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home | contents | previous | next | index Chapter 20 - The Collier HillsThe Collier Hills appear to encircle Arylle: The westernmost county, called Pitroad, is separated from the Yendi River by the Collier Hills which, in fact, form something like a ring around the entire Duchy. But they are also referred to as being north of Mistyvale (the county in which the Deepwell Inn is located), which Paarfi says is in Luatha, but Steve's Map shows is in Arylle: Mistyvale County--that is to say, the Mistyvale County between Adrilankha and the Shallow Sea, as opposed to one of the other three--[was] one of the handful of counties nestled between Southmoor and Bra-Moor, south of the Collier Hills, and twenty-five or thirty leagues west and north of Aerich's home of Brachington's Moor. The entire region is hills and valleys, with the Adrilankha River cutting through them like an orange ribbon ... The hills and valleys are all modest, even compared to the Collier Hills Moreover, the only Collier Hills shown on Steve's Map is a small feature in the northwest portion of Arylle. There appears to be a hilly region between Arylle and Southmoor that is not the Collier Hills: Nowhere else that I know of are iron ore, oil, and coal all to be found in the same, narrow region of a few small mountains and valleys. / How many counties are we speaking of? / Five / How much in area? / Perhaps twelve hundred square miles. / ... Where are these counties, exactly? / Just south of the Collier Hills ... I have just promised three of them to [Morrolan] There are three counties to the north I have promised you [south of the Collier Hills] These passages seemed at odds with one another, but when I asked Steve about it, he replied: Hmmm...actually, that sounds right on all counts ... Part of the confusion, of course, is just what exactly constitutes the "Collier Hills." Do they refer to only that set of not-quite-mountains in the southwest of Arylle? Or do they refer to the entire hilly region from which coal can be mined? Depends on the mapmaker. The most obvious elevated position in the southeast is Dzur Mountain, which is located due south of Arylle on Steve's Map, and is almost certainly the most prominent peak in the "not-quite-mountains" mentioned by Steve, which are located to the southwest of Arylle. These latter hills appear to be mentioned again when Khaavren travels from Adrilankha to Bra-moor: they [left Adrilankha and] made moderately good time, achieving fifteen miles on the first day, and nearly twenty on each of the next two. They slept out in the open, under the sky, taking turns watching. There being only four of them, and there being as well a need to keep one on watch at all times as they slept, by the fourth day they were all sufficiently exhausted as to get a late start, and to decide to retire early; which they repeated on the sixth day ... in this way ... it happened that by early evening of the sixth day they had passed the Collier Hills, and [saw] Brachington's Moor.
The references to "miles" in the above should probably be "leagues", since Bra-moor is over 250 miles from Adrilankha on Steve's Map. I think that suggests that there is a row of hills that stretches from Dzur Mountain west and north to the area marked as the Collier Hills on Steve's Map. home | contents | previous | next | index Questions? Comments? Please contact me at dragaera [at] bryann.net. Copyright © 2020 Bryan Newell, unless otherwise noted. |