The Mystery of the North South Path

[MeadowR]

Motor isn't for another few centuries.

[Ashleg]

Hah.

[The Skarzs]

Oh for goodness' sake. Bloody phone.

[Blaggut]

By the Redwall map from the official product 'Redwall Map And Riddler' it seems to fade off and become not so clear-cut as the path and the terrain at the Open Land/Foothills of the Middle Northlands. I believe it doesn't mean to say "we're stopping mapping it here, but it goes on" and instead say "here it just kind of fades into the terrain and dissapears as a clear path." However this ending point is notably quite a ways before Noonvale, and didn't the Troupe make their way down by the path? This would discredit my theory. Someone should check the books mentioning the Northlands.

In the South it seems to fade into the trees, and it's implied it reaches Castle Floret. I believe this was confirmed in The Bellmaker?

Note that because the maps constantly contradict themselves, this map is infamously inaccurate itself, and focuses on plot point locations more than official lore, though it does serve as a good basis or general impression of the world at large.

Link: https://i.stack.imgur.com/y9N0B.jpg

[Krantor the Brutal]

A good point @Blaggut. The maps tend to be different, all the time. For example, Gulo's ship comes from the sea west of Salamandastron, Damug's from the east-ish sea. There would be no place for things like the lake or the path if these two seas were in such close proximity.

[Blaggut]

Didn't Damug end up on the Northeast Coast (where Marshank lay) and quickly make his way down, while Gulo ended up in Araltum's grove much farther south due to a storm? That could still make up for the map measurement considering the North tapers to a thin stretch of land, unlike the rest of the known world like Mossflower. I don't think Brian could mess up that bad.

[Krantor the Brutal]

The Long Patrol shows South-East with Salamandastron seen:


Rakkety Tam shows just as you said:

[Wylder Treejumper]

OK, that map from The Long Patrol is clearly wrong. The illustrators took a LOT of liberties with the maps, and literally every other Redwall book shows Salamandastron guarding the Southwest sea. If that map were true, Southsward would be completely underwater:


And, then, here's the map from Salamandastron:


Note the part that says, "To the Southwest Lands." Clearly no ocean magically sitting around there.

[The Skarzs]

Yes, with the giant mountain range directly between Redwall and Salamandastron. I thought those were further south, or Redwall was further north. . .

[Wylder Treejumper]

We can note, however, that there is definitively an eastern sea; Damug lands on its southern shore (not as far as Southsward, though) and Raga Bol on its northern shore. Interestingly, It is never shone on any of the maps except the map from The Long Patrol, in which it is clearly portrayed inaccurately, and Loamhedge. Here is the northern part, from Loamhedge:

[Krantor the Brutal]

From the second picture you posted Wylder, it seems that the error the illustrators made in the The Long Patrol was not only that Damug sailing in the Southeast Sea was misplaced, but also, they mistook the Big Lake for the East Sea, as it seems.

[Wylder Treejumper]

No, The Long Patrol states that Damug landed on the southeast coast, somewhere between Redwall and Salamandastron latitudinally. He probably would have had to march across a fair ways of land, but crossed some rivers which flowed out of Lake Marl (as I call it) either to the north or south of the lake proper.

We can also note that the map is inaccurate in that streams never run parallel to the coastline. That is just plain incompetence on the illustrator's part.

[Krantor the Brutal]

What I meant was that the illustrators used the image of the Marl Lake for The Long Patrol

[Sanddunes]

Do things move around or disappear in each story it almost seems like Brian the Illustrator forgets what he draws in the other books or he doesn't care

[Nadaz, voice of the host]

could it be a badger warpath used in the great war between the badgers and the wildcats?