#map fantasy

[literary-illuminati]

2025 Book Review #4 – Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

In the time between first hearing about Malazan and finally reading this, I have seen its reputation peak as The Only Fantasy Series anyone online recommended (long since dethroned by Sanderson), get submerged in the backlash, and finally just seem to fade from discourse entirely. In that time, I have been relentlessly peer-pressured and bullied (affectionate) into giving this ten-book saga a chance. And so, as a project for 2025, I will be endeavouring to get through it. Gardens, if it doesn’t live up to the hype (an impossible ask, really), is at least a very entertaining and engaging piece of sprawling epic fantasy to start it off.

Set in a sprawling, ancient fantasy world Gardens of the Moon is (to generalize and simplify) about the attempts of the Malzan Empire to conquer Darujhistan, last and greatest of the Free Cities, before the simmering discontent among its inner provinces and much-abused legions erupts into full scale rebellion. It is also about the various gods and immortals involving themselves in those attempts, most obviously the immortal (basically) elven sorcerer-lord Anomander Rake and his private war against the empire, but also including between at least two entirely unrelated sets of ascendant demigods and their schemes. The story is told through a whole myriad of different points of view, at least half of whom are fighting for the position of ‘main character’ in the narrative structure.

This is very much Map Fantasy, both literally (there are in fact maps and lexicons included in my copy) and figuratively – which is to say, in both tone and the tropes its drawing upon this is very much Epic High Fantasy in the Tolkeinesque tradition. It is, I’m told, actually based in some way on the author’s D&D campaigns – and if I hadn’t been told, I would have guessed. I cannot remember the last time I read a story where the setting and Lore so obviously preceded and is considered by the author to be as or more important than the particular narrative currently being told with it. Very nearly every single character, setting and concept that’s introduced feels like it’s being re-introduced, having already been the centre of a whole story in their own right in some other book. Which does an excellent job of making the world really feel like it has history, but does also just start to get exhausting at a certain point, and makes keeping track of the actual stakes more than a little difficult.

I want to say I came into this story blind, but that’s not really correct – I knew nothing at all about the story, but I’ve had a friend telling my little tidbits about the lore and metaphysics for years now. This was probably incredibly helpful for my reading experience – even compared to the rest of the genre, this is a story absolutely in love with Proper Nouns, even for fairly traditional fantasy concepts and tropes. If you just go with the flow and let them wash over you until the context clues start piling up I think you’ll probably do okay? But I can’t lie and say already knowing what e.g. a tiste, jaghut or warren was when I started didn’t help.

With that proviso – the series’ whole imposing reputation as impossible dense and indecipherable feels very overblown to me? Even if the exact mechanics of magic and godhood are pretty opaque, (almost) everyone’s motivations and desires are pretty clear and I was never at all confused by what was actually happening on-page or (in the character/motivation sense) why. Aside from the sheer number of POVs and nested subplots, in narrative terms it seems like fairly conventional, traditional (if higher powered and more magic-heavy) epic fantasy. Though saying that, I actually cannot remember the last time I actually read another example of the genre (would Witch King count?), so maybe my memory’s a bit warped here.

The book honestly surpassed my expectations going into it – or better to say perhaps that I had worries that proved to be unfounded. I was anxious going in that this would just be 700 pages of exposition and table-setting for the actual story that would unfold over the other nine books. Thankfully, while there was some of that (Tattersail’s whole arc, especially) you very much do get a complete narrative with its own stakes, climax, and conclusion here. If this was a standalone book, I’d be slightly annoyed at all the extraneous tangents, but it would hardly feel like I’d wasted my time. Which is more than you can say for some series these days.

But not to damn with faint praise - reading the book, I do absolutely get at least some of where the reputation comes from. Everything about the world does just oozes with care and attention, the plots cohere and occasionally compel, there are a number of really incredibly memorable set-pieces, and I actually like a solid fraction of the POVs. It’s probably the best execution of epic fantasy I can remember reading.

The ensemble cast is I feel either the greatest strength or most fatal flaw of the book as a reading experience. I always love the cast-of-thousands feel, but when taken to this level I’m sure a lot of people find it alienating and confusing. Admittedly I probably loved it more than usual here because some of the characters most heavily signposted and weighed down with narrative significance as The Protagonists were also just by far the least interesting or compelling parts of the book (I’m sorry but I simply do not care about Whiskeyjack even slightly, even leaving aside how he spent the entire book making things strictly worse and breaking things for unclear benefit to anyone).

