Montagnes oubliées / Forgotten Mountains

 (English translation is available below)

La carte que j'ai réalisée pour les Sables Périlleux comportent, outre les Montagnes du Bord du Monde et celles qui bordent la côte ouest de l'Arabie, plusieurs massifs montagneux qui ne figurent pas dans les sources officielles. Ou bien ? Ce petit article expliquera brièvement d'où viennent ces éléments géographiques. Sur les problèmes de cohérence inhérents à la cartographie ancienne, je vous renvoie vers les articles sur la Mer Labyrinthique et la Corne d'Arabie, qui reviennent déjà largement sur le sujet. Je ne parlerai pas spécialement des éléments géographiques particuliers mentionnés dans les Sables Périlleux et que j'ai inventé pour l'occasion (ils sont relativement peu nombreux), uniquement de ce qui émane des sources. On évoquera pas ici des Montagnes du Bord du Monde, de la Montagne des Vautours et de la Montagnes des Eunuques, qui apparaissent clairement sur les cartes et sont nommées ainsi.

Montagnes Atalanes

Les Montagnes Atalanes 

Ce massif n'est pas spécialement oublié, car il figure sur littéralement toutes les cartes qui montrent un minimum de relief. Cependant, son nom n'est jamais mentionné, hormis dans Warmaster Armies, de Rick Priestley. Les terres d'Arabie y sont décrites comme nichées entre les Montagnes Atalanes et le Grand Océan, et cette même chaîne de montagne se trouve à l'ouest du désert qui s'étend jusqu'à la Terre des Morts. Impossible donc de se tromper à propos de l'identification de cette chaîne de montagnes.

Les Collines de Medgidal

Ces reliefs ne sont à ma connaissance mentionnés qu'une seule fois, dans la nouvelle The Two Crowns of Ras Karim de Nathan Long, parue dans une anthologie de Gotrek et Felix. Voici le passage concerné :

You are in the dungeons of the Palace of Penitence, guest of his divine eminence, Falhedar il Toorissi, Scourge of the Bermini, Conqueror of the Medgidal hill kings, Defender of the Faithful, and Caliph of our fair city of Ras Karim.

Collines de Medgidal, à droite

Les Collines de Medgidal étaient donc gouvernées par des rois, avant que Falhedar il Toorissi ne les conquiert, ce dernier étant le Calife de Ras Karim. Ces données sont minces mais intéressantes car la même nouvelle donne plus ou moins l'emplacement de Ras Karim : 

He and Gotrek were in the Forbidden Garden, a house of ill repute in Ras Karim, a port some hundred leagues east of Copher, asking after a legendary monster said to haunt the desert south of the city.

Soit environ 555 kilomètres (100 lieues marines) à l'est de Copher. On sait aussi qu'un désert se trouve au sud de la cité. En respectant ces données, j'ai donc placé Ras Karim à environ 550-600km à l'est de Copher, logiquement sur la Côte Pirate (oui, vous pouvez utiliser les chiffres présents en bordure de la carte pour vérifier !). Mais qu'en est-il des Collines de Medgidal ? Certaines des cartes les plus connues de l'Arabie, comme celle de WFB5 (et dans une moindre mesure WFB7) ne montrent aucun relief à cet endroit :

Araby - WFB5

La Terre des Morts

Araby - WFB7

 Cependant, d'autres indiquent clairement un élément géologique sur la Côte Pirate, distinct de la chaîne de montagnes occidentale et bien à l'est d'Al Haikk, et notamment la carte fournie dans Warhammer, le Jeu de Rôle 2eme édition. Cet élément, moins imposant que les Montagnes Atalanes ou bien les Monts du Dos du Dragon, sont cependant bien plus marqué que les collines qu'on peut voir à proximité :

WFRP2

Une chaîne de montagne, située au sud de Ras Karim, dont le Calife a vaincu les rois des Collines de Medgidal ? Le rapprochement est facile.

Ailleurs en Arabie

Il est plus difficile d'établir la présence de véritables reliefs montagneux au sud, tout simplement parce qu'il n'y a pas réellement de mentions, ni de représentations explicites. En fait, ces représentations existent mais son ambiguës. En effet des éléments picturaux existent sur de nombreuses cartes, mais semblent plus évoquer des dunes aux pentes douces que des massifs (comme sur les cartes montrées plus haut). Pourtant, d'autres éléments géographiques qui, sur certaines cartes sont représentées de la même façon que ces dunes, sont sans aucun doute possible montrés comme des massifs montagneux sur d'autres cartes. Comparons, par exemple, les dunes qui parsèment le désert sur la carte de WFB5 et le sud des Monts du Dos du Dragon sur la même carte :

