Heh. Well, the companion book more or less blames the first one on the Breaking: it isn't "the gods," but "the male Aes Sedai." And "the Dark One," I suppose, because the Blight very obviously defies real climatology; it's hot up there, despite it being north of the freezing cold Borderlands.
The political divisions should possibly be glossed as "vague approximations." A lot of those countries border on areas that aren't under anybody's political control; it would be plausible that royal authority just sort of peters out, and the lines are drawn merely for the sake of convenience. Though I think it would be more realistic if areas like the Caralain Grass were still claimed by one country or another (like the Two Rivers area is still claimed by Andor), but their "ownership" only existed on paper.
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yati
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Date: 2012-06-22 03:52 pm (UTC)The political divisions should possibly be glossed as "vague approximations." A lot of those countries border on areas that aren't under anybody's political control; it would be plausible that royal authority just sort of peters out, and the lines are drawn merely for the sake of convenience. Though I think it would be more realistic if areas like the Caralain Grass were still claimed by one country or another (like the Two Rivers area is still claimed by Andor), but their "ownership" only existed on paper.