The book’s character writing is unfortunately uneven, at least as far as drives and motivations though. Sometimes it’s interesting and subtle, somethings it sensible but a bit baldly stated and tell-don’t-show, and sometimes it feels painfully obvious when revelations and changes of heart occur on the timetable of the plot rather than the reverse (Captain Paran’s sudden-but-total disillusionment with the empire and willingness to risk life and limb for vengeance on his former boss and join an armed rebellion felt especially thinly justified, for such a major character).

Thematically the book is very interested in tyranny and subjugation, though I’m not entirely sure it had anything much to say about them. The portrayal of the Malazan Empire as this horrible world-eating engine of domination is rather significantly undercut by half of the sympathetic POVs we have being agents or officers of it driven to defection/rebellion by a nefarious usurper trying to purge the old guard who made the empire great (I don’t think a single characters says a positive word about the Empress in the entire book? And her only two loyal agents are positioned as the most villainous actual characters in the whole book). It being so prominent gives the history of the setting an appealingly tragic cast, at least.

Anyway yeah, I have quibbles (far too many words spent on characters making vague pronouncements of undescribed plans, some characters/elements introduced in the climax without real foreshadowing or buildup, for a book with this many POVs it comes embarrassingly close to failing the Bechdel Test, etc) but all in all this quite a really fun read. Looking forward to starting the next one next month.

[bloodlegacies]

Map!

Map of El-Lar, I intended to post it earlier, but Tumblr had a glitch and I couldn't do it. Here it is now. There are some islands further away that I will talk about or add later, and if you want, I can explain more about the locations and regions of houses and kingdoms. If you have any questions or doubts, feel free to send them to me.

[luxcarto]

Ancient realms of R'kassia, the lost continent!

[bloodraven55]

i’ve seen too many people arguing that marcille was already a full grown adult when she went to school at 35 despite literally all of the canon evidence indicating otherwise

[constantlyfalling]

Wait, which way do we go now?

[justgottafinishthischapter]

This came across my Facebook feed, felt I’d share it.

[ragepups]

your life is mine, my death is yours

[yourfatherjustinmcelroy]

Rewatching the first few episodes of fhjy because i guess i have nothing better to do and the way you can see how kibblespilly was supposed to be a counter to riz is so fucking funny. Its all there from the very beginning- the attitude, the tactics, the way she interacts with the party and everything- this is supposed to be riz's counterpart to run against him for student body president and have a terrible battle of wits and barbs

But in a twist that is perhaps THE most befitting to her ideal story of running against the boy she chose to be her antagonist, the intrepid heroes just straight up not taking the bait resulting in her instead having to go toe to toe against her idealized perfect rival's aggressive near-flunkie unsubtle chaotic friend is SO FUNNY.

Like I know some people are disappointed we dont get the riz vs kipperlily presidential whatever, I know it doesnt make tons of sense in that specific narrative way. But the fucking hilarious meta that even this didnt go her way is so funny. Because instead of rogue sneaking and behind the shadows plays and spy vs spy shit, we have just outward schoolyard taunts and shit like kristen exploding and jumping over the school and the exact kind of play that baits kipperlily into rage every single time and its so fucking funny. Kristen runs naked through the school and does party stunts and is STILL BEATING HER. She even clearly constructed her party to mirror the bad kids perfectly and craft each of them their own nemesis/counterpart and for the most part it like kind of worked EXCEPT FOR HER.

It must drive her fucking crazy that her cute little plot of rogue vs rogue didnt pan out at fucking all despite ALL the signs pointing to that making the most sense. This was something she just couldnt predict, couldnt mastermind. She got up onto that metaphorical stage for a debate and instead was met with a clowning act. Its so funny. I love fantasy high. Nothing you could have done would have changed this, fourdogs. You never had any power at all.

[occidentalavian]

Full map of Exandria, 2024 update!

Map images and Wonderdraft file download [HERE]

Hi everyone! It's been about 4 years since my last map. In that time more of Exandria has revealed itself to us, and while it is still not a complete picture, we now have enough that I felt it was time to make an update.

The biggest change from my previous map is that I am no longer using the Elven Tower Cartography assets. This is because previously I installed them incorrectly, in a way that meant that people who downloaded the map file were unable to see the assets unless they installed it in the same weird way that I did. Rather than fixing this, I instead opted to use the default Wonderdraft assets, that way it can be viewed out of the box without having to download something else first!

