Mapping cliches

[Meshon]

So for every call for the River Police, I want to offer the famous map of China from Joan Blaeu's "Atlas Major" in response.

Attachment 63021

Oh wow. That lake in the west...made me laugh out loud. It's like the cartographer is reaching a sharp stick from the past to deliberately jab the river police into a fury. Nice find!

cheers,
Meshon

[JefBT]

Max have a good point, but that's for the past times.

The globalization is really a "global thing" today (with a few exceptions), and all sort of things are running around the entire world, so it's probably not new to a lot of people.

But again, mixing asian elements with european was a great new thing. But now there are euro-asian cliches as well, like ninjas in medieval armor living on european castles following old japanese rules, fighting against kappas and dragons.

A cliche today, may be "vintage" tomorow, lots of variables there, and here I am again, falling into nothing.

I actually think that using some cliches is good, but using only cliches is bad. It's nice to make something new, and mix it with some old and good things.

[madcowchef]

Here's one I'm exceedingly guilty of: Naming things after their appearance on a map. Sure from a top view it might be shaped like a wolf's head, but does it really look anything like that o the people down living next to it at a reasonable scale?

[JefBT]

Well we humans use to name things to something that it looks like, or something that we like.

I also name my places that way most of the time, madcowchef, but sometimes I use people names, like in real life places are named after it's founder.

You can also name a forest to something like "Forest of Bananas" or "Monkey Jungle", if is there a lot of bananas or monkeys there, respectively.

Near my hometown there is an ancient mountain formation. From the distance it looks like a giant person sleeping, so it's called "O Gigante Adormecido" ("The Sleeping Giant").

[madcowchef]

Those are all reasonable and excellent names JefBT. I meant when you name things after the cartographers vast overhead view, such as a two hundred mile long lake that is shaped like an eagle so you call it eagle lake even though its very doubtful the people living on it (unless they carefully mapped it) would have any idea that its shape would in any way resemble an eagle.

[Azélor]

I am the only one to think that this could be a good idea for a challenge?

[Hai-Etlik]

People in the past know that they are in the past and will go out of their way to make their maps look "old". A map 500 years in the past looks 500 years old even when it is brand new. However, people in the past also always have data as good as modern maps and always fill the entirety of the extent of their maps with perfectly precise, to scale, information just like modern maps. Likewise people in the future make maps that use OCR fonts (or at the very least will NEVER use serif fonts) with light on dark (preferably the light is glowing blue) and triangular or hexagonal patterns for no reason other than to demonstrate that the map was made in the future.

Every map must have a compass rose no matter how inappropriate it is.

Ditto linear scale bars.

The funny lines on maps are purely decorations to make it look "mappy".

The more stuff on a map the better. (Real cartographers fall prey to this one too)

Alphanumeric locator grids on maps that aren't modern street maps.

[NedS298]

how can a map be 500 hundred years in the past if it's brand new? haha
but yeah, those are some good points

[Hai-Etlik]

how can a map be 500 hundred years in the past if it's brand new? haha
but yeah, those are some good points

"My lord, the guild of cartographers have prepared this new map of your realm. They have carefully aged it to make appear to be 500 years old, just in case any time travellers from the present, 500 years from now, should happen to see it. We wouldn't want them to get confused and not realize that they are in the past."

[NedS298]

I don't understand, I'm sorry.