Gate of Worlds Map

[Diamond]

Inspired by Thande's excellent maps, here's my own idea of what the Earth of Robert Silverberg's Gate of Worlds and its companion volume, Beyond the Gate of Worlds might look like.

Some notes:

1) Very little is said about southeast Asia apart from the Maori dominating it through naval power and a trade empire, so I didn't try to be 'authentic'.

2) The Incas apparently control all of South America; reference is made in The Gate of Worlds to the Incas 'swallowing all of the Lower Hesperides'.

3) The Teutonic States is not one coherent nation, but an alliance of German states.

4) China, Korea, and Japan are Russian vassals. Reference is made in 'At the Sign of the Rose' (John Brunner's story in Beyond the Gate of Worlds to the Russian Czar being related by blood to nearly all Mongol khans, so apparently Russia did quite well for itself against the Mongols.

5) It's not quite clear exactly how many African states there are. Reference is made to Songhay (a major power), Mali, Ghana, Benin, Dahomey, Marrakesh, Zimbabwe, Kongo, and a Sultanate of Egypt (which was part of the Ottoman Empire but gained its independence sometime in the 16th century).

6) The Ottomans rule Spain, Italy, France, and the Balkans, as well as their traditional lands. They had controlled England also until the beginning of the 20th century. Ottoman rule over its European lands is weak, but most of southern Europe is so 'turkicized' by now that they don't really have an interest in self-government any more.

 

[Straha]

Jesus dude that russia looks like it rules the world!

 

[Diamond]

Jesus dude that russia looks like it rules the world!

Yeah, but if you read the books, Russia is barely keeping a lid on China, and the Mikado, ruler of The Land of the Long White Cloud (Japan), is trying to develop alliances with the Maori and the Inca in the hopes of breaking away from Russia. With all the problems in the east, the Russian client states in eastern Europe are beginning to get restless too.

 

[Thande]

Can't really comment on the authenticity because I haven't read the book, but thanks for the compliments about my maps!

This looks like a real nightmare scenario, unless you're Russian.

 

[Thande]

If we're posting maps, here's my effort for L. Sprague de Camp's (and Turtledove's) "Wheels of If", with the uncertain parts left grey:

 

[Ivan Druzhkov]

Yeah, but if you read the books, Russia is barely keeping a lid on China, and the Mikado, ruler of The Land of the Long White Cloud (Japan), is trying to develop alliances with the Maori and the Inca in the hopes of breaking away from Russia. With all the problems in the east, the Russian client states in eastern Europe are beginning to get restless too.

Oh, poop. And here I was all ready to sing Россия, Россия, над всеми! (That's "Russia, Russia over All", in case your computer can't read Cyrillic characters.)

Well, with any luck, Russia will kick all their asses.

 

[MerryPrankster]

One would think a plague that vicious would get into the Turkish territories too.

 

[B_Munro]

One would think a plague that vicious would get into the Turkish territories too.

Well, compared to the Uberplague in "Years of Rice and Salt" that kills 99.99% of Europe while leaving the Islamic lands untouched, this is downright sane and sensible.

Diamond - lovely map. What program did you use for the coloring? And do you have the original outline map?

Very very good, there's only a few quibbles I had..

Why an independent Ukraine?

In "The Gate of Worlds" there's what is descibed as an uninhabited no-mans land between Mexico and the Russian Pacific NW. I imagine that California before the discovery of gold, with it's floods, droughts, fires, grizzly bears, and largely hunter-gatherer population wouldn't be a particularly appealing prize to the Aztecs. I'd expect a war over control of the area once some Cossack mountain man stumbles over the gold.

Ethiopia is described as Muslim-dominated in the "Sign of the Rose" story, although we could just assume the area marked as "Ethiopia" on your map is run from *Mogadishu rather than *Addis Ababba.

In "Lion Time in Timboctoo", the Little Father is being teased by the Turkish envoy's daughter, who is playing up his Savage African charms:

"'Your blood is African blood, and Africa is the strangest place in the world. The fierce animals you have, gorillas and hippos running around everywhere, giraffes, tigers - the masks, the nightmare carvings - the witchcraft, the drums, the chanting of the high priests -'
'Please,' Little Father said. 'You're starting to drive me crazy. I'm not responsible for what goes on in the jungles of the tropics. This is Songhay. Do we seem uncivilized to you? We were a great empire when you Ottomans were still herding goats on the steppes..'"

It would seem to imply that the central African jungles, at least, are still pretty primitive - no giant empires.


The Ghurkas block expansion of the aggressive Hindu kingdom to the south: shouldn't we assume they also hold the Sind? That eastern bit of the Ottoman empire looks awfully tempting.

In the "Exhaltation of Spiders" story, South America is split between feuding West and East Incas, with the Inca of the lowlands hoping to take power with
the help of European settlers in the Amzon and around the mouth of a "south-flowing river" (perhaps the Rio De Plata?). It's a little uncertain as to whether these are European refugees from Turkish rule or subjects of said Turks: the Lowland Inca is apparently allying himself with the "Inca of the Green Banner", the Turkish sultan.

This of course seems to contradict what was in "the Gate of Worlds", where S. America appeared to have been a unified Inca realm. OTOH, what does the hero know of Inca politics? We could interpret the split as being similar to the east-west division of the Roman empire in the 4th century, with the eastern regions being theoretically under the rule of the senior Inca in Cuzco, but effectively selfgoverning: and we can interpret the rebellion as breaking out _after_ the events of "Gate of Worlds".

(There are some other contradictions in the books: in the first one, it's implied that the Japanese are a major sea-going nation, one of the main three along with the Russians and the Aztecs, rather than a Russian vassal).

best,

Bruce

 

[Diamond]

Diamond - lovely map. What program did you use for the coloring? And do you have the original outline map?

Thanks. The 'original' (although I actually lifted it from someone else) is in my 'True History of the Draka' thread in the main forum.

As far as your comments - all I can tell you is that the map was done almost entirely from memory. I'm planning to re-read the books soon, and I may do a version 2.0 map.

Eventually, I'd like to have a thread devoted entirely to maps of published AH worlds. I'm working on one for The Crystal Empire and one for Journey to Fusang that I hope to post soon.

 

[B_Munro]

As far as your comments - all I can tell you is that the map was done almost entirely from memory.

From memory? You're a better man than I, Gunga Din.

Eventually, I'd like to have a thread devoted entirely to maps of published AH worlds. I'm working on one for The Crystal Empire and one for Journey to Fusang that I hope to post soon.

Nice. I'd be glad to contribute.

Bruce