Geography: Of Space, Time, and travelling

[Glover]

Realizing this will vary for everyone, but I'd like to get a poll from everyone. When you write fics, just how big are the regions, generally? States, small countries of themseves? Is it plausible for a walking trainer to only need a week to straight-shot between major hubs, assuming speed is ~3mph, or should it take longer, even before adding in things like sidetrips to train and catch Pokemon?

 

[JX Valentine]

Regions according to the real-world definition, pretty much. My headcanon is that each region is more or less the same size as its real-world equivalent. So by foot, it might take days to get from one city to another in Kanto, but because of how compact it is, it might take only a couple of hours if you do it by car. Meanwhile, you can't really walk from city to city in Orre because the distances between them are pretty vast, and it takes a pretty long time (read: a few hours) to reach any point of civilization from any other point.

Of course, my interpretation's not everyone else's, and the more popular fanon is that they're all small countries. *le shrug*

 

[Glover]

Regions according to the real-world definition, pretty much. My headcanon is that each region is more or less the same size as its real-world equivalent. So by foot, it might take days to get from one city to another in Kanto, but because of how compact it is, it might take only a couple of hours if you do it by car. Meanwhile, you can't really walk from city to city in Orre because the distances between them are pretty vast, and it takes a pretty long time (read: a few hours) to reach any point of civilization from any other point.

Of course, my interpretation's not everyone else's, and the more popular fanon is that they're all small countries. *le shrug*

Given the way the anime handles the backsotry, it wouldn't surprise me if the PKMN world didn't work a lot like the Eurpoean Union.

I must admit, I hadn't thought to actually look at the Japanese Map, though I am familiar with the "based on" concept. I'd tried building a relative scale based on the Anime's time between landmarks and the game map but that was getting tedious.

 

[SilentMemento]

My view on the regions is that they're self-sustaining countries in their own right. By that, I mean that they have their own governments, their own armies, their own exports (for example, the island of Cinnabar in Kanto specializes in coffee beans due to the fertile volcanic ground, Johto corners the market on dairy products due to their Miltank farms, etc.) and specific ethnic cultures. It makes sense to me, since my fics tend to be serious. It doesn't help that I've literally created an entire universe dating back from the 1800s all the way to the twenty-third century.

As for the size of the regions and how long it takes to traverse them, it depends on how big they are in the games (at least, that's how it works for me; I don't pay much attention to the anime or manga). Kanto, Johto, and Sinnoh are very large regions, while Hoenn and Unova are much more compact. The conditions of the terrain, the length of the routes, and the weather conditions would also have to factor in; for the sake of example, it would likely take much longer for a person to travel from Mauville to Fallarbor than it would for them to travel from Rustboro to Verdanturf.

...Am I taking this too seriously?

 

[Glover]

My view on the regions is that they're self-sustaining countries in their own right. By that, I mean that they have their own governments, their own armies, their own exports (for example, the island of Cinnabar in Kanto specializes in coffee beans due to the fertile volcanic ground, Johto corners the market on dairy products due to their Miltank farms, etc.) and specific ethnic cultures. It makes sense to me, since my fics tend to be serious. It doesn't help that I've literally created an entire universe dating back from the 1800s all the way to the twenty-third century.

As for the size of the regions and how long it takes to traverse them, it depends on how big they are in the games (at least, that's how it works for me; I don't pay much attention to the anime or manga). Kanto, Johto, and Sinnoh are very large regions, while Hoenn and Unova are much more compact. The conditions of the terrain, the length of the routes, and the weather conditions would also have to factor in; for the sake of example, it would likely take much longer for a person to travel from Mauville to Fallarbor than it would for them to travel from Rustboro to Verdanturf.

...Am I taking this too seriously?

Not at al... well, okay the 1800s might be pushing it a bit. *Big Grin*

I utuliaze the anime, because to me, the game locations are too close to each other, it looks like what we refer to in Model Railroading as Selective Compression, like it needs filler towns like we see in the Anime, but I do likeyour ideas.

for simpliccity of my own visualizatrion though, and I'm keeping this general for everyone and because at some point I plan to use the other regions. But for] my own visualizations, what size bucket would you put the larger regions into? Is Sinnoh big enought bewhat we'd think of as a European country, or something smaller like Texas or Alaska (Which is in fact, fairly large)?

 

[SilentMemento]

I utuliaze the anime, because to me, the game locations are too close to each other, it looks like what we refer to in Model Railroading as Selective Compression, like it needs filler towns like we see in the Anime, but I do likeyour ideas.

for simpliccity of my own visualizatrion though, and I'm keeping this general for everyone and because at some point I plan to use the other regions. But for] my own visualizations, what size bucket would you put the larger regions into? Is Sinnoh big enought bewhat we'd think of as a European country, or something smaller like Texas or Alaska (Which is in fact, fairly large)?

When we're talking purely about geography, Kanto and Johto are really one region; the only thing that separates them are the Tohjo Falls (and their specific cultures, but that's an entirely different animal). When they're combined, I'd say that they're pretty much the size of the entire Midwest of the U.S. (which is actually pretty large, especially if you're trying to travel on foot).

