: "Maeldun's only words on returning exhausted to Tyr
: from a long campaign in the East to find half the city
: burning after a raid by pirates from Leix were 'Show
: me the way to Leix.'"
: Have just reread the above flavour text. Is it just me or
: does Maeldun appear not to know the location of Leix?
: After all, he needs someone to show him the way. It
: could be poetic speech I suppose, but surely all
: inhabitants of Tyr would know where the place was.
Maybe Maeldun is no sailor. When he says, "show me the way," he could be meaning, "show me the way because I'm afraid of being lost at sea."
As far as the Penal colony thing, I think that the island would probably have the same function as Australia. It's a rather costly thing to jail someone, and pay guards, and build fences\walls, etc... Why not just throw them on some out of the way place and let them fend for themselves. It would be like being on "Survivor" only without the cameras, challenges, and money. And when a tribal council does happen, it's to kill someone off. Let these prisoners kill each other and save us the trouble.
But by the Leixians banding together and becoming pirates, they could possibly build ships etc... But maybe they couldn't build the best of ships and had to rely on the currents to take them to the mainland. By looking at the map, the channel between Covenant and (the possible) Leix, would most likely cause a current through there and up the coastline right into the small peninsula that Tyr is sitting on. By this measure, it would probably be MUCH EASIER to get to TYR rather than Covenant. Just a theory, though.
Zandervix
