... of the Balad 'Round Cothon
(created by Jacob based on a pencil sketch by me--worthy, according to the scribes, of 50 xp per level to one character; one may notice that the iqta' al Zaytun, recent battlefield between Kzin-raider the Red Cloud and the human defenders, is not on this map, but is located a fair way south and east)
Presenting more a sense of the country (balad) around the harbor-half of the Dual-Cities, great Cothon--and stretching north enough to show the first few of the long northwest-strung chain of the Denyan Islands--this map may not be properly to scale, and yet it gives proper place to various locales north and around the Cities.
Composed mainly by the sailor-cartographer Bassil, but with the assistance of the land-walking adventurer Sesel (one Voice of the Survivors), it was perhaps meant for sale by the map-maker--and yet, an overlong session of collaboration over wine allowed sharp-eyed patrons Under-Star to make their own versions, thence easily made available to the public at large. Those in the city are well enough aware of the general features, of course, but more than a few barbarians, new-come to Cothon, may indeed benefit from the orientation provided by this map should they venture beyond the confines of Cothon and the Tel al Safina.
Certain locales' legends are difficult to read in the medium of these chronicles; therefore, the scribes supply a brief periplus, or "sailing 'round", starting from the harbor of Cothon:
Sailing west along the coast from the Cothon, the first great river mouth and its broad estuary is known as the Roads. If a storm should blow up suddenly, or if the winds should deaden, and a ship need wait in hospitable waters until a good wind blows, the broad waters of the Roads are where she waits.
The Roads of course, are only a part of the broader Gana Delta, the mouths of the Garden River that flow multiply into Dirac's Sea. Sailing west from the Roads, one will pass the many mouths of the Delta, like the infinitely dividing necks and heads of the great qaqtla upon which the demigod Bism reclined after his labors. The banks and islands of the Delta are thick with rich farms, and with deposits of sand and clay that the Lightermen carry on their barges to the kilns of the Brickmakers and Glassblowers. It is along this delta that the iqta' of Tolwan lies, disturbed by the presence of armored ghars, which Lars Fang-Ripper wishes to hunt in a kind of vision-quest.
A great headland rises west of the Delta, its high cliffs battered by the sea's waves, while on the landward side a road winds its serpentine way up the inland slopes. Alkari tribes dwell in caves overlooking the waters, said to worship sro and to find it taboo to set foot upon the deck of a ship, according to strange ancient religion.
As the headland falls away west and north, the walls of Ittiyqa rise on the coastal plain, the Sister-City of Cothon. She has no seaward harbor, but a great canal, cut through the earth and set with huge locks, connects sea to the freshwater lake. The great fortress al Tsakhrata stands in the midst of this lake upon an island-rock. The city's hinterlands fill the plains west and south.
North of Ittiyqa, Tel Akhar, the Other Mount, rises out of the sea. A great tower overlooks a natural harbor on its western shore, in which many a galley, sryganta, holc, and birling lay wait the changing of the office of the winds, or bringing on water from the pure stream beneath the tower. Though the Denyali islanders rarely make their way so far from their islands, still one may find haunted stone nuraghes such as dot their island homes. Furthermore, it is said that a coven of witches and sorceresses--possibly maeras, but most usually described in story as shape-changing kdaptists--make their lair in the mist-cloaked woods of the island, spinning weird dooms, singing sailors to their fates, and of course guarding a treasure worthy of any king.
If, rather than sailing west to Nous or other cities of the Ten Cities League, one chose to sail north and east, the lookout at the prow would call out at sight of the Denyan Islands. Just north of this map lies the Denyan Strait, through which flows most sea-traffic between Cothon and the eastern Cities and the Nomehs of Misr. It was there that the Denyan Akho was slain by certain heroes; and it is east and north of here that most of the Hanse's campaign against the Luwian Pirates is being prosecuted. The islands are inhabited by the dark-skinned Denyali, whose ancestors built (or at least venerated) the ancient stone structures found throughout the islands and known as nuraghes, most of which are purported to be both haunted, and filled with fabulous treasures.
Following the island chain back south and east, one sails up to the Horn, along the southern coast of which is a fine beach for anchoring and resting the arms of the oarsmen. South along the coast not far from there, the long valley of al Aghadrein, the "Two Towers", cuts into the headland, filled with fine farmland and overlooked by its eponymous castles. A rash of attacks by Sakkra have recently broken out against the people there, and the Souffets are offering a bounty of 50 gold dinars per head of any Sakkra killed in defense of al Aghadrein.
Continuing south and west back toward Cothon, to complete the circle of the periplus, one would pass a number of sea-caves, some cut into the walls well above the waves, others cut out by the waves themselves. Those further north (and further up the cliff walls) are inhabited by the Gao tribe of Alkari, who gather chiefly around their fortress-monastery Kir Tsabbal, carved into the rock of the cliff-face itself. They too are under attack by Sakkra raiders. Inland from there rise a number of lesser Klackon spires overlooked by the great Attine-Spire, as well as various old human-ruins; and farther southwest along the headland, sea-level caves cut deep into the headland--the so-called Ocean's Throat.
From there, one sails south, past the Migdol of the Dyers and Fish-Fermenters, and then west to arrive again in the great harbor of Cothon ...
