THE VOLTAI MOUNTAINS

By Hersius and Xerxex of Rarir

INTRODUCTION

This Geography Department discusses the Gorean landscape in terms of geography and its underlying geologic structures. Areas are identified, described, showcased with a scenic description, and then discussed regarding some aspect in detail. General concepts, such as latitude, longitude, and plate tectonics, are likewise discussed and applied to the virtual landmass of the Gorean supercontinent. With an eye to accountability for my interpretations and to help you come to your own conclusions, book and page references are often given. As this series progresses, reference is made to archived TGV articles, not as some ego trip but as a space saving shortcut for new TGV readers to find more background detail for statements made. These articles compare the size of Gor to Venus. Biting the crossbow quarrel and without being insistent, the personal Hersius estimate uses 850 pasangs between every 10 degrees of longitude at the equator and 840 pasangs between every 10 degrees of latitude. Approximate distances are based on the math using these figures.

In this article, Xerxex provides breathtaking views of the Voltai.

The Gor saga identifies five major mountain ranges. In order of probable decreasing elevation, these ranges are the Thentis, Voltai, Sardar, Hrimgar, and Ta-Thassa. The Voltai breaks at the Tahari, and these articles refer to the portion of mountains north of the desert as the suprataharian Voltai and the portion of mountains south of the desert as the subtaharian Voltai.

THE VOLTAI MOUNTAINS

The Voltai is the overall grandest of all mountain chains on the planet. Book 5 Page 95. The Voltai Mountains cover a tremendous amount of territory as they rise like a backbone across latitudes and bisect the supercontinent into an east and west. The Voltai is several chains wide and so has considerable width. Click here to view. The mountains display a striking red color and rise in height to peaks with snowcaps. Click here to view. Book 5 Page 95. The suprataharian Voltai has enough mountains of sufficient altitude to provide habitats for tarns. As the saga unfolds, the range appears to be divided at the Tahari. Like the Rockies, the Voltai seems to break for a desert before picking up again.

The north end of the suprataharian Voltai is just south of the Thentis Mountains. These articles place the Thentis Mountains between 55 N and 60 N. TGV April 2003. The boundary between the Thentis and Voltai mountains is not described. Contrary to some online interpretations, that boundary is not Boswell Pass, since Boswell Pass is clearly within the Thentis range. Book 17 Pages 76, 77, Book 18 Page 6. There is no reason to believe that any real break exists between the two very different chains unless one posits that the Kaiila system flows between them to join the Vosk. These articles therefore start the suprataharian Voltai at about 54 N and extend it down to slightly north of the Tahari. These articles locate the Tahari between 32 N and 18 N. TGV July 2003. The suprataharian Voltai is close enough for underground water to flow below the western part of the Tahari but is far enough away to allow for the Fayeen system and the settlement of Kurtzal to be between it and Tor. TGV August 2003, October 2003 Addendum. The suprataharian Voltai is not referred to as being a landmark in Book 10. These articles conclude that the suprataharian Voltai ends at about 34 N, which places it around 200 pasangs from Tor. As with all estimates, this represents an educated compromise, and your mileage may vary.

The subtaharian Voltai picks up just south of the Tahari. Caravans from Turia ply the southern edge of the Tahari with no mention of skirting the Voltai. TGV August 2003. These articles start the subtaharian Voltai at about 16 N, maintaining the symmetry. The subtaharian Voltai extends southward forming the western boundary of the southern plains, so these articles extend the chain to the southern continental coast, estimated to be at about 44 S. TGV September 2003.

Overall, then, the Voltai may extend from 54 N to 44 S, which is 90 degrees, a full quarter globe and half a hemisphere of length, with only one interruption due to the Tahari.

The suprataharian Voltai appears to be slimly triangular in shape. Using the spine image, the eastern side is probably fairly straight. The western side, however, bulges out just north of Ar. Ar is at the western Voltai foothills in sight of the magnificent range. Book 5 Pages 95, 142, Book 21 Page 255. The Vosk starts NE of Ar, and the Olni River joins it NE of Ar. The image is one of the northeast side of the Voltai angling to the southwest to a point north of Ar. Tor is SE of Ar, and if you follow the edge of the Voltai you will come to Tor. TGV July 2003. This means that the apex of the triangle is the point just north of Ar, with the apex placed in these articles at about 48 N. These articles give the Voltai a width of some 2 and a half degrees to the east of the centerline and extend the western apex to some 10 W. The suprataharian Voltai seems to end at a narrow base north of the Tahari.

