The Cyclopaedias
Each of the volumes presented here will follow a general format.
They are organized and named according to the approximate region
of Mars wherein lie the cities and empires described. This is
not (necessarily) intended to force a paradigm of juxtaposition;
it's just for ease of reference, since ERB only named a few regions
of Barsoom.
The Introduction of each page contains a brief descriptin
of the Martian land features to be found in the region, followed
by a description of any Barsoomian features. Following the Introduction
will be writeups covering each of the major kingdoms located
in the region covered, including places of interest in each.
Finally, new Archetypes specific to the area are described at
the end.
The reason for providing two sets of descriptions is simple.
Some gamers may wish to play in a more "Martian" game,
and some gamemasters may want to take advantage of the unique
adventuring settings that the real-world Mars has to offer. Others
may want to game in a strictly "Barsoomian" environment.
This gives you the opportunity to do either.
Conflicting Data: Thark and Warhoon
Those familiar with the excellent maps
of Barsoom produced by John Flint Roy and published in his Guide
to Barsoom will note a few discrepancies between his plots
and mine, most notably in the southeastern hemisphere. The locations
of many of the cities are rather vague, especially Thark, Warhoon,
Kobol and the Atmosphere Factory. However, several passages from
the canon provide enough information to glean a general impression
of their locations:
"They [the Tharks] roamed an enormous
tract of arid and semi-arid land between forty and eighty degrees
south latitude, and bounded on the east and west by two large
fertile tracts. Their headquarters lay in the southwest corner
of this district, near the crossing of two of the so-called Martian
canals." (PoM, 7)
While plotting the escape from Thark,
Dejah Thoris draws for John Carter a map of the region between
Helium and Thark:
"It was crisscrossed in every direction
with long straight lines, sometimes running parallel and sometimes
converging toward some great circle. The lines, she said, were
waterways; the circles, cities; and one far to the northwest
of us she pointed out as Helium. There were other cities closer,
but she said she feared to enter many of them, as they were not
all friendly toward Helium." (PoM, 16)
The location of Thark is further defined
in this passage:
"'The great waterway which leads
to Helium is but fifty miles to the south,' murmured Sola, half
to herself; 'a swift thoat might make it in three hours; and
then to Helium it is five hundred miles, most of the way through
thinly settled districts.'" (PoM, 16)
The location of Helium and Zodanga are described in greater
detail in Swords of Mars, which states that Zodanga lies at 30
degrees South by 172 degrees East, "over nineteen hundred
miles east of the Twin Cities of Helium." This would place
Helium at approximately 112 degrees East.
If the previous passages are to be believed, and we assume
that Captain Carter used earthly measurements when he said "miles"
(no mis-translation), then this would place Thark at approximately
the location that I and nearly every other amateur cartographer
have plotted, somewhere to the south of and between the cities
of Zodanga and Helium.
John Flint Roy's maps, however, place Thark and Warhoon further
to the west of both cities than is readily apparent from the
text. He claims to have had access to the working maps made by
Edgar Rice Burroughs, however, so his research is very likely
the more accurate. (One possible explanation for the third passage
above is that Sola meant it was five hundred miles to the borders
of the Heliumetic empire, which would account for the discrepancy
between the apparent location of Thark and JFR's plotted location.)
To see a copy of J.F. Roy's maps, visit the ERBAtlas
website. It's worth the visit. His book, A Guide to Barsoom,
is no longer in print, but is well known in the community. Try
a search of ABEBooks to
find it.
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