Geographical inspiration for the Unreal north

[Buoidda]

I personally always thought it was the arctic ocean, until I read this.

I've always interpreted the "north" side of the UrW map as being cognate to the Gulf of Bothnia rather than the Arctic Sea, but I guess the interpretation isn't exactly clear. 

Correct 
That is about what I thought when coding the random map generator. That the map loosely resembles Finnish geography but is not 1:1 equivalent. And that the sea is modelled by real life Baltic Sea, although in UrW map we don't see anything resembling Sweden and Norway. So the interpretation isn't exactly clear - I never thought of a accurate explanation of how the land masses are formed beoynd the UrW map.

Also, the basic philosophy is that the game world doesn't actually simulate the world as such, but the way the people at that time experienced the world they are living in. So, it might be that there are some land masses behind the sea, but they just aren't drawn on the map as the peoples of UnReal World might not know exactlty where and how those lands are.

So let's talk, shall we?

[JP_Finn]

Since the map rework some, years?, ago; to the current version: I’ve always envisioned the north coast as the Arctic Ocean, with the sámi tribes there.
Scandinavian peninsula in my perception of URW is something like Scandinavian island instead... there’s no equivalent to gulf/bay of bothnia in that...

[Buoidda]

If it was gulf of Bothnia, depending of the exact time-scale, Sámi tribes could inhibit the whole map, excluding the coasts, or only north and east parts, or only north or or...

There are Sámi place names as south as Uusimaa (around Helsinki). I've also read that linguists have concluded that Häme (a region of southern Finland (southern at least from my perspective)) is actually the same root word as sáme [saame, sääme] = sápmi however you spell it. So at some point of history, the inland häme was a sámi region, while the later (more?) finnic tribes claimed the coastal areas.

There are some genetical evidence that the Sámi did not collectively shun north, but rather assimilated into Finns as the settler lifestyle slowly made its way inland.

Now if it was the Arctic ocean, the distribution of more-like-Sámi-than-Finn-tribes would be arguably a majority (at least geographically) rather than minority that it is currently. But it's a fantasy world.

DISCLAIMER: there are some debate historically too (though more evidence of sámi presence in even southernmost Finland seems to pop out every now and then) and it's difficult to say anything on this subject without overly broad strokes, so take the above with a grain of salt. Especially since I haven't posted sources...

[JP_Finn]

And not just place names, but folklore passed down the generations too. I grew up around Nokia, Siuro, Sarkola, Sorva, Tottijärvi. West and wee bit south of Tampere. And my dad told me what his dad had told him and so on: in Pyhäjärvi is an island called Vapalo. The Vapalo island was inhabited by (apologies if it’s questionable or derogatory) Lapp-folk. When my ancestors moved to the area (pre-Christian era) they met them and shared some fish they had caught. The chieftain’s toddler son swallowed a fish bone of a bream and it got stuck in his throat, swell up and the wee lad suffocated. The tribes shaman made pine fat wood totem/talisman and sank it in the waters, cursing the breams not to live in the waters until the totem had rotten all away.

Given that no one has caught any breams around the island, it was a potent totem. And given how long fatwood takes to rot when kept submerged, likely will be another thousand years before people will catch breams there.

Yes, it’s a fantasy world with made up cultures. If anything, I’d a thunk that the Iron Age URW would have the sámi tribes placed closer to middle — south sometimes in the world gen.

[PALU]

Since Erkka wrote the code and says the north is the bay of Bothnia I have no reason to claim otherwise (reflected in my poll response).
It is, after all, a fantasy world, so it's just a matter of rolling with what the devs have produced.

[Buoidda]

(reflected in my poll response)

Note the past tense: how did you think...? (prior to visiting this topic)

[PALU]

You mean prior to Erkka's comment a number of years ago (I think you'll find it in that thread, actually)?

At that time I though the northern coast to be along the arctic ocean, with the land connection to the Scandinavian peninsula being replaced by sea, turning Scandinavia into either an island or connected to the Eurasian continent at the south end (i.e. current day continental Denmark being connected to current day Sweden).

I think there's been some time in the past (before the existence of Homo Sapiens and most likely the presence of any human race in Scandinavia when Scandinavia actually was an island and the sea level being very much higher than now (inundating much of current day Finland as well).

[Brygun]

I dont know enough Finnish area geography to know the "Bothia" but I do recall various talk and expectations that this was a fantasy iron age finland thus the nerjpez coming from the east are what I used to call Russians, in red no less.

[Richards412]

It is import-ant to underscore that imaginativeness does not refer to fictional or unreal.

[Matti-patti]

I always thought URW simply re-imagined Finland as a peninsula jutting into sea similar to the Baltic. So it's not quite Bothnia but a fictional extension of it eastward. My reasoning was that because the ability to drink sea water in URW is intentional per some old post by Sami (Baltic is more of a brackish lake than a saline ocean) then the north coast which is geographically linked to the west coast and also has water you can drink must also be surrounded by something akin to the Baltic.