The Map (The Westlands)

When you open a Wheel of Time book, the first thing you’ll see inside the cover or first few pages is a variation of this map. There are additional landmasses in the world of the Wheel of Time, but the main focus is on this subcontinent. This land doesn’t have an in-story name, but has been referred to in outside sources as simply “The Land” or “The Westlands.” Some characters refer to this area as “the Wetlands.”

There is a common spoilery name used by fans as well, which I’ll leave out here.

Since the Breaking of the World and the formation of this landmass 3,000 years ago, many different nations and empires have risen and fallen, with borders shifting and changing through the centuries. Currently, this subcontinent is divided into fourteen nations and four major city-states and is roughly 3,500-4,000 miles across.

Here is a rough fan rendering comparing the size of the Westlands to the United States. Here is another comparison. Here is a comparison to Europe, Asia, and Africa.

At times all of the land was claimed by one country or another, but currently there are large portions of plain, forests, mountain ranges, and grasslands that are unclaimed, shared, or squabbled over.

The land stretches from the Aiel Waste in the east to the Aryth Ocean in the west, and from the Great Blight in the north down to the Sea of Storms in the south. There are also a number of offshore islands belonging to the Sea Folk.

The four northern countries are referred to as the Borderlands because they directly border the Great Blight.

The major mountain ranges dividing the land include the Mountains of Dhoom separating the Great Blight and the Borderlands in the north, the Spine of the World, which divides the wetlands from the Aiel Waste in the East and the Mountains of Mist which divide the western coastal regions from the rest of the continent.

There are two major river networks as well, which are used extensively for swift travel and trading of goods across regions and through major cities.

Finally, the story of the Wheel of Time books begins here in a small region called the Two Rivers, located in the western-most part of the country of Andor, near the Mountains of Mist.

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