The Equator?

OK, I've been thinking about this for a while.
Solitude is almost parallel to Winterhold. Just as Markarth is almost parallel to Windhelm. But Winterhold and Windhelm are covered in snow. Notice these are in the east And also, this is where the Stormcloaks are. Is this a way of symbolising the Stormcloaks' difference to the Imperials, by making them live in a colder enviroment. Probably. But notice it is still to the east, they could have made the Stormcloaks in the west, nothing would have stopped them (that I know of).
Have you also noticed that (for those who played Oblivion) in Bruma it always snowed? Yet when we get to Skyrim, we see a lot of the region, (which is NORTH of Bruma) without any snow at all. Now obviously this was delibrate as Skyrim would get boring if it was just a snowy landscape all the time. But it is still unusual don't you think.
This continues across Tamriel. A lot of Hammerfell is desert, where as Morrowind is diverse, and very little heart seams to be shown. Not only this but Valenwood and Elsweyr compared to Black Marsh. Valenwood seems to be like a South American rainforest, Elsweyr another desert. But, we have no indication of Black Marsh being this hot.
Notice the hotter areas are to the west, where as the colder areas are to the east. This is probably just an accident but it still gives an impression that the equator of Nirn somehow shifts to the west diagonally rather than a clear cut through the center horizontally. Or you could put this down to magical whatever.

What are your thoughts?

"Magical Whatever" gets my vote. Still, props for taking notice and shining light on the situation. Pretty awesome!

Because heat does not work the same in ESO as it does in the real world.
The reason its hot around the equator in real life is because the sunrays arrive in a straight line there, because the sun, beeing a huge ball of constantly reacting gases expells large quantities of energy.

enter TES:

The Sun is a literal hole in the Sky. And its "rays" are pure Magic.

As you can clearly see. none of this makes any sense.

there is your answer.

Altitude also plays a likely factor.

The other factors;
Absorption and scattering of sunshine when passing through the atmosphere.
Reflection by the earth's surface. As the sun's ray reaches the earth, some of the energy is reflected back and does not warm up the place.

Even Antarctica have Dry Valleys, The region is one of the world's most extreme deserts :D

all of this is irrelevant. TES does not bow to your pathetic little laws of nature.

(February 18th 2013, 02:47 PM)Sordak Wrote: all of this is irrelevant. TES does not bow to your pathetic little laws of nature.

Maybe is irrelevant for you. But Antarctica have a Desert, so That could be a explanation.

Anyhow TES is a game so anything is possible. :D

(February 18th 2013, 02:56 PM)Khupa Wrote:

(February 18th 2013, 02:47 PM)Sordak Wrote: all of this is irrelevant. TES does not bow to your pathetic little laws of nature.

Maybe is irrelevant for you. But Antarctica have a Desert, so That could be a explanation.

Anyhow TES is a game so anything is possible. :D

its an interresting fact but ultimateley not relevant to the case.
Nirn does not work that way.

If a Desert country directly goes over into what is essentialy britain, i think you cannot realy apply real world logic to such a world.

or Morrowind beeing on the same altitude and as much north as skyrim is, yet is ofthen discribed as hot (and not only cause of volcanic activity)

While Black Marsh is located all the way to the south while the Argonian account discribes it as a Cold Place.

(February 18th 2013, 03:03 PM)Sordak Wrote:

(February 18th 2013, 02:56 PM)Khupa Wrote:

(February 18th 2013, 02:47 PM)Sordak Wrote: all of this is irrelevant. TES does not bow to your pathetic little laws of nature.

Maybe is irrelevant for you. But Antarctica have a Desert, so That could be a explanation.

Anyhow TES is a game so anything is possible. :D

its an interresting fact but ultimateley not relevant to the case.
Nirn does not work that way.

If a Desert country directly goes over into what is essentialy britain, i think you cannot realy apply real world logic to such a world.

or Morrowind beeing on the same altitude and as much north as skyrim is, yet is ofthen discribed as hot (and not only cause of volcanic activity)

While Black Marsh is located all the way to the south while the Argonian account discribes it as a Cold Place.

I'm not trying to bring logic to a GAME. He is looking for our thoughts. and I'm just telling there are stuff like that in our own world.

But at the End TES is a GAME, so the creators can have anything they want in their world.

