Welcome

Imaginary countries
There is nothing beyond our imagination, not even imaginary cities, countries, planets and star systems. People draw maps, make art, write books or newspapers, tell stories and sometimes even speak strange languages. In the Netherlands there is a club of imaginary country enthusiasts, the Dutch Geofiction Association (in Dutch: GvG, Genootschap voor Geofictie).

Geofiction is fictional geography: devising, designing and developing a geo, a fictional geographic entity. In most cases the geo is a country, but it can be any kind of geographic area: a city, a region, a federation of countries, a planet, a star system, it doesn't matter. The Dutch Geofiction Association is a platform for geofiction enthusiasts to meet each other (it is a 'real life' club), exchange ideas about geos (in most cases imaginary countries) and about the hobby of geofiction in general. With an imaginary country you can do many things, like:

     - draw maps, make flags, money, stamps (sometimes the postal services of the real world even accept them and
     - deliver postcards with well-designed but still imaginary stamps), pieces of art, bottles of wine and beer (or something
     - stronger), models of ships, planes or even cities;
     - design and develop languages, transport systems, music, culture, religions, political systems;
     - write or tell stories using the imaginary geographic area as a background;
     - role playing games;
     - use as a means of education (geographic basics, diplomacy role models).

Imaginary countries can also interact, and by their countries, the people designing them can interact. This is one of the funniest aspect of geofiction. The Dutch Geofiction Association acts as a catalyst for this, e.g. by arranging meetings.

An imagined world
To old geographers describing unknown regions of our planet, a large fantasy was very necessary. E.g. they designed the world as a continent in a large sea on a flat planet, of which you could fall off when you would sail too far away from the coastal areas. Medieval cartographers put strange, self invented peoples and creatures in unknown parts of earth. Nowadays earth is a neatly discovered planet. Almost every place has been surveyed, described and photographed. In geography fiction has no place anymore - or hasn't it?

Fantasy has moved from 'science' in the old days to present-day literature. Well-known creators of imaginary worlds are Thomas Moore (Utopia), Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels), L. Caroll (Alice in Wonderland), J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), Frank Herbert (Dune), Isaac Asimov (The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, Foundation) and Jack Vance (Durdane, Tschai and many other worlds). A lot of worlds are created for television and movies, mostly for science fiction (Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, Batman, Babylon 5, Doctor Who, Blakes7, Space: 1999, Raumschiff Orion). On the internet there are many possibilities to participate in interactive worlds, like multi-user dungeons and network versions of computer games.

Most of these worlds are not only exciting, relaxing or just fun, but they can also mirror our own society or function as a means to find out what our society would have been, if...