The Raven Queen's reputation outside of Gilbratha and Lenore

A Practical Discussion (PGTS)
1

What do you think people outside of Gilbratha and, more broadly, Lenore think/“know” about the Raven Queen?

She would obviously not be as famous outside the city as she is inside of it, but surely rumors would have spread by now about a dangerous yet revered blood sorceress aka supposed higher being running wild in the city, right? Traders and merchants who visit the place would definitely spread the tale when they leave! It has also been mentioned repeatedly that many people travel to Gilbratha in the hopes of joining the University, so needless to say, people from all over the continent would arrive, hear tales about the Raven Queen and possibly even witness her actions first hand, and then leave to go home with new stories to share with their friends and family.

Knowing human nature, these stories would only grow more and more distant from the truth the more often they get told and the farther away from the city you go.

Also, other nations’ spies would probably be very interested in her exploits, wouldn’t they? So the other nations have to be aware of her, too, and even if they might initially scoff at the rumours, the fact that events just keep happening and that Lenore’s higher ups are clearly panicked might give them pause.

I’m also sure I remember it being mentioned that either the university or the High Crown reached out to other nations to inquire whether the RQ is one of theirs. If they did the same afterwards and realized they have no idea where this super powerful sorceress came from either, they too might grow worried. After all, if one random, dangerous entity can plop up from nowhere, what is to say there can’t be more?

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Most likely, Silva Erde will be the most interested [edit]. They might even attempt to ally with her, since she’s clearly made an enemy publically in the Crowns.

Osham most likely will as well, but that seems more like because she was asked. Unless Oliver is really playing a long con, he might be from Osham but he doesn’t seem to have ties to its government. [Edit] it seems likely that that article was propaganda by the Crowns to keep the Lenore citizenry unfavorably inclined.

3

Osham most likely will as well, but that seems more like because she was asked. Unless Oliver is really playing a long con, he might be from Osham but he doesn’t seem to have ties to its government.

Oliver and his sister tried to flee Osham following the regime change there that brought about the current government, but they were stopped by Oliver’s father, and Oliver’s sister died (and presumably suffered quite a bit beforehand) as a result.

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So … what other countries do we actually know other than Osham and Silva Erde? While they seemed to be the main antagonists in the Haze War (and both, i think, are to Lenore’s north; the east border is an inhospitable desert) with some “other smaller” countries, are they mentioned by name anywhere? The end of book appendix doesn’t list any of the countries, only the desert that takes up the majority of the eastern border (and, i presume, lies between Lenore and the Black Wastes).

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I think the real answer they probably don’t care too much. She is fascinating in Lenore/Gilbratha because the Raven Queen defied everyone powerful there and got away with it. She stole from the University, defied the High Crown, the Coppers, the 13 Crowns, the Morrows, and the terrorist Group, the Architects of Khronos. She has done nothing to harm the average man and has if anything allied with the poor and downtrodden. Plus she has a good sense of spectacle.

When you are in another Country, you generally care more about your own business. Yeah maybe its a little fun to see other countries made the fool of, but I doubt they care as much.

Actual Govts might have a different story. They quite possibly know the importance of what she stole and are watching the situation with a careful eye. Of course, intervening is a seperate manner, and as long as she is keeping that knowledge and book to herself, she quite possibly is best left as is. If she is truly dangerous, the Red Guard will handle her.

Ultimately that is just normal Intelligence work though.

6

I think this info has already been posted so it’s not a spoiler. Kiernan/the AoK did send a team to impersonate the Raven Queen in Silva Erde.

They created quite the spectacle, enough to get the average person interested in the Raven Queen, in the major city “she” appeared in.

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What do the people of Silva Erde think, I wonder, that the Raven Queen has been spotted near them?

What would a spy look like from that country?

Like in this country, do they have a controlled state media?

As for other countries, Azalea has confirmed there are a few, but they are mostly not close by.

8

Is there a map showing how other countries actually border Lenore and each other?

9

Not yet. Soon!

Obligatory characters

10

Nice! I like maps so I am excited to hear one is on the way.

I am wondering if there are any maps already available of any part of the world, like Gilbratha, a part of Lenore, the University, the Isles of Coldpine, or anything? Apologies if this is somewhere obvious and I just missed it!

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There is a city map of Gilbratha in the front of the books. It has a few locations marked (like Oliver’s house, the Mires, the Lillies) but its not comprehensive.

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Cartography is freaking hard, even for made up places.

Cities can get stupidly complicated, so if you want a comprehensive map you kinda need to actually worry about making everything out

I’m starting to have this head cannon that this is stupid far in our future, the Titans and stuff is OUR mythos, but just claimed not as long ago

The cataclysm is actually what somehow brought magic to the world.

So in which case she could use the foundation of old cities that have just had almost all of the buildings replaced

It’s kinda what happened in the wheel of time series iirc

13

I think T. Pratchett got it right when he never designed a fantasy map for his stories (at least to start). If you need the characters to cross a desert to get to city, then there’s a desert there and no one can ask “Where is that on the map?” If there’sa fighting arena in town, it shall appear where we need if for story reasons, and the map is irrelevant. It way more fun without a map.

Likewise, when you do make a map, you have to make the map feel “real” enough, and that’s hard. There’s a fantasy map designer that complained that New Orleans is obviously not a “real” city. A bridge across the middle of a lake? No one is going to believe that people went to all that trouble.

14

Funny enough, my family is from that part of the south and they will put bridges across any body of water because raven feathers if you have to spend any extra time to go around.

Cars the movie had a little one off remark on how roads use to go with the land, but now cut through it…

Over, under, through… There are living trees in Cali you can drive through, I think they are alive…

How many people have died for the tunnels for trains to go through because spending time to slowly curve the track and therefore kill less people was less cost effective.

Part of me wants to justify the freaking canals, but it’s more of the same…

Why would a human go around when they can waste so much time, energy, and resources to go through.

We must dominate nature!

Facepalm

I like where I am at, they have actually redesigned how they want to lay roads because of trees. Don’t knock them down, don’t move them. Go to a high rise in Seattle and you will see patches of wild trees in the city. Actually, you can see it on a building only four floors tall.

Yeah yeah, this place is messed up in its own way.

How many buildings have floors and rooms and stuff that move? I believe Robert Jordan did it before jkr,

It’s fun to try to draw stuff out.

I also like how eddings talked about how people get lazy making maps, one guy went on a mission to be super accurate, and did it so far, then got frustrated, bought a horse and guessed, and it’s so wrong, but everybody uses it because nobody wants to make a better one. It was one of the Spearhawk books.

… I’m more interested in making student tokens than mapping the city…

Also, designing the spell array, I know a handful of people who practice their religion using those and its …

I’m exhausted and starting to ramble, so I will shut up

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