Researching the Centre-earth: Real Locations

The Twelve Apostles - Australia

The twelve apostles are eroded parts of the South Australian limestone land leading into the Tasmanian Sea in Victoria, Australia. This would provide a far more interesting appearance to the coast than your average beach, and could act as homes to tribes of birds who could nest in the safety of their secluded-ness.

Ayers Rock - Australia

Ayers rock, also known by the aboriginal name of Uluru, is a huge mass of sandstone approximately 350m tall from the ground, and extends even further underground. 

Its placing amongst a seemingly barren wasteland surroundings make it look like a location of importance, which is why I would use it as such. Perhaps it could serve as a home and cave system for a tribe of aborigine people, or a place where the great dragon rose from underground. This is an idea I like more, as mixing this sight with a volcano would really help sell it as such a location.

Mount St. Helen's

Though Mount St. Helen's is located in America, having the idea of the dragon burst out of the ground in a scene like a volcano eruption make me think of this particular volcano. Mount St. Helen's erupted in 1980, but it didn't erupt like a normal volcano. Lava blew the north side off the volcano, which removed the upper 1,300 feet (396 meters) of the summit from the previous height of approximately 9,600 feet (3,000 meters) above sea level. Nearly 150 square miles of forest was blown over or left dead and standing.

The sheer force of this eruption and the unevenness of the mountain does make it look as if something has burst out, making it the perfect location for a dragon or huge dinosaur bursting out from underground.

Hot Springs - Greenland/Iceland

These hot springs a pools of water kept warm all year long not due to volcanic activity, as is the case on Iceland, but water is heated by deep layers in the earth's crust rubbing against each other. The Iceland Hot Springs are also interesting though, as those are heated by lava beneath the earths crust, which would scare some enough not to enter the pools.

I think this would be a cool idea for a landmark as it seems so unnatural, but is. It could also suggest the source of the heated island as the heat rises up from beneath the surface, or could by used as warm tunnels underground leading to ancient information about the dragon, with the pools acting as breathing opportunities.

Researching the East: Kung Fu Panda

Th art style in Kung Fu Panda is simply sublime. Some of what I have noticed and will use in places myself, are the use of tall thin mountains raising high above the mist, much like the Tianzi Mountains in China I have previously looked at. This can be seen in the first six images, and also the use of low mist is used in images 9, 10 and 11.  The tall look of the mountains is copied in the cities architecture where building are often tall and slim, such as in images 13, 14 and 15, and in plant life such as image 8. Trees, however, appear to have taken much inspiration from Bonsai trees, (such as image 5) a type of miniature tree of Japanese and Chinese origin, which is the art of growing miniature trees.

What Kung Fu Panda also does spectacularly, is its use of colour. The colours barley contrast in the environment which helps the characters 'pop'. For example, in image 2. If any colours do contrast, it is usually to draw attention to something, i.e a character or a door (such as in images 6 and 13) using colour to draw the viewers eye to the subject of each image/shot.

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Researching the East: Other Real Locations

Ha Long Bay - Vietnam

Ha Long Bay's 2000 limestone islets, soaring from a deep emerald sea, create one of Asia’s most spectacular landscapes. The name ha long, translates as “descending dragon”. Vietnamese legend holds that the bay’s islets were created by a descending dragon’s lashing tail.

This could be a direct translation into our story, as soon as a dragon does actually exist in our story in ancient times. We could even just use it as a shipping port, a place the characters have selected due to its hard to infiltrate and blocks the from view from intruders. Or we could combine both ideas.

Kegon Falls - Japan

This 97m water fall is located in Nikko, Japan and easily one of the countries top 3 water falls. This I would use as more of a peaceful place. Perhaps where people can meditate, or a secluded space for lovers, or the home of a cave dwelling creature who resides behind the waterfall. It could be a space for where the dinosaurs collect fresh water for their system underground without being scene from enemy eyes.

                                                                                                                         

The Singing Sand dunes

"When Marco Polo heard it in China, he suspected evil spirits. When residents of Copiapo, Chile, heard it emanating from a sandy hill, they dubbed the peak El Bramador, for its roars and bellows. Scientists today call it "singing sand," but they're all referring to the same thing: As sand grains shuffle down the slopes of certain sand dunes, they produce a deep, groaning hum that reverberates for miles." Quoted by Shannon Fischer, National Geographic 

Much to as why some sand dunes sing is a mystry, but scientists believe it is to do with the size of sand grains falling down a dune, all making an unhearable noise, but when this noise is made millions of times by each individual grain, the noise is vibrated to the center of the dune where larger grains are, that r-bound the noise through the falling grains so we can hear it.

