Concavia: The Bridgelands.

Hey everyone. The other day I posted this map as part of the Holten profile. I wanted to give the map a dedicated post so I can walk you through some of the places in brief.

With the naming of the places you will notice that the north is named very differently from the south. That is because the north was named by the Teutā herdsmen and the south was named by the Herride farmers, so each name means something in their own tongue.

The keen-eyed will also notice little flags on hills throughout the Bridgelands. These are Herride hillforts. Raised flags mean the hillforts are still standing while lowered flags show they have been conquered by the herdsmen.

You see, the Teutā and the Herride have been locked in a state of war for as long as anyone can remember. The Teutā used the north of the Bridgelands simply to cross into the Great Sward in the east and to let their herds graze along the way. To do this they had to pass through Reigsgate between the peaks of Reig and Gwen. They won the Great Sward from the oathbreaker Alves who had settled there after building the Bearer of Talanā, the great spire at the southern pole which almost reaches the rings of Gelh at Concavia’s very centre. As part of the terms of surrender the Teutā had to give tithes to the Alves each time they passed through Reigsgate.

The Herride farmers coveted the fair fields in North Bridgeland and came up with a plot to cut off the Teutā from the Great Sward and to push them out. The Herride despoiled the graves of the Alves at Reigsgate and awakened the dead there, closing the pass for all. They successfully pushed the disarrayed Teutā out of the Bridgelands and set up hillforts in strategic spots to hold their newly won lands. As you can see, the herdsmen have come back in force and have even pushed down into the south to have their revenge. But there will be more on that another time…

The Herride tongue is really an amalgam of Etruscan, Basque and other pre Indo-European speech. I will start in the south with their place-names.

Leponessa literally means “neck” or “nape plains” because this thin stretch of land links the Bridgelands to the Herride homeland on the mainland.

Just above Leponessa is the land of Penzingar, which takes its name from the fact that it is the lower and lesser of the fens in the south of the Bridgelands. Pen means “lower” and zingar means “marshes”.

Onassa simply means “good plain”: ona is “good” and assa is “plain”.

Ciśaror is the largest Herride region and is a rich land fed by thirteen rivers. Ciśar is made up of ci “three” and śar “ten”, joined with or which means “waters”. So Ciśaror is “the land of the thirteen waters”.

Within Ciśaror lies the great northern fen of Urzingar. Ur means “watery” and the last part, zingar, means “fen”, as in the name Penzingar.

Ederessa is a plain that stretches from the Gantontors, “the high peaks”, in the north, which part it from Salaho. Its southern edge is marked naturally by the southern hills of the Ekimuinos, “sunny hills”, and by the thirteenth river of Ciśaror. Eder means “generous” and essa is another Herride ending that marks a plain.

Salaho is the last named Herride region and it is also the smallest. Formerly it was the border land between the Teutā and the Herride and the natural dividing line between north and south Bridgeland. Its name comes from the fish salmon, whose name is borrowed from the Teutā, and from the word for “mouth” in Herride, aho.

Now, on to the north:

Salmouth, like Salaho, simply means “salmon mouth” because of the salmon run that runs through that land. It is the best crossing between north and south and it draws fishers from all around in salmon season because of its excellent bite-points for seining.

Stelford Dale takes its name from the famed ford that crosses the river Ēa there. The ford is made from the ruins of a great bridge raised in elder days. What is left of the piers of the bridge line the ford and mark its edges like ribs. Stel is another word for “pillar”, so Stelford literally means “pillar ford”, and Stelford Dale is the name for the upland dales west of the Stelford. I will be drawing the Stelford at some point, as it is a major landmark and the best crossing of the Ēa for many days’ walk around.

The highest peak in the land, Reig, and its twin peak Gwen rise above all others in their range, standing tall over the Stelford Dales like sentinels.

Between Reig and Gwen runs Reigsgate, a pass in the range that separates the Bridgelands from the Great Sward beyond. An old road runs the length of Reigsgate. It is lined with barrow mounds that grow ever grander and more kingly until at last the ancient road ends at the mound of the high king of the Oathbreakers.

The Great Sward is a sweep of steppe-grasslands roughly twice the size of the Bridgelands. It runs from Bridgeland all the way to the mainland of Talanā.

Travelling back east to the land on the other side of Stelford, we come to Fletfell. Fletfell takes its name from the hillocks that run its full width. The hills rise as they go westward and end in a flat-topped berg named Tableberg, which is where the name Fletfell comes from.

East of Fletfell lies Kingsway, a road lined with barrows in imitation of the Oathbreaker Alves custom of marking their borders with the graves of their Noble dead. Kingsway is the only pass through the Gelridge highlands, which curve down from the neck of Teutāham into Seaxness, Beugness and Orness.

Teutāham means “home of the Teutā”: Teutā for “the folk” and ham for “home”.

Below Teutāham lie the nesses. They are named as follows: Seaxness “knife ness”, Beugness “bow ness” and lastly Orness “arrow ness”. On Orness live some of the last Talanos who outlived the Flood. The little X on the map marks their temple-stead, partially occupied ruins from before the Great Flood.

Just to the south lie the Fletching Isles in the Malena Sea. They are unpeopled. The Malena, or “Mirror”, Sea takes its name from the way it reflects the world above like a huge looking-glass on a still day.

The inland sea that cuts the Bridgelands in two is called the Barrutisś. Barru means “inner” and tisś is the Herride word for “lake”.

The Talaneān Sea speaks for itself. It is the sea of Talanā.

The two meres in the north are named Holtenmere, “mere of the wood-folk”, and Gelmere, “the frozen mere”.

And there we have it, the map of the Bridgelands!