The Infamous Northwest Passage

   The Northwest Passage was mapped by Belcher & McClure, and first navigated by Amundsen in 1906. But in the world of Malaz, it is quite a different story. The length and location of this strait are still very unclear.

   In The Bonehunters, on page 775, Admiral Nok is briefing Tavore: ‘South of that [i.e. Sepik], there is Nemil, and a number of lesser kingdoms all the way down to Shal-Morzinn. From the southern tip of the continent the journey down to the northwest coast of Quon Tali is in fact shorter than the Falar lanes.’

   Kartool is a good measuring tool – even if it sounds like my worst joke. Island’s big enough, but not too big. Now, the Falar lanes appear to be 6 to 8 Kartools in length. Thus, Shal-Morzinn cannot lay more than 6 Kartools from ‘the northwest coast of Quon Tali’. Also, Shal-Morzinn does not extend west of Quon Tali, because it’s ‘the journey down to’, and not ‘the journey across to’. We have to trust Nok. He knows his orientation. If you leave Key West for New Orleans on a ship, you won’t say ‘the journey down to New Orleans’...

   Those Shal-Morzinn fuckers must be really nasty. Because merchant ships from Quon Tali (the city) would have reached both Perish and Nemil easily, and a long time ago! Even a few Falari traders, why not?

   Anyway, Malazan geography remains a very frustrating topic... because of the Jaghut. We don’t know where the northern hemisphere ends, where the southern hemisphere begins. There are ice fields in Lether, in northern Genabackis, and on Quon Tali. Whenever you see a glacier, it is never a genuine one; it’s never, like, Siberia, or Antarctica. It’s always Jaghut.

   Damn you, Jaghut!