Using the spine image, one can posit that the subtaharian Voltai is shaped like a cigar or torpedo. These articles estimate the subtaharian Voltai to extend some 2 and a half degrees on either side of the prime meridian. The subtaharian Voltai either lowers in elevation as it approaches the southern coast and is overall more like foothills compared to the suprataharian Voltai, or the subtaharian Voltai remains impressive in altitude and widens a bit in the west to form the foothills that mark the cultural boundary of the Wagon peoples.

The suprataharian Voltai is the source of the Vosk River, the Verl River, and the Fayeen system. This is discussed in TGV issues: May 2003, October 2003, October 2003 Addendum. The subtaharian Voltai is the source of the Cartius. This was covered in the TGV September 2003 Geography column.

The terrain described in the Books focuses on the northern parts of the suprataharian Voltai and highlights the high altitude wild, craggy, impassible parts. Book 3 Pages 60, 61, Book 7 Pages 190, 191. This picture hypothesizes a number of features that might be expected to be found in the Voltai. Click here to view. The base shows a flower meadow. To the left is a fluvial valley. Up the side of the slope to the right are rounded glacial forms and a clump of till. Down the slope and across the valley, an embryonic river is detected. Overhead, partially obscuring the sun, are Foehn clouds.

SCENIC DESCRIPTION

The tops of the mountain ridges go on and on in the distance, first one, and then another, showing chain after chain distinguished only by slight variants of color and jagged lines of profile. As far as the eye can see in any direction, red earth and red dust speckle with dark greens phasing to an almost hazy black where the mountain backs are to the sun. Here and there, glaring snowcaps deflect sunrays, and the imagination summons images of stark rugged crags and cold rocky talus slides above timberline. Here, amid the forest, the slopes are steep and outlined in scattered rocky ledges with sheer drop-offs tumbling to abrupt unseen high mountain valley floors, narrow and winding. The breeze scents of evergreen and dust. Dust filters through trees and rides on currents of air to present itself promptly and proudly in every breath and every taste. Sunlight and shadow clearly divide, detected by sight and by skin as the temperature alternates significantly. One listens for the piercing call of an unseen herlit or tarn. One hears the movement of earth and rock with every step. One startles to the crunching of wood underfoot, visions of larl flooding the consciousness. A man is ten feet tall when exploring this solitude. A man has to be.

BACKGROUND

These articles treat the midline of the Thentis and Voltai chains as the prime meridian, since those chains run north and south with the Thentis range slightly north of the Voltai and since that combination covers most of the continental latitudes. TGV March 2003. This is done not with any sense that Book Goreans might think of such location as a starting point for longitudinal measurement but rather as a heuristic device for fans to locate other areas. A fairly straight line of mountains running from some 60 N to some 44 S with only one interruption simply forms an obvious and convenient reference line.

The Voltai appears to have been created by tectonic plate action. These articles deduce that a Western Plate exists and is subducting a Thassa Plate a few hundred pasangs off the western coast, and that in remote times a Southern Plate crashed into the Western Plate, forming the Ta-Thassa range and annexing what are now the southern plains. Susequently, an Eastern Plate collided with the combined plates. TGV June 2003, September 2003. The joining of the landmasses formed the Voltai just as the collision of Europe and Asia formed the Urals. The Tahari was ocean at the time and so was below sea level, and the area formed not mountains but rather an elevated plain and created a break in the Voltai. TGV July 2003.

No other chain compares in length. The next longest chain is the Ta-Thassa range, which forms the boundary between the rainforests and the southern plains. TGV September 2003. These articles estimate the Ta-Thassa range to extend from roughly 10 W to 45 W more or less straddling the 20 S line. 35 degrees of longitude at 20 longitude amounts to some 2800 pasangs of length. The overall length of the Voltai at 90 degrees of latitude amounts to over 7500 pasangs, and when you factor out the Tahari, you come up with some 6000 pasangs of actual mountains. The Voltai is therefore probably at least twice as long as its nearest competitor.

These articles see the land extending westward from the suprataharian Voltai foothills as the location for the Plains of Sanchez and several other places referred to in the Dietrich cycle. Book 21 Page 31. This contrasts with some online interpretations which locate Dietrich historical places everywhere from the Northern Forests to the southwestern coast of the southern plains. The Plains of Sanchez is seen to be a high broad plateau extending SW from the southwestern part of the suprataharian Voltai. The cities of Tarnburg and Hochburg are placed within that area of mountains. Tevah Pass is logically placed there as well. Talmont and Gordon Heights are placed along the edge of the mountains in the foothills. Piedmont, Cardonicus, Rovere, and Kargash, are placed on the plain nearby. Rive-de-Bois and Edginton are placed anywhere in the vicinity, your choice as to where.

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