THE NORTHERN PLAINS

By Hersius
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INTRODUCTION

This Geography Department discusses the Gorean landscape in terms of latitudes, longitudes, and tectonic plates as a way of coming to terms with the immensity of the virtual landmass of the Gorean supercontinent. Those perspectives provide a basis for locating the various cultural geographic areas that serve as background for the sagas that span the series.

Norman defines areas in terms of their landforms, climate, and underlying geologic structures, and he shows the effects of human habitation on these areas. This and subsequent articles will identify an area and then showcase it by describing what it looks like and giving background information. A call for contributors for future collaboration on other areas will conclude each article. The purpose of the articles is simply to highlight the genius of John Norman in creating this world, to show where the various places are on Gor, and to show why each place is a special place to be.

THE NORTHERN PLAINS

The northern plains are bounded on the east by the Thentis and Voltai mountain ranges and the Tahari, on the south by the rainforests, on the west by Thassa, and on the north by the northern forests. In the Books, the area is referred to by its human occupants simply as civilized Gor. Its culture, exemplified in ideal archetype form by the city of Ar, is introduced right from the beginning, in Book 1. In a previous article, it is suggested that the region begins around 18 degrees north latitude and extends to about 60 degrees north latitude. If the Voltai is taken to be the prime meridian, the region would start just west of the prime meridian and extend to the Thassa coastline. As proposed in another previous article, the tectonic plate on which the region rests, termed the northern plate in this geography series, would have its westernmost edge just beyond the islands of Cos and Tyros.

The region contains the Sardar Mountain range. Apart from that, the region is characterized by sloping plains hosting low hills and, accordingly, shallow valleys. The entire region is elevated in the east and is sinking in the west as the northern plate lowers the coastline, pressuring the subducting western Thassa plate even further. The region hosts open plains and deciduous forests.

The Vosk River basin dominates the regional river systems. The Vosk itself is some 40 pasangs in width. It originates in the northern portion of the Voltai to the northeast of Ar and flows westward, ending ultimately in a vast tidal marsh delta bordering the ocean. As the Vosk flows across the region, it forms a basin into which the topography inclines, and the Issus, Olni, Thassa Cartius, and Verl rivers all empty into the Vosk. Book 11 Pages 110, 135, 144, Book 13 Page 16, Book 14 Page 171, Book 19 Pages 158, 159, Book 21 Page 101. These rivers are in fact basin systems and have tributaries in their own right, draining large geographic areas. The Olni, Issus, and Verl river systems flow westward to join the Vosk. The possibilities for the direction of flow of the Thassa Cartius are discussed below. The Olni originates either in the Thentis Mountains or in the northernmost sections of the Voltai to the northeast of Ar. The Olni flows southwest to reach the Vosk and is the only major river system flowing into the Vosk from the north. The Thassa Cartius originates in the Ven Highlands of the rainforests and emerges from the rainforests near the Thassa coast, flowing into the Vosk near the eastern edge of the coastal delta at Ven. Book 15, Page 65. The Verl originates in the Voltai slightly north of Ar and flows northwestward into the Vosk. Book 11 Pages 135, 152. The Issus appears to originate in the Ven Highlands or in the plains north of the Ven highlands, with some online interpretations favoring Lake Ias. The Issus flows northwestward across the northern plains near Torcadino to reach the Vosk. Book 21 Page 101.

The other major river is the Laurius. Its origin point is not specified, and it is mentioned as being northwest of Ko-ro-ba and paralleling the northern forests as it flows to the ocean. Book 7 Pages 59 through 82, Book 8 Pages 64 through 86, especially Page 75.

SCENIC DESCRIPTION

To rest by Ka-la-na thickets in a small valley is to find the world at peace. A gentle breeze caresses the expanse of warm field grasses and shaded thickets, carrying off the musky sweet smell of wild flowers and shrubs. Flittering bird shadows glide over the seclusion, and a musical trilling briefly pierces the air, mingling with the deeper warble of a brook bubbling over stones and pebbles. Rustlings from the thickets signal hidden life. White clouds alternate the landscape between drowsy sunshine and comforting sunscreen. Nothing intrudes on the lazy day.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The model employed so far in this department uses the image of Turkey as the starting point for conceptualizing the Gorean supercontinent. With the topic of the northern plains, the model using the shape of Africa can now be introduced as an alternative model for picturing the relative locations of Gorean places.

