The Inverted Earth
For whatever reason, the third planet from the Sun has developed a peculiar landscape. Defying nearly all laws of geology, the planet has ended up being inverted form what would normally have happened, oceans are where the continents are, and a massive landmass is where the oceans are. Lakes become islands, gulfs become peninsulas, and trenches become mountain ranges. The world is made of 7 significant oceans, and a single interconnected landmass dotted with large extensive rivers running through it. The tallest mountains are where the trenches of our world are, with the highest one being the Mariana Mountain Range, the tallest peak being what we know as Challenger Deep. While a water shortage would be expected in this world, there is certainly no shortage of freshwater, as the unique topography of this world allow for rivers to run extensive distances, the most notable being the Mariana river, which is sourced from the snowmelt of the Mariana Mountains and runs all the way into the Pacific Savannah, creating an area of fertile land around it. What we know as the Pacific ocean becomes a massive, expansive, and largely dry landmass, however, it doesn’t become a desert due to the humidity from the American Ocean, and instead, the more western parts become semi-arid savannah and Steppe. Our Mid-Atlantic ridge, an underwater mountain range, becomes a large basin, due to its elevation, ending up being extremely dry, so dry that crossing it is near impossible. The most fertile parts of this land are the coasts of the American Ocean, the banks of the Mariana River, and our Indian Ocean, as well as the Mediterranean Peninsula and the Caspian Island. Many other islands dot the oceans, notably the archipelago that would be our world’s Great Lakes. For whatever reason, life has developed just like it did in our world, and with it came Humans, who have discovered fire and quickly spread across the massive landmass. The first civilizations have begun to emerge.
OOC: I saw this inverted Earth map, and wondered how Human civilization and culture would have developed if the Earth actually looked like this. I’m not a geologist, this is simply a thought exercise that I did, I don’t care about the actual geological possibility of such an Earth being possible, nor do I care about how it would affect evolution. For the sake of this RP, for whatever reason, all life on Earth has evolved as it did IRL, including humans, who started out close to where they did IRL, near the coast of the African Ocean, but have since spread across the world. Anyways, I hope we develop an interesting world, and most importantly, have fun!