Atlas Elyden

[vorropohaiah]

I'm referring to the fact that none of your graticules are aligned with the page, either vertically or horizontally; maps I've seen generally have the projection centered inside the area being mapped, which causes the lines of longitude to be close to vertical. This means that your maps, where all of the lines of longitude (well, the vertical lines at least) are leaning the same way, look like they're all taken from one side or another of a larger map.

If I'm not mistaken, one reason for unusual graticule orientation may be to most effectively center/orient the region being mapped on the piece of paper. In the Tzallrach one in particular, if vorro was to horizontally/vertically square up the graticules with the paper's edge, he'd have large zones in the southeast and northwest that really aren't the main focus of the map and would contribute nothing but dead space to the map. With this orientation, only the essential zone/area being mapped is shown and one can still get a sense of direction from the graticules.

Ah see what you mean now, though Diamond explains it better than I was managing! It's certainly not the norm though some maps of the period I'm emulating, especially atlas pages, tend to do this. Thanks for bringing it up though as thats the sort of critique im looking for - anything i might have missed myself!

On Earth, at least, lines of latitude run east-west, while lines of longitude run north-south, so you see "90 degrees longitude east of Greenwich" and the like.

Gah, you're right! That was an honest mistake on my part, mixing up the one with the other - thanks for pointing that out!

I think the projection is fine. Not all maps are centered north-south, and every map doesn't have to conform to the "norm".

Centering the map so one longitude is vertical is certainly the usual way, but I think the tilt is pretty cool. Not a lot of people do it, so it gives another element of Vorro to the maps

thanks! I was waiting to see what other members thought of this, to see if there was a general consensus for orienting the grats to the page, though I think I'll keep them as is. These are meant to be purely functional and in that regard I think the orienting of individual maps to better fit into the page makes more sense.