Dragon Novel Update - Western Empire As promised, here's a more or less clean map of the Western Empire. It is still very much incomplete, with the empire stretching far more east than the map implies. In fact, the eastern empire is about the same size as the pictured western empire (though in the novel, it'll be divided North and South, based largly on a mountain range that runs across the continent), running into some dwarven lands to the north and unknown territories to the east. To the south is the Skithans, a group of hostile lizard men whom the empire has warred with several times. Many hundreds of years ago, the Skithans were responsible for taking the city of Rokanna, which was said to be the origin of humanity. To help keep the Skithans from spreading further into the empire, the Humans constructed a great wall called "the wall of sorrows". It is said that the number of bricks taken to build the wall matches the number of humans killed in strife with the skithans over the years. The wall stretches for many hundreds of miles.

But I digress...

Here's the image:

a larger version can be seen HERE

This image is mostly focused on what will be directly in the novel. The town Oakfalls is where the child's tale starts. He travels up into Galliandria, then further north to Arthera, after that he is taken to Castle Dumont where the novel ends. Again, this is just a rough map, and will likely see some revisions as the story progresses.

Still missing is the mountain range, which Galliandria sits on the southern end of. Gallindria, in fact, was chosen to be the capital because the mountain pass there is one of the only guarenteed links between the northern and southern kingdoms during the winter. It also has the advantage of being protected by the Great Red dragon, an extremely powerful dragon that, for reasons unknown to all, has sworn loyalty to the human emperor directly. It is said that the dragon guards the Gallindrian pass against bandits and creatures alike, getting to eat those who break the emperor's law.

Anyways, I'm rambling at this point, so I'm just gonna go :P.

--Joe  ¶ 1:20 PM