Funny how that gets thrown around. I offer up any evidence and it immediately gets disregarded as either a misconstruance or no, dumb as is on full display in this thread.
No, itâs not. And Iâm going to challenge this in specific. Show me anywhere where REH wrote that region to include a coastline, a mountain, a naturally jungle climate, and a temporally looped sand demon. Remote or not, those are impossible for that region.
I tried explaining, but I guess I wasnât clear enough, so let me being even more explicit: Iâm not saying it canât be true. Iâm saying I would be slightly disappointed if it turned out to be true, but I donât care as much as you do either way.
Like I said, Iâm not trying to âdiminish the merit of the theoryâ.
As for selling them too short, let me put it this way: the team weâre talking about has proven, time and time again, that when thereâs a good solution and a cheap solution, theyâll go for the cheap one.
If anything, I was giving them the benefit of the doubt, rather than selling them too short. In my book, putting more focus on making a fun game than on in-depth lore details that have nothing to do with the gameplay is a much better attitude than purposely picking one of the laziest cliches in writing. 
TL;DR: Your theory is perfectly plausible and Iâm not trying to disprove it. It sucks, but itâs plausible.
Youâre acting under a presumption that because the gameplay suffers from a lot of issues, clearly the writing must also? As if those two things must inherently be of equal quality? What next, the artists who make new textures need to stop doing that and go fix bugs? I expected better from you.
And I find it funny that youâre so focused on talking down to the very concept of the theory that you directly contradict yourself.
So let me get this straight, you think it canât be true because itâs the cheap solution for it not to be, but itâs also the lazy one if they do?
But youâre demanding that I disprove a theory based on an ad hoc hypothesis. And then telling me to point out where the Exiled Lands are when REH never had an official map.
And I would also like to point out something. This whole argument is on a flawed premise that if we wondered into a pocket dimension that weâre suddenly changing the definition of East to apply to South. That argument makes the least amount of sense.
1 Like
Thatâs your argument using your definition of direction. East isnât solely determined by the rising sun. There are other defining terms for cardinal direction
When weâre talking about a society who thinks magnets are magic. Not really.
Weâre talking about a setting where magic is magic. Direction is well estsblished beyond just the map. The lemurians describe reaching the exiled lands by travelling west, ergo arriving in the mapâs east. The giant kings on numerous of their lore stones dictate direction. I think the race of wizard aliens who built the seat of their empire here would know basic directions.
Dude.
Slow down and take a deep breath. Then go back and read what I wrote.
Here, Iâll quote it for you:
Was that not enough emphasis for you? Here, let me try again:
Iâm NOT saying it CANâT be true.
Is the double negative that confusing or are you just too deeply invested in frothing at the mouth to stop and pay attention?
As for the rest of itâŠ
No, I think it shouldnât be true, because itâs cheap and lazy if it is, and I would like them to not resort to cheap and lazy.
Itâs as simple as that. And that simple reason is also why I didnât âcontradict myselfâ. They tend to go for cheap solutions, so it wouldnât be surprising if they did intentionally pick a cheap explanation. Saying that I hope they didnât do so means Iâm doing the opposite of âselling them too shortâ.
Iâm acting under presumption that the problems with the development are systemic and a reflection of Funcomâs corporate culture.
This gross misrepresentation of what I said is your idea of arguing in good faith?
Anyway, Iâve now explained my point of view several times over, but for some reason that only makes you more and more determined to aggressively try to make me accept and praise your theory. I can think of less crappy ways to waste my time during a weekend, so Iâll go do some of those things instead.
Is âwestâ of Lemuria not the direction of the sun setting in the world?
I wouldnât say it being cheap an lazy if Jimbo turns out to be correct, especially if they follow the path he has pointed out. While I donât personally think it is going in that direction. Its not cheap for them to do so, having taken literal years as Jimbo is laying out to do so.
West as in the direction perpendicular to the north star, a more common marker of direction that experienced sailors would use given the sun doesnât rise and set on a perfect east-west axis. Thereâs this thing called an âazimuthâ that already contradicts your initial point. Does direction not exist in Alaska for several months of the year?
Being as the Mediterranean Sea is frozen under an impassable glacier, anything that far north is uninhabited by any real civilization. The majority of the stories happen really close to the equator.
You would be right if we were talking about a book series or a TV show, where you have an audience that is following the development with the expectation of finding out where the story goes.
However, that has never been the point of Conan Exiles. Sure, there might be people who bought the game and decided that the thing they care about the most is finding out how the story ends, but Iâm willing to bet they are a vanishingly small minority.
Most people just want to play this game in its unique setting and have fun with it. As far as story goes, the sandbox nature of this game puts a much greater emphasis on playersâ own stories rather than the direction of the lore.
