Revised the BW map:
http://flickr.com/photos/21582563@N03/3197405232/
Hey, looking good! I really hope you dont mind, but I made a few notes, and just redlined them over your map. Its always annoying when someone does that, but its just easier to communicate that way...I apologize.
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/6126/notesae3.jpg1) This is what I was speaking about in my previous post. If Phyrigia is indeed "thousands of miles from the sea" ( I really have trouble reconciling this...maybe Max was exaggerating, but we have no way of knowing), we're going to have to significantly alter our image of the Aleran/ Iceman boundary and shieldwall. One way to push Phrydgia further inland would be to move Placida up and out as a buffer between the coast and Phrydgia.
Regardless, it forces us to define the shieldwall as something that does *not* run coast to coast, as otherwise, if there are only two shieldwall cities, then both of them would *have* to be adjacent to water. Perhaps the shieldwall is an earthcrafted barrier bookended by one or two naturally impassable mountain ranges.
2) Ceres evidently needs to be in the Southwest, and its still slightly north of Alera Imperia right now. In fact, I think all the "southern" cities need to shuffle counter clockwise a bit, and Alera Imperia need to move further north a bit in order to make the "southern" region easier to define. Theres another reason to move Alera Imperia a tad bit north as well, as Ill note in #3.
3.) I think Alera Imperia needs to get bumped up slightly north for a couple reasons. One, if you move Placida over a bit, it can move up and take over some of that vacated space. Two, it would make it easier to define Ceres as a southern/southwestern city. Three, the whole issue of Amara's flight... I still think Riva/Calderon need to come down a bit to make it possible for Amara to have flown over the sea of ice.
But check this out. I read the passage you cited in AF about how Amara flew over the Sea of Ice to get to Calderon/Garrison. But it says she flew along the
*coastline* to the Sea of Ice, not necessarily across the water. Since she was serving as a liason between the Crown and Bernard, her most probable origin point was the Capitol. This is easier to reconcile...basically, as long as the Sea of Ice coast is more or less level with Alera Imperia, or maybe a little lower, its easy to see this flight.
4)Aquataine didnt make Jim's list of Southern Cities, so I think it has to come up to at least even with Alera Imperia, or a little north, and Rhodes moved a little west and up to ensure it stays adjacent to Aquataine at some point. It might require a little fidgeting with Riva.
5) In FoC, Amara describes Calderon as being the valley *beyond* the isthmus/ landbridge into the marat territory, not *on* it. More of a frontier. This might be your intention, but the way the land gets skinny again after Calderon confuses the issue a bit.
Anyways, great continued work...I'm sorry for the notes...feel free to point out any errors in my thinking. I think we'll find we're going to have to alter the shape of the land in some places to make all this stuff work.