cyador - and other sundry items

[ronzal]

Been reading your "Recluse" novels for years. I'm still having trouble with a couple of items:

1. Cyador ---- I assume it's old Candar ---- or a part of it. What area did it cover ---- and why isn't it ever labeled on your map? Taryl mentions it was an empire for over a thousand years ---- apparently before your year 1 and Lorn? Is that so? Then why is it labeled in the chronology as year 1? And how did Fairhaven originate?

2. The same for the Jeranyi ---- where is it located? The given maps are always "current" ---- never in line with the novel presented. WhY?

3. And finally ---- where did the "angels" come from; I know it was written as another universe ---- was it a parallel universe or what? It seems little explanation is given.

Enough questions --- hope you can answer them; love the books and its history ---- obviously there is still a lot to explore.

[corwin]

I believe Mr Modesitt has said, regarding the maps, that his publishers did not feel that the cost of making a new map to be inline with the current timeframe of each novel would be cost effective, or something like that. Basically, they didn't want to pay for more maps.

[Emperor]

From reading all the novels in the series *still working on most recent* there's tid bits of information about where Cyador was located. Different towns on the map are mentioned in more than 1 story making it almost certain to me how to map out the differences.

My biggest issues with the maps to date are the scale, Hamor is the largest by far, yet the feel of the stories give a different impression of the over all scale used.

I'll look into this more and try to see for myself where I've over looked what's right in front of me.

[lmodesitt]

First, the land is Jerans, and it's labeled as such on the maps. The people are the Jeranyi.

Cyador at its greatest extent covered all of Candar west of the Westhorns, except for Suthya and the upper two/thirds of later-day Sarronyn.

The chronology dates are relative to the stories, not to the local timelines, which vary by culture. I only provided them to give readers benchmarks.

There aren't generally "current" maps because they're expensive, although I did persuade Tor to provide an updated map of Hamor for Natural Ordermage and Mage-Guard of Hamor.


The universe of the "angels" and the "Rats" is indeed a parallell universe.

As for Fairhaven's origin... I'm going to defer saying more.


L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

[ronzal]

Thank you ---- it's not many authors who answer their readers questions. I appreciate it very much. You have woven an extraordinary history - and a great series.

Thanks again,

ronzal

[CodeBlower]

My biggest issues with the maps to date are the scale, Hamor is the largest by far, yet the feel of the stories give a different impression of the over all scale used.

The adventures where it seemed to take forever to travel, the person is usually walking or riding a mountain pony. Other times, the story jumps to the next location .. with the assumption that you know they rode the wagon/ship through lots of boring places before arriving a someplace significant.

The maps aren't "to scale" but they show closely enough the approximate distances from place to place so that you can basically work out where Lerris (et al) went and why it took as long as it did.

I like the "hand-drawn" look anyway but their scales close enough for me.

[Emperor]

CodeBlower, I may have mispresented my point when I was talking scale.

I was trying to make note of the actual look on the page and then the discriptions given. I understand what your saying about time and method of transportation, but without a scale to indicate what an inch represents we'll all find a different way of looking at it. To me the map does not properly account for the vast distances explained in the book.

Perhaps I'm being a tad rententive on this, but I'm constantly fliping back to the map in Mage-Guard of Hamor, and i'm given the impression its the same size as Candar.

I've since lost my train of thought on this matter....I'm going to read more.

[lmodesitt]

You're going to have two problems with direct scales.

First, I'm taking the distances off my maps on my wall which are to scale, and the ones drawn by the "professionals" are not.

Second, the roads wind, as almost all roads do in non-industrial lands, and as mine do [but which the simplified maps in the book do not take into account].

So... I suggest, hard as it may be, try to trust that I know what I'm doing [at least when I don't goof up] about the distances.


L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

[Emperor]

Its not that I don't trust what you write, I've just become accustom to seeing the legend 1 inch = X kays.

In the end it just helps me build the world in my mind. I'm really enjoying the latest novel, keep up the good work

[CodeBlower]

If you look at the maps in the fronts (I think of the paperbacks but probably the hardbacks as well), there's one that shows all five continents. On that map, you can see that Hamor is easily two times the size of Candar (it's as tall as Candar is wide).

This is why, I think, we always see Rahl traveling by steamship or wagon in Hamor (but then, I seem to recall him catching a ride with the mail-wagon to get the Nylan).

One of my ..eventual.. plans for my Recluce site, is to overlay the maps with rough-estimates of the paths traveled by a few of the more "road-worn" characters (Justen, Lerris, ..).

I still think you'll have a tough time narrowing the scale much beyond "x days on horse-back from Point A to Point B" but I thought the meanderings could be interesting to look at.

Probably your best judge of scale on the map with just Candar and Recluce would be to take the (roughly) day (plus a little) that it takes Lerris to walk from Wandernaught to Nylan. Most folks use 20 miles a day as an estimate for what you can cover on foot.

Estimating that way, Land's End would be approximately 100 miles from Nylan. You're not planning a vacation there anyway (are you? ) .. so (hopefully) that would be close enough to determine whatever you're after.