🚨FANTASY CARTOGRAPHY DISCOURSE🚨

Valid to point out that west ocean / cold north / castle-y centre / orientalist south & east is Eurocentric, kinda lazy.

But could we go further? And consider that a definitive non-diegetic map of a fantasy world is lazy worldbuilding?

1/ https://t.co/EF3l6g87La

Cartography is always political. The ones we know best tend to be part of wider imperial projects:

Mappa mundi reify religious cosmologies;
Kingdoms order maps to claim demesnes;
Maritime empires commission charts to ease logistics and plan force projection.

2/ https://t.co/QLd4fqduRB

There's a reason why the Mercator projection (and every subsequent projection) is so intensely contested.

Mercator's map says as much (and perhaps more) about Gerardus Mercator and his socio-political reality as the supposed shape of the Earth.

3/ https://t.co/DFT3hZQFMg

I vaguely remember reading that Portugal, one of the first European powers in SEAsia, used to publish intentionally convoluted maps of the region, signalling to other Europeans: "it's a confusing fuckin mess of islands, you need our help navigating that shit!"

4/ https://t.co/Nnon1emfNQ

The Mao Kun map is a strip map said to be based on the treasure voyage -ie: military expedition to project Chinese Imperial power- of Zheng He.

This screenshot is a detail from the Malaccan Straits portion of the map; here's an interactive link:
https://barbierilow.faculty.history.ucsb.edu/Research/ZhengHeMapZoomify/ZhengHe.htm

5/ https://t.co/BXBmk5IkCz

What did maps look like, outside the purposes of Imperial power? They probably looked like this:

Practical maps, trade / pilgrimage routes, detailing days and tides between islands. Relationship maps, meant to be used in tandem with local folks:

6/
https://twitter.com/harbowoputra/status/1429305732852195337

We don't see these everyday maps much, because they were made to be used-

A navigator's personal stick chart; a palm-leaf book; in textile motifs; as a sailor's song; a mnemonic set to the contours of your hand.

They weren't preserved to awe a potentate's vassals.

7/ https://t.co/MAwPxZnOed

I've talked before about maps vis a vis #AThousandThousandIslands -or, rather, ATTI's *lack* of maps. If we ever make maps, they will be diegetic ones- they will come from someplace, reflect somebody's specific perspective:

https://twitter.com/zedecksiew/status/1429295793165410304

8/

They will be full of inaccuracies, intentional or not. They will exist as objects with histories; memories with agendas.

They will certainly contradict other maps. They will reify a culture's values; Other its enemies.

Like all other maps ever made.

(This map by Mun Kao.)

9/9 https://t.co/kJV9Ds2yfe