Geography of PW

Longknife - Harshlands

Anyone else ever speculated about the Geography of Perfect World? I mean, this game is based off China, but as everyone knows, the first time you go to 1k Streams you think "'tf how'd I end up in India??" Ever since 1k Streams, I've speculated about what's supposed to be what.

And well, here's my list and some arguments to them:


Humans - The Chinese. This makes Etherblade, Archosaur and all surrounding settlements the "heartland" of China

Untamed - India. I say this mostly because India still has Tigers and there's a clear change in landscape going into the Untamed territory. This makes most of the area around or west of Lost City India


1k Streams - Either a part of India, Tibet, or Nepal

The Harshlands - Russia. Simply based on the names of the mobs that can be found up there. Not sure if the names are even russian (sounds like they just made them up) but they definitely sound more Russian than english or chinese.


Winged Elves - Europeans. Honestly? This is my weakest argument. The only arguments I have for this are that europeans always did plenty of trade and travel to China and The Foreigner, an NPC needed for the World Quest, is a Winged elf. Plume and it's surrounding cities would still be China, however; my argument is simply that Winged Elves themselves could be seen as European.

Tideborn - Californians. A race completely alien to China just off the coast of China, many of them having long blonde hair. China also often claims they were the first to discover America even before the Vikings, unless I'm mistaken.


Sanctuary - Japan. Right location and it has the typical cherry blossom trees.


Twilight Temple - Egypt. Ya wtf they totally put it in the wrong place but look at the walls. Not like they've got California in the right spot either. Definitely Egypt

Buried Bones and surrounding areas - Saudi Arabia? Heck if I know. Just sand for miles and miles, but yet distinctly different from the sandy landscape to the north.




That's how I see Perfect World, anyways. Anyone else occassionally get as bored as me and ponder this stuff aswell? Anyone agree with these, disagree?

ShootJooh - Harshlands

They all fit your description in my opinion b:victory

Just dont get the point you're trying to make.

Not to say it isn't interesting though b:pleased

SoIar - Dreamweaver

lol tideborn=californians xD

Jellytoast - Sanctuary

Lol, I've always thought stuff like that. I like all your descriptions though. b:chuckle

VerenKaunis - Dreamweaver

Longknife - Harshlands wrote: »

Tideborn - Californians. A race completely alien to China just off the coast of China, many of them having long blonde hair. China also often claims they were the first to discover America even before the Vikings, unless I'm mistaken.

I stopped reading after this. b:laugh

NightRage - Raging Tide

Mos def.

MANray_ - Sanctuary

I have my own competing theory on this respect.

The north generally does posses cooler climates, with Tibetan valley regions to the West, 1k Streams as a Shangri-La, the snowed areas to the north as a Siberia of sorts, and more forested, rainy regions to the northwest. Etherblade seems like a Manchuria of sorts with the Harslands on the oposite end of the map perhaps representing a more sinocentric view of the East (the Hindu Kush or the Balkans) and the area around Swifwind territories associated with Mongolian culture. The area of Lost does resemble Sichuan and Archo could be compared to Beijing, Hidden Orchid representing the more fertile and settled region of the Yangtze. Further south we go through a Shanxi of sorts in King's Feast, and a Hubei in Tusk Town. To the West we've got the Zhe-Jiang, with Sanctuary a probable Shanghai, and to the Southwest Dreamweaver, with not only it's climate but it's pirate motiff strongly suggesting Guangdong. The elven area seems to indicate a shift towards Southeastern Asian culture, although Plume itself seems to stand for Samarkand, with some slightly suggested caricatures of foreign cultures (Islamic and Indian) at the Southwest corner of the map.

Hate to quote myself, but this is mostly taken from a post i made on a thread discussing the southerly direction of the sun, with a few minor corrections and some additions. I think it makes for a better argument once you take a look at China's map, which even Han hegemonic attitudes will concede represents enormously diverse regions.

