Lohrenswald
世界的 bottom ranked physicist
They sure have fast horses, then.
Supposed size of Westeros?
- Thread starter Kyriakos
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They sure have fast horses, then.
sophie
Break My Heart
Or very very good roads.
But there is a crapton of things that prevent such a planet to look and work even remotely close to how Earth does
Sure, but we're talking less than an order of magnitude here.
Making Believable Planets
Big Planet is 3x the diameter of earth, about half the size of the figures Cutlass gave. I think the size of the ice wall is more of a problem than the planet.
Akka
Moody old mage.
Even "less than an order of magnitude" different would lead to a MASSIVELY different world. Westeros basically looks like Earth.
^The irregular season system is one of the worst/most exposed elements (quasi-pun). It likely would have been cool in a less cosmopolital setting, eg if there were just some hyperborean settlements in previously uncharted territory which was said by legend to be functioning quite differently due to reasons.
But now it seems that there is zero astronomy studied in the asoiaf world. Don't those people even look at the sky for anything other than ravens or dragons, and just mirant stella?
But now it seems that there is zero astronomy studied in the asoiaf world. Don't those people even look at the sky for anything other than ravens or dragons, and just mirant stella?
The maesters use telescopes to try and figure out when winter is coming. They talk about it here and there, implying they have some sort of astronomical system. Also at least one of the maesters at one point sort of poopoo's magical thinking about the comet and basically says it's just a comet stupid.
I mean there are plenty of other things to nitpick if you want, e.g. biology, chemistry, physics, basically it's all out the window at various times since this is a magical fantasy land. The scale issues never actually occurred to me, I just looked at it like Mise, i.e. they get there when they get there.
If I was reading Arthur C Clarke I might be a little curious what was really going on, but I'm not.
I mean there are plenty of other things to nitpick if you want, e.g. biology, chemistry, physics, basically it's all out the window at various times since this is a magical fantasy land. The scale issues never actually occurred to me, I just looked at it like Mise, i.e. they get there when they get there.
If I was reading Arthur C Clarke I might be a little curious what was really going on, but I'm not.
Akka
Moody old mage.
I'm pretty sure that the irregular seasons are just purely magical in nature and will be one of the big reveal at the end of the story.
Yep. I mean it's hinted at all over the place.
As to the problems with the scale, it really comes down to whether you find it an interesting and compelling story despite those flaws. Which it's generally pretty good at, I think. But it would be better if the scale made more sense. The easier it is to breeze steadily through a story without any 'wait, what?' moments, the more pleasurable the read is overall. So a story can work despite 'wait, what?' moments, but would be better off without them.
Reminds me of this piece written about someone who said that the Twilight book series changed her life.
And there's the thing, a good editor should catch those 'wait, what?' moments, and work out with the author how to get them out of there. I'm not saying the author can't do this all on their own, but a good working author/editor team really should catch the most of that.
edit, found something Plotinus was saying about editing.
Reminds me of this piece written about someone who said that the Twilight book series changed her life.
And there's the thing, a good editor should catch those 'wait, what?' moments, and work out with the author how to get them out of there. I'm not saying the author can't do this all on their own, but a good working author/editor team really should catch the most of that.
edit, found something Plotinus was saying about editing.
Regarding scale, in episode 1 of the first season it is noted that the King and his party "ride for months" to get to Winterfell. Of course just two episodes later it is said (iirc) that it takes around a month to get to Winterfell from King's Landing, and later on it takes a few days for the Red Woman to reach the Brotherhood without banners.
So the show itself is not consistent with its own scale either, although i can easily see why it would not be that wise to have them openly use the smaller scale already in the first episode. But they could have had Cersei say "we have been riding for so long" instead of "for months"..
gay_Aleks
from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
Alternatively, due to the massive size of the theoretical planet, a day is much longer than 24 hours and they have special breed horses that are like, really fast.
Zack
99% hot gas
Only as fast as the speed of plot.
Mise
isle of lucy
Yeah, the scale issues made it more difficult for me to imagine the world, which in any story, but in particular a fantasy series, is kind of criminal. But after a couple episodes I just shrugged it off, because I was so into the story and characters by that point that I didn't care so much about the world or country itself. To use Illram's much better phrasing, "they get there when they get there".
aelf
Ashen One
It would seem that they left it ambiguous in the film version. We know that King Robert undertook a fairly long journey to reach Winterfell. If I'm not mistaken, it's very conceivable to travel 2000 miles in a month or so during the medieval times, especially if there is a good road.
The height of stuff is what seems less believable, but plenty of medieval fantasy stories suffer from the same problem, and usually magic/aliens is the explanation.
The height of stuff is what seems less believable, but plenty of medieval fantasy stories suffer from the same problem, and usually magic/aliens is the explanation.
Akka
Moody old mage.
Err... Would be rather extreme.
Especially not when it's a whole royal convoy, which is considerably slower than messengers.
I remember a map from my history books, which indicated the average time needed for horse-powered transport (coaches for example) to go from the capital to other cities. It was about two weeks to do 500 km.
aelf
Ashen One
Assuming horse speed of about 4 mph, which is still realistic for a royal train, and traveling for 10 hours a day, which is probably achievable in the long days of a long summer, 2000 miles is achievable in 50 days.
In 1805 a fast paced French army division could cover about 20 miles a day in good weather; forced marching could add another 10.
And what it tells us is that when well-supplied and with purpose, 10,000 men can move quickly. Weather and supply being the most critical issues. In the case of Westros, if a hundred people were fully supplied, they could probably travel 30 miles a day. If they were depending upon Inns and castles for supply and lodging, then the distance between those points would set the daily mileage and not the speed of horses and wagons.
Multi day layovers would slow things further. Best case I'd say the 2000 mile trip would take 80-90 days; more likely six months.
Multi day layovers would slow things further. Best case I'd say the 2000 mile trip would take 80-90 days; more likely six months.
Akka
Moody old mage.
A royal convoy with a leisurely pace and a fat, comfortable king would not reach near as much, though ^^
Adds that even with roads, terrain is not flat, and that a road doesn't go in straitgh line so if it's 2000 miles on the map, it's probably closer to 2500 or 3000 on the ground.
So count maybe 10 to 15 miles a day, for 2500 to 3000 miles... It's closer to one year than one month
Adds that even with roads, terrain is not flat, and that a road doesn't go in straitgh line so if it's 2000 miles on the map, it's probably closer to 2500 or 3000 on the ground.
So count maybe 10 to 15 miles a day, for 2500 to 3000 miles... It's closer to one year than one month
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