[Imperial Historian]

"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."

It's plausible that Koreli and Jackurua were mistaken as one continent, seeing as though we know Korel is basically a lot of islands and archipeligio's, korel might not have been counted as a continet, just a large cluster of islands off jackuru/stratem, or Quon Tali has moved away from the Seven Cities mainland or a landbridge submerged realitively recently.

[Murrin]

Erebwain said:

Seeing as they had no boat of their own, and had to sign up with Shurq, I assumed they had come overland...

They came over sea and arrived in that northern city Seren meets them in. As soon as they landed at the dock, they were Indebted and had their boat repossessed. Something to do with docking permits or some such nonsense.

[Illuyankas]

What if the rising sea levels covered a land bridge between, say, Seven Cities and Quon Tali, or Korel and Jacuruku, splitting it in two? It's plausible, has happened here on Earth, and could have occurred since the First Empire mapped the world. Or tectonic plate movement, assuming that plates move fast enough for a significent shift to happen in the time limit.

[Werthead]

Possible. However, Jacuruku and Korelri were described as 'sister continents' in Memories of Ice, so I'd assume they were seperate continents at the time of the Fall.

Of the landmasses, I'd say that some sort of link between Quon Tali and Seven Cities was more likely. Just to make things even more confusing, there's also the occasional mention of the 'Falari subcontinent', by which I assume SE means that the Falari islands are sometimes collectively taken together as a significant landmass (as sometimes Indonesia is counted as a landmass by itself when it's just a morass of islands divided between the Asian and Australasian continents) when they in fact appear to be part of the Quon Tali continent.

Actually, that's a point. Are there any references to natural earthquakes in the books? Maybe Malazworld has no tectonic plates (like Venus)?

[Illuyankas]

They're described as Burn tossing and turning in her sleep, I believe during Quick Ben's conversation with the Tennes witch in MOI. Not sure about volcanoes. Interesting point about Venus - one of the popular theories about Venus is the entire surface of the planet exploding in catastophic volcanism periodically, with estimates ranging around several hundred million years. Could be what happens if Burn wakes up, and anyone who isn't lucky enough to have a handy warren to nip into is screwed.

[fortyseven]

Ya maybe there was a landbridge between Quon Tali and the continent Seven Cities is a part (the Falari islands being like the Aleutians)

[Illuyankas]

potsherds said:

There must be tectonic plates on this planet. There are specific details in the makeup of planets that require a molten core within a specific range of temperatures to allow lifeforms to exist and evolve long enough to create intelligent humanoids. Venus is too hot and hasn't enough water, Mars is too cold and its core is dead so no tectonics. Very very picky system.

Also, Erikson is an archaeologist/anthropologist. He was educated in the geologies. How could he not?

Possibly, in real life. Real life doesn't have a god living as a planet. When you're dealing with supernatural entities real world laws go out the window.

Besides, the quote I think you were looking for is 'long enough to create intelligent lifeforms close to us'. If you reran the universe, the chances of species evolving into humanoid shapes is ridiculously small. It's a parochial (sp?).

Not only that, but the distance from the star also determines a planet's temperature. Venus would be cooler if it was farther away, and Mars would be hotter if it was closer. Hey, there may be life on Europa, so you can't restrict life to a specific distance away from the system's star.

[Werthead]

The key reason acquatic species cannot become intelligent or sentient is that they lack the ability to create fire, which is necessary for technology, unless they evolve into land-dwelling creatures (erm, like us).

Also, by current models lifebearing planets can only exist in-between the Galactic spiral arms (like us) at roughly our distance from the Core or further out. Inside the arms there's too much risk of a nearby supernova irradiating the system and closer to the Core results in too much radiation. Recent studies of (IIRC) the Tau Ceti system indicate that it lacks a Jupiter-sized gas giant, meaning that any theoretical Earth-like planets in orbit around the star would be hit by roughly 10 times as many meteors as Earth (Jupiter or larger gas giants act like a giant vacuum cleaner sucking up or deflecting asteroids in the outer Solar system from trajectories into the inner system), suggesting that the presence of a large gas giant is essential as well for the development of life. Finally, the presence of an extremely large Moon (in relation to the size of the Earth) helps stabilise the axis and regularises the seasons and tides, which may also be essential for the development of life.

There are a couple of problems with this model (such as it disallows the possibility of life existing that can either handle or thrives on radiation) but overall it would indicate that the number of lifebearing planets and stars in our Galaxy is far, far fewer than previously indicated, though still in the tens if not hundreds of thousands.

[Tsundoku]

@Werthead
Nice work, man.

I'm a big map-freak kind of reader, so it was partly the map of Genabackis in GotM that sealed the deal for me. Nice to see someone has gone to the trouble to put the clues together.

I was under the impression (when reading MT), that Lether was on another world, accessible by warren? Kind of like the journey Trull and that T'lan Imass dude (forget his name, only partway into TBH) took through the ocean world. I have no idea why I had this impression, just that I did.

Cheers,

La Sombra, joins the BH Club (with secret decoder deck)

[Illuyankas]

Ah well, the Tennes witch/avatar of Burn from MOI stated that Wu has tectonic plates, so that theory's out the window.

[Illuyankas]

Yay! My money's on Quon Tali coming away from the greater part of Seven Cities, if it's tectonic shift. The coastlines even look similar.

[Illuyankas]

I was rereading MOI again, and at the part where Itkovian and Cafal are talking about the Edur they describe the home location of the Moranth and the previous place of the Edur as a distant continent southeast of the continent of Genabackis. "A land...of giant firs and redwoods and spruce - a forest unbroken, its feet hidden in shadow and peopled with deadly wraiths." Check the map - it's Assail. Maybe the Assailians have munitions as well as the quality ability of forging with sorcery we equate with the Tiste's? Human descendants of the friendly Edur-taught inhabitants seems pretty logical to me.

(copied from Assail thread)

[Murrin]

But Lether is to the southeast also. The part of Lether they lived in was mostly forest, and they have wraiths - the spirits of the Andii.

[Illuyankas]

More eastsoutheast than southeast, and, and...

Bugger.

Ah well, one more thing I missed first time round. *cough*