Thursday, September 03, 2009

Who lives where in the Harthe Alle

In an as usually belated response to a continuing question about the inhabitants of the Half-Continent and beyond I have put this map up again but now with all new NUMBERS![TM] by which I intend to answer said query. So here 'tis:

1/ Southeastern tip of Nenin, in the continent known as the Occident = Oriental derived cultures;

2/ Western coast of Heil, called Tung and home to a peoples derived from Mongol/ central asian cultures;

3/ Heilgoland proper, an empire based somewhat on Russian/ central European cultures;

4/ I cannot remember what this area is called specifically but it is home to a wide group of wild folk;

5/ The somewhat mythic lands of Fiele, little is known of here but that perhaps its is a land of sedorners and many monsters;

6/ The (Greater) Derelands, original home of the Skylds (for those who recall the history of Ingebiarge), origin of greater derehunds (most excellent tykehouds) and home of the Hagenards and various other peoples based on Nordic cultures;

7/ Parthia, wide lands, home of wild Hun-like folks;

8/ The Brigandine States, home of the pirate kings;

9/ The very southern edge of the Principalitine States, based on Indian/ Moghul cultures;

10/ The N'go, spread with vaguely African-based cultures of various attitudes to monsterkind;

11/ Turkmantine Empire, the Haacobin empire's most constant foe, based on Ottoman culture;

12/ The Half-Continent, home of the Haacobin and Gott Empires plus minor free peoples, based on western European cultures;

13/ Lausid elector kings and Ing, the former based on Polish culture moving through Hungarian culture and ending in north central Asian cultures;

14/ Dhaghestahn = basically Persian in source.

I surely hope this does not ruin it for people, knowing my sources, my intent; the hope is to show my thinking and give you a sense that there is more to come (Lord willing) beyond Monster-Blood Tattoo.

Also, Magos Kasen asked...
I am not sure if this has been answered before, but are nickers and bogles hunted as sport sometimes? And are they edible?
Why yes, yes they are, especially by the wealthy sporting sets (and the wild kings of Parthis and eastern Derelands, the brave white-skinned souls of Heilgoland amongst others), and as to their edibility, that would depend entirely on the taste buds and squeamishness of each person, but in a general sense, yes, they are edible. That being said, to the goodly, civilised folk of the Half-Continent such an idea is abhorrent. Great question.

...and sorry that I have once again taken so long to post - too much bookface and getting lost in the writing...



41 comments:

Ali said...

Oh this fills me with map glee. I have a few questions about the zoomable map, if you're willing to sit through pedantry.

Jack Dixon Ryan said...

Very neat indeed. Really puts the Half-Continent into perspective.

D.M. Cornish said...

Ask away Ali!

smudgeon said...

I think I've said this before, but the thing that always annoyed me about Tolkien is he died 30 years before I could ask him any of these kinds of questions (ie. who lives in the other bits of the map?).

Bless you Mr Cornish for being so forthcoming with answers to all our questions...

Anonymous said...

Location #4.. Elizabeth?!
Mr Ip

Aphrodine said...

*raises hand* Oooh! Oooh! Me! Me! I have a question!!

In this blog entry (http://monsterbloodtattoo.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html) you mentioned the Spider Queen. You said that she rules from the Spinningwood in the Undermeer on the south-eastern banks of Slithermeer Swamp.

I'm having trouble finding it on the map. May you please direct me in the right direction?

monday said...

oo! oo! oo! I love maps! :D now I can pick where I want to live...

pearl said...

I have a question~~ how often does the Half-Continent get visitors from other countries and vice versa? Is it common to see a, say, Neninian to appear in the HC?

Ockstica: 8 piped wood-wind instrument. Very hard to play. A certain frequency that it produces keeps certain nickers at bay.

D.M. Cornish said...

Ok.

Aphrodine, the Spinningwood is just north the Ichormeer, above a small remote state of Meerschaum, east-southeast of Catalain. How's that?

Pearl, the Half-Continent, and the Soutlands especially are teeming with all manner of folk from about the world. The states of the Haacobin Empire are ambitious to a fault in seeking markets to push their goods and bring back the next oddity. The sea-nickers and kraulschwimmen have a lot to "say" about how easy and successful this flow of trade and people is, but you know we humans, if there is a buck in it then persist we will.

It is funny that you chose the Nenese as an example, because, as it would happen, the flow of culture from and to those lands is rather limited.

Probably the most common "foreigners" you might find in the H-c are Heilgolundians, Hagenards and Gotts.

Magos Kasen said...