When using this is my story, I would either have what Marco polo believed, spirits in the sand, or have a tribe or colony of people living in cave systems underground, or even a magnificent beast or dinosoaur, snoring in slumber. There are so many opportunities for inspiration in our natural world that would make fantastic stories, its a wonder why man cares so little. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EzbGQXUL9vg

Shipwreck in the Aralkum Desert

These shipwrecks are scattered across a wide expanse of sand in Central Asia. They once sailed across the 26,000 sq mile Aral Sea between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Now they lie in a vast, arid plain that was once lake the size of Scotland, that has shrank by 90% in the last 50 years. This no doubt ws the inspiration for the scene in Piates of the Caribbean 3, where the Black Peal is trapped in Davy Jones' locker.

These look so strangley misplaced they would be too good not to include in a vast desert landscape. What I would probably do using this to incorporate it in our story would use the King Bolon of the North's ice powers to clear room for his armies to travel, (or to defeat a great lake creature) leaving what was once a lake empty. Or another idea would be to say it emptied at the cost to prepare energy for making weapons for the war against the North, reflecting global warming. The ships could then be inhabited as homes for desert animals such as camels.

Rajasthan Chittorgarh Fort - India

This fort was built by various Maurya rulers in the 7th century. This huge fort covers an area of 700 acres, extending to 3 kms in length and 13 kms in length. Standing on an elevated hill of 180m, the fort has witnessed three battles and never lost.

This is a structure I would defiantly take influence from, perhaps being a city of Indian creatures who've had to retreat behind the Fort's walls after the Northern invasion.

Researching the East: Chinese Real Locations

The Great Wall of China - China

The great wall was built in 5th c. BC - 16th c. AD and was built by the Chinese to protect northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by northern nomads. With a total length 8,852 km, the barricade is unfathomably long. This fits very well into our world, as the North are at war with the East, so this idea of a wall to protect them from invading forces is somehing I will use as inspiration.

The Shilin Stone Forest - China

The Shilin forest in China has been carved over 270 millions years by abusive geological processes, and erosion by water has carved the limestone into shapes that we see today. Some of the stone formations are up to 30 meters tall, and the whole forest covers over half a million square kilometers mainly in the Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces.

Places like this look so mythical and almost like they belong in a fantasy world more than they do our own. When looking at the world and finding such unique and strange places, it simply reinforces the idea that we need not completely design a whole world, but take the most amazing places like this and build one to look like the best of our natural world.

  

The Yellow River - China

The Yellow River or Huang He is the second-longest river in China (after the Yangtze River) and the sixth-longest in the world at 5,464. The Yellow River is often called the "the cradle of Chinese civilization", as its basin is the birthplace of the northern Chinese civilizations and is the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. But frequent devastating flooding, largely due to the elevated river bed in its lower course, has also earned it the name "China's Sorrow".

The Yellow River gets its name because of the yellow clay dust called loess that is blown across the north of China from Central Asia. The loess is blown into the river and gives it a yellow appearance. Something that looks so other-worldly, I would use as such, or perhaps a river under a spell or water that flows from an enchanted lake.

  
Red Sea Beach - Panjin, China

 The Red Beach is so called for the vividly red plant life growing to above the sea's surface. Such phenomena is caused by a type of sea weed 'Sueda' which starts growing during April and May, then stays green during the summer, but starts turning vividly red in autumn.

When applying this to my world, I would be tempted to keep it red all year round for how strange and beautiful it looks.

The Forbidden City
 The 'Forbidden City' is the English equivalent of the Chinese name 'Zijin Cheng' — Jin meaning forbidden, with reference to the fact that no one could enter or leave the walled city or Cheng, without the emperor's permission.

It was first built throughout 14 years during the reign of Emperor Chengzu in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and homed twenty four emperor's. Rectangular in shape, it is the world's largest palace complex and covers 74 hectares. Surrounded by a 52-meter-wide moat and a 10-meter-high wall there are more than 8,700 rooms.

Tianzi Mountains

The Tianzi Mountains are located in Zhangjiajie in the Hunan Province of China. It is known as ‘the Monarch of the Peak Forest’. It covers an area of 67 square kilometers (about 16,550 acres), and the highest peak is 1,262 meters (about 4,140 feet) above the sea level.

The Tianzi Mountains were formed from quartz sandstone of 400 million years ago through the intermittent rising of the crust for 2 million years. About three billion years ago, the place was a large patch of ocean. After a series of geological changes including Himalayan movements, the bottom of ocean rose out of the surface, and the quartzite sandstone pillars and peaks took shape after the gradual cutting, eroding and crumbling of Nature for millions of years (as explained from this web address).

This I could have so much ideas for. It could have bridges and a villiage built upon it, or be a training ground for Ninja's and Samurai, or even meditating ground for certain groups of religion.