Elevations and Locations -

Vosk Delta

At the moment the Mapping of Gor is using 41,000 data points to generate one landscape. This series covers the area of the Vosk Delta. This includes the islands of Tyros and COS. It also includes the marshy swampland of the Vosk Delta including Port Kar and the land of the Rencers.

This area has minimal elevation changes due to the fact that it is marsh. The greatest elevation changes are more likely on the islands as compared to the mainland. The Vosk Delta begins at Turmus on the Vosk River and is located west of that location. It is not possible to make an overland journey from Port Kar of the Land of the Rencers. Usually small boats would be required to move about the tidal marshes.

On the second map I did locate some of the trails, many of which originate from Brundisium. Right click and download the larger image if you wish to the them.

The Vosk River is very wide, and will be covered in a later series. But it doesn't really end dues to the fact it disperses into many small tidal rivers in the Delta. It is here that low lying marsh grasses are in abundance and of course the rence plant. Used for making paper, beer and lodges.

"On river barges, for hundreds of pasangs, I had made my way down the Vosk, but where the mighty Vosk began to break apart and spread into its hundreds of shallow, constantly shifting channels, becoming lost in the vast tidal marshes of its delta, moving toward gleaming Thassa, the Sea, I had abandoned the barges, purchasing from rence growers on the eastern periphery of the delta supplies and the small rush craft which I now propelled through the rushes and sedge, the wild rence plants"
Raiders of Gor Pg 5

"squalid...malignant...scourge of the gleaming Thassa...Tarn of the Sea...divided and crossed by hundreds of canals...which open into the delta of the Tamber were, in the last few years, fitted with heavy, half-submerged gates of bars...Politically Port Kar is a chaos, ruled by several conflicting Ubars, each with His own following, each attempting to terrorize, to govern, and to tax to the extent of his power...the nearest solid land, other than the occasional bars in the marshes, to Port Kar lies to her north, some one hundred pasangs distant". Raiders of Gor Pg 103

"I was in the delta of the Vosk, and making my way to the city of Port Kar, which alone of Gorean cities commonly welcomes strangers, though few but exiles, murderers, outlaws, thieves and cutthroats would care to find their way to her canaled darknesses".
Raiders of Gor Pg 5

"The tiny village, Rarir, in which she had been born, lay south of the Vosk, and near the shores of Thassa".
Captive of Gor Pg 232

The first image to the right is from above, over looking the Vosk Delta. I figured it should have some clouds, these are cumulus clouds. Some of the ecosystems are visible in the lower right where the Plains of Sanchez are located. If you look real close you can see a ship heading into Port Kar - it is a dot *g

"What lies west on the Vosk," asked Aemilianus.
"On the southern bank, Ven," said Marcus. Turmus, which is the last major town west on the Vosk, is on the northern bank. "And what beyond Ven?" asked Aemilianus. "The Delta" Renegades of Gor Pg 424

The second image is looking east toward the Vosk Delta across the islands.

"There were the northern islands, of course, and they were numerous, but small, extending in an archipelago like a scimitar northeastward from Cos, which lay some four hundred pasangs west of Port Kar. But these islands were not united, and, indeed, the government of them was usually no more than a village council. They usually possessed no vessels more noteworthy than clinker-built skiffs and coasters". Raiders of Gor Pg 106

The third image is another top down view of the Vosk Delta. The ecosystems are visible. One is light green while the other is a bluish-green, indicative of grasses in the southerly areas. I do not know exactly where the rence plants begin and end, but the light green areas are those areas that would have rence plants.

"Both lie some four hundred pasangs west of Port Kar, Tyros to the south of Cos, separated by some hundred pasangs from her.... Cos is also a lofty island, even loftier than Tyros, but she has level fields to her west. Cos had many terraces, on which the Ta grapes are grown". Raiders of Gor Pg 139

This is a rendition of 'rence plants'. From what I understand the rence plant grows about 3-4 meters high, has a woody fibrous stalk and the pulp is used for making the paper.

For this picture I tool some liberty - basically I grew a lawn to 1,600 times the normal height. The lower plants are tidal grasses. The Rencers owe me a beer because I actually included the three islands *S

The rence islands move. They are constantly floating and are no higher than a 1 meter in height. It could be expected that they move with the tidal currents.

"The Vosk is a mighty river which flows westward, emptying into a vast rence delta, finding its way eventually to Thassa, the sea" Slave Girl of Gor Pg 248

Rence Islands:
Small; seldom more than 200 - 250 feet. Rence islands usually holds 50 - 60 persons. Population are called "Growers of the Rence" Raiders of Gor Pg 13 - 21

"The most important reason for not finding a guide, of course, even among the eastern rence growers, is that the delta is claimed by Port Kar, which lies within it, some hundred pasangs from its northwestern edge, bordering on the shallow Tamber gulf, beyond which is gleaming Thassa, the Sea" Raiders of Gor Pg 6

A close-up view of the Vosk Delta with ecosystems.

"Never has a slave girl escaped from canaled Port Kar, protected on one side by the interminable, rush-grown delta of the Vosk, on the other by the broad tides of the Tamber Gulf, and beyond it, the vast, blue, gleaming, perilous Thassa". Assassin of Gor Pg :305

Objects are being used for the first time in the third image. In this case the objects are ships. Since I do not have model of a Gorean ship I used a standard galleon. In this image these ships are moving inland toward Port Kar. The island of Teletus is visible in the background as are the Ta-Thassa Mountains way back to the left. At this point I am not interested too much in the scale of objects and vegetation in relationship to the land - that will come later.

Another series of images depicting the galleon moving in the Thassa Sea. You will notice the various types of water - some experimentation with waves and reflectance. I am not really sure how I ended up with red moons but they look kinda cool.

From Port Kar ships could travel to many places. This includes Tyros, COS, Lydius, Bazi, Schendi and the islands of Teletus, Tabor and Asperiche. Whether or not those ships travelled as far south as the Ta-Thassa and Ianda and Anango Islands I am not sure. To do so would be a trip of several thousands of pasang, though one would be hard pressed to think they could not make the journey.

"Port Kar, squalid, malignant Port Kar, scourge of gleaming Thassa, Tarn of the Sea, is a vast, disjointed mass of holdings, each almost a fortress, piled almost upon one another, divided and crossed by hundreds of canals.......It is, in effect, walled, though it has few walls as one normally thinks of them. Those buildings which face outwards, say, either at the delta or along the shallow Tamber gulf, have no windows on the outward side, and the outward walls of them are several feet thick, and they are surmounted, on the roofs, with crenellated parapets. The canals which open into the delta of the Tamber were, in the last few years, fitted with heavy, half-submerged gates of bars".
Raiders of Gor Pg 103

Four ships heading inland toward the Vosk Delta.

"The grapes were purple and, I suppose, Ta grapes from the lower vineyards of the terraced island of Cos some four hundred pasangs from Port Kar.... If they were indeed Ta grapes I supposed they must have come by galley from Cos to Port Kar, and from Port Kar to the Fair of En'Kara. Port Kar and Cos are hereditary enemies, but such traditions would not be likely to preclude some profitable smuggling. But perhaps they were not Ta grapes for Cos was far distant, and even if carried by tarns, the grapes would probably not seem so fresh" Priest-Kings of Gor Pg 45

"There are four major cities on Cos, of which Telnus is the largest. The others are Selnar, Temos and Jad".
Raiders of Gor Pg 174

My thanks to 'autumn NS' for her help in this as well as Karnik. Thanks Lass.

Inukshuk - 2002 - 2004