Steven Universe, for the most part, takes place on Earth. However, it doesn't seem like the world that is shown in the show reflects 100% to our planet Earth. A couple episodes, most notably "It Could've Been Great" and "Buddy's Book", give us a look of what the Earth in Steven Universe looks like. In this article, Dave and I look at all the various locations in Steven Universe and try to find real-world correlations with the show.
Let's start with Beach City. From the words of Ms. Sugar herself, Beach City is located on the Delmarva Peninsula, which consist of the states of Delaware, parts of Maryland, and a part of Virginia. Rebecca herself has said that this area was where she had spent a good portion of her childhood. A number of evidence, and a confirmation from Rebecca Sugar herself, points that Delmarva is it's own state, with includes it's own sales tax, area code, and a unique state flag.
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| A little slice of heaven. |
Just to the north of Beach City, we know a few other locations exist, including:
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| If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere.... |
Empire City (New York City)....
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| It's the state that's shaped like a Keystone! |
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| No caption needed. |
But while we have some real locations, there are plenty of gem locations all throughout the planet. Thanks to the map Peridot accessed on the Moon Base, we get a chance to see a number of installations built by the Homeworld Gems long ago. Take a look for yourself:
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| Kudos to Dave for helping me with all of this. |
Thanks to this map, we can see two things about the planet Earth: one, something must have happened to a number of locations on the planet, and two, there are a number of Homeworld locations throughout the planet. Peridot told us that above is a "map of all structures that were originally built on Earth....this probably only accounts for maybe, five percent of what was originally planned."
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| Some like it hot. |
#1. In the far west of North America, there is the location of the Beta Kindergarten, birthplace of Jasper. This is quite apparent with the arid and desert scenery. This may have been located in the state of either Arizona, Nevada, or Utah.
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| A very happy place. |
#2. East of such is the Prime Kindergarten. We are introduced to this location in "On The Run", where Amethyst gives us a bit of history of both about herself and a brief insight about the war. It seems to be located somewhat near Beach City, or at least accessible by train. Possibly located within the Appalachian Mountains.
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| The center of all the warp pads. |
#3. There is another location off the coast of the eastern seaboard. This seems most likely to be the Galaxy Warp. This belief is supported by how quickly Lapis was able to fly herself and Steven to the location in "Same Old World".
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| Looks like a temple out of the Legend Of Zelda, if you ask me. |
#4. In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, we have the Sea Shrine, which housed all of the hourglasses seen in "Steven In The Stevens". This would make sense for it's location given how it is on the bottom of the ocean and the underwater rock formations seem to reflect those in the deep sea. Complete with bottom dwelling creatures.
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| How dare it interfere with television signals. |
#5. In the Caribbean, there is believed to be the Communication Hub. This would make sense since Sugilite returned to Beach City by walking through the ocean in "Coach Steven". Now some of you are saying, "But Little Ursa, the Communication Hub is in a desert, not on an island! There was a cactus!" Well, yeah, you are correct, sir or madam. But that is exactly why I had to move it, cacti are only native to the Americas. "But we didn't see any water! It was all sandy around the hub! Look at that picture you put there", you are saying to your computer screen. Well, correct, but there is one island in the Caribbean that could house such a massive structure: Cuba. I might be a bit biased about selecting Cuba, seeing how it is my homeland, but it would make logical sense given how cactus are frequent on the island.
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| On an island in the sun.... |
#6. Out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, there is a location that may correspond with Mask Island, where Steven took Lars and Sadie to get away in "Island Adventure" and where Malachite and Alexandrite fought in front of all the Watermelon Stevens in "Super Watermelon Island". This might be a bit of a stretch, though. There is a warp pad here, but Peridot said the map indicated gem structures, of which there aren't any on the island. There are what look like open geodes, perhaps those are gem-made?
#7. Over on the Iberian Peninsula, we have another marked Homeworld construct. Dave and I aren't sure what is built here. We probably have yet to see this structure in the show.
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| I want to believe. |
#8. Back in the western hemisphere in South America, we are given a location of something. The only thing we currently know to be in South America is the wreckage of a gem colony ship, first seen in "Friend Ship". Did Homeworld take note of their crashed ship? Or maybe there's something else down there that we have yet to see?