WFB5

On notera en premier lieu une différence entre les dunes situées dans le désert et les reliefs au nord de Khemri et autour de Zandri : les seconds sont bien plus marqués en raison de l'ombrage noir. On pourra remarquer que les dunes tout en haut à gauche sont légèrement plus marquées et rappellent l'endroit où se situeraient les Collines de Medgidal...mais passons. Ces reliefs, visiblement plus marqués, sont explicitement des massifs montagneux dans WFRP2 :

WFRP2

Dans le livre d'armée Roi des Tombes v8, on voit assez nettement la différence entre les simples dunes du désert d'Arabie et les massifs montagneux :

Roi des Tombes v8

Roi des Tombes v6

Pourtant, dans WFB6, et le livre d'Armée Roi des Tombes de 2002, ces distinctions sont beaucoup moins nettes, si ce n'est inexistantes :

WFB6

Les monts à l'est de la Rivière Mortis sont même complètement absent dans la deuxième carte présente dans le livre d'armée !

Roi des Tombes v6

Dans WFB7, la carte du monde trace (trop) subtilement quelques uns de ces reliefs, mais on ne voit ici pas de dunes, que des reliefs très estompés hormis pour les chaînes montagneuses les plus connues. On notera l'absence des dunes/reliefs entourant Zandri, alors que les montagnes à l'est des Marais de la Terreur sont à peine esquissés :

WFB7

Mentionnons également la carte, plus que douteuse, établie par un des marins d'Erik le Rouge et présente dans Inferno! 4 :

Inferno! 4

Ceci laisse donc la possibilité de croire qu'une partie au moins des éléments géographiques sur les cartes pourraient être des montagnes, simplement peu, ou mal, représentées. S'agissant d'éléments sans dénomination et purement spéculatifs de ma part, mais utiles pour étoffer un peu la carte. L'image suivante montre d'où viennent certains de ces éléments, choisis arbitrairement ou presque. J'aurais probablement pu en mettre plus, surtout vers Qatar.

Le Grand Erg 

Zarekten gardant le col menant au Grand Erg

Le Grand Erg n'est pas un massif montagneux. Cependant, la mention qui en est faite va de paire avec un col, et donc un massif, mentionné, dans la nouvelle Blood and Sand de Matt Ralphs. Les détails géographiques sont importants : 

It was called Zarekten, and it dominated the valley. A shallow moat - carved through the ochre rock by a river long since dried up - hugged the bottom of a soaring curtain wall. Square towers sprouted along the length of the defences which stretched out from one valley wall and back, like the tip of a spear. The main gate was at its apex, a wide, arched door flanked by two towers. The city gazed blankly through a thousand murder holes. Soldiers patrolled the parapets, long spears over their shoulders, their silver mail coats caught the sunlight and shimmered with many shades of blue. Sloping up behind them as it climbed the rock face was the city itself. Inner walls and bastions were thrown into relief by the sun: flat surfaces dazzled with light, whilst doors, windows, arrow-slits and arches remained black with shadow. As the city climbed ever higher, the defences made way for small, square dwellings with domed roofs. Around these tightly packed buildings was a warren of passages, alleys, bridges, avenues and covered walkways.

Zarekten guarded the entrance to the Great Erg - a blistering, white sand plain visible to the south through the mouth of the valley - and the rich trade routes running through it. It represented the last frontier between the principalities and city-states of the prosperous north, and the nomadic tribes who inhabit the deserts to the south.

Ainsi, Zarekten domine une vallée flanquée de roches rouges et garde le passage vers le Grand Erg. Il s'agit du dernier rempart entre les principautés et cités-états du nord, et les tribus nomades du sud. Toutes les sources répétant que le cœur de l'Arabie, la partie la plus dense e la plus riche, se trouve au nord des Montagnes Atalanes, le Grand Erg et a fortiori les formations rocheuses qui découlent de la description se situent environ dans cette zone. Du moins, elles pourraient être située à l'ouest de Montagnes Atalanes, mais j'ai préféré l'éloigner de la côté en raison d'un passage mentionné dans Blood and Sand :

Prince Friedrich's crusade had burnt and slaughtered its way into Araby and was now many miles inland. It had breached the walls of Gobi-Alain on the coast and defeated every hastily mustered army that marched to meet it. Castles, towns and villages were being crushed under the heels of the grand crusades from the Empire and Bretonnia, and Araby was reeling.

Le Prince Friedrich, qui gouverne Zarekten durant la nouvelle, a commencé par la côte mais s'est largement enfoncé dans les terres. Il me semblait logique d'éloigner Zarekten et de la rapprocher du désert, plutôt que de la laisser près du Grand Océan.