The model that notes similarities between the Gorean supercontinent and Turkey has much to commend it, as Turkey and the Aegean Sea appear to have been instrumental in the initial creation of Gorean geography and nomenclature. The coastal city of Karsiyaka on the Gulf of Izmir, is located close to the center of the Turkish western curve and may be the inspiration for Port Kar on the Tamber Gulf. Slightly below it and offshore is the island of Samos, which may be the inspiration for the Port Kar leader of the same name. Below Samos is the island of Cos, and the Gorean island of Cos is directly west of Port Kar. Straight east of Karsiyaka and slightly inland are the ruins of Sardis, which may be the origin name of the Sardar. The Gorean island of Tyros could be named for the Greek name for the Lebanese city of Tyre, or it could be a derivative of the Greek island of Thira, which is located to the west of the Greek island of Cos. Greek island names often end in the letters “os.” Thyros and then Tyros could be a logical chain of adaptation of Thira. The Greek word for sea is Thalassa. Geologists appropriate that word into the term Panthalassic Ocean, meaning all the seas, to refer to the one ocean that existed for hundreds of millions of years while the land mass of Earth was joined into one or more supercontinents. Thessaly is the northeastern province of Greece bordering on the Aegean, and the island of Thassos lies west of Istanbul. The transition from Thalassa, Thessaly, and Thassos to Thassa for the sea does not seem to be a big leap and is certainly in keeping with a Turkish and Aegean origin model for Gorean geography. Later place names continue to point to the eastern Mediterranean as providing origin material for northern plains locations. Brundisium is both a Gorean city near Port Kar and the ancient name of the Italian city of Brindisi, which is located on the heel of Italy facing the Adriatic Sea. The island of Korfu, located in the Ionian Sea between mainland Greece and Italy, is also known as Corcyra, which has its counterpart name in the Gorean city of Corcyrus, located southwest of Ar. The Gorean Issus River has its counterpart name in the southeastern Turkish coastal town of Issus by the Pinarus River, which itself is also sometimes known as the Issus River. The gently curving western coast of Turkey, with its uneven coastline, is in keeping with the general outline of western Gorean places. The southern portion of Turkey, facing not the Aegean but the Mediterranean just north of Cyprus, even has a large mountain range running east and west, the Taurus Mountains, which are the westernmost portion of the Himalaya belt. This, of course, is analogous to the Ta-Thassa range. The Turkish scale simply increases so that the Gorean supercontinent stretches from just below the north polar icecap to the middle of the southern latitudes.

The adequacy of the Turkey model as a general outline of the western Gorean coast becomes questioned in Book 11 and then again in Book 13. Even granting that places in Turkey and the Aegean were part of the initial inspiration for Gorean locales, it begins to appear by Books 11 and 13 that an alternative model for the overall Gorean continental shape needs to be considered. That alternative model incorporates the shape of Africa into the overall western coastal shape. Using this model, the northern plains abruptly bulge way out to the west. The Thassa coast of the northern plains acquires a far western longitude, perhaps even approaching the edge of the hemisphere, while the coast at the rainforests remains by comparison much closer to the prime meridian.

Book 11 provides the clue that Schendi might be much closer to Ar than is Port Kar. A plan is made to transport a kajira from Ar to Cos. She could have been flown to the Thassa coastline at the northern forests and then transported by ship to Cos, and perhaps in order to avoid flying over Koroban territory and having to deal with northern Thassa pirates that choice was never seriously considered. She could also have been flown to Port Kar and then shipped to Cos, but perhaps for political reasons that was also never practical. The decision made was to fly her all the way to Schendi and to then ship her from Schendi to Cos by means of the black pirates. It could be that using the black pirates was simply the most secure means of reaching the goal and that distances did not matter. In that case, the Turkey model works fine. Or, it could mean that the Thassa coast at Schendi is much closer to Ar and that it makes perfect geographic sense to take tarn to Schendi and then book a ship up the coastline. If this is the case, then the northern plains coastline projects significantly west of the Schendi longitude, and the African model applies.

