[Eispeis]

Hi guys. I'm back to the forums after a wee 8 year hiatus.

I just finished Assail and enjoyed it for the most part, but there was one thing that bothered me endlessly in this book. I was thoroughly confused several times Esselmont described cardinal directions/where things were in relation to the characters I was reading about.

My first confusion stemmed from when Fisher and Jethiss met up with the Lost brothers and it was said they needed to travel east to get to the Lost Holding. As far as I understood the story/map, they arrived on the continent from the Sea of Hate (east of Assail) and crossed the Bone Range in a west/north-westerly direction. How the fuck do they then travel east?

Then Kyle and the Shieldmaiden traveled east across the land of the Silent Tribes, which makes sense. They then had to travel North along the Anguish Coast of the Dread Sea, but all of a sudden they needed to go East again, which confused me. Maybe a north easterly direction makes sense to get to Mantle, but Mantle is ostensibly west of the Salt Mountains.

The final straw came when the Myrni Holding was east of one Holding or another (I think it was Sayer). On the map of the Holdings, in conjunction with the larger map of the environs, the Myrni Holdings are clearly West or South of the holdings depending on how the Holdings map is directioned. When comparing it to the larger map I was assuming that Mantle is East of the Holdings, but I guess it may be South.

I just wondered if I have misunderstood the whole geography of the continent, if Esselmont just enjoys writing East, or if there is a mistake.

Not a big thing, but it bugged me.

This post has been edited by Eispeis: 15 August 2018 - 10:24 AM

[Aptorian]

The travel direction is not important, the travel direction is not important, the travel direction is not important...

[Khazduk]

She looked Cyclopean East, as if to say...

[Vengeance]

East is a state of mind.

Think of it like this. If you are standing on the beach in California,Oregon,Washington, or Alaska. You are on the western most part of the world. If you go across the Pacific ocean then you are in the Far East. If you go back across North American Content you are going east toward the east coast. If you go across the Atlantic ocean then you are in Western Europe. Now if you keep traveling east then you are going to be in Eastern Europe. Then the western Urals then the Far East again. See it is quite simple. So it is possible to go west when you are really going to be going east.

[ArchieVist]

Assail must be on the Malazan globe's west pole. That way, every direction is east.

[Vengeance]

ArchieVist, on 15 August 2018 - 06:47 PM, said:

Assail must be on the Malazan globe's west pole. That way, every direction is east.

Now you get it.