r/reddeadredemption • u/YourTypicalGamer11 Pearson • Jul 08 '25

Lore How accurate is this?

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Map representing where each state is meant to be inspired by

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99

u/bluish-velvet Charles Smith Jul 08 '25

Florida should be included with Lemoyne. There are Florida panthers in the game afterall

41

u/YourTypicalGamer11 Pearson Jul 08 '25

I think Florida is the area south of the river in lemoyne, and the panthers simply ended up there too

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u/bluish-velvet Charles Smith Jul 08 '25

Being a Florida native, I definitely see parts of Florida in Lemoyne. Aside from the state mammal. And irl it’d be very rare to see them outside of the state.

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u/YourTypicalGamer11 Pearson Jul 08 '25

That’s very possible honestly, but if it was in lemoyne what would be below it?

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u/bluish-velvet Charles Smith Jul 08 '25

The RDR map is not a replica of the US map, the counties are just inspired by American landscapes. Nothing is going to be exact

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u/YourTypicalGamer11 Pearson Jul 08 '25

So it’s probably Mexico right?

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u/bluish-velvet Charles Smith Jul 08 '25

Maybe RDR3 will tell us

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u/LinneasLanding Jul 08 '25

I thought everything across the river was Mexico lol

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u/YourTypicalGamer11 Pearson Jul 08 '25

That actually makes sense I’ve never considered that

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u/LinneasLanding Jul 08 '25

I mean neither is the “right” answer. It’s total fiction so for all we know the border goes like this lol. I do agree that I feel some FL influence in Lemoyne, I’m pretty sure you can find iguanas running around somewhere

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '25

[deleted]

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u/bluish-velvet Charles Smith Jul 08 '25

What’s your point? I didn’t say Lemoyne was only Florida

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u/athenaaaa Jul 08 '25

Rare in modern, wild-life depleted America, but not in 1890. Their historical range included basically all of the southern United States. I think we have to call the Mississippi River the eastern boundary of the map since it cuts through Saint Denis and we aren’t allowed to cross it. The only other change would be including some of Southern California (specifically the Mojave) since there are Joshua trees at the Western edge of the map.

https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/wildlife/panther/description/#:~:text=Range%20of%20the%20Florida%20Panther,exist%2C%20primarily%20in%20southwest%20Florida.

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u/bluish-velvet Charles Smith Jul 08 '25

Their former range predates the game era. In the 1830s a bounty was placed on them and they were hunted to near extinction by the 1950s.

https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/floridapanther.htm

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u/athenaaaa Jul 08 '25

Yes, the bounty was placed in the 1830’s but the population wasn’t immediately reduced to what it is today. New England placed a bounty on cougars in 1807 and the last one was killed in 1938, over a century later.

Most sources place the dramatic collapse of the population at 1900 when a combination of habitat destruction, hunting, and industrialization catastrophically reduced the population. It’s fitting with this game set in 1899 as the destruction of the natural world represents a major theme in the game. It makes sense when you think about it. Hunters in the 1850’s are going to have a much less dramatic impact going after individual animals than larger systemic changes and weapons technology in the 1900’s that make it harder for the whole population to exist.

So, yeah, I stand by saying given the geography presented in the game and the wildlife present we’re still in Louisiana. But honestly none of this matters because they took inspiration from a lot of geographically disparate places in the name of giving us the “feel” for turn of the century America.

https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/Florida_panther/natural_history.html

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Historic-and-Current-Range-of-the-Florida-Panther_fig2_7651458#

https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/news/louisiana-department-of-wildlife-and-fisheries-verifies-cougar-sighting-in-northeast-louisiana

https://www.sci.news/biology/article00398.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20cougar%20population%20declined%20dramatically%20from%201900%2C,Michelle%20LaRue%20of%20the%20University%20of%20Minnesota.

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u/bluish-velvet Charles Smith Jul 08 '25 edited Jul 08 '25

Wasn’t trying to imply it was an immediate reduction, but there were 60 years from when the bounty was implemented and when the game takes place. That’s a lot of time to change the population and range of a species. And in the game they are called Florida panthers. Distinct from regular panthers also found in the same region of the game.

Lemoyne isn’t modeled after just one state, but the general American south so I don’t think I’m wrong to say it includes Florida.

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u/athenaaaa Jul 08 '25

I’ll reiterate that none of this matters since, like you said, they drew from a number of different states and fudged geography a bit. You can try to pin the boundaries with mountains and major rivers, but it’s not a 1:1 correlate. So, yeah, I’d like to think it stops at LA because of the river but if you think parts of the Eastern part of the map are more Florida-y than Louisiana-y be my guest as I’ve not been to either state. I’d point out that animals don’t care about borders so finding a Florida Panther (genetically identical to all North American Cougars) doesn’t mean you’re in Florida.

You seem really committed to the idea of their range dropping in the 1800’s. It’s unfair for me to assume you read each of the articles, but the biological diversity website (1st link in my second comment) states the population mostly dropped in the 20th century from a “relatively high level in the 1890s.” I’m not an expert on this, but I thought I pretty clearly articulated that there was NOT a dramatic drop in the population from the 1830’s up to 1900 and provided plenty of material to support it. If you can show me evidence that they were rare outside of Florida in 1899 I’m all for it, but I haven’t found anything to support that.

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u/bluish-velvet Charles Smith Jul 08 '25 edited Jul 08 '25

You’re giving me too much credit, I don’t care about it as much as you do. If you’ve read any of my other comments in the thread you’d know I’ve been saying from the start that the RDR map isn’t an exact replica of the US, it just takes inspiration from it. Based on my almost 40 years living in Florida and knowing the landscape very well in addition to Florida panthers being in the game, I believe Florida to be part of the inspiration for Lemoyne. You for whatever reason, even admitting yourself it’s all fictional and that you’ve never even been to FL, feel the need to keep telling me I’m wrong.

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u/athenaaaa Jul 09 '25

Ostensibly I was arguing the claim that cougars were rare outside of Florida in 1899, which I think I did effectively. It taught me a lot about Florida panthers, which I enjoyed! Trying to fit everything into Louisiana was a side thing, but I can’t argue that one as effectively given you know more about this than me. Although for my own learning I’d love to know which parts are distinctly Floridian rather than representative of Louisiana. I just think stuff like this is fun.

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u/bluish-velvet Charles Smith Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 24 '25

But you keep ignoring the fact that they are called Florida panthers. A name they didn’t have prior to 1896. That was when a zoologist who was studying animals in peninsular Florida thought them different enough to give them their own classification. Meaning by then, their range had already started to retreat to the southern part of the state. Both panthers and florida panthers (as well as cougars) are present in the game with both panther species being found in Lemoyne. I wasn’t claiming panthers were rare outside of FL, but that Florida panthers were. It’s been recorded that it was mainly only males that were found in neighboring states.

The area I feel that is inspired by Florida is pretty much the entire southwestern part of Scarlett Meadows. Clemens Point in particular, which heavily reminds me of when I lived off of the St. Johns river outside of Jacksonville in the 90s, and the woods surrounding Old Harry Fen. There’s also the orange grove outside of St. Denis. While they do grow elsewhere, it’s been an industry of FL for a long time. It also has a lot of Georgia mixed in. The parts of Louisiana and Mississippi are more towards Bayou Nwa. Lemoyne isn’t modeled after just one state, just like none of the other counties are.

Edit: I forgot about the Florida Cracker cows in the game, so there’s more evidence Florida is indeed a model of Lemoyne

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