[Werthead]

Check it:



Additional updates will take place as I read the book. I need to do a reshuffle of the map based on the info SE provided a year ago as well, but mapping a full planet on a square page is impossible without distorting the shapes of continents (particularly near the poles), so it's going to be tricky to do this. Let's see how it goes.

[Coco with marshmallows]

I've said it beforeand i'll say it again.

damn, you're good.

Coco, wishes he had that much skill.

[polishgenius]

Looks good. I think you might find yourself moving the entirety of Assail and Jacuruku north, but you're doing the work here, so I'll see what you come up with once you've read it.

I think you might need to scale the continents down a bit in order to get the proper scale of the entire world in, but obviously I don't know that.


It's some blooming impressive work, though.

[Werthead]

It was straightforward. There are some scans of the map books around so it was just a matter of sizing them so the scale bars all matched and then sticking them on a vaguely Earth-sized planet. Much of the legwork was done by a poster called Jonathan who first tried to do this about two years ago. He scaled the maps to one another (although according to SE Genabackis should be slightly bigger) and came up with the colour scheme. I just moved the continents into the correct positions and coloured them in.

Obviously, the coastlines and sizes for landmasses unmapped in the novels so far are all speculative: Assail, Korel, Jacuruku, western Seven Cities, eastern Genabackis, southern Lether/Kolanse etc.

What would be great is if we could get really high-resolution of the maps seen so far in the books. We could then trace over them with Campaign Cartographer to create fully-scalable, infinitely-zoomable maps with secondary maps (cities), region maps etc linked to the world one. You could switch on layers, so you could flash up a map of the Chain of Dogs' route across Seven Cities or the advance of the allies' army into the Pannion Domin, for example. It would be cool.

[polishgenius]

That's a project for when all the books are out, methinks...

The reason I said you might need to size them down a bit is simply that there doesn't seem enough sea in comparison to land, especially around Lether now it's gone up in size. Perhaps the planet is bigger than Earth.

It's pure speculation on my part though.

[Imperial Historian]

Stickied.

I'd like to see how you change the map once you read RG, one piece of info that stood out was a mention of iron bars and co traversing jackaru to get to assail, not sure how that's going to pan out with the current map...

[Werthead]

If that means Assail has to be quite near Jacuruku, that's a piece of good news, as the southern hemisphere is quite crowded and sticking substantial oceans between the landmasses is getting quite tricky. Assail and Korelri (and Stratem as well IIRC) all have to be increased in size a fair bit according to SE, so that should help in that regard.

[caladanbrood]

Means you might have to swap round Jacuruku and Assail on the map.

[Werthead]

Difficult. Jacuruku and Korelri are right next to each other according to the MoI introduction. Korelri, Jacuruku and Assail can be right next to each other, but Assail cannot be between Korelri and Jacuruku.

OTOH, Assail being closer is workable. Its ultra-badass reputation means that it being quite near Jacuruku (itself possibly considered a cursed place because of what Kallor did to it) doesn't mean it has to be regularly visited or anything, and we know the Malazans know of Assail from TBH (when the "Wrecker's Coast off North Assail" is mentioned).

[caladanbrood]

Not sure how spoilerific this is. Not very much, but just in case:

Spoiler

I may be wrong, but I think the part IH mentioned was when Shurq dropped off the Crimson Guard on the East Coast of Jacuruku.
So either they weren't going to Assail, or it's further west. Or maybe north, but it did mention crossing the continent, as in from East to West.

[Werthead]

Okay, need some reminders from MT here (haven't read the book for about 2 and a half years):

Is that further info on the route the Crimson Guard took to get to Lether?

Spoiler

Or is this what happened after MT? If so than of course they're going to avoid Assail, since it was hell getting across it. Moving Assail closer to Jacuruku but to the north means a landing from Lether on the east coast is sensible. And did the CG mention they were going back to Assail? I thought they were returning to Quon Tali? Hasn't ICE said that we'll see the Crimson Guard MT team in Return of the Crimson Guard?

I should do a MT re-read after finishing RG. Or just re-read MT, TBH and RG in one go a few months down the line.

[caladanbrood]

From what I remember from MT, they were going to Assail to help out some other Crimson Guard squads, weren't they? I might be wrong.

But yes, landing on Jacuruku is in RG. Page 81;) They specifically said they were going to cross it and find another boat.



