Excellent maps. The quality of the images is pretty good, and the clarity is improved by the removal of the big names.
However, the actual layout of the world map has been thrown into confusion. Steven Erikson showed the 'canon' world map to the webmasters at Malazanempire.com last year. Although they cannot reproduce the official map for copyright reasons (leading to suggestions that the world map may appear in the forthcoming tenth and final novel in the series, due in January), they were able to give some pointers which threw my earlier maps into some doubt. This thread contains a full discussion about what is going on where.
We haven't reached a new working map so far, but the official information indicates that the unmapped-in-the-book part of Seven Cities (the part west of Jhag Odhan and Sepik Island) is larger than what I have depicted, with Lether located further east. The eastern-most parts of Lether are located south of western Seven Cities (which doesn't make much sense to me but there you go). More confusingly, Jacuruku is apparently located west of Korelri, not east (which clashes with several book references). Assail is described as more of a vertically-oriented, narrow, thin continent. The continent tapers off to the south into an isthmus linked to a larger body of land, which is the Bael subcontinent. Lether is less north-south oriented and has more land to the east and north-east, which is where Kolanse is located (not in the far south). Lether is large, about two-thirds the size of the full Seven Cities continent. The subcontinents of Korel and Stratem (which together form the continent of Korelri) are separated by a huge mountain chain, the Aurgatt Range, as well as a semi-landlocked sea called the Sea of Chimes. The Explorers' Sea or White Spires Ocean is an antarctic ocean located south-west of Korel and Stratem.
Other notes: The ocean to the south-west of Quon Tali is the Horn Ocean (not Norn), the island off the south-west coast of Genabackis is spelled Seguleh (and is apparently one large island surrounded by several smaller rather than just one island by itself). The area travelled by the moving island of Drift Avalii is located much closer to Quon Tali. It may also be worth noting the equatorial ice fields (created by magic) on Quon Tali and Lether. Korelri has also been devastated by a huge meteor-style impact, with the interior filled with myriad lakes and the exterior consisting of many islands that have broken off from the mainland. A map of Korelri is expected to appear in Ian Cameron Esslemont's Malazan novel, Stonewielder, out in November.
For those wanting to know what names refer to what:
Seven Cities, Genabackis, Assail, Lether, Quon Tali, Jakuruku and Korelri are the world's major continents. Korelri is formed by two subcontinents named Korel (in the north) and Stratem (in the south) which appear to have collided, throwing up a huge mountain range between them. 'Seven Cities' technically is only the name for the north-eastern end of the continent, but is used colloquially to refer to the whole landmass.
The Malazan Empire, the most powerful nation in the world, controls the entirety of Quon Tali, the northern coast of Korel, the north-eastern end of Seven Cities and the northern half of Genabackis. The only nation to have checked it is the Shal-Morzinn Empire located in the south-west of the Seven Cities continent, which fortunately is insular and non-expansionist. The capital city of the Malazan Empire is Unta on the eastern coast of Quon Tali, although the city it was born in is Malaz City on Malaz Island off Quon Tali's south-eastern coast.
Other names:
Genostel: an archipelago on the 'far side of the world' to Genabackis. Once very powerful, controlling an empire which extended to Genabackis, but now a backwater.
Cabal: another archipelago located near the Seven Cities continent.
Perish: a powerful, militaristic culture based around the worship of warrior gods, the Grey Helms. Noted for their catamaran and trimaran-based ships, the Thrones of War.
Nemil: a middle-of-the-road medieval kingdom, expansionist and mercantile, currently expanding into the plains and lands near the Jhag Odhan.
Sepik: an island off the north coast of Seven Cities, where the human inhabitants have enslaved the Tiste Edur population and forced them to work for them.
Jhag Odhan: a large wasteland/desert region in the south of the Seven Cities continent. 'Odhans' are deserts or wastes and there are many small ones in the Seven Cities subcontinent, but the Jhag is by far the largest.
Seven Cities subcontinent: located at the north-eastern end of the Seven Cities continent, controlled by the Malazan Empire but prone to violent rebellions. Named for the Seven Holy Cities (Aren, Ubaryd, Karashimesh, Ehrlitan, Ugarat and Yath Alban on the mainland and Karakarang on Otataral Island). A land of deserts, plains and parched forests.
Otataral Island: large island off the north-eastern coast of Seven Cities. Also controlled by the Malazan Empire. Noted as the source of Otataral, a magic-deadening dust which inhibits the function of sorcery.
Falar: an island archipelago, sometimes called a subcontinent, stretching from the north coast of Quon Tali almost to the south coast of Seven Cities. Controlled by the Malazan Empire. Home to many seafaring cultures.
Kartool and Malaz: islands off Quon Tali's eastern coast, dominated by cities sharing the same name. Malaz City is the homeland and first capital of the Empire before its removal to Unta on the mainland.
Drift Avalii: a moving island located to the south-west of Quon Tali, inhabited by an isolationist group of Tiste Andii.
Theft: an island located south-east of Malaz. A powerful city-state and part of the Korelri Compact, an alliance of nations of Korel resisting the Malazan invasion of the continent.
Seguleh: an island off the south-west coast of Genabackis. Controlled by a race of honourable, somewhat humourless warriors obssessed with martial prowess and combat.
Morn: a once-great city in south-western Genabackis, destroyed by various forces millennia ago.
Elingarth: a powerful city-state in south-eastern Genabackis, the home of the elite Grey Swords warrior company.
Quaint: a city-state in south-eastern Genabackis.
Letherii Empire: a powerful nation controlling much of western-central Lether.
Awl'dan: an area of wasteland and steppe in the east of Lether.
Kolanse: a once-great kingdom in the north-east of the Letherii continent, on the Pelasiar Sea.
Hope that helps.
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