Dragaera

Geography: Two Maps

Michael Angelo Tripp-Russo michaelangelo at tripp-russo.com
Tue Mar 9 00:17:37 PST 2004

  I've seen a "Maybe that's Dragaera" map hanging on a wall you might 
call his.

But then again I could be lying.


bonham15 wrote:

>you know the horrid thing? steven may have a map of the whole shootin' match
>sitting at home on  a drafting board gathering dust..
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>andy
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>>Okay, I spent about 5 hours a night for the last 2 weeks getting to
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>version
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>>.1 of the map.
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>>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.
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>>There are really two maps here:
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>>1. The map I felt the text supported at its most literal interpretation.
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>>2. The map I "saw" in my head after studying the 500 or so text reference
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>I
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>>pulled out of the novels concerning geography.
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>>These two maps are not as similar as you might think, and the map on my
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>site
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>>is more 1 than 2.
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>>Philip Hart brought up a couple of good points last night after looking
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>over
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>>the map.  He had two main issues:
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>>1. The Empire is too narrow east to west.
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>>2. The Pepperfields should be closer to Redface.
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>>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.
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>>1. How Wide is the Empire?
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>>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
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>right)
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>>and the Kanefthali River Valley is to the north (BOA pg 285-286).  So as
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>you
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>>move Kana west and south, you move Northport west and south as well.
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>>Blackbirdriver (Ibronka's home) is approximately 945 miles southwest of
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>Kana
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>>(POTD pg 217).  So again, you have to move Blackbirdriver south as you
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>move
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>>Kana to the west.
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>>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
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>south,
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>>the angle between it and Hartre becomes more and more extreme.
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>>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.
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>>So, if I can't move Kana west, perhaps I can "stretch" out the continent
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>to
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>>the east.
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>>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.
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>>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.
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>>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).
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>>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...
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>>When Sethra is explaining the journey from Dzur Mountain to Deathgate
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>Falls
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>>(POTD pg 243-245), she points out that the last time they cross the
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>Eastern
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>>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.
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>>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
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>as
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>>well.
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>>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.
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>>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
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>occurs
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>>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.
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>>But that "score of miles from the eastern river to the Ash Mountains"
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>quote
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>>is still a problem.
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>>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.
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>>2. How far is Pepperfield from Redface.
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>>Twice the distance is declared, and both times it is 50 leagues, which
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>works
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>>out to 150 miles, I believe (TPG pg 154/155 and 277).
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>>However, in the same breathe the distance is measured as "2-days by the
>>horsepaths" or "1-day by foot".
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>>Mica thinks he can run the distance in 16 hours, and Garland/Shaltre think
>>they can make half the distance in 9 hours.
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>>The World Record for the 100km marathon is a little over 6 hours
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>(http://www.iaaf.org/statistics/records/gender=M/allrecords/discipline=100K/
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>>index.html), which works out to 10 miles per hour, which is the same rate
>>Mica would be travelling.
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>>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
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>Vlad
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>>can keep up).
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>>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).
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>>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
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>I
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>>left it at 150 miles.
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>>Bryan Newell (http://bryann.net)
>>The sign out front promised me absolutely nothing. Just my kind of place.
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