Qwoldestef—A new world

[kwelmaps]

Qwoldestef is a world with only one continent that spirals around the globe several times from pole to pole. This particular map will be published in the next issue of National Spirographic at which point it will be seen once before stuck in a pile in Papa Elf's basement where it will sit for 850 years until his grandchildren have to clean out the treehouse after Papa has left for the undying lands. I don't know where those go on this world, but if we all agree to annoy the elves as much as possible, I'm sure they'll find somewhere else to go.

Let me know what you think could improve. Thanks!

[Yrda]

Fascinating concept. What do you think how long it takes to travel from pole to pole? (easiest answer might be "a life", I guess)
And by what means do people travel? Do they have vehicles or mounts, do they travel by feet? Are there ships?

[Eowyn Cwper]

Oh my God what a cool idea! Think of all the cultural and economic quirks you can get out of this, amongst others!

[kwelmaps]

Fascinating concept. What do you think how long it takes to travel from pole to pole? (easiest answer might be "a life", I guess)
And by what means do people travel? Do they have vehicles or mounts, do they travel by feet? Are there ships?

It would be 50,358.74 miles from pole to pole if the spiral were a perfectly smooth curve and flat terrain. I haven’t figure out the distance by land given the rough continent shape and intense elevation shifts.

Only the Nomest people consider traveling pole-to-pole by land a pilgrimage that they should do once in a lifetime. By foot and/or mount is allowable. (Nomest just means nomad in the proto-indo-european-based language I made.) Out of respect for their culture and history, the bordered nations allow the Nomest freely through their lands. The Nomest consider their culture to be handed down from the very first humanoids from which all other humanoids are descended, so they would be made up of all races. (Not sure how I’d deal with avian races on a world with this cultural base.)

Other cultures would be based on medieval fantasy worlds with borders and wars, merchants and monarchs, landowners and serfs or farm hands, craftsmen and clergy, etc. Those cultures would use any animals, wagons, boats, ships, and whatever else a GM or author wanted to include. I’ll probably build this out for 5E, though honestly I was just having fun with the concept.

It doesn’t look or sound strictly medieval fantasy, but I was experimenting with the map style and the National Geographic tone fit the aesthetic. Plus it was fun to write.

[TimetoDraw]

Wow, this is really creative. It's hard to even picture how it wraps around the globe so I'm glad you've included the globe versions!

[kwelmaps]

Oh my God what a cool idea! Think of all the cultural and economic quirks you can get out of this, amongst others!

Thanks! One thing I’ve been thinking about most would be related to canals or portage of goods over the narrowest areas. Whoever controlled those would have huge economic/political power over anyone wanting to trade (or war) with countries two spirals away and needing a shortcut instead of circumnavigating the entire globe!

[kwelmaps]

Wow, this is really creative. It's hard to even picture how it wraps around the globe so I'm glad you've included the globe versions!

Thanks! I made an animation of the world spinning, but it was too cheesy to post : )

[Bindusara]

Very beautiful, with enough backgound for backing an history just by seing this map : clever !

[rdanhenry]

This is very creative and beautifully realized. Assuming erosion works on this world, it is heading for a future of being an island chain. What will happen to Nomest culture then? I also wonder what effects this geography would have on realistic climate. Probably best that this is a fantasy world and you can avoid having to dive deep into that kind of issue.

You have an "it's" for "its" error in the first paragraph.

I especially liked the history of the concept of the center of world. It would also be interesting to consider the huge changes that would have appeared when someone first figured out that you could take a ship over a fairly short distance to travel to a once very-distant land and trade, war, diplomacy, and every other form of relationship between peoples was shaken up.

[kwelmaps]

This is very creative and beautifully realized. Assuming erosion works on this world, it is heading for a future of being an island chain. What will happen to Nomest culture then? I also wonder what effects this geography would have on realistic climate. Probably best that this is a fantasy world and you can avoid having to dive deep into that kind of issue.

You have an "it's" for "its" error in the first paragraph.

I especially liked the history of the concept of the center of world. It would also be interesting to consider the huge changes that would have appeared when someone first figured out that you could take a ship over a fairly short distance to travel to a once very-distant land and trade, war, diplomacy, and every other form of relationship between peoples was shaken up.

I love all of these thoughts. Thank you. I'd love to figure out the climate thing. For now I just made stuff up, but if you have suggestions on how I could go about figuring it out, I'm all ears.

Perhaps there needs to be at least one bridge somewhere just to be able to include the idea of the Nomest coping with the reality of change. I haven't decided about the ocean voyage, but I'm having a lot of fun mulling it over.

And THANKS for the grammar check!