Shire Geographical Survey

Shire Geographical Survey or SGS for short is the Shire's central organisation for the definition and maintenance of continents and other geographic concepts. SGS was spearheaded by Zalidia and founded by Nebbers and Zalidia to standardize the geographic terms that may be used in wiki articles and lore to prevent contradictions or other inconsistencies.

Currently, SGS manages the Geographical Regions article and Standard Continental Map, a regularly updated map of the Shire with clear continent boundaries and their names. In the future, SGS will manage the Metropolises article as well and create a standardized definition of a metropolis, and update the list.

Continents

A "continent" is usually interpreted as a tectonic plate. Minecraft does not have tectonic plates, and there is nothing generating visually and physically separate continents, so defining what a continent is on the Shire becomes a matter of semantics. Here the need for standardization becomes evident: as builders of locations across the Shire start creating lore for their towns, cities, etc., they will inevitably run into the need for a name for the rough area their project is located in or around. This calls for a universal set of names for said rough areas, and creates the need for subdivisions of the Shire. SGS addresses this.

The subdivisions of the Shire are called continents. They are defined by a set of rules for their borders, and size limitations. Some continents do not follow these rules perfectly, but their historicity is important enough to warrant their "grandfather clause".

Defining Continents

• A continent is no smaller than the SUN Island continent. If a landmass is smaller than SUN Island, it must be considered part of another continent, and cannot be its own.
• A continent is no larger than the Oldeshire continent. If a landmass is larger than Oldeshire, it must be split along the widest waterway (strait) If only rivers are available, not the widest, but the shortest river is used. Man-made bridges can be disregarded. If none are available or they only leave pieces smaller than SUN Island, the guidelines for continental land borders as stated further below apply, and should be applied across the thinnest stretch of land between two major oceans.
• Oceans always separate continents. There are no continents that include two sides of the same ocean, as oceans are always the borders between continents.

The guidelines for continental land borders are as follows. When a continental border is required over land and cannot be rerouted over open ocean without breaking the size limitations, it will be drawn according to these features with decreasing priority;

• Rivers and straits. These water features are the next most convenient feature when open ocean is not an option.
• City limits. If no water features are available, the continental land border should be drawn in such a way that it leaves as many cities and towns on one side of the border as possible. Splitting may only occur if the border follows a water feature.
• Biome edges. If no water features or city limits are nearby, the border should follow the edges of biomes.

Again, a land border should be along the shortest stretch of land between two oceans.

Some extant continents do not follow these guidelines, but they are the exception. These are the historical regions of the Shire, and they may only change to reflect new developments that change the coastline. They are;

• Cactus County
• Clementine
• Demmatrodine
• Kaluara
• King's Peninsula
• Lost Valley Region
• Malesius
• Naoki Heartlands
• Niolari
• Oldeshire
• Postrema
• Sammarck
• SUN Island
• Thrennex
• Vakrefell
• Vallachia

These guidelines are mainly meant to draw the borders of future continents as the Shire expands outwards, even if this takes years.