Part of the Map

Sho Caudal

I've been working on Gomo Guide: Tan Iricid in the background, but that also means I'm working on The Angel of Drail, and Gomo Guide: Ponteer. It is based on discussions with Andrew Leker, studying maps by Miles Teves, writings from Sholari James, and application of different physical sciences to the planet. A good deal of my understanding of Sho Caudal outside the major canon of Burdothian propaganda comes from maps.

I also did some meditations on the symbol that appears on Miles 2nd edition world map, or the world we know. It is in the lower left of that map and is the Shanthic symbol for what we call "Jorune". Jorune is an Earth word - the name of the astronomer who detected Jorune, about 140 years in our future (it used to be 160 years, but that was 20 years ago). "Jorune" is taken as a direct insult to Shantha, and there are certain people who like insulting the natives by insisting on using a word that is offensive to them to designate their own world. Kind of like calling the Shantha "aliens". Shantha do not separate the words for "world", "spiritual life", and the concept of "now". Humans seem to have a problem with that. And it drives Thriddle crazy.

But back to thoughts on future books in the Return to Jorune stream.  I did a map for Sea Of Cerridus. I did a color version, too, but it is too much to deal with all at once. Really pretty. That's why I think it would look nice on the back of three different books.

The foundation map for Sea of Cerridus

Part of this map will be on the back cover of Gomo Guide: Tan Iricid.

Part of this map will be on The Angel of Drail.

Part of this map will be on the back cover of Gomo Guide: Ponteer.

I know what Ponteer means now. It means "Shards" - broken glass. The "mountains" of the ithmus reveal something horrible happened in the past and there are straight line impact folds. Jorune is a silcon heavy world - hence skyrealms and crystals. Silicon becomes glass which heated, and brittle glass when heated suddenly. There are very few things that create sudden, extreme heat for a 500 kilometer square region of a planet. Yeah, that will be explained in Tan Iricid.

The Burdoth map mentioned in text.

I really want to do the Jorunigraphica, but will have to keep focusing on tight little areas. this map covers about the same square mileage for the Burdoth map which includes Heridoth and sections of Dobre, Doben-al, Ros Crendor, East Trinnu, and the island and waterways outside Ardoth Bay. But the Jorunigraphica requires cooperation with Sholari James, who answers emails at an even lower rate than Andrew Leker, and it would take a LOT of time to do the real maps... so, I'm just going to focus on a small geographic area at a time.

I know secrets about Drail. I love revealing secrets - it's a good thing I'm not in the military or intelligence communities because I would have been in the news for years. Andrew was absorbed with his creation of Burdoth, and I consider Burdoth beneficiary of the highest tech levels on the planet, but not really a place I would want to do anything more than a brief visit. My heart remains in Ponteer, and I get to tell people why in the next several Return to Jorune books.

And I need to move onto the Eastern continent. Dobreh, Yobreh, Hobeh, Lundere. I have thoughts about them, too. Horrible, horrible thoughts. And the Northern continent - Voligire, Gilthaw and Sharden. Who got time for that?

This is what I do while waiting for the final edit files for the layout of Sholari Magazine Volume Two, Number One. I also am expanding my notes for Sholari Magazine, v2n2. That means warp work - The Red Gate, the Blue Gate, and the Black Gates (there are a lot of those, which is not good).

And I'm expanding the notes that will go into The Angel of Drail, which includes colonial information regarding the Seraphim Guard, Trarch culture, with the surprisingly cosmopolitan nature of a school in the mountains of Drail (the headmistress may be of interest to you). There are two cool pieces of Earth-tec new player may fight over - a very unique armor based on research in our own so-called 'real world', and a device for people addicted to education. Of course, this is science fiction and we don't have to be worried about anyone being involved with that.

I still do not have a functioning scanner and have to use my phone (with a great app called ScanBot) to take pictures of new art for layout, but I am old fashioned and insist on real scans of the real art for it to go to press. Bad thoughts about Apple - the problem is their new upgrade, which does not address my all-in-one-printer-scanner. It print, but it will not scan. Yet. I have a really old Canon Li50 scanner in the back room, where I also have a really old Mac laptop running 10.6, which MIGHT allow me to scan. We shall see if that works. (I suspect the really old scanner will not work with the new OSX upgrade which is the source of my current menu of woes du jour, because it doesn't work with the much news all-in-one that worked fine 36 hours before the software upgrade.)

But I think I'd trade all of this for a really good night's sleep.