Thank you very much for answering my question Master Cornish. You have put a huge smile on my face :D It is great to see your map and influences, and just to learn more about the world of MBT in general.
Another question: Do the wealthy/noble sometimes keep bogles as exotic pets? I can imagine a spoiled child demanding a baby bogle for a pet.

Alyosha said...

Thank you for a wonderful post, that does not at all undermine the allure or mystery of your world. I am still marking the time until the third book comes out About the map, though I have one question: did the Gott's originally come from Parthia?

Carlita said...

Love the map! I'm going to ask a question (or two) as well, though I can see there's a bit of wait with answers. Q 1: If the people are based on populations in our world, are there similar wars and explorations (Crusades and Columbus being very Euro-centric examples)? And Q 2/3/4: Is there slavery? And if yes, are monsters used as slaves? Or is there a human slave trade among regions? (If this is mentioned in the books, I'm sorry, I still have to reread them... too many books, not enough time ...)

Unknown said...

Thank you so very much, DMC! Every day I'm growing more and more comfortable about finding my way around the H-c. *gloats*

(I wish I could say that irl. I get lost in a room with two doors in it...)

Zakk said...

Hun-like? LOL - Atilla the Hun died of a nosebleed on his wedding night... just another piece of useful (but true!) information. I know its true 'coz I read it in a trivia book in the shape of a coffee mug.
Good luck with MBT3!

RottenPocket said...

When I have more time I'll post something relevant to the topic, but for now I'd just like to advertise a really awesome artwork from over at DA: http://targete.deviantart.com/art/Circle-at-Center-59657645

As I've said to the artist, it's like a convergence of Brian Froud and D.M. Cornish.

Thought it was cool, and thought you should check it out.

Vahlaeity said...

Thanks for sharing the map. It's always fascinating to hear about the background knowledge and where ideas come from.

I now must decide where in the HC I would like to live... Could we possibly (please - time permitting) have some more tidbits about the countries please - say interesting national/cultural idiosyncracies (not sure if that's spelled correctly) if such things do indeed exist.

Vahlaeity said...

My Apologies to Anna from Sweden... I'm unsure how to change my account name back to Vahlaeity!
(Hopefully recent tinkering has done that!)
- Vahlaeity -

Anna said...

What...to me..? No apologies needed! Just fun to know someone else has the same name. Anna used to be one of the most used name here but now...only wierd old names from the 19th century or even stranger names. My cousin named her boy to Neo after that SciFi movie with Keanu Reeves.

I think people here can see the difference between our posts, mine cause I´m not very good in english spelling.

have a geat day.

from a stormy, rainy and cold Sweden.

Ryan Kjolberg said...

Alright i think I already asked this in an email but I don't think you answered it in your response so ill recycle it to you now ......

does each continent's climate and terrain reflect their people so do the N'go live in a dry aired climate with expansive deserts and grasslands? or would they be in a completely unique climate altogether

portals said...

Excellent! Great to see.

If moster hunting is a sport, then are monsters present throughout the whole world, and if so, how have say, the 'mongols' adapted their lifestyle to fight the?. And is there a civilisation that is peaceful or friendly with the monsters?

Anna said...

Portals....Aunt-hunting? WHAT are you thinking about?! Lol.

Just a joke. I felt the urge to make the comment when I saw you left out the n in monster.

portals said...

I think in most cases, mother-in-law hunting would be much more fun.

Anna said...

Just to explain. in swedish "moster" is an aunt on your mother´s side of the family.

portals said...

What is aunt on the fathers side?
Is there a word for siblings of parents? We have to say aunts and uncles.

noelle said...

Hmmm...we should have another "Rossamund's belly button" -type debate to spice things up. What can we argue about? :)

Anna said...

Portals

aunt on the father´s side= faster (pronounced with with a short a).

uncle on your mother´s side =morbror (bror=brother)
uncle on your fathers side= farbror

A little swedish dictionary:
Far= father
Mor= mother
Farfar= grandfather on your father´s side
Farmor= grandmother on your father´s side
Morfar= grandfather on your mother´s side
mormor=grandmother on your mother´s side.

so we have specific words for each family member.

portals said...

Thanks Anna.
I'm learning german and it's not as complicated. Its alot like English.

Noelle- Yes that was very fun. I'll think about it.

Anna said...

Mr Cornish, an6y thought of writing a spin off or any other projects?

Portals, I learned german for 2 years, I could speak but the grammatics was a killer to learn. i never got through Ich bien, Du Bist, Er, Sie sind.

Carlita said...

It's funny how similar we all are (from my perspective, at least). I've taken 5 years of German because of high school/college. And no, I'm not good at speaking or writing either, despite how long I learned it. (And thanks for the Swedish lesson, Anna. Very cool!) Just thought I'd pipe up with my two cents ...

