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Isolated Muggle Locations

Discussion in 'Fanfic Discussion' started by Methene, Nov 17, 2008.

  1. Methene

    Methene Auror

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    Now, while I do pride myself upon knowing a good amount of Geography, it does not extend to knowing the exact sparsely populated regions, filled with nothing but idyllic mountains/plains/hills/dead bodies etc outside my own country.

    So I call upon you, nationals of Europe to illuminate me when it comes to your own country.

    This is related to the map/encyclopaedia project you may or may not have seen.

    Any help is much appreciated.

    For now, although others would be noted for future reference, I was focusing on these countries/islands:

    Ireland-since history is different, it can be either in the Republic of Ireland or in the territory held by Her Majesty.

    Spain and Portugal-I would prefer it to be somewhere on the coast, but since it is unreallistic to consider any inch of coastline is not swamped with loud tourists, it can be inside the mainland as well.

    Germany, Czech Republic, Austrian Empire*-due to the last war, and the necessity of maintaining an old place, I do ask it be concentrated around Berlin/Brandenburg, Praha or Vienna.

    If you misunderstand me, you may consult Vlad-the-inhaler's far superior map to my measly efforts here.

    *I know it's a republic, I merely like the ring of it...

    Thank you in advance, eternal praises of the gods be upon you, may blah blah (insert dozens of well wishing for propaganda purposes.)
     
  2. Sesc

    Sesc Slytherin at Heart Moderator

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    Germany calling. As you may have guessed, Berlin somewhat lacks sparsely populated areas. There are unbuilt on areas, like on the south-eastern end (Köpenick), mostly wood, but it's not really unpopulated, since it's a well-known excursion destination. It's not terribly big either anyway.

    Brandenburg, however, is a much better bet. It's quite sparsely populated and missing any big city of its own, since everything is focused on Berlin. I have a map here (from 1970):

    [​IMG]

    Red = high population density, green = low population density.

    As you can see, the most empty areas, so to speak, are north-west of Berlin, that's Prignitz/Ost (Eastern) Prignitz in Brandenburg. You have mostly open heath land and forests there, flat land. Another mostly empty area is to the east of the River Oder, the Neumark, part of the old (pre-WWII) Ost(Eastern)-Brandenburg. It's Polish today. Here you have a few small, flat hills, woods and fen, alongside the Rivers (Oder and Warthe, the latter not on the map). Neither area has any bigger city.

    If you want to know anything more specific, ask. I'm sure I could dig up a map or two, but otherwise, I find the satellite images of Google Maps quite helpful for these sort of things: Link (You have to zoom out quite a bit, I think)

    If no one from Austria gets off their asses, I could do that too, I imagine. Wien (Vienna) is on the map above, after all. So is Prag (Praha), come to think of it. Damn, I found a good map there ;)


    Btw, why the fuck doesn't Google know the German names of the cities? Pisses me off to no end. Every German map I know of uses them. So how the hell should I know how it's called in Polish (apart from trying to randomly array consonants like "Gbdnsk", I mean :p)
     
    Last edited: Nov 17, 2008
  3. Methene

    Methene Auror

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    Google must be having a racist moment... :)

    Thanks a great deal. I think I will be using the area east of the River Oder. It is sufficiently close to the traditional centre of power and empty enough for my purposes.

    Since you responded first, Austria and the Czech Republic have become superfluous. Thus Germany has earned the right to host the capital of the Quirinal Gothic Magical Configuration...

    Once more thank you for helping me out.
     
  4. Sesc

    Sesc Slytherin at Heart Moderator

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    Allow me to weep bitterly at the irony of that statement. I hear the western bank of the Oder is quite nice as well ...

    But wizards don't care about Muggle borders, I guess, and Grindelwald lost according to your history parts in the west, not in the east.

    And no problem at all, if it makes a story more accurate, I'm always willing to help.
     
    Last edited: Nov 17, 2008
  5. Methene

    Methene Auror

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    Oops sorry about that. Retarded moment and all. It's true wizards don't care much about Muggle borders. That is why I ask that no one gets annoyed at their countries being larger/smaller, non-existent or amalgamated.

    Seeing as Grindewald lost in the west it would be naturally for the territory to be ceded to the victors. There was an eastern front, since if you do notice certain parts of Finland are now in the Khanate.
     
