Here at Ice Moon Prison we have strong opinions about what constitutes a fantasy novel. One aspect that is non-negotiable is that it has to have a map. So we were disappointed while rereading Stephen Donaldson’s Mordant’s Need that it does not ship with a map. This omission is peculiar, because clearly the author had a map while he was writing the story: there are many often quite detailed descriptions of the land’s geography. So we set ourselves the task of annotating every geographic statement in the novel.
As it happens, the geography in Mordant’s Need is internally consistent, and it’s possible to produce a map that satisfies the constraints stated in the book. Here is one such map.
3 responses to “Map of Mordant from Stephen Donaldson’s “Mordant’s Need””
Thank you so much for your work!
Don’t suppose you have a map of the actual castle of Orison?
Believe it or not, the thought of mapping Orison never occurred to me. My memory is that while the story manages to visit almost every corner of Mordant (100% map coverage is a fantasy trope in its own right), the castle is described only in terms of a few key rooms, and they aren’t described precisely enough to put any real constraint on their relative layout.
This is great!! Thank you for the hard work. Makes my life a lot easier while reading haha