An Overview

Continent 4 and Continent 5 share the same partly flooded continental platform. To the northwest is Continent 1, largest in the world and gateway to Continent 2 (just visible on the left horizon) and Continent 3 (to the lower left). These five together comprise more than half the world's land, and fall fairly neatly into one hemisphere. Oh--on Pegasia, hemispheres aren't a cartographic convention but an astronomical fact: this is the Outer Hemisphere, facing away from the gas giant Zeus, about which Pegasia orbits. People of this hemisphere, until they begin seriously trading and exploring, will naturally assume they live on a planet. They don't; it's a mere moon, larger than Mars, but still a moon. Only the Inner Hemisphere has Zeus perpetually in the sky--far larger than the sun, brighter than several thousand full moons at night, radiating palpable warmth. Cosmologies and cultures of the two hemispheres will thus be profoundly different. How, exactly? You tell me!

Whoops! I digress. The Twin Continents, the Twin Continents...

The Twin Continents could best be considered a flooded, split Australia. They're nearly as isolated, and they're pretty dry by Pegasian standards. Still, that huge sea flooding much of the interior makes a big difference in climate--the interior is way more fertile than Australia.

Of course, in colder eras, when the icecaps grow and the sea level drops, the central sea dries up and the Twin Continents become Australian indeed--green shores around a vast red desert. But far bigger--in fact, bigger than Africa! Its fertile shores alone, at those times, are bigger than all of Australia.

But I prefer the Twin Continents in interglacials like the present; the weather's hot, and the inland desert's still extensive, but it's not a dustbowl; and that inland sea is a wonderful place, full of Mediterranean islands and sounds, bringing rain and milder temperatures to the desert, and damping down the dust.

CONTINENT 4

Here we describe the western half--the smallest of all nine continents.

Hmm. I'm looking at that huge island in the north, which for now we'll have to call 45 Island, given its location. Whatever species was adapted to the long, New Guinea-sized island southeast of Continent 1 will easily reach here (or vice versa); it'll settle in the rainforests of northern Continent 5, too (or evolve there in the first place and spread west--possibly as far as equatorial Continent 2 and Continent 3). What species is that? You tell me.

I'm certain that the inhabitants (if any) of the wide savanna plains to the south--the Sahel of this world--will be another species entirely. It has to be able to endure heat and thirst, for rain here is unreliable... and heat is. Cameloids with hands? Or a bipedal dino with a heat-dispersing frill? Whoever they are, they'll be skinny, leggy, and agile, but beyond that... you tell me.

Further south is a third zone, a Mediterranean strip along the coast and in the coastal mountains. The benign climate and diverse habitats of this strip should attract and support immigrants of many species; I'd expect a mixed civilization, perhaps one of the most multispecific on Pegasia. Despite the region's relative isolation, I suspect it'll advance faster than surrounding regions; a society with minds of many species will innovate in ways we can't imagine. Humans, after all, differ only in culture, really, not fundamental outlook; functionally they're rather interchangeable. Different species, though, may live in profoundly different sensory worlds, and may have unique mental abilities--one with strong spatial imaging, another strong on verbal logic, others who live by intuition, or smell, or a global social sense. Who knows? I'm not going to say you tell me again. No.

All I'm sure of is: it's going to be an interesting region.

CONTINENT 5

How is it different from 4? More isolated from other lands, though still not as much as Australia; most Pegasians fly, spreading seeds (and ideas) quickly.

I think the real divide here isn't the straits--reading maps that way, indeed our very concept of a continent, arises from our ground-animal heritage. Pegasians, being mostly fliers, will probably name regions based on climate and biota. Here, they'll ignore the straits and see four regions, not two:

1. Equatorial rainforests, where most people will live high in the trees.
2. That central, quasi-Mediterranean sea; a semi-aquatic fishing creature, confident in boats, would do well here. Pirates of the Sea Between 4 and 5! Oops, that sounds like the bastard movie love-child of Johnny Depp and Doris Lessing. No Marriage Between Zones 3, 4 and 5 around here...
3. The two great deserts; I bet they both have a single culture. Winged coyotes. Frilled lizards. Grilled lizards. It's gonna be hot enough, I'm afraid.
4. The south and east coasts are the truly isolated parts: the real Oz. Mild, subtropical to temperate, with moderate rains, it'll develop its own crops. And culture. The far tip of this strip, 5000 km long, is way over on Continent 4. It's the size and climate of California, around an inland sea, as if our Central Valley flooded. Expect an interesting culture here--San Francisco, just over the hill from a thousand miles of Mormons? (You just can't trust those damn lizards. Or roos, or gnus, or whatever they are. Alpha males herding their multiple wives... what is it about deserts and polygamy, anyway? Does patriarchy just need a cold shower?)

Because that's not a dead end: from that cape we can fly east to the Curl 5 Islands, and maybe beyond: they may lead, via some strenuous island-hopping, to Continent 6 in the Inner Hemisphere. Or to death. I'm not sure; the orbital photos don't show large islands all the way, but the visible island-chains and shallow water both hint there may be islets creating a risky flyway...

And yet... fixing Pegasia's geology and geography will mean redoing the physical globe, AND either reshooting or tweaking the orbital photos, AND correcting all the maps. Ugh!

And yet, and yet... they don't have to be big, but I think we're short about a hundred volcanic islands.

And yet, and yet, and yet... I don't want them. It's not just laziness. For evolutionary reasons. I don't want it too easy for the winged inhabitants of this world to hop between continents. If stepping stones are everywhere, they're not special anymore. If the whole world's easily reachable, goodbye adventure! And speciation, and cultural diversity! The fun of a world like Pegasia is to discover the flyways, the bottlenecks, the pressures on life and culture. The walls as well as the doors. Restriction shapes civilization as much as it shapes life itself.

So I'm putting off the decision for now. Maybe forever. Besides, I'm too distracted by that central sea. Mmm, looks warm. Club Med! I want to go swimming there now... Don't you?

The gazetteer: will have a full index of native placenames, with descriptions--once the contests's over and we have natives to name them.

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