Iron Flame Map: The Ultimate Guide (+ Printable PDF)

Struggling with the Iron Flame map? I took hundreds of notes to make it easy for readers like you to learn and theorize. Here, you’ll learn everything you need to know about “The Continent” to assist your reading of the Empyrean series by Rebecca Yarros. So, get “fired” up!

Iron Flame Map Summary (With Spoilers): Navarre, Samara, and More

Riordan House is “half palace, half home, but entirely a fortress.” Thick stone walls carved into the mountainside with cobblestone floors and steel-enforced double front doors. (pages 17-18)

“It is the valley above Riorson House, heated by natural thermal energy, that is its greatest asset. For there lie the original hatching grounds of the Dubhmadinn Line, from which two of the greatest dragons of our time — Codagh and Tairn — descend.” (page 26)

“The region of the Barrens — the dry, desert-covered peninsula in the southeast that all dragon kind abandoned after General Daramor ruined the land during the Great War — is completely painted in crimson. The stain stretches into Braevick, over the Dunness River. What have to be newer battle sites are marked with an alarming number of bright red and orange flags. The red ones mar not only the oceanic eastern border of the Krovlan province along the Bay of Malek but are heavily concentrated north into the plains as well, spreading like a disease, even infecting dots of Cygnisen. But the orange ones, those are heavily concentrated along the Stonewater River, which leads straight to Navarre’s border.” (page 30)

Orange flags close to Zoloya, “the second most populous city in Braevick, and where Cliffsbane, their flier academy, is located.” (page 31)

In the area of the Braevick’s border with the Barrens along the Dunness River there are red flags from the last few years and orange flags from the last few months. (page 31)

A box like Garrick found at Resson was found in Jahna, already smashed, but the craftsmanship appeared Navarrian. (page 32)

“The protective magical shield provided by the dragons’ hatching grounds in the Vale falls short of the official, mountainous borders of Navarre, and the entire southwestern coastline of Tyrrendor — including Aretia — is exposed.” (page 33)

“Aretia has a dormant wardstone.” (page 34)

Samara is “the easternmost outpost of the Southern Wing, where the borders of Krovla and Braevick provinces intersect, and a day’s flight away.” (page 82)

“And in the mountains of the Steelridge range, the green dragons of the Uaineloidsig line, known for their keen intellect and rational countenance, offered their ancestral hatching grounds for the good of dragonkind, and the wards of Navarre were woven by the First Six at what is now Basgiath War College.” (page 116)

The village of Sipene is high in the Esben Mountains. (page 122)

“[O]utposts are rarely ever attacked directly.” (page 124)

“The Poromiel trading post nearby, Resson, was leveled by Poromish unrest a couple of weeks ago, and we think that may be helping disrupt their communication lines about our outpost.” (page 125)

“The landscape around the Samara outpost is as severe as the command that runs it.” (page 167) “Two companies of infantry and eighteen dragons and their riders are stationed [t]here.” (page 168) The wards are also stronger there. (page 168) There is also a drift “on the other side of the mountains, a mile beyond the border.” (page 168)

“‘The wards themselves originate from the Vale, near Basgiath, but they only reach so far. These’ — he taps the medallion — ‘hold extra power to boost the wards and extend them. The more material, the stronger the wards. There’s an entire armory of them downstairs, boosting the wards. The details are classified, but that’s why outposts are placed strategically, to keep our borders from developing weak points.'” (page 183)

“Aretia needs a forge to smelt the alloy, to make more weapons. […] It takes a dragon to fire a crucible, which we have, and a luminary to intensify dragonfire hot enough to smelt[.]” (page 184)

“The Northern Esbens are believed to have been the hatching grounds of the orange dragon before unification, though, true to their unpredictable nature, they often chose new valleys in the same range[.]” (page 216)

The first joint land navigation exercise was in the Hadden Woods. (page 220)

“It was only when we pushed the wards to their true limits, extending them far past what we first thought possible and to what I now question as sustainable, that we defined the borders of Navarre, regretfully knowing not every citizen would benefit from their protection.” (page 250)

