ABSTRACT
While imaginary worlds may be experienced through many means-narrative, gameplay, visual art-the simulation of physical geography still forms an essential element to most world-building. Maps do more than just visualize spatial relationships, they may also demarcate and concretize the historical, linguistic, economic, and cultural relationships of an imaginary world. Verbal cartography is a crucial world-building component in text-based adventure games such as Zork (1979) but may also be present in other media where characters discuss and explain the landscape. The potential for maps and other paratexts to incite playful or ironic belief in audiences was more fully developed by the new romances of the late 19th century. The cartography of imaginary worlds raises important questions about authorship and levels of canonicity. As artifacts, maps must convey the extent to which the cartographic assumptions of the secondary world differ from those of the Primary World.
