Lit The Essential Atlas and Galactic Cartography: Official Discussion

If the author did intend on saying Mon Calamari was near Naboo, I hope it was just an error on his part or he was making it simple for kid readers.

Though, still...

 

(nods) Until Pablo or someone else from LFL says they're moving Naboo (or Mon Cal), it's probably either just a mistake or a simplification for kids.

That said, if it's a mistake, it's big enough that it should've been caught somewhere along the way, given the amount of distance we're talking about (I'm estimating 55,000-plus light-years, based on my copy of the Atlas).

 

Right, if it's mistakenly placing Naboo in the Outer Rim or mistakenly saying Naboo is near Mon Cala, either way it's a pretty big one and should have been caught in the editorial/approvals process. But is it a mistake? Given the track record of TCW and its tie-ins, I don't know that we can automatically assume this is an error.

 

i don't blame the novella so much, as it is kinda implied in the cartoon itself...this bothered me back when the cartoon came out

 

I'd just like to take a second to point out that if they are moving Mon Calamari and/or Naboo, they're changing something that was established in the very first map of the galaxy, from Behind the Magic in 1998. Not particularly meaningful, perhaps, but sort of funny to me.

[image=http://images.wikia.com/pt.starwars/images/5/5f/Star-wars-galaxy.jpg]

 

Cross-posting this from the latest Karen Traviss thread in case it's of interest here....

Not to thread-jack, but the perceived ambiguity of Mandalore has always interested me. I dug into my emails and archives to vet my own recollection and in case it might interest some of you:

Bottom line, there was never any intention in the ATLAS (or anywhere else, as far as I know) to play games with the true identity of Mandalore/Kalevala/Concordia.

Here's what my notes/emails show happened.

Working on the ATLAS, Dan did the original write-up of Mandalore, long before we'd heard of Duchess Satine, and he came up with the name Tal'tar for the fourth orbital position. Dan classified Tal'tar as a toxic desert -- again, long before we heard about a Mandalorian war with the Jedi or white sands and cube cities.

Late in the development of the ATLAS, we learned about the new Clone Wars material. We worked closely with LFL to write a small add accounting for the revised Mandalorian history, Concordia became a moon of Mandalore, and we needed to add Kalevala to the Mandalore system. I have no email record of why Kalevala replaced Tal'tar rather than being added as a new planet. This makes me think it was probably to keep production changes to a minimum at Del Rey, or some other mundane reason. Anyway, when Kalevela replaced Tal'tar it inherited its classification as a toxic desert.

I think fans wanting to preserve the old Mandalore to the greatest extent possible saw a perceived ambiguity in that, which over time became conventional wisdom. But the reality is simpler and honestly less interesting. For my part, I've always figured Mandalore is Mandalore, and worked accordingly.

BTW, in Karen's long-ago blog statement, she confused the second CW Visual Guide with The Art of the Clone Wars. It was the latter book that first showed us the CW depiction of Mandalore; the second Visual Guide wasn't out yet. I remember at the time being very confused/panicked about that one.

Anyway, hope that's interesting. Carry on!

 

I assume that people realise that if Naboo is moved, then Tatooine and Geonosis have to be moved too.

 

seriously, I'm still blaming this on the cartoon and not the author of the novella tie-in; it WOULD be the impression you got from the show

p.s.

i seem to recall at one point art of the mandalore cube city being labelled as being on Kalevala, which is why I think the confusion came about

and why did there need to be a kalevala? all the kalevalans we know seem to be living on mandalore, why can't they be natives? we've never ever seen kalevala nor has it been significant

 

To echo the post I made in the Karen Traviss thread, I'm guessing that the original story had nothing to do with the Mandalorians, and the city was going to be on Kalevala, not Mandalore.

 

Time to revive this topic with new Atlas input!

SW The Old Republic MMO ingame spacetravel maps with sector(?) boarders and interesting locations

lets start decyphering and wondering when we get an official new Atlas map with them all!

There are TOR-esque weird sector or subregion boarders and aurebesh location names that appear in readable english ingame as I saw on other worse quality maps. Also nice shots of the planets and their parsec distance to Coruscant noted! all in link above for us



PS: Noticed on lousy online photographs of the TOR Collectors Edition Galaxy map, that it contains way more locations marked than any online or prima gameguide map has. F.e. it notes Spacebattles, Flashpoints etc. that the Prima TOR Atlas Gameguide completely ignores mapwise and lore-wise. Same for spacebattles, and spacefighting ingame.

REQUEST: Would be very happy if anybody could provide a readable photograph or scan of the map please!

@Jason: *lights the Atlas signal in the skye* If you are around, let me know if you got the TOR CE map or plan anything featuring its locations for us in the future thx

 

No plans right now, and have never seen anything from the game. Hope it all fits together.

 

Even if sector boundaries don't match, it's not a big issue. I though Atlas was supposed to represent the "modern" version, not the TOR-era one.

 

I'd guess springtime.

 

The biggest issue is that if Mon Cal is close to Naboo-why would Qui-Gon even remotely consider going to Tattooine when they need hyperdrive repairs? it's like going to Billy Bob's Seedy Used Car Dealer when the Ford dealership is a block further

 

http://img4.picload.org/image/rrlilga/p1020329kopie.jpg

SW TOR CE Map readable high res Photo taken by a good friend, Sander alias ExarXan

Big thx to him for us getting more locations!


[image=http://img4.picload.org/image/rrlilga/p1020329kopie.jpg]

 

Cool find CeiranHarmony. One thing I am surprised about is how much is hidden IN Hutt Space. Hammer Station and Revan seems to had left quite a few things there like the Foundry AND the site where he kept the Infinite Engine as well.

 

Wait... I thought Corellia joined the Empire. Why is it listed as a Republic system?

 

Might be because Corellia only joins the Sith Empire in the end-game when the Treaty of Coruscant is officially null and void. So, might be referring to Corellia as it is in the start of the game maybe? Prior to player actions?

 

Amusing quotage from TalonCard's recent interview with Ryder Windham:

This novel [Wrath of Darth Maul] names the previously unidentified worlds where Maul was trained. Mustafar in particular is used heavily. Can you explain the process behind choosing these planets?

Leland Chee, the continuity editor at Lucas Books, informed me that Darth Sidious secretly trained Maul on Mustafar. So, after reviewing Jude Watson?s Darth Maul Journal, and noting how Maul visited various unnamed worlds during his training, I examined Star Wars: The Essential Atlas to pick worlds that weren?t too far from Mustafar, which seemed practical. I figured Sidious wouldn?t want to travel too far with young Maul. The Atlas is one of my favorite reference books, and I use it frequently. I should just throw money at Dan Wallace and Jason Fry the next time I see them.

Nice to hear that the Atlas is used by authors looking for logical location ideas.

 

I'll risk speaking on behalf of Dan and say both of us are happy to have money thrown at us by anyone, Star Wars author or not.

Ryder was one of the first SW authors to consult us about navigation and other geographic bits, something we've always been happy to help with. Plus he's a righteous dude -- and I swear I'm not just saying that because we're writing a Transformers series together. Loves storytelling, cares deeply about character, and does everything he can to get the SW details right.

 

Movie, though the books are pretty independent of that.

 

Would you mind if I threw a large, unopened jar of change at you? I know I used to have one lying around... don't know how much it's worth, but I'm sure you can figure that out

 

Good advice:

1. Never let people throw jars full of metal at you.
2. Even if that metal is money.
3. Especially if the hurler's screen name is "instantdeath".