It's a big world! Or is it?

[Shaukan-son-Hasweth he/him]

Something always botherd me about Mistborn. And its the maps. For a conflict that affects an entire Planet, the final empire was very small.
You could travell through the entire Empire by boat in a matter of months
Now we know that this has a reason. At the time only this small portion of land near the poles was inhabitable.

But this has changed due to Harmonies Ascencion.
Brandon has said that Scadrial is very Earth like. The most Earth like of all in the Cosmere i believe. So i believed that it had the same size.

How big is the Elendel basin? How far has Civilisation come?.
I always imagined the entire Map in the Era 2 books to be about as big as Western Europe maybe. Or even smaller.
Or is it more like the Us?
If (just like on Earth) one third of the surface was Land. This would be but a tiny fraction of the world.
How big is that continet anyway? And How many are there? How far do the Rughs go? Which Climate zone is Elendel in?

Is there a point with an Outer most Village that's just somwhere and they just haven't come further?
How big is the Southern Continet?

I would love to see a complete Globus of Scadrial at one Point.

[Calderis he/him]

I don't think it's actually much larger than the final empire that we've seen. 

The basin is super fertile. Without a need for expansion, I think travel outside it's borders is limited to adventurer types, and even those would be limited by lack of infrastructure for resupply. 

I think with the introduction of airships, the world is about to get much bigger. 

[Quantus he/him]

10 minutes ago, Calderis said:

I don't think it's actually much larger than the final empire that we've seen. 

The basin is super fertile. Without a need for expansion, I think travel outside it's borders is limited to adventurer types, and even those would be limited by lack of infrastructure for resupply. 

I think with the introduction of airships, the world is about to get much bigger. 

Agreed.  They're basically a Europe that just discovered the New World, except instead of an indigenous tribal population to be suppressed and exploited they've found a technologically superior Nation they'll need to catch up to. 

[Shaukan-son-Hasweth he/him]

So

how many continents are there in total? One Nortern and one Southern doesn't sound like alot.
I'm also wonderin at what time we will see diffrent Nations forming. The people in the Roughs have formed a diffrent national identety and the outer Basin is not that happy with Elendels control anymore.

Do you think the terris will ever claim land for themselves again?

[Quantus he/him]

22 hours ago, Shaukan-son-Hasweth said:

how many continents are there in total? One Nortern and one Southern doesn't sound like alot.

Ideally speaking, at least as long as Harmony remains Harmony. The current Nations would be coming together rather than fracturing as you might expect from normal earth-like societies going through the upheaval of an industrial revolution.  But if he were to become the other things, they'd start warring fast... 

22 hours ago, Shaukan-son-Hasweth said:

how many continents are there in total? One Nortern and one Southern doesn't sound like alot.
 

It could very easily just be those two.  The world was created whole and then dramatically reshaped at least twice.  The southern continent only exists because Rashek wanted to keep a spare gene pool entirely separate from the "main" continent he was fiddling with, just in case his genetic manipulations became untenable.  Since we arent talking about a world that has ever been subject to normal tectonic processes (or timelines), there hasnt been the opportunity for the sort of natural continental drift of older planets.  Scadrial is still basically Pangea aged by planet-years, so arguably two whole continents is doing pretty good.

[Calderis he/him]

1 hour ago, Quantus said:

Ideally speaking, at least as long as Harmony remains Harmony. The current Nations would be coming together rather than fracturing as you might expect from normal earth-like societies going through the upheaval of an industrial revolution.  But if he were to become the other things, they'd start warring fast... 

I disagree... I don't think Harmony being Harmony has any effect on human behavior. The population will grow, and there will be fragments and wars. People will dispute ideologies and create borders. It's human nature. 

[Quantus he/him]

4 minutes ago, Calderis said:

I disagree... I don't think Harmony being Harmony has any effect on human behavior. The population will grow, and there will be fragments and wars. People will dispute ideologies and create borders. It's human nature. 

Im more attributing it to the active interference of Sazed and his agents as an organized force that would be mitigating sociopolitical friction and/or guiding the normal human responses to major events; and also on the assumption that if he fell to Discord he'd be no less active in his interference.  I didnt mean to imply that a given world (or world's population) are going to be naturally influenced towards a resident Shard's intent.  Rosharan people are not any more "Honorable" than others, or more prone to cultivation.  For that matter it looks like Ruin had to customize Hemaurgy to get that kind of influence, even over a population he helped create.

 

[+Child of Hodor]

18 minutes ago, Calderis said:

I disagree... I don't think Harmony being Harmony has any effect on human behavior. The population will grow, and there will be fragments and wars. People will dispute ideologies and create borders. It's human nature. 

Especially with Harmony unable to act as much as other Shards due to his power being the recombination of two Shards with opposing intents. Harmony would have to act to influence human behavior either through a reward or punishment system, to encourage or discourage what he wants or an intentional splinter like The Thrill which essentially riots certain feelings in humans. 

Quote

Words of Radiance Los Angeles signing (March 5, 2014)
#5

ericth

Could Sazed take down Rayse since he has two shards?

Brandon Sanderson

Rayse is VERY scared of Sazed. However, given Sazed is a composite of two diametrically opposed shards, he finds it very difficult to act.

Even if he does gain greater ability to act, the way Harmony talks in Shadows of Self chapter 7, indicates he thinks he made it too easy for humans in the basin. From the progress the southern Scadrians have made he sees long term value in letting people struggle and solve their own problems even if there is conflict and suffering. 

@Quantus You're right in that he does send his agents to help avert the worst from happening. World war is less likely here than others. Unless the red space haze has its way.

Edited September 19, 2018 by Child of Hodor

[Quantus he/him]

20 minutes ago, Child of Hodor said:

Especially with Harmony unable to act as much as other Shards due to his power being the recombination of two Shards with opposing intents. Harmony would have to act to influence human behavior either through a reward or punishment system, to encourage or discourage what he wants or an intentional splinter like The Thrill which essentially riots certain feelings in humans. 

Even if he does gain greater ability to act, the way Harmony talks in Shadows of Self chapter 7, indicates he thinks he made it too easy for humans in the basin. From the progress the southern Scadrians have made he sees long term value in letting people struggle and solve their own problems even if there is conflict and suffering. 

@Quantus You're right in that he does send his agents to help avert the worst from happening. World war is less likely here than others. Unless the red space haze has its way.

I dont think it necessarily has to be a Stick/Carrot system, that would only be the case if he were acting Opening as a controlling Power rather than the Covert style he's been using thus far. But the right Kandra in the right place at the right time with him whispering in their ear can be damnation effective without anyone realizing the real scope of his influence.  To act on that sort of scope is well within his current capabilities.  Now, if he were wanting to "correct" some of his early mistakes like making large-scale changes to the planet, whistle up a moon, etc, those are (I expect) too substantial for his current capabilities, unless he found a way to appease both Intents in the same act (an act of Destruction to facilitate a longer-term preservation, maybe?)

 

 

[Shaukan-son-Hasweth he/him]

I don't think Harmony will interfere at all. The Kandras say he is very distracted in what we suspect to be holding off another shard.
He  would see war as in line with his ruin side and allow it. Especially since he is so worried about the slow technological advances of the Northern Scadrians.
War is not said to be the father of all things for no reason. Alot of useful technology was originally developed to help war.