As before, Tal'Dorei and Wildemount are the most accurate to official maps, and we also have an official map of at least one arrangement of the Shattered Teeth, which is re-created here. We have a portion of Marquet via the Oderan Wilds and Hellcatch Valley maps, but the rest, including all of Issylra is still mostly made up, based loosely on a very old and tiny map briefly shown on screen by Sam in episode 103 of Campaign 1! Naturally when any new maps come out, this map will (eventually) be updated to reflect them.

There are some locations that are new to this map as well, such as the Demithore Valley in Issylra from Campaign 3 and all the towns visited in The Re-Slayer's Take up to episode 10, these being Himblewood, Josgren's Hollow, Shoresight Isle, and the Hug Hive. Ta'Dorei has a few new towns, Mooren and Heldenfaire, which were mentioned in Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, as well as a few unnamed village clusters, the Foramere and Vues'dal villages. For these and the Mornset Countryside I included some non-canonical paths connecting them to the main roadways. Also included in Mornset is Roch Mar, the village that Vox Moronica visited all the way back in Episode 12 of Campaign 1, before Critical Role even did separate numbering for one-shots and thus included this unrelated episode in the campaign. This town isn't officially confirmed to actually exist in Exandria, so consider it my headcanon and a paper town. Moving on to Wildemount, Vo Village got upgraded to proper town status, and I've also included Yardel from The Nine Eyes of Lucien, Ghostwall from The Tales of Exandria: The Bright Queen, and Galgarad from the Dark Star adventure on DnDBeyond!

I want to give a special thanks to Don Farland for his original fan map of Exandria, created all the way before the release of Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, upon which I originally based my map of the Shattered Teeth. Incidentally, I believe that this depiction of those islands was the basis upon which the official map by Andy Law is based upon. I would also like to thank Niko Vanhala for his fan-made maps of Marquet and Issylra, upon which I have loosely based my maps of those continents. And of course thank you to Andy Law and Deven Rue for the official cartography of Exandria!

[dunmeshistash]

Dungeon Meshi World Map

REGIONS (Descriptions taken from the Adventurer's Bible)

WESTERN CONTINENT

Description: Bears the most scars from the ancient war. It has many monsters and ruined dungeons, and although it's vast, there are surprisingly few habitable areas. Most of the inhabitants are sturdy, short-lived races and demihumans. Elven culture has had a strong influence here. Characters: Kabru and Kuro Places of Note: Utaya Dungeons of Note: The Utaya Dungeon, The Dragon's Lair

NORTHERN CENTRAL CONTINENT

Description: The continent that is home to the largest nation, ruled by the queen of the elves. The term "Western Elves" mostly indicates elves from this region. It's the safest area and life is easy here, but its shrinking population has dangerously weakened it. Characters: Mithrun (and the Canaries) Places of Note: Western Elves's Royal District, Canarie's Headquarters. Dungeons of Note: Central Watchtower

SOUTHERN CENTRAL CONTINENT

Description: The area with the second-largest elf nation. It has more inbound immigration than the Northern Central Continent and a rather disorganized atmosphere. While it's in an alliance with the Northern Central Continent, they really aren't on good terms. Characters: - Places of Note: - Dungeons of Note: -

EASTERN CONTINENT

Description: Home to the largest gnome nation. Once dwarfs and gnomes made up the majority of the inhabitants, but in recent years there has been an influx of short-lived races from the Northern Continent and Eastern Archipelago, and the population is growing rapidly. It's a melting pot where various cultures are jumbled together. Characters: Chilchuck Tims (Kahka Brud), Senshi (Izganda) Places of Note: Magic School, The Island/Melini, Kahka Brud, Izganda, Dozahk, Bonnario, Sadena Dungeons of Note: Island, Brud Dungeon Cluster, Budou Pit, Tower of Night Cries

NORTHERN CONTINENT

Description: A severely cold continent where over half of the land is covered in perpetual snow. The majority of the inhabitants are short-lived races, particularly tall-men, but the population isn't large to begin with. It has been strongly influenced by dwarf culture. Characters: Laios & Falin, Marcille Places of Note: - Dungeons of Note: -

EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO

Description: An area where short-lived races live. As a result of a pact, there has been no interference by long-lived races for a very long time. The effects of the ancient war are slight, and they have almost no trouble with monsters or dungeons, but there's constant strife among humans. Characters: (all from different Islands) Izutsumi, Shuro and his Retainers, Rinsha Fana (Not shown) Places of Note: Island of Wa Dungeons of Note: -

