Where there’s no magic (and no accurate science) things may make sense **to you** but they don’t have to be consistent since there’s no way for the characters (and most people) to check if what they know is correct.
Here’s a map of the world from the 15th century: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Fra_Mauro_World_Map%2C_c.1450.jpg and here’s another one from 1912: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Arthur_Mees_Flags_of_A_Free_Empire_1910_Cornell_CUL_PJM_1167_01.jpg
They both are wrong for many reasons including political ones (displaying one’s own power as greater)… or just for the lack of information. 😉
So basically, my experience is that it doesn’t matter if a map is wrong of if a character is not too accurate in a story. They are not accurate either in real world and they shouldn’t be for a whole lot of reasons. Either for ignorance or because they have a political agenda. 🙂
Plus ignorance makes things a lot more “magic” and it creates a lot more enigmas, which is fun. And gaming or reading is about the fun, isn’t it ? 🙂