Book 13 provides the problem of how the Thassa Cartius flows. The Thassa Cartius was historically mistaken for the Cartius. The Cartius flows in a northwestern direction from the southern latitudes into Lake Ushindi near the equator. Another major river, named the Thassa Cartius, flows northward out of the rainforests at a point where it had been mistaken for the Cartius emerging from the rainforests. In fact, that point is less than 200 pasangs from the Thassa coast. That river flows from almost at the coast into the Vosk east of the delta. The problem therefore concerns what direction the Thassa Cartius takes as it flows to the Vosk. If the Turkey model is used, the Thassa Cartius must flow either directly north or must flow in a northeasterly direction to reach the Vosk by the eastern tip of the delta. Once it reaches the Vosk, its waters must then be turned westward by the Vosk as the combined river empties into the delta. Although topography can always be invoked to explain why the river would appear to flow in one or more wrong directions, the image in counterintuitive. Using the African model keeps the river running northwestward and harmonizes with the westward direction of flow of the major regional rivers. Also, it makes sense for the Thassa Cartius to have been mistaken for the Cartius not only for where it exits the rainforests but also for how it flows once it emerges onto the northern plains. Visualized from orbit, it makes more sense to confuse the rivers if they both flow in the same direction and appear to form a kind of continuing line on either side of the rainforests, in essence an angled blue or brown slash interrupted by green. The only way the Thassa Cartius can appear to be a northwestward flowing continuation of the Cartius is to use a model that pushes the northern plains far to the west, and that calls for the African model.

Good reason exists for estimating the western distance of the rainforests at 45 degrees or more west longitude as measured from points in the Voltai regardless of which model is used. That longitude provides space for the length of the Ua River, which is close to the equator, and provides space between places in the northern latitudes, where the longitude lines run more closely to each other. Using the Turkey model alone, the Gorean coastline would curve north along the same meridian, and the distances between the prime meridian and northern coastal places would decrease as one moves northward. Using an African model, the northern hemisphere west coast remains curved as in the Turkey model, but the northwestern coastline is much farther from the prime meridian than is the rainforests coastline. The southern plains location remains unaffected by the introduction of the African model.

As determined in a previous article, at the estimated latitude of the Vosk River, the surface area covered every 15 degrees of longitude would be about 1,000 pasangs. If Port Kar is some 45 degrees from the Voltai, it is some 3,000 pasangs from the Voltai. Gorean time zones change at every 18 degrees of longitude. At the Port Kar latitude, 18 degrees of longitude would cover approximately 1,200 pasangs. Employing the African model and relocating Port Kar from 45 degrees by 18 degrees to 63 degrees west longitude adds another 1,200 pasangs of westward length to the Vosk River, making Port Kar some 4,200 pasangs from the Voltai. Placing Port Kar another 18 degrees even farther westward at 81 degrees would make Port Kar some 5,400 pasangs from the Voltai.

The extra distances provided by the African model further separate some known locations from each other and add to the extent of the northern forests. Pushing the region farther westward decreases the comparative length of the Vosk delta with respect to the total length of the Vosk River, making the delta account not for a third to a fourth of the overall length of the distance from the Voltai to the coast but rather for perhaps a sixth of the length of the Vosk. I have discovered no geographic impossibilities concerning inland locales resulting from extending the terrain westward, although that is not to say that no geographic impossibilities exist and that you might not find one right away. Extending the terrain above the rainforests supports the image of the Vosk being extreme in size, reinforces the idea that Torvaldsland is a comparatively tiny geographic region, and provides stark proof of why the islands of Cos and Tyros are considered the western limits of the known planet. It also gives credence to the comments made by Cabot that Gor might have more exposed total land surface than does Earth and that the Gorean continental temperatures are affected more by the enormity of the land mass than are temperatures on Earth. Book 4 Page 3.

CALL FOR WRITERS AND RESEARCHERS

Future articles will highlight other areas. People who wish to work with me to provide Book research, heartfelt descriptions, and important background information relating to the area are encouraged to contact me at hersiusofthentis@yahoo.com.