And, btw, it's Cabal, not Cabil:)

[Werthead]

Proposed solution: moving Korelri closer to Malaz Island. The Sea of Storms to the south of Malaz is presumably the same sea that washes along the northern shorts of Korelri (hence why the natives are the Stormriders and the north coast of Korelri is protected by the Stormwall).

This allows Korelri and Stratem to be increased in size as per SE's comments last year. Jacuruku needs to be close to Korelri's east coast (IIRC Mael walks across Jacuruku to reach its 'sister continent' of Korelri in MoI). Assail is south of Genabackis and west of Lether. Its location in comparison to Jacuruku/Korelri is unclear but hopefully the new RG info should expand on it. Can someone give me a page reference for this passage about Assail/Jacuruku?

The ocean between Lether and Seven Cities is 'vast', and presumably the closest Pacific analogue on Malazworld (aka 'Wu').

Stuff it would be great to find out from SE or ICE:

How large Western Seven Cities is in comparison to SC itself. I could perhaps scale it back somewhat and move Lether further east to free up some room in the southern oceans.

Is the planet bigger than Earth? If it is, this would make life a hell of a lot easier.

How big is a league? 3 miles (the traditional length)? If it's 1 league = 1 mile than actually the world maps need to be changed radically (although the Chain of Dogs probably wouldn't have needed 4-5 months to cover 500 miles, whilst they definitely would have done to cover 1,500). At the moment Seven Cities is about the same size as the Continental United States, which I'm not too sure is right or not.

It'll be also good to resolve the six/seven continent discrepency.

[caladanbrood]

In addition to those changes, I think you need to:
-Make the whole map higher.
-Decrease Lether slightly in size - it's mentioned that the Malazan Empire is four times the size of the Letharii one.
-Move Korel and Jacuruku further east, towards Lether. If Shurq sailed all the way to Jacuruku and, it's mentioned, to Laughter's End, they have to be closer to Lether - there's no profit for pirates staying in open water too long.
-Move Assail slightly north-west, towards Genabackis, and maybe shrink it a little too.

[Werthead]

caladanbrood;182058 said:

From what I remember from MT, they were going to Assail to help out some other Crimson Guard squads, weren't they? I might be wrong.

And, btw, it's Cabal, not Cabil:)

Actually, you may be right. I'll go see if I can find that bit in MT. Assail isn't even mentioned on that page, so that's not really helpful.

It's Cabil in the glossary (recalls spelling screw-ups in TBH glossary/cast list)

[caladanbrood]

It's Cabal when a minor character from there turns up in RG;)


Should this topic be spoiler-warned in the title?

[Werthead]

Only if it impacts the plot.

Assail is too small, though. SE said last year it should be bigger, as should Genabackis. Genabackis also needs to move a bit further south, which is really causing me headaches. If the planet is overall bigger than Earth this is possible (and it's merely a planet with most landmasses in the southern hemisphere rather than the northern, unlike Earth).

I don't see making Lether smaller helps though. The continent is not the Empire. Remember that Kolanse and Awl'dan are outside the Letherii Empire and the Malazan Empire also includes all of the 7C subcontinent, northern Genabackis and northern Korelri. Combined with QT, it looks about right at the moment.

[caladanbrood]

Yes, I do know what land the Malazans have conquered;) But leaving that aside for a time... it was only an estimate anyway.

Maybe 7C/Perish needs to be moved further north? This would create a bit more room for the others to expand, and also make it more sensible that the Malazans started their assault on Genabackis from the north, not the south, which does seem rather odd with the map as it is now.

[Werthead]

Ha. I meant that sometimes SE seems to refer to 'The Empire' as Quon Tali itself, with presumably 7C, Korelri etc as overseas occupations (on the HoC map, for example). I wouldn't impeach your knowledge of the MBF

7C could be moved further north a touch, although this means taking Quon Tali with it (as we see QT's relationship to 7C on the HoC map). It does say in GotM that Malazan armies landed on both coasts of Genabackis; presumably invasion forces sailed either south round the whole continent (which is why I don't think there's that much more land east of the MoI/GotM map; although this does mean that Genabackis looks like it's giving the finger to 7C) or around the north coast.

With the planned changes to the map as well I'd have to move Korelri north. Not sure what impact that has on the Jacuruku/Assail/Lether relationship though.

[kcf]

You mention needing images of the maps - if you want I could take digital photos of all the maps in the books and email them to you. Just shoot me a PM if you're interested.