WoW aluminum hat: The world is flat! Or not? Or is it?!

Anyone who hasn’t asked themselves at least once among WoW fans in the past 18 years what could possibly be south of Kalimdor, Pandaria and the Eastern Kingdoms may not have paid attention in geography or already assume that Azeroth is a disk is. And that this is apparently the case is confirmed to the fans of the online role-playing game by the location of the next continent, the Dragon Islands.

The well-known map of Azeroth does not expand into previously unknown areas with the new expansion. No, the Dragon Isles will be stapled into the world map somewhere north of Kul Tiras and the Ghostlands and east of Northrend. And because there is still enough space on the world map at the top left and especially at the bottom right next to Pandaria for any landmass, we will probably continue to travel to islands that suddenly appear from the mists in the future without anything changing in the basic layout of the Azeroth map.

The Dragon Islands can be found on the top right of the world map.

Source: buffed

Azeroth is a disk?

Of course, Azeroth is a fantasy world and has no relation to our real earth. It doesn’t even have to be. And if the world our heroes roam was flat, then that would be okay too. But if the developers are convinced that they have to represent Azeroth as a sphere several times in the MMO, then they have to put up with questions about the structure of their world.

There is a sun in the solar system of Azeroth. Whether it moves around Azeroth or the planet around the sun is not known. Based purely on the natural laws of Earth, we assume that Azeroth rotates around the sun. In addition, two moons spin through the orbit of Azeroth. The planet has a day-night cycle, which means that it rotates on its own axis, it has rudimentary seasons and in general everything in Azeroth is pretty much the same as on Earth in that respect. Naturally. Even on Draenor and Outland and the Afterlife everything was as we know it from reality in that regard. Almost.

The White Lady is the larger of Azeroth’s two moons – and can turn red when enraged.

Source: buffed

Azeroth is flat!

Given that Azeroth is very similar to Earth, the continent layout makes absolutely no sense – unless the planet is kind of flat. Take Kalimdor: to the north we find an icy wasteland called Winterspring, as well as temperate zones like Felwood, Azshara, Moonglade and the Darkshore. In the south, with the Un’goro Crater, we find tropical areas framed by deserts; Silithus to the west, Tanaris to the east, Uldum to the south, and a thousand needles to the north until Cataclysm. In any case, Kalimdor is a pretty dry piece of land, it’s only really green in Feralas, Mulgore, in Ashenvale and in Hyjal, but that’s only mentioned once in passing. If you look at the Eastern Kingdoms, you see a similar, if not quite as stark picture. Stranglethorn Vale is more of a tropical zone, while the desert areas are more central to the continent.

hush…

If the WoW makers had wanted to pull the tooth with the illogical structure of the continents and our question about the south of the planet, then they should have simply built Pandaria upside down. That would make more geographical sense. If you wanted to put an equator on Azeroth, it would likely go through Un’goro and Stranglethorn Vale. We know from our own world that the climate at the equator is tropical due to the consistently high position of the sun all year round with constant cloud formation and constant precipitation. The largest tropical zones of Azeroth lying in a line are Un’goro, Zandalar and Stranglethorn Vale. And this imaginary equator would mean that we could actually expect a comparable amount of land south of the old continents and Pandaria. But it doesn’t.

Azeroth is a Sphere!

Because according to the Azeroth representations in the game, there is terrain at the north and south ends of the old continents. The most interesting representations of the spheres have been in the Halls of Lightning since WoW: Wrath of the Lich King, an old Titan building. On the globe it can be seen that Winterspring is the northernmost and (at that time) Un’goro the southernmost point of Kalimdor, and that the entire continent (as well as the Eastern Kingdoms) extends almost from the northernmost point to the southern point of the sphere.

Before the Cataclysm, the canyons of Thousand Needles were bone dry, too.

Source: buffed



Exciting even: Because Azeroth was designed with the understanding of the earth we humans are used to (apparently our fantasy world must not be too crazy), ice caps at the north and south poles are also indicated on the globe, which we have apparently not yet discovered or were allowed to discover. Our seafarers aren’t that precise or exploratory…you know.

So if Azeroth is a sphere, then one side of the planet is pretty crowded, with all the islands between the big continents, and the other side is an oceanic wasteland; precisely because the developers park all new islands between Kalimdor on the left and the Eastern Kingdoms on the right. Speaking of which, if Azeroth were really a sphere, the shortest route for boats and airships between the major continents would be via the North or South Poles. But nobody sails through sea or air there… because we’re not allowed to find it yet? Or because Azeroth is flat and the seafarers of this world would simply fall off the map?

The Globe in the Hall of Lightning. The Eastern Kingdoms take up almost half of the planet.

Source: buffed

Azeroth is a disk!

Incidentally, from an ecological and economic point of view, seafarers would always choose the shortest route to reach their destination – provided, of course, the passage is safe. In World of Warcraft (buy now ) however, select slightly longer distances a sphere planetary shape would allow. Why? Is the north so wild? Or is Azeroth just… one disk?

Logically, we probably all know that a curved arc of travel routes always looks prettier on the world map of Azeroth than a straight line. That’s why Azeroth’s seafarers will never take the direct route. From Menethil to Theramore it would admittedly be a bit dangerous to take the direct route due to the Maelstrom. The surprising thing about the route from Radshet to Booty Bay is that no ship ever ran aground on Pandaria’s shores. The same applies to the route Auberdine – Menethil for Nordend. Be that as it may, as long as the world map of Azeroth is treated as a disc by the developers – and it will be – our heroes’ fantasy world will never make sense; no matter how many times Azeroth is depicted as a sphere.

Logic in continent structure

Incidentally, the fact that the WoW developers are based in the northern hemisphere of the earth can also be seen from the fact that many expansion continents are built according to a formula: In the north it is cold, in the south it is warm. Nordend’s north is snow-covered, but at least the entire continent exudes a Nordic tundra atmosphere. That Northrend could be the north point of Azeroth is not even unbelievable.