So no, I donât think picking the âitâs not real broâ cop-out is expensive for them, for any reasonable definition of âexpensiveâ. In fact, it gives them a lot more freedom, because anything they decide to do story-wise can be hand-waved away.
Let me explain myself a bit better. If they came out tonight and said, âoh yeah⊠the snowglob theory is correct,â and then simply moved on to the next story or left it hanging. That would be a bit on the cheap side.
Thereâs some holes and discrepancies in the theory that canât be plugged up by anyone but Funcom. Its the reason why many (including myself) donât subscribe to the theory. However if they put in more development, more events, and more indications that link it together. Then it would be fully fleshed out, we would see how 7 years of lore and story ties together, and it wouldnât feel cheap or rushed.
It would also be irrefutable at that point. I donât exactly require that much proof and evidence. But Funcom hasnât provided enough to us for me to consider it a likely theory.
Right now it has as much merit as me saying my character that leaves the Exiled Lands then much later gets picked up and enslaved again with a Mark of Acheron, and then shipwrecks off in the Barachan Isles somewhere losing their memory.
Thoth-Amon is an ass hole.
1 Like
Okay, I guess thatâs fair. If they decide to put effort into transforming the cliche from a cop-out into something more elegant, then it wonât be cheap, itâll be a well-crafted and lovingly tended cliche 
I also want to point out that the linked video above about the location of the Exiled Lands (or its pocket if that proves to be true) is way off the mark. Being as the timeframe has to be between A Witch Shall be Born and A Slithering Shadow (Xuthal of the Dusk). It cannot be that close to the Vilayet Sea. It would also mean that Conanâs stay in the Exiled Lands is quite short.
Yeah. The landmarks (big body of water to the east, mountains to the north, and a river running from west to east) are there, but the location makes no sense in context. Itâs a place where the Stygians send prisoners (by boat, as we learn from the Isle of Siptah DLC), and where they apparently march armies, too. Iâd bet the Turanians would be protesting against such military traffic across their lands.
But the fact is, trying to place the Exiled Lands on the Hyborian Age map is pretty damn difficult because there arenât really very many places where it could fit; the sea is in the wrong direction, even if we accepted the idea that the east on the map is actually the north because of how the sun rises.
Unless the Exiled Lands is on an island, somewhere west of Stygia and the Black Kingdoms. In which case Conan didnât just walk in, but for a part-time pirate, a voyage on the sea is just part of oneâs morning stroll, I guess. (If the mapâs âwestâ is actually magnetic south, it could make sense for the Stygians to have a harbor somewhere over there to land the Treasure Hunters. If the mapâs east was the actual east, the Treasure Seekers would most likely be based in Xel-Ha or Flotsam.)
But it still feels like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. With enough force and determination, you can stuff it in, but it doesnât feel like a good fit.
Didnt forget anything. OVERDOSES (since weâre using all caps). It is bias though, based on decades of watching films and reading books that I have something of a strong opinion about what makes good storytelling and what doesnt. âPocket dimensionâ is lazy story telling that leaves the reader/viewer in a place where they donât care anymore, because since anything can happen, nothing matters. This is why those movies suck and go straight to dvd or line dust bins.
The normal world explains it all just fine. The other stuff is game mechanics. Speilberg never felt the need to incorporate an explanation of why a movie had cigarette burns.
2 Likes
Iâd assumed the Exiled Lands either shared a border with Stygia or were a remote, hidden part of it.
I find the idea of the Exiled Lands being in the middle Hyboria, but unknown, to be highly unlikely.
This was the capital of the Giant-kings, the enemies of the Khari, who inflicted a genocidal war of annihilation against the Giant-kings. If the Exiled Lands were just sitting there out in the open, I feel that everyone would be aware of it.
As far as the pocket dimension being lazy writing, clichĂ©, or making it not matter, I disagree. This game is based on lore written nearly 100 years ago. The original authors were the ones who invented those things that others would later repeatedly copy and make clichĂ©s. It isnât clichĂ© when you are the first person to do it.
Additionally, in this universe, the Dreamlands are not something that doesnât matter. There are highly important and have influence over the future of the waking world.
The Exiled Lands being in another dimension in no way diminishes its impact on Earth. The people who travel there are real people, the things they do there are real, the artifacts that Thoth-Amon is trying to acquire could make him the most powerful sorcerer on Earth, the loot that King Ctesphon is trying to steal would allow him to fund Stygiaâs military expeditions across Hyboria.
The Exiled Lands are a keystone in the future of Hyboria, regardless whether it is located on Earth or in a pocket dimension.
3 Likes