Jörðgarð Map of Week #161 - Continent of Énéa

MarkOliva

With the 161st Map of the Week, we move from the continent of Ása to the pseudo-continent of Énéa. Here we find the last refuge of the Æsir outside of Miðgarð, the homeland of the Ganndar light elves (the only remaining light elves upon the jörð outside of the Middle Dimension), the surviving Auðar stone giants as well as many, many orcs and their ogre henchmen.

We call Énéa a pseudo-continent because it's far removed from modern concepts of what a continent is. One of the modern Icelandic words for "continent" is "heimálfa." However, in the olden days, heimálfa had a much less specific meaning than it does today. There also is no specific definition of the word "continent" today, outside of the field of geology. There, continent definitions are based upon tectonic plates. In common usage, continents usually are considered to be large and discrete land masses. The earlier meaning of heimálfa, on the other hand, meant little more than a collection of known and acknowledged lands. In this loose sense only is Énéa referred to as a continent. The Æsir defined it as such, and in the current year of 1406 NA upon the jörð, most humans of the northwest use the Æsir definition.

Énéa is not even a continuous or uninterupted heimálfa. The Dreadlands, which the Æsir considered to be a part of their empire and a part of the continent of Ása come between the southern part of Énéa and Karelenland, and the Ice Sea comes between Karelenland and Northland, which became an island after the connecting lands sank. The name Ása means little more than "of the Æsir," where Énéa means that which is removed or on the outside.

In view of the flexible use the Æsir made of the word heimálfa, it should not be surprising that they changed their minds often on what the borders of Ása and Énéa were. In the early days, before the Æsir entered today's Dreadlands, they viewed the central empire as being Ása and the lands of the elves - Northland, Karelenland, the Gold Coast, Orchome West and Auðarhome - as being Énéa. When they annexed the New Homeland (today's Dreadlands) they considered it to have become a part of Ása. The Gold Coast also became a part of Ása in their minds when the Æsir annexed, and they considered it to have reverted to Énéa after they abandoned it.

Today, Énéa generally is considered to consist of Northland, Karelenland, the Gold Coast, Orchome West and Auðarhome.

The map above is reduced in size. You can get the full-sized map in two versions:

1. The Fractal Mapper (TM) 8 version in FMP format, fully editable (11 MB) from the Jörðgarð website.

2. As JPG flat map of 1360 Pixels x 930 Pixels, (930 MB), available from the NBOS website at:

http://www.nbos.com/nox/download.php?id=596

Both versions are released for personal and commercial use under the Open Game License Version 1.0a, which you can read on the Jörðgarð website at:

http://www.vintyri.org/joerdhgardh/

Next Week: Karelenland - Home of the Ganndar Elves