Jul-07-2010, 01:47 PM (UTC)
Hmm, that's a good question... I seem to remember our dearest Fitzy describing the Elderling map on Aslevjal and saying: (yes I did look this up, and yes I do conveniently have Fool's Fate right next to me... 
)
"An island, most likely Aslevjal, was in the exact center of it. Other islands dotted the sea around it. To the south and west, I saw the coast of the Six Duchies, though it was subtly wrong in many places. To the north was a land I had no name for, and across a wide sea, on the eastern edge of the map, I saw a coastline where tradition told me there was only endless ocean. Tiny gems had been set randomly into the map, each marked with a rune. Some seemed to glow with an inner light. One glittered white on Aslevjal. Four, set in a minute square, sparkled in Buck, near the mouth of the Buck River. There were a handful of others throughout the Six Duchies, some bright and some dull. There were more in the Mountain Kingdom, and a line of them, carefully spaced, along the Rain Wild River, though many of those were quenched."
Later, when the Fool sees the map, it says that "[h]e touched, a wistful caress, the coast of a land far to the south and east of Buckkeep. No gem winked there."
So we do know that the Elderlings, and therefore almost certainly the dragons, knew of these far-off lands, but didn't settle them. Maybe the black stone veined with silver was only mined in the Six Duchies, the God's Runes, the Mountain Kingdom, and near the Rain Wilds. If so, I highly doubt that any dragon or dragons would volunteer to be the one/s to transport the huge blocks of stone to the faraway places on the map; they could simply fly there, and their Elderling companions would either ride them (which would probably be most humiliating for the dragons), sail across the wide oceans (but where would they get all the provisions needed for such a long and arduous trip?), or stay behind (and I don't think the dragons or the Elderlings would want to be apart from one another for that long).
It does indeed seem that the dragons are mainly confined to this one area, or more likely, the Elderlings are. The dragons could have flown across the land with their minds linked to the Elderlings, and then the Elderlings could have fashioned the map that way, maybe with help from the Skill River.
I do believe that this would be the only population of dragons in existence. I seem to recall, from what I've read of the Liveships trilogy, that the dragons are always there to help the serpents spin their cocoons. I took this as there would always be a gathering of all of the dragons around that time, who would combine the ancient memories of their race with the unique experiences each individual dragon has had, and give them all to the serpents that would become dragons. Maybe the volcanic activity occurred during one of those times, just after the serpents had almost finished spinning their cocoons but before the dragons could leave?
Also, it seems like the dragons would already know where the serpents go to feed, because they were all serpents at one time. I'd assumed that the dragons kept their serpent memories, so they, too, would be in the ancient memories of the dragon race. So the dragons and the Elderlings would already know where the serpents went, and then pass rumors to the human culture that there was only endless ocean. Nobody wants to sail on endless ocean; perhaps the "tradition" that Fitz talked about was started by the dragons and the Elderlings so that humans couldn't disturb the serpents.
Or maybe the Elderlings and the dragons didn't settle anywhere else because they shared the Others' hatred of cats, and there were far too many felines across the ocean.
) "An island, most likely Aslevjal, was in the exact center of it. Other islands dotted the sea around it. To the south and west, I saw the coast of the Six Duchies, though it was subtly wrong in many places. To the north was a land I had no name for, and across a wide sea, on the eastern edge of the map, I saw a coastline where tradition told me there was only endless ocean. Tiny gems had been set randomly into the map, each marked with a rune. Some seemed to glow with an inner light. One glittered white on Aslevjal. Four, set in a minute square, sparkled in Buck, near the mouth of the Buck River. There were a handful of others throughout the Six Duchies, some bright and some dull. There were more in the Mountain Kingdom, and a line of them, carefully spaced, along the Rain Wild River, though many of those were quenched."
Later, when the Fool sees the map, it says that "[h]e touched, a wistful caress, the coast of a land far to the south and east of Buckkeep. No gem winked there."
So we do know that the Elderlings, and therefore almost certainly the dragons, knew of these far-off lands, but didn't settle them. Maybe the black stone veined with silver was only mined in the Six Duchies, the God's Runes, the Mountain Kingdom, and near the Rain Wilds. If so, I highly doubt that any dragon or dragons would volunteer to be the one/s to transport the huge blocks of stone to the faraway places on the map; they could simply fly there, and their Elderling companions would either ride them (which would probably be most humiliating for the dragons), sail across the wide oceans (but where would they get all the provisions needed for such a long and arduous trip?), or stay behind (and I don't think the dragons or the Elderlings would want to be apart from one another for that long).
It does indeed seem that the dragons are mainly confined to this one area, or more likely, the Elderlings are. The dragons could have flown across the land with their minds linked to the Elderlings, and then the Elderlings could have fashioned the map that way, maybe with help from the Skill River.
I do believe that this would be the only population of dragons in existence. I seem to recall, from what I've read of the Liveships trilogy, that the dragons are always there to help the serpents spin their cocoons. I took this as there would always be a gathering of all of the dragons around that time, who would combine the ancient memories of their race with the unique experiences each individual dragon has had, and give them all to the serpents that would become dragons. Maybe the volcanic activity occurred during one of those times, just after the serpents had almost finished spinning their cocoons but before the dragons could leave?
Also, it seems like the dragons would already know where the serpents go to feed, because they were all serpents at one time. I'd assumed that the dragons kept their serpent memories, so they, too, would be in the ancient memories of the dragon race. So the dragons and the Elderlings would already know where the serpents went, and then pass rumors to the human culture that there was only endless ocean. Nobody wants to sail on endless ocean; perhaps the "tradition" that Fitz talked about was started by the dragons and the Elderlings so that humans couldn't disturb the serpents.
Or maybe the Elderlings and the dragons didn't settle anywhere else because they shared the Others' hatred of cats, and there were far too many felines across the ocean.
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