mapping the world

[Steve Ames <steve@ns1.cioe.com>]

My AQ manual gives a bunch of interesting clues.

The planet has a diameter of 11,500 mets.

Lojem is on the 70 degree lattitude line (wonder why they didn't
claim zero since they were here first?)

Lojem is about 3000 mets (apx 30% north longitude) north of
equator.

So... we have Lojem (30% north longitude, 70 degrees latitude).

The Sylvan isles are on the opposite side of the world at:
30% south longitude, 250 degrees lattitude (does lattitude
go from 0-360 or 0-180 and have east/west?).

Centralia is also opposite Lojem (similar reasoning) but 
further north: 60% north longitute, 250 degrees lattitude.

at the equator, 1 degree is approximately 100.3 mets. So if we
assume that the world is a perfect sphere (*grin*) We see that
from Lojem to the Sylvan isles is half a circumference or about
18063.625 mets. Since a met is 2000 feet, that is 6842.28 miles.
Most Jaernian ships go from 10-15 mets/hour... so it'd be
about 50-75  days going 24 hours/day no stops. A Jaernian month
is 30 days so... reality says there will be a stop or two and
that a direct path might not be possible. so on a fast boat
2 months is about max... three closer to average.

Since Centralia is straight north of Galeia the math is
pretty easy there as well. Again assuming a sphere we
draw an equatorial line from Galia to Centralia. Since we
have already determined that one degree along such a line
is about 100.3 mets we get 90 degrees times 100.3 or
9027 mets... about half the distance from Lojem to Galeia, so
half the boat time. Pretty straight forward. Centralia is also
the same distance to Lojem if you go over the pole. Closer if
you take a straight line. Centralia to Lojoem is about a
month and a half.

Jeff TP created an island called Southern Judas that exists about
a month southwest of Centralia... about a half month northeast
of Lojem... its a small, small world.

It also means that no place on the planet is more than a 4 month
boat trip. Since most of the land mass is little tiny islands
, and coasts are easier to map than interior, its probably a
safe assumptiont hat most of the world has been mapped and the
only exploration that could be done is the interior of islands
too big to just see across :)

Given the above I'm going to put coordinates to the Rhine
Archipelago (where Centralia is) and mark out that region
as the Centralia Setting.
					-Steve