For those of you who don't know, I'm working on a project for the WORLDS OF CTHULHU magazine aimed at converting CAS's Averoigne into a setting for CTHULHU: DARK AGES. I'm trying to find a map that would be appropriate for use, but I'm not finding anything in print, and the ones on the website here are not inspiring and often inaccurate. Any hints? Does anyone know about the Averoigne map that's supposed to be published in the Donald Grant volume?

Hello Dan-
I think that Boyd has the prototype map for the Grant book here on site, although I'm not sure where. While it may not be particularly inspiring, it is as "accurate" as possible for an imaginary realm. I'm guessing that your project needs something with more detail?
Where did you find the maps you mention?
-Ron

Hey Boyd-
ARE the maps on site? How can I locate them?
-Ron

Tried the site search engine (recently rewritten), upper right corner every page? May want to limit your search to art section only.

B.

Some maps are in the "Art >> Inspired by CAS" section (page 4).

casofile Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey Boyd-
> ARE the maps on site? How can I locate them?
> -Ron
>

Thanks to everyone who's responded. At this point, I'm not really happy with the maps I've seen on the site - most of them contain blatant contradictions with the stories themselves. Thus, I'm open to any suggestions people have.

OK, I've looked over the maps and found the one I designed for the Grant book. (Don't worry, it has been re-drawn much more professionally for the book) It's labelled 'artist unknown' and I wouldn't mind if Boyd credits me here as I spent quite a bit of time designing it.
I'll have to caution Dan that if he researches the tales extensively I can guarantee him to find discrepancies amoung the stories themselves. Obviously this is due to the fact that Smith never designed or anticipated such a map and simply placed the towns, rivers, mountains, etc, wherever required by plot to move his story along. Probably the best thing for Dan to do is to custom design his own map to fit his specific requirements.
Any map of Averoigne should begin with the boundaries of the historic Auvergne province of France, but after this you will eventually have to make some hard decisions which can only be based on the individual needs of your project.
BTW, thanks for pointing me in the right direction, I had tried the search engine, but evidently failed to narrow my search down enough.
-Ron

Ron,

Many thanks. I think my main qualm about the map was that it seems rather forested, while "The Maker of Gargoyles" implies that large swaths of Averoigne are in fact fields and villages. Still, I'll pass on the map to the others I'm working with to ask their opinions.

Dan

Quote:

"The Maker of Gargoyles" implies that large swaths of Averoigne are in fact fields and villages.

I've driven through Auvergne, and that description certainly corresponds to my impressions of it. Of course, who knows how it looked during the Middle Ages? Auvergne is also hilly and contains many volcanic remnants. Not having read the Averoigne tales for some time (they are not my favorites), however, I don't recall whether CAS alludes to this aspect of the terrain.

One of the problems encountered in creating a geography for Averoigne is that so much of the action takes place within the forest. For this reason the forest boundaries were made quite extensive, but this does not mean it is necessarily a solid expanse of trees, although some areas are indeed described by Smith as pathless, immemorial, primordial, etc.

In 'Colossus' when Gaspard journeys from Vyones to Ylourgne, Smith states "Much of his journey lay through the great lowering forest" but then "After a few miles, he emerged from the mighty wood of pines and oaks and larches; and thenceforward, for the first day, followed the river Isoile through an open, well-peopled plain." The next day Gaspard again enters the forest and passes through "the wildest and oldest portion of the immemorial wood," So we have to assume that the Averoigne forest is not all an impenetrable expanse of trees such as Tolkein's Mirkwood, but rather more interspersed with glades, fields and villages.

Anyone who creates a map of an imaginary realm will have to hope for a certain amount of lenience and that readers will not take things too literally. After all, to over-analyze the details of Smith's evocative and atmospheric prose will certainly break the literary spell he weaves, rather like not seeing the forest for the trees!
-Ron

Perhaps, you could also consider that the forest is emphasised for thematic reasons rather than purely topographical. That is, the forest is emphasised because it is a wild place, a locus for forces uncivilised, and a menace to normal, farm-bound and town-bound existence.

Thus it prevalence within the tales.

Phillip

Phillip-
Absolutely correct! If anything, atmosphere, mood and setting were more important to CAS than the actual plot.

Hey there - new to the board & just picked up Cthulhu Dark Ages and immediately thought of Averoinge as well. The main problem I've come across is that many of CAS' stories take place 200 years after the CDA epoch (which ends in c.1050). Of course my knowledge is small in this regard, having only read the Arkham's A Rendezvous In Averoigne and Gollancz' Emperor of Dreams. One of the main features being that the occult and the Mythos have already been seriously supressed, whereas in CDA there is a flowering of mythos activity due to the Necronomicon's publication in 950.

The old D&D module X2 Castle Amber includes a map of Averionge. It is, however, long out of print. I can send a copy to anyone who would like to look at it.

BTW - Can anyone supply me with a comprehensive list of CAS' Averoinge stories?


-notall'

Out of print but available for sale as a pdf ($4.95), the lawyers threatened to break my legs when I had it on the site.

A list of the Aviogne stories can be found here:
[www.eldritchdark.com]

A blight upon the laywers, then!

Thank you very much for the list & chronology. :)