(February 18th 2013, 03:12 PM)Khupa Wrote: snip

no no you get it all wrong.
its not about TES beeing "Just a game"
aproach it as a setting.

You can only explain things from an in-universe basis.

In the lore, our perception of how these things work is flawed.
In universe the sun is now ball of gases that gives us warmth. Its a hole in the sky, and a literal gate to aetherius.
This is why the temperature is not affected by it (at least not to such a degree)

Antartica is a desert in that there is little precipitation, not because it is hot and sandy. It is so cold that water/ice doesn't evaporate much. When it does, it usually just sublimes (solid --> gas) and deposits (gas --> solid), rather than mmelting and coming down as liquid rain or snow.

But, as @Sordak said, the Earthly laws of nature do not always apply to Nirn. Heck, Nirn isn't even a planet in the same way as Earth; it's more of a plane of existence. Remember: magic exists in TES. Nirn's "sun" is just a hole that exudes magickal energies. Thus, in theory, the sun could make areas hot or cold, depending on the type of magics hitting the area.

(February 18th 2013, 01:34 PM)Iogairn Wrote: OK, I've been thinking about this for a while.
Solitude is almost parallel to Winterfell. Just as Markarth is almost parallel to Windhelm. But Winterfell and Windhelm are covered in snow.

Winterfell? O.o

Are we comparing Tamriel to Westeros or did you mean Winterhold?

(February 18th 2013, 03:51 PM)Robbio Wrote:

(February 18th 2013, 01:34 PM)Iogairn Wrote: OK, I've been thinking about this for a while.
Solitude is almost parallel to Winterfell. Just as Markarth is almost parallel to Windhelm. But Winterfell and Windhelm are covered in snow.

Winterfell? O.o

Are we comparing Tamriel to Westeros or did you mean Winterhold?

...I will change it. Thanks

I kind of figured when I played Daggerfall, and saw that the rainforest was what should be leeward of a large mountain range, and the desert on the windward side (breaking pretty much every rule of climatology),* that the normal rules didn't apply to Tamriel. :p It's something that just has to be accepted as a conceit of the setting. As long as the games don't go into the dangerous "each province is precisely one climate" territory, which has for the most part been avoided.

*Assuming Hammerfell is high enough latitude for the westerlies to take over, of course, which it seems like it should be... though even if the trade winds from the east are involved instead, which seems unlikely, you've got the rest of Tamriel in the way of the rainforest. <_<

Okay, so I sketched things out (it's not very readable, don't ask), and here's what I have if we put proper climate systems into Tamriel:

-The equator passes through northern Valenwood, southern Cyrodiil, and northern Black Marsh. So, rainforest, rainforest, (excessively inland and not really treated as tropical) mangrove swamp. It's kind of a broad rainforest zone but it works.

-The polar front (which wanders near the Arctic Circle) is a bit off the northern edge of the continent. Sending some nice cold air Skyrim's way (but see other problems with this later). Southern Skyrim probably should be, and thankfully is, relatively temperate. It should probably be a bit drier, too, but you can't have everything.

-This would put the horse latitudes (the thing that causes the Sahara and North American deserts on earth) right over Hammerfell... but there should be a desert in northern Cyrodiil too. And that makes the tropical rainforest on or NORTH of it (and behind an elaborate series of rain shadows) that much worse.

-High Rock is... it should be a bit more like British Columbia than Europe, but never mind that, both are technically temperate rainforests along the coast. There's not that much of a difference, I guess. Even the steppes inland work, thanks to the Wrothgarian Mountains' rainshadow.

-Uh... Morrowind? I know there's a volcano, but that shouldn't be warming the whole province like that. You should be Skyrim too, or at least the less-permafrosty parts of Siberia. Except the Mournhold area, which should be horse latitude desert again (think Gobi Desert this time).

-Elsweyr is... kind of backwards in this case. The north should be tropical forests too, or at least wetter than the south, which may or may not dip into the southern horse latitudes (probably not)... I don't think there should be a desert here at all, really, unless the horse latitude highs make a sudden jump northward for some unknown reason. It DEFINITELY shouldn't be in the north if both Cyrodiil and Valenwood are tropical rainforests.

-...Ummm... what is Summerset Isle's climate? I don't think it's ever been mentioned. It should be something of a subtropical forest-savanna mix, though. I think. Probably tropical in the north.

-The distances are kind of small for extending eighty-plus degrees north-south, but, eh.