Deciding on distance

[derik999]

I'm having some trouble deciding how many miles per unit of measurement I want to use on my map.

Right now I have the two kingdoms that are at war with each other being roughly 1500 miles apart. If one of the armies were to march at say 20 miles per day, it would take 77 days to reach the rivals capital. Taking historical accounts into consideration, and given this is a medieval fantasy story, would that length of time spent marching seem unrealistic? Of course skirmishes that take place and the time they consume would have to add to the amount of time.

I'm just having a hard time with the scale.

[Korash]

My suggestion would be to look at real world examples of around the same "era" that you want to portray. Rome had a huge empire and moved armies by land when they could. Navel movement takes a LOT of resources even though it is marginally faster. Of course they built roads all over the place for the very reason of moving troops faster. Use examples like that and base your scale off of that. We also have a thread or two about movement of people and goods during ancient times somewhere in this very forum. You are gonna have to look for them though...

[ChickPea]

This might help...

http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=19730

[Korash]

Thats one. Thanks Chickpea

[Azélor]

The first thing intriguing about your plot is why are they at war with each other in the first place. And what is their level of technology.

The problem is that 1500 miles is an enormous distance for a middle age army. They might barely know what lies that far from their kingdom.

[derik999]

The first thing intriguing about your plot is why are they at war with each other in the first place. And what is their level of technology.

The problem is that 1500 miles is an enormous distance for a middle age army. They might barely know what lies that far from their kingdom.

I'm keeping things based on the time between the 11th and 14th century (both western and eastern Europe) as far as culture, armor, etc.. Purposely keeping it to a time before gun powder was introduced.

The kingdoms on this continent are pretty familiar with each other, the warfare has been minimal. However one kingdom's king has had his throne usurped by his older brother. The older brother is in league with an extremely powerful necromancer.

The story isn't based in the real world, but I wanted to keep things as realistic as possible until I start adding in a ton of fantasy elements later.

The two allied kingdoms and the one kingdom they are fighting all border each other so those forces closest to the borders would be able to get across a lot faster.

I looked at a map of Europe with the distance scale and tried to match it up from the western edge of France to Moscow and then shortened it slightly.

[derik999]

Thanks for the link Chickpea!

[Pixie]

14th century means Crusades in terms of european warfare. Armies were raised across Northern Europe and travelled do the Middle East... you could read stuff on that subject.

But... if you have a necromancer.. magic.. plausibility isn't really an issue.

[derik999]

14th century means Crusades in terms of european warfare. Armies were raised across Northern Europe and travelled do the Middle East... you could read stuff on that subject.

But... if you have a necromancer.. magic.. plausibility isn't really an issue.

Oh believe me I'm collecting a huge amount of books and other sources of information on that period of time.

I'm basing the different areas of this continent on the culture of certain areas of Europe. One would be made up of French and German culture. One based on Spanish and Italian culture. One based on Slavic culture, and another based on Norse culture.

These aren't going to be copied as if they were mere clones of our world. There will be alterations to give them a unique identity. The references are just a guide.

I'd rather start from a real life reference than come up with everything from scratch.

It's a fantasy novel so obviously there are elements that can't exist in our world. The necromancer's magic isn't going to give them a real advantage as far as travel speed.