> I struggled with geography until I discovered history
Tangentially, a lot of fantasy authors seem to love maps for their own sake, and provide maps of their world as illustrations. I never saw the point of these; the map never really matters to the story.
But history books provide almost the same number of maps -- usually one, before the discussion of whatever -- and it just isn't enough. Those maps really matter to understanding whatever was going on; in the real world, geography is a huge deal.
My favorite sequence of maps in a book was “Black Hawk Down”. The first chapter begins with a world map, showing Somalia, and it lays the geopolitical setting for the events. The second chapter has a map of Somalia, showing where Mogadishu is, and sets the scene there. It keeps zooming in, until the final chapter shows a map so tight it has individual people (who you have since met) and which side of the street they were on.
It's more about deepening the story I think and making it 'bigger' I guess or another type of story telling. You look at a fantasy map and there's typically places on the map not even mentioned in the actual story as you say, but that helps build the setting.
Look at the map for the lord of the rings for example. A good number of the places in that map are barely mentioned in the actual trilogy. Yet that map's become one of the most iconic in fantasy in general.
It's more about what the maps inspire in your imagination while you read. When some random fantasy city name gets mentioned, you can look at the map and get perspective about where it is in the world.
It's also helpful I think to keep the world consistent for authors. It gives them a frame of reference for scale and distance in their stories and likely helps keep track of all the random names and cultures and such that they make up for their stories.
Imagine if the lord of the rings' world was like when we were still conquering and exploring all around, and then some dude, tolkien's lost brother, or something, twin, perhaps, with co-systemic minds, mapped out the unmentioned parts, and then you could just span the two things together.
Tangentially, a lot of fantasy authors seem to love maps for their own sake, and provide maps of their world as illustrations. I never saw the point of these; the map never really matters to the story.
But history books provide almost the same number of maps -- usually one, before the discussion of whatever -- and it just isn't enough. Those maps really matter to understanding whatever was going on; in the real world, geography is a huge deal.