The wards “originate from the wardstone in the Vale because of the hatching grounds located there[.] […] [T]hey’re boosted with a power supply along our border outposts to expand their natural distance in places and maintain a strong defense. They’re woven to the ground out here[.] [T]hink of an umbrella. The wardstone is the stem, and the wards take the shape of a dome over Navarre. […] But just like an umbrella’s spokes are strongest at the stem, by the time the wards reach the ground, they’re too weak to do much without a boost [of alloy].” (page 288) 

“[I]t’s the alloy stored in the outposts that tugs some of those umbrella spokes forward, […] [e]xtending the wards twice as far as they’d normally reach in some cases[.]” (page 288) 

“The extensions are what we weave. It’s like continuing a tapestry that’s been stretched too far. You’re just adding threads to something that already exists, and we can’t extend the wards to Athebyne. We’ve tried.” (page 289)

“{T]he end result of the four-day temper tantrum was Cygnisen being absorbed into the Kingdom of Poromiel, where they’ve been for the last three hundred years.” (page 299)

“Poromiel’s provinces maintain their individual cultural identities[.] […] Someone from Cygnisen is more likely to label themselves as a Cygni instead of Poromish. As opposed to our provinces, who unified under the protection of the first wards, chose the common language, and blended the cultures of all six provinces into one cohesive kingdom.” (page 300)

Navarre chose the common language, which was common to the Calldyr, Deaconshire, and Elsum provinces. “The Luceras, Morraine, and Tyrrendor provinces lost their languages[.]” (page 300)

The northwestern coastline of Luceras is bitterly cold. (page 300)

Travel and culture were sacrificed in the Unification because Navarrians aren’t welcome past their borders, nor is anyone else welcome within Navarre. (page 301)

“The only unique thing [Navarre] kept were [their] runes because they’re in too much of [their] architecture to justify changing.” (page 301)

Zolya holds Cliffsbane Academy and gryphon riders. (page 341)

“ZOLYA FALLS TO DRAGON FIRE The third largest city in the braevick province has fallen to the blue fire dragons and their riders. Though the city and its drifts fought valiantly, the two-day battle ended in poromish defeat. All who did not evacuate have perished. An estimated ten thousand lives have been lost, including general fenella, the commander of braevick’s gryphon fleet.” (page 344)

“Nearly all of the Krovlan province remains untouched, but the enemy is just a day’s flight from our border. The only movement I notice since viewing this map in midsummer is up the Stonewater River — toward Navarre.” (page 503)

Cordyn is “where Viscount Tecarus has the only other known luminary.” (page 510)

Viscount Tecarus is in the Poromish province of Krovla. (page 530)

Cordyn has turquoise/aqua waters. The palace “looks like it’s glowing[.]” “The structure is a sprawling, glistening combination of white pillars and blue pools that cascade in five distinct terraces down the gentle slope of the hills above the beach.” (page 541)

Deverelli silk comes from the isle. Krovla traded with them until the last few years when it became too dangerous, but Navarre hasn’t in centuries. (page 552)

“The Arctile Ocean to the south is known for calm, warm waters and what were once lucrative trade routes[.]” (page 563)

The Dunness River, which borders the Barrens, was already drained of its magic. (page 572)

“From the dangerous waves of the Arctile Ocean to the lowest plains of the Tyrrendor plateau, the Cliffs of Dralor rise to over twelve thousand feet in places, making them unflyable by gryphon. While there are three well-carved paths within Navarre to ascend the plateau, along the Krovlan border exists only one … and it is deadly to both gryphon and flier.” (page 577)

“As a result of the Treaty of Aretia, the power to represent the province of Tyrrendor in the King’s Senarium has hereby been transferred from the House of Riorson to the House of Lewellen.” (page 650)

The dark wielders took Pavis, which is only an hour’s flight east of Draithus. (page 679)

“The power supplies in the outposts extend the wards, they don’t create them[.]” (page 777)

“The wardstone [in Navarre] is twice as large as the one in Aretia, as is the chamber that houses it, but unlike Aretia’s, the rings and runes carved into it are interrupted by a diamond pattern. And unlike our wards in Aretia, this wardstone is on fire, lit on top by black flames that sputter and flare as a dragon emerges from behind the left side of the stone[.]” (page 794)