Unknown said...

Maaaan. I knew I should have paid more attention in foreign language studies in high school. I can barely speak English, let alone a second language.

The only thing I remember is a few phrases in French that I *definitely* didn't learn in class.

Anna said...

Ahh, yes, the dirty words! It´s always the first thing you learn in another language.

portals said...

Haha... I can (sort of) insult people in Afrikaans.

Anna, yeah, the wole 'regular verb conjugation' in german is insane. At least even though in english its completely random, its fairly consistent. The worst is irregular verbs like habe.
Ich Habe
Du Habst
Er, Sie, Es Hat
and its random.

monday said...

*note to self: stay away from German*
Jeez. I thought Dutch verb conjugation was weird.

Anna, this is random, but what are the Swedish words for niece, nephew, and cousin? I am learning Dutch and a lot of my friends here get confused about those particular three words, so I'm just curious how similar they are...

Anna said...

Cousin= Kusin
Niece= systerdotter/brorsdotter (sister=syster, bror=brother, dotter=daughter)
nephew= brorson/systerson

just don´t ask me about swedish grammatics. I HATE grammatic.
As you see on my writing I just write the words, the grammatic i use is what sounds right to me at the moment.

monday said...

ahhh, that is sooo wonderfully simple. :) and actually makes practical sense. and doesn't have dimunitives trailing along behind everything. thank you :D

portals said...

is there a word for nieces and nephews? In English you can say grandchildren for grandsons and granddaughters but theres no plural for nieces and nephews.

noelle said...

I wonder if those pirate kings will be making an appearance in future tales? I hope so :)

(sorry to break up the language conversation!)

Anna said...

Ok Portals, I guess your question was for me? (And if I get the question right!)

The plural form is for nieces= syster/brorsdöttrar
nephews:syster-/brorsöner

grandchildren =barnbarn (barn=children). that includes both granddaughters and grandsons.

Noelle, language is quite interesting when you compare the similarities or differeces. But I guess anyone who likes to read also are interested in languages/words. And anyone who writes have the interest to put the words together, create something that others hopefully will enjoy to read. Plus having good imagination.

I too is wondering over future stories. There is so much more I would like to read about/know more about in the H-C area.

D.M. Cornish said...

Lots of questions!

Dearest Anna, I most certainly desire to write more stories about the Half-Continent (though I am not so sure they shall be "spin-offs"... don't especially like the word 'spin-off' because it makes it seem like I am doing some typical YA/spec fic thing and mining an existing work for more stories as if MBT is the only idea I had/have - I cannot say it enough, the Half-Contient existed well before I had any notion of Rossamund or his journey, it was made to be used for all sorts of tales... Do you think I am a bit touchy on the subject? NOt sure why. maybe it's ego or something...) Swedish seems a rather sensible language, thanks for the illuminating posts.

And yes dear portals there are monsters ALL OVER the H-c, and there are and have been civilizations who have been in good relations with them (eg: the sedorner kings mentioned in Book 2).

As to climate Master ryankjolberg, I was thinking things were much along the lines of our world. The H-c is a southern hemisphere landmass, therefore the further north you go, the warm it gets until it gets colder again. I was thinking just this morning that the Harthe Alle is a cooler place generally than our planet (and mostly because, quite mundanely, I like cooler weather...:) The N'go is an arid and harsh region, grassy plains, strange sparse forests of stunted crooked black trees, hyenna-headed nickers, that kind of thing.

Carlita, no Crusades as such, nor Columbus, but certainly wars over beliefs and folks from all the lands exploring further and further. I think I like the idea that there are on the other side of the globe lands known of but over-run by monsters, or places like Fiele that are so hard to get to they are rarely visited and still considered mythic by some.

There is slavery too, in the Classical sense, functioning like our prisons do today, ie: captives of war are not shoved into some grotty camp but employed as servants or labourers, able to earn citizenship or freedom, criminals (in some realms) are treated the same, having a chance through work and socialisation as a member of a household to rehabilitate rather rotting and festering in a great big box like we do (and like is becomming popular in the Soutlands in more recent times)

Phew... I think I got most of them.

Anna said...

Mr Cornish, you have to excuse my poor english! What I meant with spin off was a story not exactly related to the Rossamund-story but in that area of H-C. Your map of that world suggests that there are much to write about.

D.M. Cornish said...

It's ok, Anna, sorry to be a tad blunt - I think I am feeling a wee bit weary after six years writing these MBT books, it's making a bit touchy at the moment. I'll get over myself shortly...