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| Strawberry fields forever. |
#9. This location is canonically known thanks to the episode of "Buddy's Book". In the episode, after Buddy started his journey, he arrived in Norway, finding the Strawberry Battlefield and Pyramid Temple. And from here, he was given more locations thanks to two dapperly dressed gems. The battlefield might be located near the real-world location of the monument known as Sverd i fjell.
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| Are you not entertained? |
#10. Next door to the battlefield, there is a location we know of quite well. It is the Ancient Sky Arena, or, as Pearl calls it, the Ruins. Thanks to a newer episode, "Mindful Education", we see the area below the arena, which reflects a mountain meadow (perhaps Sweden or Norway). Of course, this is all guess work, but it would make some sense that a gem structure in this bad of shape is because of the nearby battlefield.
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| Fancy, ain't it? |
#11. This location is a bit odd. There is a marking on both Buddy's map and the Moon Base map in this area, but it seems to move. I believe that the Moon Base gave the former location of the Cloud Arena, and then Buddy's map location for #11 (shown further down) shows the location of all that remains of the Cloud Arena, Blue Diamond's Palanquin. This shows that it has moved over all of the years. Perhaps the Palanquin is all that remains of the massive Cloud Arena.
On the other hand, Dave suggested that the ground below the Cloud Arena (seen in "The Answer") and the Ancient Sky Arena (seen in "Mindful Education") look like the same location, implying that the Ancient Sky Arena may be the ruins of the Cloud Arena.
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| Below the Cloud Arena to the left (from "The Answer") and below the Ancient Sky Arena to the right (from "Mindful Education") |
They do look similar, but it's not conclusive enough. I'm keeping the two arenas separate.
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| Anyone else get a Dune vibe from this? |
#12. To the south in northern Africa (the Sahara to be exact), there is a marking. This one is a bit interesting to me. The obvious choice is the "sand fortress" made by the Desert Glass, shown in "Steven's Lion." We saw it in ziggurat form in "Buddy's Book," which looks like the sand fortress's gem-designed form. I wonder what made the Desert Glass go haywire and deviate from the original design. Future episode possibly?
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| What was once an oasis for the gems on Earth.... |
#13. In what would have been central Russia and in the middle of the water, there is the Lunar Sea Spire. Perhaps some sort of gem technology terraformed the planet to create the structure and cause a good chunk of land to go below the water (or worse). Perhaps, the writers took some inspiration from a real event for this location. I don't know about you, but I really want answers about what happened to Russia.
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| The roof of the world. |
#14. Lastly, in what would most likely be the Himalayan Mountains, we have the Sky Spire. High in the mountains, the location greatly resembles the geography in Nepal and Tibet, where it is most likely located. This is quite evident due to the type of mountains that exist in the region. First featured in "Giant Woman", it is home to the Heaven Beetle and Steven Jr.
And lastly, there is an odd item shown in "Buddy's Book". When Pearl is marking locations on the map, she omits #8 and adds another marking, which we will call #15.
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| Guess we can't get a clear view of Buddy's map, can we? |
#15. This location seems to be in Germany or Switzerland, some place mountainous in Europe (such as the Alps). Because of this being on Buddy's map and not on the Moon Base map, we believe it to be Rose's Fountain which was first shown in "An Indirect Kiss". This theory is supported by the overgrown brambles at the fountain, which is a type of European blackberry species that are also known by the scientific name rubus fruticosus.
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| It's as if they don't want anyone entering or something. |
Some other locations we are still interested in locating exist. The following locations might interest us, but they seem to not have been built or concerned Homeworld and were not enough of a threat for Pearl to warn Buddy about. They include:
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| The resemblance is uncanny. |
Remember the Geode, first shown in "House Guest"? Where is this located? What could this thing be? A weapon? A hive? And why must it be contained?
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| Quick, Lion! To the Rose Cave! |
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| The land of milk and honey |
Of course, all of this could be wrong and we could be grasping at straws with these assumptions. Then again, this show has proven time and again that every small item that seems unimportant plays a major role later on. Only time will tell.
But what do you think about these locations? Any other ideas?
(This article was written on 8/25/16. All details were used with evidence given at such time. This article was a collaborative effort between Little Ursa and Dave.)
