Hello everyone!

I have the next several posts planned, and they will all pretty much center on getting more detailed maps of the individual realms that make of up the continent of Sciath. In case you haven’t been following along, The Realms of Sciath is a short story anthology series here on my website available for free. I’m trying to keep the pieces written in the gothic style meaning letters, diary entries etc. make up the actual text of the story (Dracula and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are great examples of gothic style storytelling.

So, this map is a more detailed close up of the realm of Arinthe. Zoom in on the picture and take note of some things! There are some small hidden away places that have big stories attached. Is it mostly farmland? Yeah, kind of. But, Arinthe boasts a powerful military, and militaries require a lot of food. While you’ll get more information as the series goes along on the little things, I figured some context might be nice.

Look first to the capital city (same name as the realm itself). It is densely populated but in the Northeast you’ll notice the Arinthian Palace, and The Citadel. The Citadel is one of the two main military fortress other than the castles held by the Dukes and Duchesses outside the capital (more on that later). The other main military fortress is The Bastion which sits just norIn the Eastern part of the city you’ll find the Cabal of Wizards as well as the Grand Library.

Take note of some small but fun places stories might happen, like Eledern’s Tower, or the Tuomari Temple. They seem out of the way, but I’m sure we’ll get into some of those stories eventually. The other main military fortress is The Bastion, just north of Riverhold. It is a primary defense against any potential southern invaders.

You’ll notice that each chunk of farmland outside the capital has a centralized fortress. These are each separate duchies, and each duchy has a name separate from the castle. So, Frosthall, for example, is in the duchy of Lerwyk. In some stories I’ll reference the duchy or the fortress or both (if it’s applicable). To that end, Windrun is the castle for Marwyn, Cragskeep (my wifi network name because my home is near the mountains) is the castle for Saulk, Woldsgard is the castle for Forlath, and Riverhold is the castle for Cenwyk. There is one duchy and castle not pictured. It is an island just to the southwest (see the “Sciath” post to see where the island is). The castle there is called Spearfall, and the duchy is Terwyk. You may also notice in some stories the dukes or duchesses are referred to as the name of the duchy (for example, I believe Liliana Thrushgrove mentions Cenwyk referring to the Duke of Cenwyk. Alastin, though small is a bustling little trade town since it sits on the river, and many exports are sent south. However, it just has a mayor, no duchy or castle involved.

Now, while I could go on and on about how things run in Arinthe, I don’t want to just world dump on you. Let’s go through it with the stories that take place in Sciath! I think it’s more fun and I don’t just explain it all, but I hope at least some of this context will be helpful. It’s kind of fun making these maps too, so I get to play around with that too.

That’s it for now, we’ll see you December 7, for the next realm (or maybe two?) and a similar post with a little context.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Kathryn

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