NedS298: "Isn't fantasy about being creative?"

It should be, but unconsciously we make things related to what we know, so, sometimes it isn't a cliché, but just something that is "regular" to us.

"Why should I try something new?" - not just on maps, but people usually don't try ideas that are totally new, they use what is firmly grounded and established. And that way we fall back in the clichés.

As I live in the southern hemisphere, it was strange for me to see the cold north, and snow (the lowest temperature I had seem in person was 8° Celcius). But I got used to it, since almost all the fantasy books and movies are from the northern hemisphere.

Another cliché: the largest ocean area only apears on the east and west, never on the south or north (well, I did not see any world with a great ocean or sea on the north or south).