Talk:Syberia: The World Before

Ingame location of Vaghen

Once Kate Walker travels to Vaghen & locates the shop, an ingame map can be found in the upper floor corridor of the house she is in that shows the fictional country located in what is irl Switzerland. It stretches roughly along the linguistic borders, but including the Vetlin which in irl history was annexed into Italy by Napoleon in 1798/99. The map can be identified by numerous geographical & administrative features on it, such as Lake Boden on the top-right as well as "Piedmont" to the south. Argacyan (talk) 00:07, 1 May 2022 (UTC)

Argacyan, what map are you referring to? Kate Walker in upper floor of what house? Jirka.h23 (talk) 07:38, 1 May 2022 (UTC)

To repeat myself: The upper floor of Gasthof Dombre, Vaghen Flower District. It's the first scene once Kate Walker arrives in Vaghen in The World Before, looking for the shop, after the scene where you escape the salt mine in Siberia.

Alternatively here is a link to a screenshot of the map (since screenshots of software are not allowed on Wikimedia): https://twitter.com/argacyan/status/1520556873015074818 Argacyan (talk) 13:59, 1 May 2022 (UTC)

Ah, you mean this map. And why do you think it's Switzerland? Did you notice that when she looks at this map, she says "Vaghen is surrounded by the Alps... Switzerland is right on the other side." Osterthal is just a fictional country, as they say a "small country somewhere in Central Europe". I think, that it is a mix of Austria (German-speaking, near Alps) and Czechoslovakia (Orloj, next occupied country after Austria, called The Heart of Europe1,2). And maybe a mix of Switzerland, if you recognize some places on the map. Lake Boden looks similar.Jirka.h23 (talk) 16:16, 1 May 2022 (UTC)

That's what I wrote. While she says Switzerland was on the other side of the Alps, if we compare features of the map ranging from Lake Boden to the river Rhine, to the Aare, various lakes such as Vierwaldstädter or Lake Thun, or administrative divisions written on it such as Piedmont we can make out that it is the location of Switzerland irl. "Switzerland" ingame can be assumed to be fictionally relocated south of the Alps in what is irl Lombardy. The only way in which that wasn't the case is if we assume the map to be wrong, which we can reasonably expect not to be the case as it's never stated by any character to be wrongly drawn. In terms of the ingame architecture it is indeed a mixture of Austria and perhaps Bohemia inside of Czechoslovakia, while the prevalence of French minority usage places the city of Vaghen near the linguistic border which fits to the location being Switzerland & the city being presumable near Biel irl. Argacyan (talk) 17:01, 1 May 2022 (UTC)

On the other hand, Switzerland was not occupied. Anyway, I think we can say that it's a mix of these three countries.Jirka.h23 (talk) 17:37, 1 May 2022 (UTC)