Sinnoh is a lot less complex; I'd have to say that it's the size of a place like Belgium. It's definitely not small like Hoenn or Unova, but it's not exactly as grand as a place like Kanto or Johto.

 

[M-Dub]

I tend to skip around the issue whenever I can. It's not hugely important to my fic, so I just put brief mentions of travel times in. Champion Game isn't really a journey fic, so any travel that gets done can pretty much be written off as taking a train and arriving a couple of hours later. That, or I say when he arrived, but not when he left. In other words, I just tiptoe around it and avoid the question.

When writing a journey fic, however, I have to be a little more specific. For SGTG, I just plan on making it a few days between each city and town, with variations based on distances and events in between. I tend to imagine each region as a little bigger than my own country of New Zealand, so I have something to compare them to. It's not very precise, but it doesn't need to be so long as I don't give too much attention to it.

 

[JX Valentine]

I must admit, I hadn't thought to actually look at the Japanese Map, though I am familiar with the "based on" concept. I'd tried building a relative scale based on the Anime's time between landmarks and the game map but that was getting tedious.

Yeah, I tend to go back and forth about whether or not I acknowledge the anime's timeline on a strict level. XD I mean, while it'd be an interesting project (and I'm just a little bit of a stickler about canon), the anime has a tendency to be incredibly inconsistent about how much time Ash's journey through each region takes. In the first season, he apparently got his second badge a couple of months after he left home, but when he arrived in Viridian City for his eighth, some of the dialogue says that it took him less than a year to travel the entirety of the region. So, to recap, first ten episodes encompassed a couple of months, but over sixty episodes is supposed to encompass a full year. Somehow, I feel like there's something screwy with this math, y'know?

Still, yeah, it's a problem I've been having myself. (I go by anime canon normally too.) Trying to reconcile the inconsistencies, I mean. What I do in order to figure things out is just go by major cities and guess based on how many episodes were in between (rather than attempt to factor in off-screen traveling), if that makes sense.

And that's really if I mention times. XD Frequently, I just sort of wave my hands towards a vague "it happened in roughly this amount of time, I think."

 

[Dragonfree]

I'm pretty terrible with this; in my trainer fic the characters tend to just move at the speed of the plot, with the result that if you added together all the actual from-A-to-B I think you'd end up with it taking two or three weeks to go around the whole region on foot. Blame the younger me for not thinking about this at all and the older me for wanting to be semi-consistent with the older parts.

My general sense of distances is just awfully fuzzy, especially when it comes to being on foot. I think there has been one time ever that I've walked a distance on foot while being aware of what exactly that distance was.

 

[Firebrand]

Is Sinnoh big enought bewhat we'd think of as a European country, or something smaller like Texas or Alaska (Which is in fact, fairly large)?

The first thing I need to note is that the only European country larger than texas or alaska is russia. Yeah... In fact, northern New England (from about Boston to the Maine-Canada border) is about as big, distance-wise, as England. Belgium is roughly the size of Vermont and New Hampshire squashed together. It bears noting that my home region of New England has some of the smallest states in the union.

now, as for what I do... hm. In Hero's Path, distance gets a little weird because of the Gates. If you've read the fic, as I know Glover has, you'd understand. But when Cole does travel overland (or flies...), I tend to make each city about a week's travel on foot from the other (give or take). There is one instance in League of Heroes where Cole claims that his Charizard has made the run between Cianwood City and Lavender Town in three hours. He admits it was flying at top speed, with a tailwind most of the way, but it also sort of marks that distance; the entirety of the Tojoh landmass in my fic can be traversed in a straight shot by a large, powerful flying creature in a few hours in the upper air, though it takes considerably longer on foot.

As for the size of Sinnoh... well, I'll use this example. It takes Cole roughly a week to get from Mt. Coronet to Snowpoint City, but that's on foot, forging through snowfields. In an earlier part, he flies from Canalave City to Oreburgh in two hours, pacing himself. In Unova, he can fly between Castelia City and Undella Town in a couple hours, roughly the time it would take for a small aircraft (like a cesna) flying from NYC to Boston.

Finally, the region I'm writing in now is about the size of Ireland, and noncanonical. So in closing... yeah, I'd say each region is about the size of main EU nations, like England or France.

 

[Glover]

The first thing I need to note is that the only European country larger than texas or alaska is russia. Yeah... In fact, northern New England (from about Boston to the Maine-Canada border) is about as big, distance-wise, as England. Belgium is roughly the size of Vermont and New Hampshire squashed together. It bears noting that my home region of New England has some of the smallest states in the union.

now, as for what I do... hm. In Hero's Path, distance gets a little weird because of the Gates. If you've read the fic, as I know Glover has, you'd understand. But when Cole does travel overland (or flies...), I tend to make each city about a week's travel on foot from the other (give or take). There is one instance in League of Heroes where Cole claims that his Charizard has made the run between Cianwood City and Lavender Town in three hours. He admits it was flying at top speed, with a tailwind most of the way, but it also sort of marks that distance; the entirety of the Tojoh landmass in my fic can be traversed in a straight shot by a large, powerful flying creature in a few hours in the upper air, though it takes considerably longer on foot.

