Theory and Method for reverse engineering Erf Geography

[tleilaxu]

1. IF the geography of Erfworld and Earth are similar to one another...
2. THEN, by looking at style, terrain, and directional relationships between places, cities, and sides, we can make a speculative Erfworld map.
3. X coordinates correspond to W-E, with X: 0 equivalent to the Earth earth Longitude Greenwich, England. Y coordinates correspond to N-S, with Y:0 equivalent to Earth's equator.
4. According to the wiki, there are two named coordinate points in the comic up to this point:
X: -1214 Y: 455 Where Jillian croaked a Twoll and three uncroaked en route to Gobwin Knob. Erf-b1-p010
X: -1218 Y: 467 Where the Archons met Ansom's forces. This may be the same hex where Sir Webinar and Dora met Jillian after her release from Gobwin Knob. Erf-b1- p042
5. Both of these points are close to Gobwin Knob
6. CONJECTURE, Gobwin Knob is located at the Erf equivalent of La Garita Caldera, Colorado.
9. La Garita Caldera, Colorado is located at 37°45′23″N 106°56′03″W
10. Therefore, the triangle made between the three points (y,x) 455,-1213; 0,-1213; 455,0 should be pretty close to the triangle made by the three points 37°N,106°W; 37°N,0°W; 0°N, 106°W
11. The maximum degree value is 180°. A point at 37° will therefore be 20.5% of max value, a point at 106° will be at 58.8%.
12.. If we divide the Erf coordinates by these percentages, the resulting values should be close to the same. If this is so it gives us an idea of the maximum number for Erf Coordinate values, and also verifies Gobwin Knob is in the vicinity of La Garita Caldera. I Think.
13. If we do this math we find: 455/.205 = 2219.5... 1213/.588 = 2062.9 .... 2062.9 is only 92.9% of 2219.5 so either I have the exact location of Gobwin Knob a bit off, or Rob messed up, or there is some effect of spherical v. flat space, or I messed up the math, or there is something wrong with my reasoning.
14. If people use the style clues (Western Giants = SF Giants, Jitterati = Seattle?, Transylvito = Las Vegas?, Unaroyal = Kansas City?, Efbaum = Somewhere in Kansas), directionality, and terrain to clue them in on the relationships and distances to places, and assuming Rob actually has a map, it should be possible to reverse engineer a map of Erfworld as it has thusfar been described.
15. REQUEST: Mathamancer needed to verify

16. CAVEAT: This hasn't been thought out all the way (the ins outs and what have yous) but I feel that if someone else were to take it up, they should be able to take some of the ideas in here and use real math to verify the general assumptions are correct

[mortissimus]

I am to tired to make an answer with substance, but here are links to Ye Olde Map-thread and the wikipage on Erf Geography.

[No one in particular]

It's been a while since anyone posted anything in it, but there was this thread a while back: http://www.erfworld.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=548

It's got images and everything.

[tleilaxu]

Those maps are fine but are small-scale and don't take into account the theory of Earth-Erf equivalence. Below is more what I had in mind: dang too big.

[tleilaxu]

Here we go.

[Housellama]

1. IF the geography of Erfworld and Earth are similar to one another...
16. CAVEAT: This hasn't been thought out all the way (the ins outs and what have yous) but I feel that if someone else were to take it up, they should be able to take some of the ideas in here and use real math to verify the general assumptions are correct

Interesting idea, but why relate it to Earth? Just because places have a theme doesn't mean that they are actually related to them geographically. This is Erfworld. Nothing is necessarily exactly as it seems.

If you want to talk about theory and method for map creation, you need to establish distances between fixed points, then slowly fill in the gaps between them. We have information available to us to do so. GK is a good fixed point. So is Warchalking, FAQ, SR, TV, a few others. We have unit Move and Turn trip lengths. We also have partial maps. As a community, we can start filling in the gaps. We just need a place to collate and collect this information.

I'm going to start a new thread for Map and movement references. No One, if you could whip up a Wiki page similarly, that would be awesome. This needs to be a community project, it's too big for one person. We have a lot of info. We just need to put it together.

[mantimeforgot]

I don't think real world geography has anything to do with Erf geography beyond acting as an inspiration for the flavor of the landscape. There are two degrees of meta-separation here: Author ----> Parson; Parson----> Erf (Assumption: Parson's map creation and gaming influenced Erf's landscape, and this seems likely since his immediate comment upon entering was that he had been recently gaming places which had these terrain features). Transylvania in fantasy is the land of vampires and it is mountainous; you take the fantasy land and childify it, and you get Transylvito.

MTF