A sneak peek at new HBO Essos map

[Hyper]

HBO today published a video to YouTube about their HBO GO service in connection with season 2 of GOT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY9yLqwEt2M

As the video went, I thought I saw something new... And sure enough, if you pause it around 0:17 (a very quick glimpse), you'll see a lot more then previously seen of the HBO essos map.

I don't have a public image hosting account, so unfortunately I cant publish my screen cap.

From it we can tell that most peoples conjecture about Valyria being fairly close to the east of Volantis are correct. The scale of Valyria is also no surprise. Unfortunately we can only glimpse the western edge of the red waste, so no location of Qarth yet.

The full map is supposedly going up for public viewing on Sunday or Monday, on HBO's GOT viewers guide site.

[Ser Lepus]

Thank you. I have screen-captured the map and will combine it with other maps we have to make a similar one with better resolution.

[Crown]

Exactly as I expected it to be.

[Ran]

Bear in mind this map is not necessarily going to match the official map coming from Bantam in October. For one thing, GRRM has made significant changes to the layout of the region in the last month, after HBO had already made up its maps.

The geography around Qarth in the credits of ep. 4 is wrong, for example.

[Werthead]

We were discussing this in the Lands of Ice and Fire thread.

Screencaps from the section:

Screencap 1

Screencap 2

Screencap 3 (obscured, but useful as we get to see the edge of Ibben right at the top of the map)

A clear map I put together from the new images.

Bear in mind this map is not necessarily going to match the official map coming from Bantam in October. For one thing, GRRM has made significant changes to the layout of the region in the last month, after HBO had already made up its maps.

The geography around Qarth in the credits of ep. 4 is wrong, for example.

Well, 'wrong' for the books, sure. However, HBO will confuse the hell out of people if they use one layout in the titles and on their website for several months and then switch to GRRM's new layout at a later date. I suspect that HBO will stick with their current layout for the duration, meaning that TV Essos and Book Essos are going to wind up looking somewhat different.

But I imagine the HBO website and title sequence maps will remain canon for the TV series (and the TV series alone).

EDIT: Something interesting. The Vaes Dothrak title sequence clearly shows the same north coast as on the HBO maps. However, based on this, Vaes Dothrak appears to be south or south-east of the Forest of Qohor, barely inside the Dothraki sea and nowhere near the three northern lakes on the HBO map (the most likely candidates for the Mother of Mountains and Womb of the World; the northern one looks most likely because of the hills/mountains just to the north of it).

[Hyper]

But I imagine the HBO website and title sequence maps will remain canon for the TV series (and the TV series alone).

Not necessarily. Only us map geeks may notice changes. So they may continue to tweak it.

At least the HBO viewers guide map has evolved - the blackwater area around Kings Landing now looks more like it should compared to how the map appeared at the beginning of season 1.

[Ran]

Yes, I wouldn't be surprised if the show changed it up next season to be more in line with the official maps. It's a pretty minor issue, after all, especially as Qarth goes out of the picture after this season I expect.

[Werthead]

Check the edit to my last post Ran, would be interested in your thoughts on Vaes Dothrak's placing in the title sequence (which now looks very odd indeed).

At least the HBO viewers guide map has evolved - the blackwater area around Kings Landing now looks more like it should compared to how the map appeared at the beginning of season 1.

I just double-checked and King's Landing is still in the wrong place (well to the east of the mouth of the Blackwater), and looks like I remember it from last year. Not sure what you mean here.

[Hyper]

I just double-checked and King's Landing is still in the wrong place (well to the east of the mouth of the Blackwater), and looks like I remember it from last year. Not sure what you mean here.

Ok the map on the site is still the old one. But look closer at the screencap from the 'new season 2 map': http://s36.photobuck...binedEssos2.png

The mouth blackwater bay is significantly thinner, making Tyrion's scheme in ACOK more of a viable strategy. (if they indeed use this just as in the book)

EDIT: OOPS, never mind. Looks like the KL label is hiding part of the coast line. So it looks like I was mistaken here.

