Where is Paragon City in Rhode Island?

[Attache]

Canonically, it is more or less where Providence is meant to be, right? Or has it been nailed down elsewhere?

Working on a PPD ID which has the vague shape of RI on it and thought a star where PC is meant to be might pop a little.

[Shenanigunner]

It's more or less assumed/modeled that PC=Providence, The One In Rhode Island. As you may have noticed RI is on the teeny side, you'd have to make your image of it quite large for the star to be much of anywhere but sort of in the center.

 

But then, canonically, Gotham City isn't NYC, so...

Edited July 7 by Shenanigunner

[Psyonico]

It's on the coast.

 

I know, not helpful

[Placta]

IIRC there's a screen with GPS coordinates in the RWZ Vanguard base, and those coordinates match Providence.

[Techwright]

Just now, Placta said:

IIRC there's a screen with GPS coordinates in the RWZ Vanguard base, and those coordinates match Providence.

 

Interesting.  Makes sense since that's where Cryptic was at the time.

 

Has anyone checked to see if Providence has an extensive cavern system underneath?  That is, has anyone ever checked and returned to tell the tale? 😉

 

I don't remember where I'd heard it, but I remember someone associating Paragon City's land with the ocean corner around Point Judith Lighthouse (Siren's Call zone?), which includes "Great Island" which looking at it kind of gave me Talos Island vibes.  https://maps.app.goo.gl/CUJbhiBFTNMAaEtM6   At the time it made a certain sense because Peregrine Island does not appear to be in a bay but the last land before ocean, though admittedly there are no corresponding ocean-edged islands in that corner of the state, unless you consider the more distant Block Island (to the south) to be a corollary to Peregrine Island.

[Shenanigunner]

Without trying too hard to map point for point, I'd say PC is Providence from its city center south, Talos is Aquidneck Island, formerly Rhode Island, which is surrounded by those other islands, and PI is one of the other three largish islands,

 

(For those who don't know, the full formal name of the state was "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" until it was truncated to match the other 49 in 2020. (More or less, don't get on me about Commonwealths and all that.)

[Black Talon]

The linked article gives some details regarding an underground tunnel system below Brown University.  While caverns of the "natural" (i.e., what we'll see endless examples of in Paragon City) type aren't covered, the man-made versions would certainly suffice for a number of underground adventures - including, I would presume, the Abandoned Sewer System.

 

Please note that one of these cavern entrances is purported to be the inspiration for the entrance to the Batcave in the 1960s Batman series.  That alone should qualify all this as Paragon City-official territory.

 

https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/rhode-island/underground-brown-university-ri/

Edited July 9 by Black Talon

[Random Axis]

On 7/7/2024 at 4:54 PM, Attache said:

Canonically, it is more or less where Providence is meant to be, right? Or has it been nailed down elsewhere?

Working on a PPD ID which has the vague shape of RI on it and thought a star where PC is meant to be might pop a little.

That's where I'd put it. You can say it's in an alt history where the name of the colony was Rhode Island and Paragon Plantations.

[rolandgrey]

Well...  If you compare actual geography with what we see in game, then Paragon City is located in the Boston Massachusetts region of Rhode Island.

 

...

 

Seriously, there is NO geography in Rhode Island that looks ANYTHING like Paragon City.  In fact, there's no geography in New England that matches up.  On the map of Paragon City, it's as if all of New England northeast of Rhode Island is just...  Gone.  And yet, there's some weird landmass to the southeast...  It doesn't make any sense unless the idea here is to have the region be a weird truncated version of the tip of New England, and even then it doesn't really make much sense. 

 

It's almost as if they originally planned on having the game be more central on the coast, maybe even in the D.C. region, then changed at the last minute.  That would better explain the Roanoke story similarities for Croatoa and the semi-tropical environment of the Rogue Isles.

[Techwright]

On 7/10/2024 at 12:47 PM, rolandgrey said:

Well...  If you compare actual geography with what we see in game, then Paragon City is located in the Boston Massachusetts region of Rhode Island.

 

...

 

Seriously, there is NO geography in Rhode Island that looks ANYTHING like Paragon City.  In fact, there's no geography in New England that matches up.  On the map of Paragon City, it's as if all of New England northeast of Rhode Island is just...  Gone.  And yet, there's some weird landmass to the southeast...  It doesn't make any sense unless the idea here is to have the region be a weird truncated version of the tip of New England, and even then it doesn't really make much sense. 

 

It's almost as if they originally planned on having the game be more central on the coast, maybe even in the D.C. region, then changed at the last minute.  That would better explain the Roanoke story similarities for Croatoa and the semi-tropical environment of the Rogue Isles.

 

Wile I agree about the non-matching geography, it is easily explained with multiverse concept.  Not only do people vary universe to universe, but geography details do as well.  Tidal forces and volcanic activity function the same but don't necessarily happen entirely the same.  So coastlines and islands form differently.

 

Your mention of the Rogue Islands is an example.  I saw something years back that spoke of the Rogues as being north of Bermuda, south and east of Rhode Island.  What I was shown put them in a pretty flat and empty spot, but if you look at Google Earth, which I borrow here to make the point,  it records a series of underwater mountains somewhat east of the location I was shown.  This can make sense in a multiverse way:  the mountains are below water in the real world, they're higher and islands in the Prime and Praetorian universes. 

 

[rolandgrey]

Okay?  So, you mean to tell me that Massachusetts is just not there in Primal Earth?

 

Then why would there even BE a Rhode Island?  Remember, Rhode Island's own history is that it was composed of all the non-Puritan "exiles" from the other New England colonies (in fact, it was often called the Rogue's Island), and they weren't exactly given prime real estate.  If it's taking up the position of "Boston" in Primal Earth's changed landmass, then why wouldn't it BE Boston instead of a ramped up Providence that somehow took the place of both Manhattan AND Boston?

 

I don't think you're really considering all the ramifications of such an altered geography.  In such a world, we can't just assume "Normal Earth History unless otherwise indicated."  Such a changed world would have drastic changes to the politics and naming conventions, even the very borders of the nations and provinces within.

 

Actually, now that I look at that map, I took a closer look at New Hampshire.  PORTSMOUTH actually looks a LOT like the Paragon City geography, just without the modifications of a megalopolis.  Of course, there's still the missing landmass to the southeast.

 

I don't know why this wracks my brain like it does.  I should just accept that this is a fantasy map, similar to how DC has Metropolis, Gotham City and Bludhaven right next to New York City, despite how ridiculous such an arrangement would be.

Edited July 12 by rolandgrey