[K'rul]

Hi all!

Very nice Worldmap!
Will it be added in the RG and the remaining ones as well?

[Werthead]

No, the map is just my interpretation of the Malazan world. Korelri, Assail, Stratem, Jacuruku and the rest of Seven Cities and Lether all have made-up coastlines (by me). The 'real' ones would look rather different. Steven Erikson has merely said that they are generally in the right locations respective to one another.

SE is apparently redrawing the 'proper' world map and we will definitely get to see it in The Malazan Encyclopedia (due out after Book 10) if not before.

[Midnight]

Hi everyone,

First post for me...great to be here

I just had a query regarding the world map. I thought there were only supposed to be 6 continents but there appear to be seven on the map. Is one of them perhaps unknowningly connected to another?

Cheers

[Dolorous Menhir]

Perhaps Quon Tali and Seven Cities are supposed to count as one?

[Lister of Smeg]

Jacuruku and Korelri are definitely separate. Stratem is described as a subcontinent, as is Seven Cities.

[Werthead]

Yes, this is something I myself struggled with. Possibilities include the fact that the First Empire was simply wrong when it counted six continents. It could have missed Assail. Or maybe there were only six continents there at that time :eek: (Twilight Zone music plays)

Another possibility is that Quon Tali and Seven Cities are counted as one continent but that seems to have been disproved (as Quon Tali was apparently once called a subcontinent in an old edition of the series which has since been corrected, whilst we know from TBH that Seven Cities is a subcontinent of the much huger landmass which also contains the Trell lands, Nemil, Shal-Morzinn and Perish).

[Dolorous Menhir]

Does the continent of which Seven Cities is a part have a name in itself?

[Werthead]

Erm, the term 'Europe' was in use by the Romans and Greeks and Asia possibly from around the same time (even if they had a twisted perception of size, hence them calling Turkey 'Asia Minor' as if the rest of Asia was just slightly bigger). The term Africa dates from the same time.

My guess is that the Malazans call the whole continent 'Seven Cities' even if the actual seven holy cities themselves are just one part of it. Quon Tali seems to have been named after one former city-state and somehow the name has stuck. Genabackis, Jacuruku, Korelri and Assail also all have proper names as well. Lether may have a set name from the days when it was a colony of the First Empire, but what it is has not been revealed yet.

[Midnight]

with regards to the confusion between number of landmasses and continents...perhaps there is some hidden connection that hasn't been revealed yet. Hehe its possible that SE didn't mention it when looking at the map just to trip us up

[Dolorous Menhir]

Where did the original six continent notion come from anyway?

If it's based on the statements of a character, particularly in an earlier book, then we can't take it as certain. Given that nobody in the Malaz Empire seemed to know of Lether's existence before the Edur appeared.

But if it's from one of SE's statements, then there must be an error in the map. Or he changed his mind.

[Murrin]

It's from the Ceda Kuru Qan, who states that the First Empire travelled the entire globe, and that they had maps of the coastlines of all six continents.

[Svaran]

Dolorous Menhir said:

Where did the original six continent notion come from anyway?

If it's based on the statements of a character, particularly in an earlier book, then we can't take it as certain. Given that nobody in the Malaz Empire seemed to know of Lether's existence before the Edur appeared.

But if it's from one of SE's statements, then there must be an error in the map. Or he changed his mind.

page 421 of midnight tides,

"There were dark times for the letherii, so long ago now. The First Empire, from which vast fleets had sailed forth to map the world. The coasts of all six continents had been charted, eight hundred and eleven islands scattered in the vast oceans, ruins and riches discovered, ancient sorceries and fierce ignorant tribes encountered. Other peoples not human, all whom bled easily enough. Barghast, Trell, Tarentho, Fenn, Mare, Jhag, Krinn, Jheck.... Colonies had been established on foreign coasts."

[Dolorous Menhir]

Ok...so is it plausible that the First Empire did not know of any of the modern continents?

[cauthon]

Excellent work. My first thoughts though were that the landmass should be substantially larger. Apparently SE agrees with that feeling.

[Werthead]

The original map was laid down by a poster named Jonathon about a year ago. He created it with the idea of making Malazworld (or Mu or whatever that name for it was ) the same size as Earth simply as a general reference, and then placing the continents from the books on the maps to the appropriate scale (presumably using the default "3 miles = 1 league" rule, although SE hasn't confirmed this use of leagues as far as I know). He put the other continents in different places though, necessitating my remapping project.

So, the world map is from one side to the other the same size as Earth. Thus Seven Cities is about the same size as the continental United States, Quon Tali is slightly smaller than Australia etc.

The big problem is in the southern hemisphere, as the shape and size of Korelri, Jacuruku and Assail will be distorted as the map moves towards the south pole, since mapping a sphere on a flat surface results in a map that is truly scalable only along the equator, with differing values the further north or south you go.

In short, yes, they should be bigger, but I can't really make them much bigger without risking screwing the map up entirely or moving them out of their positions (and SE seemed to say the positions are correct as they are).

[Svaran]

Werthead said:

The original map was laid down by a poster named Jonathon about a year ago. He created it with the idea of making Malazworld (or Mu or whatever that name for it was ) the same size as Earth simply as a general reference, and then placing the continents from the books on the maps to the appropriate scale (presumably using the default "3 miles = 1 league" rule, although SE hasn't confirmed this use of leagues as far as I know). He put the other continents in different places though, necessitating my remapping project.

So, the world map is from one side to the other the same size as Earth. Thus Seven Cities is about the same size as the continental United States, Quon Tali is slightly smaller than Australia etc.

The big problem is in the southern hemisphere, as the shape and size of Korelri, Jacuruku and Assail will be distorted as the map moves towards the south pole, since mapping a sphere on a flat surface results in a map that is truly scalable only along the equator, with differing values the further north or south you go.

In short, yes, they should be bigger, but I can't really make them much bigger without risking screwing the map up entirely or moving them out of their positions (and SE seemed to say the positions are correct as they are).

perhaps the malazan world is larger than earth, like majipoor.