[Werthead]

Finally.

The map still totally fails to confirm whether the Jade Sea lies between Sothoryos and Essos, or is an inland sea of Essos. Based on the relative spatial locations it looks like it's between Sothoryos and Essos, but still not 100%. If so, that does raise the intriguing possibility that Asshai (which presumably lies way off to the east of this map) is actually on Sothoroys. Since Drogo mused on sacking it, that must mean either it's really easy, even for the Dothraki, to cross at the Straits of Qarth, or it's actually on the Essos coast.

Still, though the coastlines and details may not be 100% accurate to GRRM's vision, it's good to finally see the rough locations of Qarth and Vaes Dothrak (and even Bayasabhad and Samyrian, which I don't recall being mentioned before but sounds a bit Valyrian; a hint their empire extended to the Jade Sea?). Also, Ibben is fricking huge. That's a fair bit bigger than Iceland.

Amusingly though, HBO put Qohor in the wrong place and forgot to include Lorath, the forgotten stepchild of the Free Cities :)

[mor2]

Looks interesting. The dothraki sea looks way smaller than what I thought it would.

[Werthead]

I think we kept forgetting how big Westeros is, and the desire to make Essos look overwhelmingly bigger sometimes overrode common sense. The Dothraki sea as shown on the map is more than big enough to swallow up the entire North of Westeros into it, almost twice over, which is more than big enough.

[theMountainGoat]

Just checked out the new new HBO viewers map and I noticed that if you click on Special Features to see the areas controlled by each king and then scroll all the way to the eastern edge of the map there are three notable differences to the main map they are using on the other screens:

1. Qohor is in the right place on this map but the forest has the wrong name

2. Tyria is spelled Tyak

and my personal favourite:

3. Vags Tolorro

[Arataniello]

I think Bayasabhad is one of the exotic locations that is mentioned in one of Dany's chapters in Game of Thrones (the book). Not sure about Samyrian, I can't immediately recall that.

[mor2]

I think we kept forgetting how big Westeros is, and the desire to make Essos look overwhelmingly bigger sometimes overrode common sense. The Dothraki sea as shown on the map is more than big enough to swallow up the entire North of Westeros into it, almost twice over, which is more than big enough.

Maybe, I always had the impression the Dothraki sea takes a big part of Essos and much larger than the ~region of the free cities.

[Werthead]

A blank template map I created. This can be used on the Wikis and so forth with no problems (though recalling the eastern edge of the map isn't canon to the books, people might wish to drag the eastern edge of the map over to Lhazar or thereabouts).

I got around the awkward absence of any info on the area between the Straits of Qarth and the eastern edge of the ASoS Sothoryos map by sticking a key box in there :) Maximum cheese, but it does solve that missing link until we get more info on that area.

[The hairy bear]

The interactive map at HBO also provides the first political map of Westeros we've ever seen, I think. The borders between the Reach and the Westerlands, and the Stormlands with the KL area, are clearly defined.

[Werthead]

The political borders and the terms 'Stormlands' and 'Crownlands' all come from the fandom rather than GRRM, IIRC, so it's cool to see them being used in the TV show.

[Francis Buck]

Interesting new map of Essos. Who wants to bet that big body of water all the way to the east is the Jade Sea, and on the opposite side of it we have Asshai and the Shadow?

[Werthead]

Interesting new map of Essos. Who wants to bet that big body of water all the way to the east is the Jade Sea, and on the opposite side of it we have Asshai and the Shadow?

That's a safe bet, since on the zoomed-in version it has 'Jade Sea' written on it in big letters :)

Interesting to see how far away Asshai is. IIRC the sample chapter version of the scene in ADWD where Dany sees a map of the world says that Qarth is halfway from Valyria to Asshai, which should make putting a distance on it pretty straightforward. However, the final chapter dropped that qualifier (or so I recall) so we can't take that as canon.

EDIT: A very quick and rough distance estimate suggests that Dany's journey from AGoT to the end of ADWD has covered somewhere over 8,000 miles :stunned: Impressive.