Le Mont de la Banshee

Les Monts de la Banshee sont relativement simple à placer sur une carte : ils sont mentionnés dans Relics of the Crusade, extension publiée par Fanatic dans les N°96 et 97, pour Mordheim. Les articles sont disponibles sur le site Specialist Games, pour les curieux :

https://www.specialist-arms.com/fanatic/

Cette campagne pour Mordheim se base sur la recherche des trésors laissés par un certain Prince Arnyld, après sa série de pillages et sa décapitation. Le tout se passe explicitement autour du Golfe de Medes. Dans le deuxième article, il est dit que le Mont de la Banshee se trouve à proximité de la Plaine de Haytin. C'est de là qu'un scientifique de renom, Armen Abbas, s'est élancé pour tester ses ailes, lui permettant de voler comme un oiseau...après quelques essais malheureux. J'ai relié cette montagne à des repères géographiques figurant sur plusieurs cartes, toujours sous couvert de l’ambiguïté entre dunes et massifs rocheux.

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 The map I made for the Perilous Sands includes, in addition to the World' s Edge Mountains and those bordering the western coast of Araby, several mountain ranges that do not appear in official sources. Or do they? This short article will briefly explain where these geographical elements come from. On the problems of coherence inherent in ancient cartography, I refer you to the articles on the Maze Sea and the Horn of Araby, which already deal extensively with the subject. I will not speak especially of the particular geographical elements mentioned in the Perilous Sands and that I invented for the occasion (they are relatively few), only of what emanates from the sources. I will not mention here the World' s Edge Mountains, the Mountain of the Vultures and the Mountain of the Eunuchs, which appear clearly on the maps and are named as such.

Atalan Mountains

The Atalan Mountains

This range is not especially forgotten, as it appears on literally every map that shows a minimum of relief. However, its name is never mentioned, except in Warmaster Armies, by Rick Priestley. The lands of Araby are described there as nestled between the Atalan Mountains and the Great Ocean, and this same mountain range lies to the west of the desert that extends to the Land of the Dead. It is impossible to be mistaken about the identification of this mountain range.

The Medgidal Hills

To my knowledge, these landscapes are only mentioned once, in the short story The Two Crowns of Ras Karim by Nathan Long, published in a Gotrek and Felix anthology . Here is the relevant passage:

You are in the dungeons of the Palace of Penitence, guest of his divine eminence, Falhedar il Toorissi, Scourge of the Bermini, Conqueror of the Medgidal hill kings, Defender of the Faithful, and Caliph of our fair city of Ras Karim.

Medgidal Hills, on the right

The Medgidal Hills were therefore ruled by kings, before Falhedar il Toorissi conquered them, the latter being the Caliph of Ras Karim. These data are thin but interesting because the same news gives more or less the location of Ras Karim:

He and Gotrek were in the Forbidden Garden, a house of ill repute in Ras Karim, a port some hundred leagues east of Copher, asking after a legendary monster said to haunt the desert south of the city.

That is to say approximately 555 kilometers (100 nautical leagues) east of Copher. We also know that a desert is located south of the city. Respecting these data, I have placed Ras Karim at about 550-600km east of Copher, logically on the Pirate Coast (yes, you can use the numbers on the edge of the map to check!). But what about the Medgidal Hills? Some of the best-known maps of Araby, such as WFB5 (and to a lesser extent WFB7) do not show any landforms at this location:

Araby - WFB5

Land of the Dead

Araby - WFB7

 However, others clearly indicate a geological feature on the Pirate Coast, distinct from the western mountain range and well to the east of Al Haikk, and notably the map provided in Warhammer, the Role Playing Game 2nd Edition. This element, less imposing than the Atalan Mountains or the Dragon's Back Mountains, is however much more marked than the hills that can be seen nearby:

WFRP2

A mountain range, located south of Ras Karim, whose Caliph defeated the kings of the Medgidal Hills? The connection is easy.

