Realms Climate

[Marvin Keene]

Having just become DM of a campaign set in the Western Heartlands of the
Forgotten Realms, I have been trying to figure out the climate there. Our
party is working at a ranch in the Fields of the Dead and will soon embark
on a cattle drive to Waterdeep through hostile territory. Waterdeep is
fighting a naval war and a land war simultaneously and has had a failed
harvest. People are starving.

Anyway, maybe this can give some of you ideas. I made a couple of
assumptions. First of all, I assumed that Toril and Earth have about the
same circumference. Secondly, I assumed that the Northern Tip of Icewind
Dale was at 60 degrees north latitude (seems reasonable). I then spread my
1 inch = 90 miles maps out and they measured about 32 inches North to South
or 2880 miles. At about 68 miles per degree of latitude, that works out to
42 degrees. This means that the most Southern part of the map is at 18
degrees North Latitude. I then put Western Realms areas next to Earth
cities at roughly the same latitude and started figuring.

I realize that latitude alone is not even the most important determinate of
climate. There is proximity to water, relationship to mountain ranges, wind
direction or prevailing current (both Summer and Winter), and altitude.
These factors influence rainfall which is of extraordinary importance when
designating climatic types. Given this, I will list a couple of earth
places that roughly correspond with the proper latitude.

Western Europe seems to work best--many of the terrain types match up, but
the similarity breaks down some as you move into African latitudes. The
Sahara Desert botches a lot of things up. In most cases, the West coast
works better than the east for matchups (there are exceptions)---Coriolis
Force, I guess.

Realms North America
Europe/Africa Asia
Icewind Dale
& Spine of the World Southern Alaska Stockholm
N. Kamchatka
& Hudson Bay

Waterdeep Vancouver London
Sakhalin Island
& Newfoundland
Northern Mongolia

Dragonspear Seattle Paris
Manchuria
Castle & Montreal

Fields of the Southern Oregon Northern Spain
Hokkaido
Dead & Boston

Baldur's Gate N. California Madrid
North Korea
& New York

Amn San Francisco Southern
Tokyo
& The Carolinas
Spain

Calimshan Baja California Algeria
Northern India
& Florida
Jiangxi Prov, China

Chult Mexico City
Mauretania Vietnam, Hawaii

[Marvin Keene]

Let's try that again. Here are some rough latitude matchups. From now on
Waterdeep = London for me.

Icewind Dale, Southern Alaska, Stockholm, N. Kamchatka, Hudson Bay

Waterdeep, Vancouver, London, Sakhalin Island, Newfoundland, Northern
Mongolia

Dragonspear Castle, Seattle, Paris, Manchuria, Montreal

Fields of the Dead, Southern Oregon, Northern Spain, Hokkaido, Boston

Baldur's Gate, N. California, Madrid, North Korea, New York

Amn, San Francisco, Southern Spain, Tokyo, The Carolinas, Spain

Calimshan, Baja California, Algeria, Northern India, Florida, Jiangxi
Prov, China

Chult, Mexico City, Mauretania, Vietnam, Hawaii
>

[Brad]

Marvin Keene wrote in message

<snip climate areas>

Since Toril has a standard 24hr day/365 day year the basis of your
assumptions should be ok. However, you're a little bit off I think.
According to the source material found in The North boxed set, Icewind Dale
is arctic climate while just south of Waterdeep is temperate. Inbetween that
is sub-arctic.

Icewind Dale & Spine of the World -- arctic climate

Waterdeep -- southern tip of a sub-arctic climate with a true temperate zone
starting just south of the city. This would maybe put it somewhere around
Scotland. The information states that the coastal area between Waterdeep and
Port Last stays slightly warmer and wetter than it does inland. I'd stick
Waterdeep about where Edinburgh is.

Dragonspear Castle and Fields of the Dead -- these would be inside the
temperate zone.

Baldur's Gate -- Maybe around London?

Amn -- Maybe around Southern France?

Calimshan -- Maybe around Spain?

Chult -- Maybe around North Africa? It is tropical jungle I seem to recall
so it's likely a magical aberation or perhaps I need to "stretch" the above
locations slightly so that they extend from arctic through to
(sub-)tropical. Your guess is as good as mine on that one.

Problem with guessing is that climate can vary because of the magical
effects on areas of the planet. My guesses almost correspond to yours except
that I started with Icewind Dale as an arctic climate. We're probably only a
couple of hundred miles off from each other. My real world geography
stretches to knowing where everything is but I'd need to look at an atlas
before I could compare where my guesses are compared to yours :^)