The Origin World · The Four Continents

Saint Dora lies across the world north of centre, the hub of politics and information. Yelu sits dead in the middle, Zhujing, Qingling and Winterfrost Vale are spread across the north, Whitestrand to the west, Darkmere to the south; Saint Tranya, the core of the main civilisation, sits at the very southern tip of this continent, and south of that there is only sea.

Saint Dora's official map is drawn with the Inland Sea at the centre, and the scale, the sea lanes and the checkpoints are all marked with precision. The southern margin of the map presses against a ring of outline for the Frozen Continent, and inside that outline the whole area is blank, with nothing printed at all. This map is revised every two years, and that blank patch has never once been touched.

Running south from here is the Saint Dora Passage, connecting the southern end of the continent with the northern end of the Frozen Continent, the shortest of the 3 main passages and the only one drawn onto official charts.

The Dawn Continent lies west, the territory of the Elven peoples, including those islands that never see daylight. The Saint Dora government has signed accords with each of the Dawn Elven peoples, crossing the border requires a permit, and the number of legal corridors is limited.

The Dawn charts are drawn the opposite way round from Saint Dora's. The depth of the Ice-Shadow Trench, the run of its undercurrents, the months it freezes each year, all packed in densely, layer over layer; the land is drawn carelessly by comparison, the coastline done in a few strokes. Someone used to Saint Dora maps, opening a Dawn chart for the first time, mostly can't find the city he's looking for.

The Dawn Passage cuts from the southern tip of this continent into the western side of the Frozen Continent's northern end. Beyond that, hidden passages are scattered across the southern face of the Dawn Continent, and none of them appear on any official chart.

The Badlands lie northeast. Stormharbor, the Beast-King Capital, Dragonbreath Isle, Panghuang City and Redclaw Isle are scattered across this continent, each a considerable distance from the next. On the coastal cliffs at the far south stands Jiangbao Fortress, with the sea wind slamming into the rock face year after year, and the stone on the seaward side of the fortress a shade paler than the side out of the wind.

The fishermen on the southern Badlands coast don't use charts. What they read is the sea wind—which direction it comes from and what it carries on it tells them whose waters they have drifted into. Someone once tried writing this way of reading the wind down, and gave up on the third page, because the same wind means a different position in different months.

The Badlands Passage cuts from the southern tip of this continent into the eastern side of the Frozen Continent's northern end, the easternmost of the 3 main passages.

The Frozen Continent lies straight south, taking up the entire southern half of the world. The Central Glacier, the West Glacier, the East Glacier and the Ice Volcano all fall in its south-central region, and Coldwind Isle sits alone out in open water.

Direction is a thing people in the city routinely get backwards. Setting out from Saint Tranya for the Frozen Continent means going south; the standard route for a cross-border craft like the CV-1A skims the southern coastline of Saint Dora, cuts into the Ice-Shadow Trench, then drops onto the northern end of the Frozen Continent, the whole run 70 kilometres to Signal Marker S-17-R. The distance isn't far. Not many people make it.

Saint Dora's official map, the Dawn charts, the wind directions passed down by word of mouth among Badlands fishermen—lay the 3 out on the same table and their methods don't reconcile, their scales don't recognise one another. Only that one patch of the Frozen Continent is the same: on every one of them, empty.