Update on the World of Ice and Fire companion book

[Aegon the Unworthy]

For some reason "Easteros" made me laugh...I shall now refer to any land Dany has passed as Easteros from this point forth...

And Falsteed...remember the instructions on Claymores, mortars dont make the whistling sound we hear on cartoons, and dont stick out from anyone around you.......and stay safe.

[Boaz]

Westeros and Sothoros are known. We're waiting to find the names of the eastern continent... Easteros, Austeros, Osteros, Auroros, Orientoros, etc... and of the continent east of the eastern continent (in Qarth, Quaithe told Dany she had to go farther east to Asshai, but I go the feeling Qarth was on the east coast of the east continent)... and of the northern continent (if there is one) Nothoros, Norsos, etc.

Dany still has to pass through the happy breakfast land (Cheerios), the land of good-byes (Adios), the land of her birth (Embryos), the land of executives (CEOs), the land of aliens (UFOs), the land of the gods (Olympos), the island of love (Eros), the land of the freshmaker (Mentos), the land of tortillas (Burritos), etc...

On the positive side, many sci-fi and fantasy authors try to use the letters Q, X, and Z to denote the foreign"ness" of other languages. Martin has only done a little of that... but compared to the amount of work that he's done in adding to the "englishness" of the language of Westeros it's all good.

[Culhwch]

I know a few people who could benefit from a trip to the land of the freshmaker.

[Boaz]

Ha ha ha!

[Werthead]

More from Ran:

Presently, the plan is quite a large number of geographical maps, so the castle plan thing has fallen by the wayside. That said, there's still art budget available, so ... who knows?

Currently we're still operating from the first section or two being written as if from "in world". The advantage for us is, basically, the fact that an "in world" perspective has an excuse about not knowing everything or actively getting things wrong, whereas if it's from a purely authorial perspective. Not the whole thing though -- I don't expect that the character bios will really be written as if some maester is doing it.

The eastern continent, so far as I know, will still be named -- I've got the name down in a couple of sections of the history -- but don't expect anyone to explain why it hasn't been used until now. My gut feeling is that Westeros is synonymous with a relatively cohesive, nigh-continent spanning culture, so it makes sense the people mention it a lot ... but the eastern continent (hoped I'd let it slip, eh? is a lot more fractured culturally speaking and there's really no point to naming the whole continent -- it doesn't convey anything more than "across the Narrow Sea" or "the Free Cities" does.

Just my guess as to what a "in world" explaination would be, though.

[Boaz]

Asshai seems to be in the far, far east. I always thought the name Asshai had something to do with shadows, but what if Asshai means something like eastland? Remember the city of Astapor is on the east side of Slaver's Bay. The As- could mean east, like the West- in Westeros and the Soth- in Sothoros. Mayhaps the eastern continent is called something like Asoros, Aseros, Asaros...