Dragaera

Geography: Two Maps

Mon Mar 8 16:12:12 PST 2004

Okay, I spent about 5 hours a night for the last 2 weeks getting to version
.1 of the map.

I spent my breaks today at work debating how to tackle documenting the
process, and to be honest, I'm not even sure where to start.

There are really two maps here:

1. The map I felt the text supported at its most literal interpretation.

2. The map I "saw" in my head after studying the 500 or so text reference I
pulled out of the novels concerning geography.

These two maps are not as similar as you might think, and the map on my site
is more 1 than 2.

Philip Hart brought up a couple of good points last night after looking over
the map.  He had two main issues:

1. The Empire is too narrow east to west.

2. The Pepperfields should be closer to Redface.

Let me address these two issues first, because, really, I agree with him
100%.  It's just that I'm not entirely certain the text does.

1. How Wide is the Empire?

Kana is 1500 miles from Adrilankha (POTD pg 120).  So draw a circle around
Adrilankha, and as you move Kana west, you must also move it south.
Northport is a few hundred miles from Kana (I used 200 miles; it felt right)
and the Kanefthali River Valley is to the north (BOA pg 285-286).  So as you
move Kana west and south, you move Northport west and south as well.

Blackbirdriver (Ibronka's home) is approximately 945 miles southwest of Kana
(POTD pg 217).  So again, you have to move Blackbirdriver south as you move
Kana to the west.

Hartre is south of Blackbirdriver (POTD pg 217 again), and 500km west of
Adrilankha (POTD pg 307).  As you move Blackbirdriver to the west and south,
the angle between it and Hartre becomes more and more extreme.

As much as I wanted to move Kana west, it made more sense to put it almost
due north of Adrilankha, even though that doesn't "feel" right.


So, if I can't move Kana west, perhaps I can "stretch" out the continent to
the east.

Redface is described as being East of Dragaera City, and apparently almost
directly east, as Khaavren and crew debate whether they should go north
around Suntra or south around Suntra, which implies that Suntra is
immediately between DC and RF.

However, Redface is 1500 miles from Dzur Mountain (POTD pg 300).  Again,
draw the circle, if I put it east of DC, it has to be WAY east of DC.

This does widen the continent quite a bit, but Deathgate Falls, in the Ash
Mountains, which are a part of the Eastern Mountains, is almost directly
north of Arylle (LOCB pg 83-84).

It's entirely possible that the Eastern mountains are shaped like a huge
bow, with the tips far to the west from the Eastmost extermity, but I
couldn't find any text that supported this, and moreover the map in
Brokedown Palace shows the mountains bowing the OPPOSITE direction...

When Sethra is explaining the journey from Dzur Mountain to Deathgate Falls
(POTD pg 243-245), she points out that the last time they cross the Eastern
River (which has its source at Redface) it is only 20 miles from there to
the foot of the Ash Mountains.  Unless the Eastern River runs north for
quite a distance, then curves back and goes south, that puts Redface and
Deathgate Falls on similar latitudes.

To further back this, Deathgate Falls is 1000 miles from the nearest sea
(BOT pg 161), and North Pinewood Hold (just north of Redface) is also 1000
miles from the sea (POTD pg 312).  Again, if I rotated Redface around the
1500 miles circle, that would bring the North Pinewood Hold to the south as
well.

So I kept Deathgate Falls due north, and Redface marginally to the east of
the Falls, which makes Redface northeast (north-northeast, really) of
Dragaera City, and really tightens up the east side of the empire.

As I pointed out in an earlier email, I violated the "no sea within a 1000
miles of Deathgate Falls" with my western coast around Kana.  It now occurs
to me that perhaps that was the sea Vlad was talking about, and Deathgate
Falls and North Pinewood Hold are both 1000 miles from DIFFERENT bodies of
water.

But that "score of miles from the eastern river to the Ash Mountains" quote
is still a problem.

I agree with Phillip so strongly, however, that I am strongly considering
having another go at this, and moving Kana west and Redface east as far as
possible without grossly violating the text.




2. How far is Pepperfield from Redface.

Twice the distance is declared, and both times it is 50 leagues, which works
out to 150 miles, I believe (TPG pg 154/155 and 277).

However, in the same breathe the distance is measured as "2-days by the
horsepaths" or "1-day by foot".

Mica thinks he can run the distance in 16 hours, and Garland/Shaltre think
they can make half the distance in 9 hours.

The World Record for the 100km marathon is a little over 6 hours
(http://www.iaaf.org/statistics/records/gender=M/allrecords/discipline=100K/
index.html), which works out to 10 miles per hour, which is the same rate
Mica would be travelling.

Of course, I believe the marathon is over mostly level ground, but then
again, Dragaerans have longer strides than Easterners (no text, but I
believe in "Taltos" Vlad notes that Morrolan limits his strides so that Vlad
can keep up).

This was one of the most frustrating passages in all the novels.  It takes
Piro two weeks to travel only 50 miles more in LOCB (Adrilankha to Dzur
Mountain is about 200 miles).

I feel very strongly the true distance is more like 50 miles, maybe even
less, but I did not want to challenge the text except as a last resort, so I
left it at 150 miles.





Bryan Newell (http://bryann.net)
The sign out front promised me absolutely nothing. Just my kind of place.