of boundaries and borders that may exist only in the minds of people burdened by over-heavy crowns. To offer a contemporary example, have you ever seen a map of “the front” in the war between the three alliances? Do you believe that map was accurate for more than a day? At most? And, as always, remember that every written thing you read is subjective. Even the words of Divath Fyr.
This is all context. With that in place, the historian’s question is easily answered. The Great Houses have skirmished to claim the length and breadth of the peninsula in the same way they have warred for control of Vvardenfell, or Stonefalls, or Deshaan. Any maps that claim to fully represent political control of a region as heavily contested as Morrowind are guidelines at best. Even today, as the Three Banners war rages, my people continue their great game of strike and counterstrike. Gloved hands grip gilded blades, as the strong vie to rule the weak.
My takeaway... I believe that land of Tamriel is much larger than the map indicates, and is much larger than what we will ever have access to. Each "area" is a representative area of a location. There simply isn't enough land in the game that we have access to that can sustain a large and diverse population, plus allowing a large scale war, given the technology we see in the game. There's probably hundreds of thousands of acres not accounted for by the map, which appears to just be a rough representation of the traversable area. The map you see is just the blueprints to the prison your mind constructs if you take it literally, setting the expectation that what you see on the map is the only area you'll ever travel to, when there is likely much more space that isn't on the map. Think of TES 2's map vs what we have access to in ESO. If you don't want to accept this as an explanation, here's a pretty picture of an older world map
I know this is going to sound petty and totally not important in the grand scheme of things and I am fully aware of that. But I have to get this off my chest because reasons.
I don't know if it's because of a certain personality trait I have but the fact that High Isle has a larger area than the Telvanni Peninsula which in turn is about half the size of Stonefalls yet their sizes on the map is totally out of sync with their actual area size just does something to my brain that makes me feel very anxious and uncomfortable. When I look at the density of wayshrines on the map and see how inconsistent they are across zones it just fills me with an ominous sense of dread and it is very distressing. I hate it! It doesn't make any sense! My entire sense of reality is crumbling! HELP!!!!