  6. vlad

    vlad Banned ~ Prestige ~

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    I think we all can appreciate a world where big bad Poland rules over Mitteleuropa.

    "Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided - that was the great mistake of 1848 and 1849 - but by blood purity and wands" ~ Polish Representative to the International Federation of Warlocks.
     
  7. Peacemaker

    Peacemaker Second Year

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    As a German and more importantly somebody who has spent 18 years of his life in that part of Berlin, I have to disagree. Köpenick (I lived in Treptow, which is right next to it) is not scarcely populated at all. And even the unbuilt-on areas... I admit that it lacks the huge appartment buildings that make up some other parts of Berlin and has quite a few small woods... still, even if you go outside the "border" of Berlin into Brandenburg, there are smaller villages everywhere. You just have larger amounts of land surrounding the houses... you can't really say that it is unbuilt-on. Even in the woods, it is impossible to go far without finding one again. It's just too popular (epecially for families) to live there because it's close to Berlin (especially via public transport) and still "in the green". And especially away from Köpenick and Treptow those villages/towns almost overlap: You exit one and immediately enter the next.

    Having finished being a smart-ass, I would also make the suggestion to look into the part north of Brandenburg - Mecklenburg Vorpommern. I went to the baltic sea by bike once (from Berlin) and I can really tell you - there are places where you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. For the first maybe 30 or 40 kilometres going north, there still are quite a few. But as soon as you get beyond that... except for farms, you can go on kilometer after kilometer without seeing a village or whatever - and those then mostly consist of aforementioned farms. So if you want to stick a bit more to the "real" world concerning the borders of the countries and still be in Germany, you might want to look into that.
     
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2008
  8. Sesc

    Sesc Slytherin at Heart Moderator

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    *grumbles*

    Okay, so I have been there only a few times, and therefore you win any disagreement by default. But did I actually say something else than you did? I said Köpenick has some areas with no buildings, not that it is sparsely populated ...

    But yeah, to remove any source for misunderstandings: what Peacemaker said.
    /agrees
     
  9. Peacemaker

    Peacemaker Second Year

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    You didn't say anything different per se. But "I have to disagree" sounds way better than "Let me just expand what was said before". Way better!
     
  10. Oz

    Oz For Zombie. Moderator DLP Supporter

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    Ireland here. D:

    Nearly anywhere in the West and North-West of the country and parts of the midlands would be pretty sparsely populated due to Great Famine in the 1840's (a third of the population was pretty much entirely dependent on potatoes in their diet and the population was decimated due to both death and emigration). The Irish population continued to decline until the late 60's/early 70's (it bottomed out at around 3 million) when the economic boom slowed migration to the UK, USA and Australia and encouraged immigration into the country, but it still hasn't recovered entirely (was nearly 7 in 1840 million and is now about 6.1 million). Rural areas were hit particularly hard, with a large portion of people moving to the cities Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Belfast.

    Places that are particularly sparse are the counties on the west coast, such as Galway, Mayo and especially Leitrim. List of Irish counties sorted by population and population density, here. Topography is very mountainous and boggy in the north-west and County Clare on the West is a famous and beautiful Karst region (dramatic limestone landscape).

    Didn't have much time so this is a bit rushed, but if you want to know anything more specific, just ask. I have a lot of geography notes on this exact subject.
     
  11. Methene

    Methene Auror

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    Let me see if I get this right. The eastern coast is populated with large cities, obviously. The South has some large towns if I remember my geography, but the centre, west and north west are mostly unspoiled land?
     
  12. Dark Belra

    Dark Belra Minister of Magic

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    Location:
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    Just remember BMW. (Border, midland, western.) Those are the least populated areas of Ireland.

    The East(Leinsteir) is the most populated area.
    Then the South(Munster) which houses the second largest city in Ireland, Cork.
    Then the North(Ulster). You have to remember that Northern Ireland is under the UK except for 2 or 3 counties.
    Finally the West(Cannaught).

    Leinsteir houses the head of state.

    Munster has the second biggest city in Ireland.

    Ulster is mostly under British rule.

    Cannaught got hit badly during the Famine. Emigration, deaths etc. lowered the population by a lot and there has been no real need to repopulate it due to it being mostly having infertile soil and the lack of jobs.
     
    Last edited: Nov 19, 2008
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