95 replies to this topic

[Hyacathusarullistad]

Link to map of Tamriel.

 

Keep in mind, though, that said map has absolutely no indication as to its scale.

 

This one does, though.

 

The Imperial City is a lot further from Skyrim than you might think. About ~350km, or ~220 miles, from Whiterun itself by that map.

Edited by Hyacathusarullistad, 26 August 2014 - 03:06 PM.

[Lachdonin]

I highly doubt the validity of that maps scale. It's 200km from Riverwood to Whiterun, and Riverwood isn't even a 3rd of the way to The Imperial City.

It does still illustrate the point thoug, Tamriel is huge, and travel from one Hold to he Next isn't just a days hike.

Edited by Lachdonin, 26 August 2014 - 08:13 PM.

[LeddBate]

Nice map, Hyac. Thanks for sharing.

 

Would have been nice if it had the city names. I suppose it's easy to identify most of them for those who've played the entire TES series.

[fraquar]

I'll be honest when I say that the map of Tamriel looks an awful lot like the map of Western Europe, which isn't very big.   The fact that it only takes tops 10 minutes (fully encumbered) to walk from Riften to the Morrowind border (which is essentially the distance from Bruma to the Skyrim border) means that the scale would have to be humongous for it to take months to get an army from the Imperial City to say Whiterun.    In fact, it would take years instead if using traditional map scaling.

 

For reference, Berlin to Paris is about 650 miles (1,050 km), which easily resembles the path needed to get from say Tel Vos to Chorrol.  

 

Shift the Summerset Isles up

Shift Highrock and Hammerfell east

 

You essentially have Western Europe, including the boot of Italy in Elsweyr.  

 

Skyrim being the equivalent of Benelux.

[Lachdonin]

I've linked this before, but here it is again..


http://i.imgur.com/jEBLiat.jpg

This is a comparison, made by Lady Nerevar, scaled based on sources in Arena, Daggerfall, various books and direct input from both Kirkbride and Kurt. It is the closest thing we have to an official to-scale representation of Nirn.

As you can see, Highrock alone is about the size of western Europe.

Edited by Lachdonin, 31 August 2014 - 09:39 PM.

[fraquar]

You might want to pull up a cup of coffee, a map of Cyrodill and the detailed accounts of The Great War.   You will see that Cyrodill isn't that big, just by looking at the movements of the 3 armies on the assault of the Imperial City, and the counter attacks that came from the southernmost cities in Cyrodill.   All in just 2 days.

 

Again, it's not as big as you think.   In fact, it's not as small as I thought, it's even smaller.

[Lachdonin]

Or it indicates that the armies involved were far larger than we may believe, and that they were assisted by Magic. One book which is vague on details does not invalidate more than a dozen other in-game sources, and the word of the developers. It took Barenziah almost a month, traveling with a caravan, to make it from Whiterun to Riften. It is 250 miles from Almalexia to the shore of Vardenfel. He'll, we even have 2 games which are made TO SCALE which indicate the world is bigger than it may seem from the book The Great War.

[fraquar]

Huh?  Titus Mede II attacked from the north, and the most likely place a royal would have been holed up waiting on events to unfold would have been Bruma.   Again, from the beginning to the end of hostilities was 5 days.   That includes not only moving troops, but all the fighting that occurred as well.  After 2 days, the Nord Legions had done their part to encircle the Imperial City - and they came all the way from the northeastern most city in Cyrodill.

 

They pretty much had to be equidistant to get the timing right, in an era where there are no phones, no internet, etc....   You don't split an army 3 ways in that era unless you already know the timing is down cold.    I'm talking departure times down to the hour at worst.

 

Bruma is a stones throw from Skyrim based on the accounts of The Great War, written by a Legion who fought in it.   In fact, he fought in the battle that liberated the Imperial City.   His accounts of that should be spot on, if nothing else.

[fraquar]

Travelling with a caravan usually takes longer than travelling on foot, especially when the terrain is muddy or untraveled.    All you have to look at is the problems they had moving artillery in the Civil War.    An army marching, in this case to go to Skyrim to end this rebellion would have travelled light, simply because they would have been outfitted on-site once they got there since Skyrim is an Imperial province.  They had no need to travel with a full load.

 

The only place where an Imperial army would have been slowed was at the Jeral Pass.   Even then, if we double the travel time we are still talking mere weeks to get an army from Cyrodill to Skyrim.

Edited by fraquar, 01 September 2014 - 02:51 AM.

[fraquar]

Lets just say I'm having a hard time accepting the fact that people always seem to change tack whenever there is a disagreement (i.e. cite sources when it's appropriate).   I'm a military man, and none of this makes any sense.    I know what it takes to move large units, I know the communications problems that it imposes.    To do what they did at Red Ring means only one thing, the country in which they were doing it was manageably small.  

 

Small enough for two scouting units to report back to Titus Mede II, because there is no way in Tamriel he's showing his face unless he knows plan A and plan B have gone according to plan.    To do otherwise would totally defeat the whole point in splitting his army 3 ways.   His backdoor was Skyrim, an easy retreat point.