Globes and Lynnaeus' knowledge of astronomy

[apolloooo]

i have noticed in avadon 3 (i am not sure about previous games, maybe there are, maybe there aren't) there are globes / scale model of the planet scattered all across the games (usually found in libraries, or other places of extensive knowledge). that indicate their culture is aware about the general shape of their planet, right?

 

but in one of the codex, we know that they haven't even travelled as far to other continents yet. how is their technology / knowledge is advanced enough without having the ability to cross over the ocean? that being said, knowing and measure the shape/circumference of the planet is possible without travelling far (as proved by the ancient middle eastern mathematician that discovered the earth is a sphere before anyone ever recorded did) but they have an actual model/globe of the planet and it seems to be accepted as general knowledge as it is seen in multiple countries (granted, only seen on places of knowledge like i said, indicating only the rich, influential and/or educated know about it, while your average peasant is completely ignorant). that kinda bugs me how are they confident and have the round planet become accepted across the continent when they never map much area outside of their own continent.

 

so what do you think?

[Triumph]

All it takes is observation and math to determine the world is spherical. Not merely one "ancient middle eastern mathematician" figured out the earth is round - it was widely known by many. In other worlds, people figured out that the earth was a globe more than fifteen hundred years before anyone circumnavigated it.

 

Exploring the world requires much more significant advances in technology, shipbuilding, and navigation, as well as far more personal risk to those who actually DO the exploring, than is needed just to figure out the earth is round. If Lynnaeus's were anything like our world, it's totally plausible that people would know their world was a sphere long before any large-scale exploration of it occurred.

[Lilith]

I mean, you kind of answered your own question there: there are in fact ways to measure the curvature of the earth with reasonable accuracy even while travelling over relatively short distances. Around 2250 years ago, Eratosthenes calculated the earth's circumference to within about 10% accuracy by comparing the shadows cast by the sun on the same day of the year in two cities in Egypt only 1000 kilometres apart. Having access to long-distance teleportation magic would make that sort of measurement even easier to conduct.

 

If you're asking how they'd know what to actually put on their globes and maps outside the areas they'd explored... well, ancient mapmakers made a lot of stuff up.

[apolloooo]

yeah, it was more about how they have a globe model that's used in many places. they don't know where exactly the continent is in point of other landmarks on the planet. the globes are gonna be inaccurate as hell too. but seeing our own old world maps, yeah, they probably make stuff up on the other parts

[ThricebornPhoenix]

If you're asking how they'd know what to actually put on their globes and maps outside the areas they'd explored... well, ancient mapmakers made a lot of stuff up.

"Here be dragons, but these have five eyes."

[Randomizer]

 

"Here be dragons, but these have five eyes."

In Avadon they already know where some of the dragons are.

[ThricebornPhoenix]

I was crossing a reference to 'here be dragons', a phrase still known today yet hardly meaningful in a fictional world commonly known by its inhabitants to be populated with dragons, with the Hereford Mappa Mundi's... odd descriptions of (made up) African peoples.

 

I guess it would come across better if everyone read books about maps.