Jun-01-2010, 05:00 PM (UTC)
So I've been thinking. (Aahhh! Run!)
About Aslevjal
If you look at the map of the six duchies and consider what we have heard about the climate of the Near Islands, which are north and east of the six Duchies, they appear to be quite cold. Presumably the Out Islands, which are further north and east still from the near Islands are even colder. Just a slight distance north of the six Duchies and the Mountain Kingdom we have something called the Glacier Plains, so I think we can figure that either the Realm of the Elderlings is in a state of moderately advanced glaciation, or that the Six Duchies are pretty far north. I don't think that the world is in an Ice Age, because Ice Ages are usually pretty dry and there seems to be a lot of precipitation. (Although the continents were in roughly their current positions during our last Ice Age, there was no amazon Rain Forest.) On the other hand, there's a pretty small distance between the Rain Wilds and the Glacier Plains, so I don't know if there's enough latitude in there to explain the difference in climate. Maybe we need to think of the Rain Wilds as being more like the temperate Rain Forests of British Columbia and less like the tropical Rain Forests of Brasil.
So, I guess what I'm getting at is that I think Prilkop probably was changing the temperature in the Elderling city, not on the whole of Aslevjal. I suspect the assumption that Elderlings don't like the cold is true, given Thymara's feelings of constant cold after her wings emerged, So, although they had a good reason to live in a cold place, they didn't like the cold and so invented a way to keep their dwellings warm.
I liked what Nuytsia said about Aslevjal being perhaps not always isolated. Aslevjal is to the north and east of the Six Duchies. Maybe it's not that there is more world to the north, but that there is more world to the east. Perhaps Aslevjal was to the Elderlings what Iceland or Greenland were to the Vikings, if the Vikings had been able to set up more than one colony in North America. Let's say that the Elderlings needed to have a stopping point on their journey from the Cursed Shores to whatever there was on the other side of the ocean, and they picked Aslevjal in particular because it had the memory stone that they so love to use for their buildings.
About Kelsingra
I don't think that the lake-like area on the map of the Cursed shores is in fact the vast shallow basin that the Tarman travelled through. That was after they went up the acid-free tributary, remember? Instead, I seem to remember Thymara - or was it Alise? - thinking that for a time she had been unable to see the opposite bank of the Rain Wild River as it progressively widened. I also remember that it had narrowed down again before they reached the split in the river. I think that the river to Kelsingra is an unmarked tributary further up the Rain Wild River, that runs north toward the Mountain Kingdom. Looking at the map, I change my opinion to state that the volcanoes in question are in fact part of the same mountain range as the Mountain Kingdom, just further westward, and that the prevailing winds have carried ash and whatnot south and west along the course of the Rain Wild River, thus missing Kelsingra which is further east.
About Aslevjal
If you look at the map of the six duchies and consider what we have heard about the climate of the Near Islands, which are north and east of the six Duchies, they appear to be quite cold. Presumably the Out Islands, which are further north and east still from the near Islands are even colder. Just a slight distance north of the six Duchies and the Mountain Kingdom we have something called the Glacier Plains, so I think we can figure that either the Realm of the Elderlings is in a state of moderately advanced glaciation, or that the Six Duchies are pretty far north. I don't think that the world is in an Ice Age, because Ice Ages are usually pretty dry and there seems to be a lot of precipitation. (Although the continents were in roughly their current positions during our last Ice Age, there was no amazon Rain Forest.) On the other hand, there's a pretty small distance between the Rain Wilds and the Glacier Plains, so I don't know if there's enough latitude in there to explain the difference in climate. Maybe we need to think of the Rain Wilds as being more like the temperate Rain Forests of British Columbia and less like the tropical Rain Forests of Brasil.
So, I guess what I'm getting at is that I think Prilkop probably was changing the temperature in the Elderling city, not on the whole of Aslevjal. I suspect the assumption that Elderlings don't like the cold is true, given Thymara's feelings of constant cold after her wings emerged, So, although they had a good reason to live in a cold place, they didn't like the cold and so invented a way to keep their dwellings warm.
I liked what Nuytsia said about Aslevjal being perhaps not always isolated. Aslevjal is to the north and east of the Six Duchies. Maybe it's not that there is more world to the north, but that there is more world to the east. Perhaps Aslevjal was to the Elderlings what Iceland or Greenland were to the Vikings, if the Vikings had been able to set up more than one colony in North America. Let's say that the Elderlings needed to have a stopping point on their journey from the Cursed Shores to whatever there was on the other side of the ocean, and they picked Aslevjal in particular because it had the memory stone that they so love to use for their buildings.
About Kelsingra
I don't think that the lake-like area on the map of the Cursed shores is in fact the vast shallow basin that the Tarman travelled through. That was after they went up the acid-free tributary, remember? Instead, I seem to remember Thymara - or was it Alise? - thinking that for a time she had been unable to see the opposite bank of the Rain Wild River as it progressively widened. I also remember that it had narrowed down again before they reached the split in the river. I think that the river to Kelsingra is an unmarked tributary further up the Rain Wild River, that runs north toward the Mountain Kingdom. Looking at the map, I change my opinion to state that the volcanoes in question are in fact part of the same mountain range as the Mountain Kingdom, just further westward, and that the prevailing winds have carried ash and whatnot south and west along the course of the Rain Wild River, thus missing Kelsingra which is further east.
- Always on Time -
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