Mapping Gen's World

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

There was a recent discussion in the Conspiracy Room about what Gen’s world would look like. We ended up deciding the god/goddess of maps should really just take pity on us and let us have a map, but before we got to that point, there was some interesting discussion. Among the things that we thought about were: how many coasts the various countries had, who were their neighbors (if any), and how the different countries were set up in relation to each other. Check the backlog in chatzy for complete ideas!

The coasts were under hot contention. Some people thought that the three countries were on an island. Some reasons for believing that they are on an island include that there is a peninsula mentioned (at the end of The King of Attolia, in the steam room and when Gen suggests in QoA to his father that he go study there) which implies that the three countries are not actually on it. Other people thought that they were not on an island because it mentions that Eddis has no reliable seaports until Ephrata, and you'd think that if they were on an island they would. Also in support of the non-island theory is that Gen refers to geography in TT as 'somewhere inland of the Seperchia.’ If Sounis had two coasts, then that description wouldn't work.

 

The sea battle also came up when we were talking about coasts. Most of us had assumed that the sea battle took place on one side, but that is never actually stated in the books. Someone mentioned that if the sea battle had taken place on both sides, the armies would need to be broken up, which would weaken them. (Sounis already had a surplus population in The Thief while Attolia was still sparsely populated in some areas. Because of this, and because of the large army that we know the King of Sounis keeps, you would think that he would be more willing to split up his army than Attolia would.) Two suggestions as to why Sounis couldn’t attack on one side are (a) Eddis extends further out on the mainland than Sounis or (b) there’s another country that borders Sounis and restricts access to water on that side. Another possibility was that Attolia's and Sounis' capitals are only on one side, so it would be too expensive to send troops around from the other way and much easier to attack only on the one side.  If the three countries were part of a larger landmass, you would think that Sounis could sneak his army through there. It was also pointed out that most countries don’t just let you march an army through them, lending support to the theory that Sounis couldn’t attack on one side. Also noted was the fact that in The Thief the magus said that Eddis was the only pass between Sounis and Attolia.

 

After a long discussion, the general consensus was that Attolia was on a peninsula while Sounis was on the main landmass. (Eddis is obviously between the two, probably where the peninsula connects to the main landmass.) Attolia is always described as ‘costal,’ implying that none of the country is far from the coast. There was also the thought that, given the chance, Attolia would move inland for Gen’s comfort. To support this theory, we thought back to The Thief, when Attolia was green while Sounis was still brown. Because of the Rain Shadow Effect, the ocean that the prevailing winds blow over must be on the Attolian side of Eddis. Well whether there's coast or a land border, there must be some reason why Sounis couldn't sneak an army round the back way!

 

After all this wondering about the coasts, we thought a bit about the neighboring countries. We know nothing about them. What about the Court of Ten Nations mentioned when Eddis declares war? The thought was that they were similar to Gen’s siblings—much as we’d love to hear about them, there has been no use for them in the books yet. We’ll hear about them when there is a use. It could be that this is mostly from the point of view of Eddis or Attolia and there's not much written about the trade, but why didn't the any of the countries ask for help during Queen of Attolia? We know that Sounis got the new ships (during Queen of Attolia), but thought that it was implied that they were from the Mede.

(Edit from Emerald: my first theory was that because these powers politely disbelieved any threat of war in KoA, that these Continental powers wanted to discourage Mede but were reluctant to go to war. In fact, they preferred to help from the sidelines and make Eddis, Sounis and Attolia fight Mede so they didn't have to. However Eddis said "they are also ready to interfere at the first excuse, but the last thing we need is to have the conflict fought out on our ground" So maybe this is why the countries didn't ask for help. If the Greater Powers of the Continent got involved decisions would be taken out of their (rulers of Eddis, Sounis, Attolia) hands too much and they would end up decimated.)

 

From the Mede, our thoughts turned to Attolia. Some thought that there must be another side to Attolia because Costis says something about 'What must it be like to move from the mountains where it never gets warm even in the summer to coastal Attolia where the snow rarely comes?' If there was an inland part of Attolia, you would think that Attolia would move there for Gen's comfort. It was then pointed out that Attolia mostly moves her court around in order to look into the affairs of the barons. Others pointed out that moving inland (and perhaps further from Eddis) might make Gen more homesick.

 

And, of course, when we talked about Gen, we thought about Eddis. Are there *valleys* in those mountains, or what? Do Eddis's mountains go down to the sea? (They do. Eddis mentions if she were desposed that Attolia would take the coastal mountains with the silver mines.) How hard was it to integrate Ephrata into being a part of Eddis? We decided that at least part of Eddis goes down to the sea, and that there were more rocky cliffs than sandy beaches.

As for Mede, we know it is across the Black Straits from Attolia because Nahuseresh is laughing his guts out from across them

 Comments on our reasoning? Questions on our sanity? Answers to our questions? Please comment!