Elendel Basin vs. the whole continent

[+Oltux72]

How large a share of its continent's surface area is the Elendel Basin?

[RShara]

I got this confirmed from Isaac a while back. There's a key for distance on the top left of the map, so you can figure out the size from that.

Edited March 8, 2020 by RShara

[king of nowhere]

we don't have any hard data on it, as the full extent of the continent is unknown.

however, the scale of the map tells us that the whole basin is around 400 miles in diameter, which gives us an area of roughly 300000 square kilometers. roughly the size of italy or germany, or half the size of texas. a size much lower than that of a full continent.

we can get some good comparison if we assume that the rest of the continent was unchanged over the time of the final empire (which seems likely). Because if you compare the maps of the elendel basin and of the final empire, you may notice that a bit of coastline is the same: the peninsula of Bilming is identical to the peninsula west of mount Doriel in the final empire; the rest of the coastline matches, for all of the map. from this, you can get a good idea of how the basin fits over the rest of the continent.

I made a superposition of the two maps

[king of nowhere]

I improved the map a bit, and found a better scale. you may see that also lake tyrian is in the same place

[king of nowhere]

in fact, this raises the question: if the rest of the geography was kept the same, does this mean that there are some big islands a relatively short trip from elendel? or were those islands moved?

[ftl]

Could be!

[king of nowhere]

wow! where does that map of the final empire come from? is it form the new leatherbound edition? is there a higher resolution version?

Edited March 8, 2020 by king of nowhere

[RShara]

34 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

wow! where does that map of the final empire come from? is it form the new leatherbound edition? is there a higher resolution version?

I think so. It's also for sale as a print.

https://store.brandonsanderson.com/final-empire-map-poster/

Can probably find higher res versions out there.

[+Oltux72]

15 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

we can get some good comparison if we assume that the rest of the continent was unchanged over the time of the final empire (which seems likely). Because if you compare the maps of the elendel basin and of the final empire, you may notice that a bit of coastline is the same: the peninsula of Bilming is identical to the peninsula west of mount Doriel in the final empire; the rest of the coastline matches, for all of the map. from this, you can get a good idea of how the basin fits over the rest of the continent.

 

Under this assumption whence comes the Irongate river and what has happened to the Channerell River?

[king of nowhere]

1 hour ago, Oltux72 said:

Under this assumption whence comes the Irongate river and what has happened to the Channerell River?

we don't know, but the creation of all the mountains surrounding the basin certainly altered the watershed and distribution of rivers. probably the mountain ranges also affect general weather with their rain shadow and effects on air circulation.

so, the irongate river comes from the water fallin on all the basin. the mountains surrounding the basin are a watershed. the channerel is probably still there, as all the rain falling on the rest of the continent still will drain somewhere, but probably the raising of the mountains has shifted its mouth westward, and it's somewhat smaller than it used to be because it has a smaller drainage area.

also, it is not an assumption. it is confirmed

Edited March 8, 2020 by king of nowhere

[RShara]

When we figured out the size based the legend, the Basin is about 525 square miles. We guessed that the Final Empire was a little over 200,000 square miles.

[Steel Inquisitive]

1 hour ago, RShara said:

When we figured out the size based the legend, the Basin is about 525 square miles. We guessed that the Final Empire was a little over 200,000 square miles.

Yikes... I always thought the Basin covered much of the old empire. Everything makes so much more sense now! I was always confused by how quickly they had re-settled the empire.

[king of nowhere]

2 hours ago, RShara said:

When we figured out the size based the legend, the Basin is about 525 square miles. We guessed that the Final Empire was a little over 200,000 square miles.

525 square miles make no sense. that's a square 23 miles by side. it barely covers elendel. but it's not just a missing zero, since what i get is a circle with a radius of 200 miles, which brought me to 300thousand square kilometers. where do you get the 525 from?

[RShara]

1 minute ago, king of nowhere said:

525 square miles make no sense. that's a square 23 miles by side. it barely covers elendel. but it's not just a missing zero, since what i get is a circle with a radius of 200 miles, which brought me to 300thousand square kilometers. where do you get the 525 from?

Using the scale on the top left corner. I should perhaps say 525 miles squared? Sorry, it's hard to use the proper notation in text

[king of nowhere]

A bit more complicated that that. i see a circle of a bit more than 400 miles of diameter, but there is also a sizable chunk of sea in it. so my first estimate of 300000 square kilometers is to be revised downwards a bit. but approximating the empire to a circle, and counting the pixels on the image, i get roughly 3000 miles of diameter for the final empire, translating (approximating it to a full circle) to 18 million square kilometers. considering the seas, 15 millions is a fairly good approximation.

as scadrial is the same size of earth, it means if the empire was centered on the north pole, it would stretch southward to include cape north, the northernmost parts of alaska, and a sizable chunk of siberia down to norilsk.

EDIT: incidentally, i think some of that stuff here should be updated on the coppermind. it is rather sparse of precise geographical informations

Edited March 9, 2020 by king of nowhere

[RShara]

13 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

EDIT: incidentally, i think some of that stuff here should be updated on the coppermind. it is rather sparse of precise geographical informations

The Coppermind can always use contributors