We known that the world of Remnant from the series RWBY is a large place. It took months for team RNJR to walk from the island of Patch to Mystral, it took Weiss many hours to fly from Atlas to the north part of Anima, and it took Blake weeks to sail from Vale to Menagerie. But we're never given any actual distances in either miles or kilometers. However, there are several clues in the show itself.
We'll start off by assuming that Remnant uses the same 24 hr hour clock and the same system of latitude and longitude as we do. There's plenty of evidence for the first item, like Weiss staring at the clock waiting for 3:59 to change to 4:00 so class will end.
At first glance it looks like the map of Remnant is that of the entire planet, with several large continents and a narrow ocean between Sanus and Anima. However a closer glance shows us that that's not the case, and that the map only covers a small portion of the planet.
Our first hint comes in the 3rd episode of season two, “A Minor Hiccup“. As Weiss
The time in the four kingdoms of Remnant
steps off the elevator into the Communications room of the CCT, we get a quick glance of four clocks on the wall. Each clock has the symbol for one of the kingdoms, and that kingdom's local time. The clocks for Atlas and Vale both show the same time, meaning that the two kingdoms are in the same timezone. This makes perfect sense, as Atlas is almost due north of Vale, and it would make sense for two major kingdoms with large amounts of interaction between the two to run at the same time. We can also see that Mystral and Vacuo are in different timezones. Since Mystral is to the east of Vale, it's clock is a few hours ahead, and Vacuo's clock is a few hours behind as it is far to the west. Specifically, Weiss enters the communication room at 8:20 PM local time. It's 11:20 PM in Mystral, and 2:20 PM in Vacuo.
Dividing 360 degrees by 24 hrs gives a timezone that is 15 degrees wide. On Earth time zones are more controlled by population than longitude, to prevent major cities and small countries from running at different times. But as large portions of Remnant are lightly populated due to the threat of Grimm, we'll assume that the local time is more longitude based than on Earth.
We know the location of Vacuo and Mystral on the map, and how many time zones the two kingdoms are apart, but we do not know where exactly in those time zones the kingdoms are. If Vacuo is on the west edge of its time zone and Mystral is on the east edge of its time zone, the two kingdoms may be as far as 150 degrees of longitude apart. Conversely, they may be as close as 120 degrees apart.
The Map
Now let's take a look at the holographic map seen in Professor Lionheart's office
Holographic Map of Remnant
in the first episode of season 5, “Welcome to Haven“. This map does not have any distances or a scale marked, but it does have a grid of latitude and longitude lines. It's covered in minor grid lines, with a major grid overlaid every 9 spaces.
Looking at the map, we see that Vacuo and Mystral are roughly 6 major grid squares apart. This means that the major grid squares could be anywhere from 20 to 25 degrees in size.
We need to narrow this down. Fortunately, there's a way to do this, by comparing
The Vytal Meridian
the locations to those of Atlas and Vale. Let's create a line of zero longitude, a Prime meridian that will act as a baseline for Remnant, like the Greenwich meridian does on Earth. There's a major Grid line that runs down the middle of the map north-south, with Vale on one side and Atlas on the other. This is perfect for our purposes. As this line also crosses the important island of Vytal, we'll call it the Vytal Meridian, and it will be the centre of timezone 0.
Counting grid squares from the Vytal meridian, we find that if the squares are 20 degrees wide, then Vacou would be too far from the meridian to be in its timezone. The same problem happens with Mystral and if the squares are 25 degreees wide. 22.5 degrees works just fine. It means that both kingdoms are roughly 135 degrees apart, and are close to the centre of their respective timezones relative to the Vytal meridian. It also means that the squares of the minor grid are 2.5 degrees wide, and that 16 major grid squares will wrap around the planet.
Now that we know the distance between the kingdoms and the design of the map grid system, we can map things a bit more accurately. The westernmost point of the continent of Sanus is at roughly 100 degrees West Longitude, and the easternmost point of Menagerie and Anima are both roughly at 102.5 degrees East of the Vytal meridian. A span of just over 200 degrees, leaving 160 degrees not shown. Compared to Earth and its prime meridian, the map of Remnant stretches from the centre of North America to central China. Vacuo would be at the same longitude as the Appalachian mountains, and Mystral would be at the same longitude as the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.
The Equator
The map in Lionheart's office is 6 major grid squares high. This suggests a span of 135 degrees, running from 67.5 degrees North to 67.5 degrees south. But is the equator of Remnant in the centre of the map?
Notice that as you move from north to south the climate changes. Atlas is in the frozen north, then come temperate areas across Sanus and northern Anima, then deserts in Vacuo and eastern Anima, then tropical islands, and then desert again in Menagerie.
The presence of deserts on either side of a tropical section is similar to how
The equator of Remnant
climate zones are laid out on Earth, with the rainforests of Africa flanked by the Sahara and the Kalahari deserts, and how Australia is south of Indonesia's island climate. This suggests the the Equator of Remnant is not in the middle of the map, but instead is the major latitude line that runs south of Sanus and just clips the northern end of Menagerie.
The problem with this idea is that it divides the map into 5 major grid squares north of the equator, for a total of 112.5 degrees instead of the 90 degrees between the equator and the north pole on Earth. If the minor grid squares are actually 2 degrees high, then that would make the major grid squares 18 degrees high, and the top of the map would be at 90 degrees. The three kingdoms would be around 35-45 degrees north latitude, with Atlas at around 72 degrees north. The southernmost point of Menagerie would be at 18 degrees south.
Conclusion
If this analysis is accurate, then there is a lot of Remnant that is not shown on the
Expanded map of Remnant, with Equator and Vytal Meridian marked
map that we are familiar with. Whether it's all oceans or there are other lands on Remnant, the map we know of Remnant is roughly 1/3 of the planet.