Forkwitch: Let's Talk About That Map

[torylltales]

Which map? This one, from the front of The Fork, The Witch, and The Worm.



I feel a mighty need to rant about that map. First, it looks like the product of 10 minutes in CorelDraw 6. Stylistically similar to the monochrome map of Alagaesia, but somehow colourising it just makes it look sloppy and rushed.

The big thing, though: Where is that river flowing from or to?!

The map labels it as the Edda River, which originated on the easternmost edge of the "distant" Alagaesia map. So... it's been running inland for long enough for Alagaesia to be regarded as "distant"? And instead of flowing towards the large bodies of water to the north, it flows UPHILL towards a mountain, skirts around the base of the mountain, continues flowing UPWARDS towards the hills and...  cliffs?... and then down through a forest, heading AWAY from another body of water.

THAT'S NOT HOW WATER FLOWS


But you know the worst thing about it? Look closely, it's easy to miss


Actually, that's a trick question. The worst thing about the map is on the next page over.





HE DIDN'T EVEN COLOUR IT HIMSELF

SEVEN YEARS TO PLAN THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF ERAGON & CO AND HE COULDN'T EVEN COLOUR IN THE MAP HIMSELF

It would have taken him half an hour to an hour at most in Photoshop, or even with actual pencils. WHY did Immanuela need to be involved, when one of Paolini's artistic strengths lies in colouring and shading?!


Before you even read a single word of the story, this is a clear warning, like a garishly-coloured beetle, of the laziness and carelessness that lies in wait should you continue.

Comments

[epistler]

No offense to his personal assistant (why the hell does he even need one?) but that map is ugly as hell. It's garish and childish.

[torylltales]

Yeah, as I said it looks like the work of 10 minutes in CorelDraw. I did similar work at the age of 18 or 19, using a now-obsolete program called Fireworks. (If you know what that is, think before Adobe acquired it)


More to the point, it's not necessary for it to exist. There are no roads or cities, and the stories do not involve lots of travel between pinpointable locations -- like the IC did -- where a map would be helpful.

There is no reason whatsoever to include this map except for the fans to go "ooh, pretty!"

[gharial]

I take it this post has pictures we cannot see due to dreamwidth's esoteric file attachment system.

[torylltales]

d'oh! Try it now, I've changed the pictures to "everyone (public)".

[gharial]

The Edda river begins in the Beor Mountains and elfland. It's actually two rivers joining up forming one (seemingly of equal size which probably happens in the real world though I don't know any examples). The flow makes sense if we assume that large body of water isn't the ocean and instead is just another lake. That would give it a south easterly flow. It would also mean the river flowing form those lakes is yet another separate river that becomes it's tributary. This direction of flow also makes a bit of sense considering we know there's a coast roughly to the south while where the north ends is mostly unknown.

Here's a mock up of the idea I'm suggesting.
https://i.imgur.com/c84b5eS.png

[torylltales]

Nice work, but it's still flowing uphill towards a mountain and towards the hills. I can buy it flowing through the middle of a valley, but skirting right up to and around the base of a mountain?

[gharial]

Well it would depend on what scale we're talking about. A river running right up to and hugging a mountain is pretty weird, but if it's a few dozen kilometers away then it's not all that strange, especially as that looks likes a free standing mountain like Mt Fuji or Mt Kilimanjaro, meaning the area leading up to it could be relatively flat.

[(Anonymous)]

Hang on, but how do we know the river is flowing uphill (i.e towards the top left corner) and not downhill (towards the bottom right)?

[torylltales]

Because it starts to the far wast, at the base of the beor mountains, and flows east into the unknown distance, as per the map of Alagaesia.

[cavuy]

This also makes sense given Mount Argnor is supposed to be an outlier of the Beor Mountains, so unless the mountains extend much further east than what the old map suggests it looks like it should be where you put it.

Also, does Paolini still think of Alagaesia as a continent? If so what's the continental divide that makes this new land separate? If it's the same continent, then what is Alagaesia now? The whole 'distant' Alagaesia bit seems to be entirely manufactured to serve Angela's prophecy.

[gharial]

I don't think Alagaesia was every described as a continent. Only a "land". This area would have to a little bit more eastwards than I depict, because the lake/ocean at the north of it doesn't line up at all with the Alagaesia map (unless it's meant to be lake Eldor, which seems doubtful). I don't imagine it's all that far away though since we have the same river and we don't even see the end of the river on these maps, it's pretty long to start with and this is presumably nowhere near an ocean. Describing Alagaesia as distant still checks out even if the maps are pushed right up against each other though, as there's a big honking desert between this place and the human empire there. I do recall Eragon reflects that he's leaving Alagaesia when he first enters the desert in the first book. Or maybe he just says he's leaving the empire. I can't be assed to check. My point is if Alagaesia is taken to mean the human nation on the coast (which the original map actually suggests by giving it the same font as Surda, the Beor Mountains, Elfland and Hadrac Desert) than it can pretty easily be described as distant from here.

[cavuy]

I can't remember what was said in the books, but that makes sense. The Inheritance wiki lists Alagaesia as being a continent, but does not source it.
https://inheritance.fandom.com/wiki/Alaga%C3%ABsia

[cavuy]

Just looking at those hills south of Mount Argnor I thought the entire image was distorted. It looks like he drew the hills, decided they were too small but did not have any time to redraw them, so he just took it into Photoshop and stretched them. Very sloppy.

[vorpaltongue]

A few questions occur to me; what's with the red pyramid? What's the red Diglett west of the pyramid? What the hell are those boils in the south? What the bloody hell is THAT in the middle of the map? And why in the everlasting fractal fuck is it in colour?

[torylltales]

Paolini's response:

*smug grin* No comment. Wait for Book 5!

[vorpaltongue]

... Where's book 5? :P

[epistler]

Why is Mount Arngor standing all by itself in the middle of a plain in defiance of all known laws of established geography?

No comment! *evil grin*

[torylltales]

Actually, that's one detail I'm okay with, because monolith mountains DO exist in reality, in a wide variety of ways and forms.

Inselbergs, batholiths, and various types of volcanic mountains, for example, can be huge formations or rock monoliths that loom over an otherwise flat terrain.

(lol)

We cannot assume that the name "white mountain" which is what Arngor apparently means, refers only to snowcapped peaks (seeing as we know most of the Beors were snowcapped, and the person who presumably named this one "white mountain" in dwarvish (either Eragon or a dwarf) were at least familiar with the concept of a snow-capped mountain peak). It could be a chalky (e.g. Dover cliffs) or other dominantly pale grey rock type, distinct from other rock types in the area, or in the beor mountain chain/cluster thing

[epistler]

It still looks weird and out of place to me.

[snarkbotanya]

Arngor? ARNGOR?

Nice to see he's still stealing Tolkien's names... that's literally just "Arnor" with a G shoved in the middle!


On a more geography-related note... my prototype map for the world of my novel has a few weird-flowing rivers, but the ones that flow inland aren't flowing into the hllls, they're flowing downward into a basin, and their path ends in an inland sea. If the Edda's flow were stated to still be going slowly, slowly downward from some highlands in "distant Alagaesia", that'd be fine... but if that's what you intended to show, Paolini, then you FAILED. Miserably.

[torylltales]

What are you willing to bet book 5 includes reference to a "wizard-king" from "Angamar"?