June 2010 Entry: Wheel of Time - from Falme to Fal Dara

[ravells]

That's looking beautiful Imm! Seriously gorgeous. Try this: make the road dots a shade of darker green rather than dark gray. Not sure if it will help or hinder.

p.s. what font are using? It's a beauty.

[Immolate]

Thanks Rav and Mid. The fonts are inheritance for the place names and packard antique for the cities. Countries is anyone's guess. I picked it because it was slightly information and not too shnazzy. Okay I did leave a blank and its "HamletorNot".

Mid: I am intending to tone down the mountain and hill colors, but have to separate them from the forest colors first. Those will remain more-opaque.

[Immolate]

I have added the southern extents of the Mountains of Mist, as well as the mountains up the Tarabon coast and the peninsula of Toman Head. I snuck in the Sand Hills between the Two Rivers and the Mountains of Mist, although I didn't label them.

I added some color to the Blight and the Aiel Waste. For those of you familiar with the books, you'll have recognized the many ways that James Cameron modeled the Navi after the Aiel in the movie "Avatar", from the wild race of tall, fierce and war-like peoples, down to the trademark "I see you" greeting. In the end, however, the Navi weren't half as tough as the Aiel. I guess it's because they're a bunch of blue wetlanders.

I toned down the mountain and hill colors, as suggested. I also added some apostrophes, as suggested early on.

### Latest WIP ###

[Steel General]

This continues to get better and better...

[tilt]

In the end, however, the Navi weren't half as tough as the Aiel. I guess it's because they're a bunch of blue wetlanders.

so true so true...

Looking good - and I never doubted you would change the color in the deserts ... it looks like lake Somal is hovering a bit

[Immolate]

I've added the rest of the Mountains of Mist, as well as replacing that portion east and south of the lake. Hopefully the effect brings the lake back down to the proper level. I've also added a bijillion stray trees, another technique used by Ramah to awesome effect.

### Latest WIP ###


Lol... left the palette on that one, so now you know my ancient Chinese secret.

[tilt]

Finally - the secret is revealed ... NOW I can strike and take over the world

... or was that paint over the world? *lol*

[Werthead]

Great stuff! Some observations, which I hope aren't too many or unhelpful:

The town on the River Cary is Carysford. The name on the map appears to be Garysford.
Aridhol/Shadar Logoth is on the south side of the Arinelle, just east of where the river swings north to Saldaea (it can't be west, otherwise Bayle Domon would never have stopped nearby), not the north side (unless you are putting the name north for space, with the actual ruins marked on the south shore).
The Damona Mountains are an important range in Altara, running south-east from Garen's Wall and forming part of the border with Murandy. Given the important action that happens there in Book 11, including them might be a good idea.
There's also the Banikhan Mountains, the Sea Wall of Saldaea, that run parallel to World's End a short distance inland, which is where Lan gets an important mission underway in Book 11.
In addition are the Maraside Mountains, which run along the southern border of Cairhien separating it from Haddon Mirk to the south. As the site of Artur Hawkwing's great victory over Guaire Amalasan, including them would be cool.
You may also wish to include the city of Canluum, located a short distance south-east of Chachin in Kandor, from New Spring.
In addition are the Doirlon Hills, located along Illian's eastern border on the Plains of Maredo, where a huge (but mostly off-screen) battle between Rand's army and Sammael's forces raged in Book 7.

I like the idea of including Thakan'dar and showing the lake formed by the split in the Erinin around Tar Valon, but realistically both would be invisible on this scale. The Erinin around Tar Valon is only 10 miles or so long and maybe 4-5 miles wide at best, whilst Thakan'dar is literally a valley running around the edge of Shayol Ghul, not extending for hundreds of miles to one side of it.

Oh, and I think World's End is actually that peninsula to the left of where you've put the label.

World's End is the name given to the cliffs along the Saldaean shore of the Aryth Ocean south of the peninsula where the Mountains of Dhoom tumble into the sea. Lan and Nynaeve visit them briefly in Book 11. The peninsular is not named in the books.

I've also found numerous maps equating a league to four miles.

In The Wheel of Time books a league is four miles. I know it isn't the 'traditional fantasy' length of 1 league = 3 miles that Tolkien and Martin use, but it's what Jordan uses in his world.

The total size of the Westlands subcontinent is something on the order of 3,500 miles from east to west, according to the world map in the companion book. The RPG designers also worked out with Robert Jordan that 1"=400 miles on the colour endpaper maps in the hardcover books, although that's not precise. In fact, they weren't able to get an accurate scale everyone was happy with, so left it off the RPG map, although the 1"=400 miles thing does work as a rough guide, and matches most of the references in the text.

For some reason maps that go out of the "frame" bug the crap out of me

The eastern end of the continent, including the much bigger subcontinent of Shara and the rest of the Aiel Waste, can be seen here. A map of the full continent can be seen here. The even vaster continent of Seanchan across the Aryth Ocean can be seen here. You can see a full world map here.

Mentioned earlier in the thread, the 13th Depository probably has the most exhaustive collection of maps of the books yet seen.

[Immolate]

In deference to Djekspek: ***SPOILERS AHEAD***

Excellent commentary Werthead, with the Jordan league info being the first time I've heard that. Also the World's End information is particularly useful as I've only read the 11th book twice and didn't catch the significance of that passage. Many of the mountains you refer to are missing on the standard map, and I've been trying to make decisions as I go based on practicality on whether to include them. The Damonas are indeed important to the storyline, and I've been puzzling how to squeeze them in there. It's funny how big they sound in the books to have been left off the map entirely. I suspect they were raised as a convenience to force the Band to play hit-and-run with the Seanchan and allow Tuon's rescue party to catch up, which of course set up the dramatic battle between the Band and the conscript-gorged Seanchan army. I am not a historian of the western sub-continent, meaning I have not made a study of it or paid attention to meta-story discussions that no-doubt contribute greatly to the subject, so there may be a good bit of background that I'm wholly ignorant of. I'm a reader, having absorbed what I have almost exclusively by having read the books many times. I'm not a purist, however, and I'm happy to benefit from whatever resources I find that lend utility or interest to the map.

I have delved the 13th Depository maps at length and have referred to each of them that I could find many times in working the details.

The positioning of the Aridhol label is indeed on the opposite side of the river from the actual city. I remember well the fragmented flight of our protagonists that ended in the river in the case of Perrin and Egwene, on Bayle's boat for Matt, Rand and Thom, or on the bank for Nynaeve, Moraine and Lan. I simply put the label where Jordan's map has it. Agreed on the scale of Tar Valon, which is again currently just a reflection of the book map. I haven't yet made all the critical decisions of how the cities will be represented and am leaning toward exaggeration to convey information.

Your pointers are all most excellent and helpful, and there is no doubt that many of them will be used to inform the map. I sense that you have put a lot of time and effort into the kind of research that is greatly helpful in making the kinds of decisions that I'm faced with and I welcome any further advise you may have.

[Werthead]

I must admit I also suspected that the Damonas were a retcon, but looking closely at the colour painting map in the later hardcovers, they do seem to be on there (and that painting was made 11 years before the mountains were mentioned). If you look at Garen's Wall you see additional brown lines stretching south-eastwards through the Altaran forest into northern Illian which match the location of the Damona Mountains in the text. Actually, the other mountain chains mentioned only later are on there as well, albeit all unnamed: the Marasides on the south border of Cairhien, the Venirs on Altara's south-eastern coast, the Nemarellins on Illian's west coast, and the Banikhans near World's End. It would be interesting to see if Jordan had some kind of master-map at home with all these locations marked on it!