As for the size of Sinnoh... well, I'll use this example. It takes Cole roughly a week to get from Mt. Coronet to Snowpoint City, but that's on foot, forging through snowfields. In an earlier part, he flies from Canalave City to Oreburgh in two hours, pacing himself. In Unova, he can fly between Castelia City and Undella Town in a couple hours, roughly the time it would take for a small aircraft (like a cesna) flying from NYC to Boston.

Finally, the region I'm writing in now is about the size of Ireland, and noncanonical. So in closing... yeah, I'd say each region is about the size of main EU nations, like England or France.

Yeah, and this is why i hated my High School world Geo., We got coloring pages...

 

[Ash_Junior]

personally, I think of them as the size of small, East-Coastish (US) states. Of course, in my continuum, every region is part of the International Pokemon League, which is made up of many, many regions, including an underwater league and a completely mobile maritime fleet league. And a couple sovereign countries that have gyms, etc that are a part of the Leagues as well.

And outside the Leagues, there exists the rest of the world. Europe, the US (which has many different leagues and many different KINDS of leagues), etc. I pretty much consider Oceania (all those Pacific islands for the uninformed)+Japan to be the Leagues.

this allows for all kinds of things....like a European clan of dragon users that clashes with the League-based dragon clan based out of Blackthorn, the use of actual armies (where the Leagues have pretty much nothing aside from their vast numbers of Pokemon trainers. wouldn't you rest so easily at night knowing that Youngster Joey is going to help defend your home from invading armies?).

Although the Global Police are pretty much INTERPOL.

 

[Treecko's Awesomeness]

wouldn't you rest so easily at night knowing that Youngster Joey is going to help defend your home from invading armies?

Well, his Ratata is in the top percentage of Ratata. *Shot*

Anyway, I write the world as somewhere in between the game and anime sizes. So, it takes about three or four hours to get from Nuvema Town to Accumula Town.

 

[Gelatino95]

It all depends on the fic for me. It may vary, but I stay consistent throughout any fic I write. In one fic, you can bike between cities in less than an hour and the cities are the size of small towns. In a fic I plan to write, Lilycove is the size of a city (though the story takes place around the industrial revolution) and the Hoenn region is placed on the American east coast. I don't know how big the whole region is, since the story doesn't take place in a wide variety of areas (unless I decide to make a sequel)

 

[Crystal]

My explanation might be a little clumsy, but scientifically understandable.

Normal walking speed of a human is 5~10 km/h, varies by the person's pace. Suppose a trainer walk 10 hours per day, then 1 day he/she walks average of 75 km. If you are using your own country/town/city as reference, then you might able to calculate how long a trainer must travel in order to get to the next town/city.

 

[Alliance]

Since I know dot-squiddly about the world outside of Aus, I may need to use Australia as my size reference.
Personally, I see each region as a variation in size depending on the view of the character. In geographical terms, the region Kanto-Johto might be the size of NSW mixed with Victoria. Just as an example.
However, your character might extremely lazy, and view the large joined region as the size of Australia as a whole.
And some extremely fit character who rides a bike at the speed of light would see the join as tiny, since they pass through so quickly, and distance is harder to judge on a fast moving vehicle like a bike or car.

So it really depends on the character, and also whether or not they are a smarty pants who knows EXACTLY how large the region is.

Meh, that's just how I see it.

 

[Agonist]

I tend to view regions as their own countries, with a region such as the Sinnoh, or the Hoenn being the size of perhaps, France, or Spain. Therefore, walking between cities could take up to a few days, whilst traveling by train, or car, or flying would take a few hours, maybe half a day at most. However, to me, it's entirely plausible for a walking trainer to be able to travel from one small village to another in less than a days time. A lot of this depends on the route in question as well, for example, a small route like 101, or 201 wouldn't take more than a few hours to traverse, whilst Route 119, or 217 (snowy route iirc) would take upwards of a week, since the geography of the route, and the climate would severely hinder your traveling speed.

 

[Zibdas]

I keep ym regions undefined. If I define them, there's suddenly a limit. As a writer I do not like limits. So I contort the region to what I like, adding something somewhere if it isn't already occupied. Likewise, my charecters can travel the routes in a matter of minutes if they so choose. It's why I love being a writer;I can do whatever I want to the region, and no one can stop me. I can totally obliterate it, and it's still recognized as Kanto. This freedom is amazing.

 

[flameswy]

nasty question, and one I'm going to have to face eventually, regardless of my habit of time skipping.

Based off what I have so far, I'm pretty sure I prefer keeping towns ridiculously small, but I'm probably going to exaggerate the distance between them a bit.

 

[Griff4815]

I tend to write regions as small countries, I guess. It takes a few days to travel between the cities, usually. Depends on the method of transportation.