The Concord of Five Banners
Map of the Realm · Five Powers · Fifteen Dragons · All Roads Meet at Hearthhold
beyond, no road known to us — only the tales of those who came back
The Five Powers
- The Iron KingdomsHeavy armor, honor, military structure.
- The Free CitiesTrade alliances and diplomacy.
- The Arcane OrderAncient magical civilization.
- The Wild ClansSurvivalists and monster hunters.
- The Ashen PeaksSmithing, mining, geothermal — the forge-and-stone tradition.
- Karth VeylThe underground civilization that declined to sign.
Remote Outposts
Hearthhold has the best prices and the most shops. These three outposts have what they have, and you walked there to find out.
Dragon Regions
- The Crimson Wastes
Salt and heat. Few wells. The desert keeps its dead.
- The Cold Spire
Always cold. Snow likely. The glacier dragons hunt where the air stops.
- The Fens of Murex
Wet country. Fog standard. Bog-goblins, drowned towers, things that watch.
- Mountain Pass
Sudden storms possible. The kindest path is also the cruelest.
- The Pale Wood
Unsettling. The light bends. Bring your bell. Bring your names.
- The Threadlands (Wild Clans)
Honor. Tradition. Wilderness. Sixty-seven kin-groups north of the Clan Road.
- The Stillwater
Variable coastal. Calm by morning, dark by ten fathoms.
- The Iron Kingdoms (temperate)
Knighthood and Order. The red heart of the realm: castles, oaths, the Iron Road.
- The Ashen Peaks
Fire. Endurance. Survival. Seven volcanic ranges, hot ash, sudden lightning.
- The Free Cities Coast
Trade. Freedom. Coin. Nineteen mercantile republics along the Sea of Pelt.
- Hearthhold (Crossroads)
The Crossroads. Where all roads meet and where every adventurer begins.
Reading the Map
All roads meet at Hearthhold — the Crossroads. North runs the Clan Road into the Wild Clans. West, the Ash Road climbs to the Ashen Peaks and turns south past the Crimson Wastes. South: the Iron Road to the Iron Kingdoms and on to the Sea of Pelt and the Free Cities. The Sea Road threads the coast east to Briarquay and the Tideblack.
The dragons live where the map's lines thin. Some, like Auresor in the Hidden Vale, you find only because someone else once made the journey and wrote it down. Some, like Iselith on the Cold Spire, you find because every shepherd in the north points at the mountain and says, up there.
— from the third edition of the King's Atlas, copied by Old Pell