The TB, if anything, represent Macau (or ideally Taiwan) although the case could be made for Japan/Korea even if the existence of such countries does not entirely fall in line with an idealized representation of China. Being a recent adition however i think this region does not actually correspond to anything. I would make a strong case against either Europeans (including Russians) or North Americans being represented in any way as they do not fit within the scheme of Chinese Classical tradition this game is based upon. The Twilight's Temple Egyptian motiff i think has more to do with the instance being recycled from earlier development efforts than it's being suggestive of the Coptic or the larger Maghreb region. That there are no ingame equivalents to important historic regions such as Persia, Greece, the Lebannon, Syria, Judea, Carthage, Rome or the Byzantine Empire makes it very unlikely any part of the Hellenized world would have been included. In my opinion the map only represents China as understood in its dynastic age, and a few relevant bordering regions.

volst

You do know China has a lot of desert/tombs too right? If you wanted to over analyze stuff, using the pwi names is a horrible idea. You're better off google translating from chinese or using my-en/ms version names.

Baalbak - Dreamweaver

lol i never actually considered any of that except for when I was doing a quest somewhere near 1k streams and saw the Great Wall of China. (or at least thats what I called it).

MANray_ - Sanctuary

Baalbak - Dreamweaver wrote: »

lol i never actually considered any of that except for when I was doing a quest somewhere near 1k streams and saw the Great Wall of China. (or at least thats what I called it).

Yeah, this is a good point and it does seem like a representation of the wall is intended. The game is loosely modeled on Chinese folklore and this was probably too important an element to leave out entirely. Although perhaps i should stress that this correspondence of fantasy geography is rather vague and a large part of it likely unintended. Whoever developed the map probably simply found it natural that nomadic peoples would inhabit steppes to the north, while Pirates would flourish amidst lush vegetation to the Southwest. For someone familiar with Chinese history and geography this probably feels intuitive and the game is certainly based upon it.

However this does not imply an exact geographical correspondence with the real world or even with mythological China. There are no islands to the East where the traveler might find something akin to the Peach of Immortality for instance. And while Heaven's Tear does seem to be based upon Confucian thought it is transformed to the point it almost seems to represent something else entirely. The wall is certainly not where it should be, although it's inclussion of "Tibetans" and "Mongolians" does seem to betray a rather contemporary Chinese world view.

Edit; A rather important omission does come to mind, there is no Emperor. The Chieftains of PW are all "elders" and this does seem like something of a nod to Comunist ideology as the aristocratic system is replaced with a sort of peasant rule more reminiscent of the conditions in rural China. They did keep Duke Black around however...

Perfect - Heavens Tear

I just always thought the geography went hand in hand to how other MMORPG's operate lol.

yaoifanboi

How odd, I never thought this game was based on the real China, rather the world within the ancient Chinese mythology o.O

MANray_ - Sanctuary

yaoifanboi wrote: »

How odd, I never thought this game was based on the real China, rather the world within the ancient Chinese mythology o.O

Ever heard of Midgarth, Aztlan or Atlantis? There is such a thing as mythological geography, especially on a game like PW which is strongly based on Journey to the West and other sources which do reference geographical locations, both real and imagined.

ElderSig - Dreamweaver

Longknife - Harshlands wrote: »

Tideborn - Californians. A race completely alien to China just off the coast of China, many of them having long blonde hair. China also often claims they were the first to discover America even before the Vikings, unless I'm mistaken.

That would explain all the mushrooms.b:chuckle

Elednor - Harshlands

Speaking of the geography, the suspicious shapes of some rock structures where recently pointed out me:

http://i55.tinypic.com/332cx9e.jpg

b:shutup

MagicHamsta - Lost City

Elednor - Harshlands wrote: »

Speaking of the geography, the suspicious shapes of some rock structures where recently pointed out me:

http://i55.tinypic.com/332cx9e.jpg

b:shutup

Diglett?