Elsewhere in Araby

It is more difficult to establish the presence of real mountainous areas in the south, simply because there are no real mentions, nor explicit representations. In fact, these representations exist but are ambiguous. Indeed, pictorial elements exist on many maps, but seem to evoke more dunes with gentle slopes than massifs (as on the maps shown above). However, other geographical features that on some maps are represented in the same way as these dunes, are undoubtedly shown as mountainous massifs on other maps. Compare, for example, the dunes that dot the desert on the WFB5 map and the southern Dragon's Back Mountains on the same map:

WFB5

First of all, there is a difference between the dunes located in the desert and the reliefs north of Khemri and around Zandri: the latter are much more marked because of the black shading. We can notice that the dunes at the top left are slightly more marked and remind the place where the Medgidal Hills would be located...but let's pass. These reliefs, visibly more marked, are explicitly mountainous massifs in WFRP2 :

WFRP2

In the Tomb Kings Army Book v8, we see quite clearly the difference between the simple dunes of the Arabyan desert and the mountainous massifs:

Tomb Kings v8

Tomb Kings v6

Yet in WFB6, and the 2002 Tomb Kings Army Book, these distinctions are much less clear-cut, if not non-existent:

WFB6

The mountains east of the Mortis River are even completely absent in the second map in the army book!

Tomb Kings v6

In WFB7, the world map shows (too) subtly some of these landforms, but we don't see any dunes here, only very blurred landforms except for the most famous mountain ranges. Note the absence of the dunes/lands surrounding Zandri, while the mountains east of the Swamps of Terror are barely sketched:

WFB7

Let us also mention the map, more than doubtful, established by one of the sailors of Erik the Red and present in Inferno! 4 :

Inferno! 4

This leaves open the possibility that at least some of the geographic features on the maps could be mountains, simply sparsely, or badly, represented. These are unnamed and purely speculative elements on my part, but useful to flesh out the map a bit. The following image shows where some of these elements come from, chosen arbitrarily or almost. I probably could have put more, especially around Qatar.

The Great Erg 

Zarekten gardant le col menant au Grand Erg

The Great Erg is not a mountain range. However, the mention of it goes hand in hand with a pass, and therefore a mountain range, mentioned in the short story Blood and Sand by Matt Ralphs. The geographical details are important: 

It was called Zarekten, and it dominated the valley. A shallow moat - carved through the ochre rock by a river long since dried up - hugged the bottom of a soaring curtain wall. Square towers sprouted along the length of the defences which stretched out from one valley wall and back, like the tip of a spear. The main gate was at its apex, a wide, arched door flanked by two towers. The city gazed blankly through a thousand murder holes. Soldiers patrolled the parapets, long spears over their shoulders, their silver mail coats caught the sunlight and shimmered with many shades of blue. Sloping up behind them as it climbed the rock face was the city itself. Inner walls and bastions were thrown into relief by the sun: flat surfaces dazzled with light, whilst doors, windows, arrow-slits and arches remained black with shadow. As the city climbed ever higher, the defences made way for small, square dwellings with domed roofs. Around these tightly packed buildings was a warren of passages, alleys, bridges, avenues and covered walkways.

Zarekten guarded the entrance to the Great Erg - a blistering, white sand plain visible to the south through the mouth of the valley - and the rich trade routes running through it. It represented the last frontier between the principalities and city-states of the prosperous north, and the nomadic tribes who inhabit the deserts to the south.

Thus, Zarekten dominates a valley flanked by red rocks and guards the passage to the Great Erg. It is the last bastion between the principalities and city-states of the north, and the nomadic tribes of the south. All the sources repeating that the heart of Araby, the densest and richest part, is located north of the Atalan Mountains, the Great Erg and a fortiori the rock formations that follow from the description are located approximately in this area. At least, they could be located west of the Atalan Mountains, but I preferred to move it away from the side because of a passage mentioned in Blood and Sand :

Prince Friedrich's crusade had burnt and slaughtered its way into Araby and was now many miles inland. It had breached the walls of Gobi-Alain on the coast and defeated every hastily mustered army that marched to meet it. Castles, towns and villages were being crushed under the heels of the grand crusades from the Empire and Bretonnia, and Araby was reeling.

Prince Friedrich, who governs Zarekten during the story, started at the coast but went far inland. It seemed logical to me to move Zarekten away and closer to the desert, rather than leaving it near the Great Ocean.

The Mount of the Banshee

The Mount of the Banshee is relatively easy to place on a map: they are mentioned in Relics of the Crusade, an expansion published by Fanatic in the #96 and #97, for Mordheim. The articles are available on the Specialist Games website, for the curious:

https://www.specialist-arms.com/fanatic/

This campaign for Mordheim is based on the search for the treasures left by a certain Prince Arnyld, after his series of plunders and beheading. The whole thing takes place explicitly around the Gulf of Medes. In the second article, it is said that the Mount of Banshee is near the Plain of Haytin. It was from there that a famous scientist, Armen Abbas, took off to test his wings, allowing him to fly like a bird...after a few unfortunate attempts. I have linked this mountain to geographical landmarks on several maps, always under the cover of the ambiguity between dunes and rocky massifs.