SOUTHERN CONTINENT

Description: Home to the largest dwarf city. Gnome and dwarf nations often build down rather than out, and the innermost layers are extraordinarily deep. War still erupts frequently, and there are never-ending disputes near the borders. Characters: - Places of Note: - Dungeons of Note: -

If you're interested I've found a post on pixiv with the map outlines and some more info (in japanese) (edit: translated here)

I'll make a post about the dungeon descriptions later (here) but here they are, there's a little more info about Kahka Brud dungeons on my last map post

1 The Island, 2 Budou Pit, 3 The Brud Dungeon Cluster, 4 The tower of Night Cries 5 The Utaya Dungeon 6 The Dragon's Lair 7 The Central Watchtower

Map Outline

[deathberi]

FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH (2024) ↳ Cloud + baby chocobos ⋋(•⌔•)⋌

[literary-illuminati]

2025 Book Review #6 – The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri

This is the final book in the increasingly rare Epic Fantasy Trilogy to actually finish after only three books. It’s very much a direct continuation, too – there were several occasions I wished I had reread Jasmine Throne or Oleander Sword before starting it so I could better keep sideplots and minor characters straight in my head (and to figure out if some things that happen were in any way foreshadowed). Overall, still a very fun read and a mostly satisfying conclusion to the trilogy – though I admit I did find it to be the weakest of the three on a few different levels. Though that’s mostly just personal appeal, probably; of course my favourite is the book that ends with the central romance breaking up via knife in heart and not the one where they get back together.

The book picks up shortly after Oleander Sword lets off – Malini’s claim to the throne secured beyond victory on the battlefield all doubt by her brother’s willing immolation, recovering from the near-lethal wound Priya inflicted upon her. Priya, meanwhile, has returned to c – and finds herself awkwardly thrust into the position of mediating between her people and her arisen gods – gods who clearly care about her and her destiny more than the rest of the nation combined. Categorically unable to get over each other, they find themselves forced onto opposing of a war even as Priya becomes more and more grimly aware of just what the destiny the yaksha have shaped her for actually entails.

And then there are a half dozen other POVs of various importance, some supporting characters in Priya or Malini’s story, others branching off into their own plot lines of varying import. I honestly feel like the book’s main weakness is that it should have either leaned further into the ensemble cast or been a bit brutal with cutting POVs to better focus on the central romance. It’s not a fatal failing – (almost) everyone’s arc does cohere, but the internal journeys e.g. Rao and Sima go on feel a bit tell-don’t-show just because of how few pages there are to dedicate to them. Priya and Malini meanwhile, have plenty of time but also a relationship that goes through so many twists and curves that some of the most vital individual beats still feel rushed and cramped.

My main actual disappointment with the book is the lack of real political intrigue and manoeuvring – the sort of thing that had been of the real highlights of the first two for me. Which is largely still the progression of the narrative – Malini won the game of thrones, with the exception of the priesthood everyone who matters is either loyal to her or dead. What irks is the number of words spent gesturing towards court intrigue and threats to her rule from within that turn out to be utterly hopeless – the Empress Dowager’s whole subplot could have been cut with very little loss, and for all the buildup of the priests of the Mothers infiltrating her army and entourage and collecting information, with the only exception who only needed two scenes, all the danger from them just comes from exactly the obvious people anyone would have expected it too.

Which might be why (unlike my memories of previous books) I enjoyed Priya’s chapters significantly more than Malini’s this time. Her relationship with Mani Ara – the elder goddess who she is being shaped as the mortal vessel/incarnation of – through the first three quarters or so of the book is probably my favourite part of it. Her relationship with the yaksha and trying desperately to be the ruler/priestess/protector Ahiranya needs is also just really compelling reading. By contrast, Malini manoeuvring to keep her throne and fight the yaksha while the priesthood she relies upon waits for her to accept their prophecy that only her human sacrifice and immolation will save the world should have been absolute catnip to me, but (far more than Priya’s issues) got drowned out by the romance on the one hand and chasing various High Fantasy Magic Plot Coupons on the other.

Human sacrifice of various kinds is pretty key to the book – to the themes of the whole series, really. Priya and Malini both live on borrowed time before their destiny of consumption or immolation by the divine calls for them, and every kind of magic in the setting is build upon the (ideally willing) offering up of blood and breath. Empire specifically gets, I fear, a bit confused about what it’s trying to say with this theme. One is left with the impression that martyring yourself for the sake of others is tragic but beautiful and noble – unless you are a protagonist, in which case the selfish power of life and the imperative to find a reason to keep on living triumph over all. It feels odd, after two books spent dwelling so deeply on cultural scripts and social pressures that connive to create ‘willing’ sacrifices, to have a finale that relies upon all these priests and monks expend themselves as magical ordnance with barely a qualm raised by anyone.

