The imperial heartland
Ilyrion
Largest of the five continents. Four centuries of dynasty, ninety years of world power, and eight years of decline.
Were you raised inside the old story, beneath it, or against it?
Common knowledgeThe Still
Plate I · The known world
The Still
is the map.
It is not a sea between two places. It is one connected body wrapped around a sphere, with arms between every landmass. There is no going around.
Five continentsOne dead seaNo surface passage
Drag to pan. Pinch, double click, or use the zoom controls to magnify. Arrow keys pan; plus and minus zoom; Home resets.
Interactive plate 05The world, as presently claimed.Robinson-style plate · coasts provisional
The Scatters
Map reset to the full world.Present in the world; position and island shapes withheld until the chart earns them.
Amended survey plate 05
A Robinson-style interpretation assembled from crossing accounts. Every coastline, island, graticule, and terrain mark is provisional; only the five-continent topology, one connected Still, and marked Thread relationship are claimed.
01
Dead water
Common knowledgeA flat grey plane. A fog bank that has occupied the same horizon for centuries. Becalmed air above a surface that silently unmakes whatever touches it.
The Still is not all water. Rivers, lakes, and enclosed coastal basins still carry ferries, fishers, and shipyards. The main body is called the Belt. Its arms divide the continents, and every arm has a name, a width, a season, and somebody claiming to own the sky above it. A hull may alight on ordinary water; contact with the Still silently removes material, integrity, and buoyancy.
Distance is not the same thing as isolation. An island two days away is absolute if nothing can float between.
Witnessed
What a map cannot hold
The law is clearest where somebody works beside it.
Four records from the folio: infrastructure, closure, contact, and recovery. None treats the Still as scenery.
The load touches.
One corner greys and loses itself. There is no useful splash, no wreckage to recover, and no time for awe.
The bridge has no feet.
Every permanent member is anchored into dry cliff. A maintenance delay can stop a meal and a work route together.
Second canceled shift.
High fog closes salvage. The work becomes provisioning, repair, weather reading—and debt.
First load on the dry cradle.
Scatters salvage is aerial industry: rigging, grading, processing, and records performed above dry station rock.
Six places to begin
Where did the world leave its mark on you?
The names below are the ones printed on current Kaerys charts. Other regions use other words—and may insist theirs are older.
Foundry country
Harrowmark
Soot, unions, shipyards, and the industrial coast that built the steam fleets before turning those fleets against their owners.
What did the war build for your family—and what did it take?
The contested middle
Coravant
Once administered to the last stamp. Now a patchwork of successor states, old roads, excellent records, and disputed ruins.
Which vanished border do you still recognize?
Behind the wide arm
Vorn
Northern, distant, and independent because reaching it was never worth the crossing. Crystal has recently changed that arithmetic.
What arrived from the wider world that you wish had stayed away?
Country of the great herds
The Longreach
Directly across the world from Ilyrion. Its old migration crossed the Belt; now the herds have changed course and every route-name reads like an obituary.
Which stage of a journey that no longer happens named your home?
Salvage country
The Scatters
Rock, scrub, mooring masts, and archipelagos at the edge of the fog. A low-fog year makes fortunes. A high one creates debt.
What did someone you loved go looking for in the fog?
Trade knowledge
A route is measured in what your vessel must carry.
Steam hauls fuel and water over a sea where it cannot put in. Quickened craft carry no fuel at all. That difference ended an empire.
RouteBetweenQuickenedSteam
The ThreadKaerys ↔ Coldwater2 hoursAbout 12 hours
A wide armCoravant ↔ IlyrionAbout 2 days5–6 days with tenders
A very wide armVorn ↔ anywhereAbout 5 daysTwo weeks; rarely survived
The BeltThe Longreach ↔ anywhereAbout 3 weeksNot attempted