I do wish more of a line had been drawn between Malini and the yaksha in general (or just Mani Ara in particular, though her less so than her embodied children). Both they and she are desperately to live, to survive against all odds and at all costs – even if their deaths are written in the stars, and their survival endangers the world around them. Or well – maybe it’s just my insensitive xenophilia speaking but – I feel like there’s something to worry at there, anyway. The yaksha are clearly people in a moral sense, an clearly motivated by the fear of death and a callous disregard for humanity more than anything else – given the book’s stance on major characters with real pathos dying for the sake of theology otherwise (Priya, Malini, Rao), the way the book frames the world rejecting them and their eventual acceptance of their deaths as right and noble sits a bit oddly.

But this probably seems far more negative than I actually am about this book. The setting is vivid and well-drawn, the imagery is beautiful – the aesthetics of the yaksha and the rot especially is just incredibly compelling to me – and Suri manages to balance a great many different POV characters without their internal monologues ever blending together or becoming gratingly gimmicky in an attempt to make them distinct. For all my qualms about the book’s ending, the central romance does really work – which is absolutely vital, because even more than the previous books in the series it really is the spine the whole story is hanging on.

So yeah, if you’re in the market for a trilogy or doorstoper-sized fantasy tomes, you could absolutely do a lot worse. If this is weaker than the previous two, it’s still good, and the three together cohere as a single story far better than a lot of similar series’. Give Jasmine Throne a try and go from there, at least.

[skyshroom]

Brennan Lee Mulligan knew from the moment he said that the vulture made eye contact with Kristen that there would be no force on earth strong enough to stop Ally Beardsley from heckling the vulture… Hell of an episode

[luxcarto]

Journey to our Sunny Peninsula! 🌞🌿

[sofiesgrave]

Imagine living with an adult brother: you’re 17 and your sister is 13, and he takes care of you both by himself. You trust him completely, and he spoils you both rotten. When he gets you two vr headsets, from “bimbox,” you don’t question it. He always works hard for you two, it’s fine if he gets off-brand electronics!

You both sit on the couch as instructed, and adjust the headsets. It automatically boots up a game where you play through the first-person of a schoolgirl, and you swear you can hear a faint noise, telling you to obey cock and be a stupid slut… your stepbrother tells you you’re imaging it!

The subliminal messaging works, and you don’t even notice you haven’t heard a peep from your sister as the schoolgirl gets raped and molested by three of her male teachers, only moaning whorishly. It’s so realistic, you can even feel your mouth being forced open and your hymen tearing, as well as your teen boobies being fondled!

The game goes through scene after scene of girls of all ages being raped, molested, and obeying, each one loving it and begging desperately for more. And because you’re a good girl who understands that women love this, you start begging with the teenage girls being raped on the all-consuming screen.

When the headset gets taken off, you don’t even question why both you and your younger sister are naked and covered in semen, it’s totally natural! You do notice that your pussy is aching, though, and you need to get off, fast!

When your stepbrother tells you and your sister to get each other off, you both do it immediately! He wants what’s best for you both, and understands you better than anyone!

You start kissing your thirteen year old sister like a slut, pressing your neglected pussies together desperately and rubbing your little clitties together in just the right way that you squirt all over each other!

You both look up, panting, to see your stepbrother recording, and a few of his friends with their massive adult cocks out…

You and your sister become mommies before you both graduate high school, obviously!

[floweroflaurelin]

Behold, my hand-drawn map of Empires Season 2!! This was my first time trying to make something like this and I’m so happy with how it turned out!!! I spent dozens of hours hand drawing every part of it and it was so worth the effort 😁 All the empires’ names are lettered by hand and each Empire has both a stained-glass token of an iconic build and a Spawn-inspired tower to represent it 🤩✨👑

It’s also HUGE! I had to start exporting parts individually and reassembling the map on my computer because it got too big for my iPad 😆 I wanted to it to be big enough to get a high quality print for my wall — I can’t wait for it to arrive! If you’re interested in getting one it’s up on my print shop here with 15% off and a variety of sizes to choose from!

I’m gonna reblog it soon with a whole bunch of closeups because I packed so much detail and love into this one <333 Let me know what you think!!