Wait a second...I've just been going over a couple of the Wiki pages and a few entries from the World of Ice and Fire, and I'm actually thinking it's the right choice to keep a land route connecting the Torrentine with Oldtown.
Firstly, in the map for the Reach ( http://store44.com/wp-content/uploads/michael-gellatly-world-of-ice-and-fire-reach.jpg ) if you look closely, you'll see that a road is marked connecting Sunhouse to Starfall along the coast, and a road also connects Oldtown to Starfall and High Hermitage via Uplands, suggesting that there is in fact a route between the two - which would also make sense given that the Torrentine begins in the Reach, as is also visible in the map. It's also worth noting that in the old Game of Thrones RPG game, Starfall was said to guard the "western arm of Dorne", suggesting that there's a pass here of some sort...although admittedly this could just refer to them guarding the Torrentine itself.
Secondly, it's noted in the World of Ice and Fire book that the Prince's Pass and the Stone Way aren't the only passes through the Red Mountains into Dorne, just the two "principal" passes...so there are others, but they're not as widely used (and it should be considered that the route along the coast isn't going through the Red Mountains, but around it). Admittedly, for gameplay purposes, it could be a good idea to add a few impassable walls between provinces to force the AI to take certain routes, or to perhaps edit the adjacencies file or something to make the route through the mountains faster.
Thirdly, it's mentioned in the same book that the Lords of the Torrentine have fought battles with the inhabitants of the Reach; House Blackmont; the northernmost settlement on the river, is mentioned as one of the Houses who were usually involved in fighting along the Dornish Marches, along with Houses Manwoody and Fowler of the Prince's Pass, and Houses Wyl and Yronwood of the Stone Way, suggesting that they have some way of getting to the Reach without going down the Torrentine past Starfall. Later on, it's noted that House Starfall besieged Oldtown during Aegon's Conquest...if impassable mountains did surround all Dorne, that'd mean they'd have either needed to go past Highgarden and Horn Hill (two of the most powerful castles in the Reach, who would have almost certainly taken up arms against them) or take ships down the Redwyne Straits, and ships aren't mentioned as a part of the assault; the narrative implies the attacks were purely on land.
On that note, the section for the Reach mentions that two separate Kings from the Red Mountains attacked and besieged Oldtown and Highgarden...which suggests to me that the two Kings took completely different routes to get to their two destinations, as surely a King going past Highgarden to get to Oldtown would have attacked it as well? It's also worth remembering that the Western Marches region of the Reach actually doesn't include the castle of Uplands; they're sworn to Oldtown, which was an independent state for some time...perhaps Oldtown and Starfall had a much more cordial relationship with one another than the Reach/Western Marches and the houses in the two main passes?
Food for thought, in any case...plus, consider that the Stormlands controls Nightsong, which, in the old map, is in the way of the only real route for the Reach to get to Dorne. Considering how many battles were fought, and how the peace between the Reach and the Stormlands wasn't constant, there'd need to be another route for the Reachmen to use to get into Dorne...
Firstly, in the map for the Reach ( http://store44.com/wp-content/uploads/michael-gellatly-world-of-ice-and-fire-reach.jpg ) if you look closely, you'll see that a road is marked connecting Sunhouse to Starfall along the coast, and a road also connects Oldtown to Starfall and High Hermitage via Uplands, suggesting that there is in fact a route between the two - which would also make sense given that the Torrentine begins in the Reach, as is also visible in the map. It's also worth noting that in the old Game of Thrones RPG game, Starfall was said to guard the "western arm of Dorne", suggesting that there's a pass here of some sort...although admittedly this could just refer to them guarding the Torrentine itself.
Secondly, it's noted in the World of Ice and Fire book that the Prince's Pass and the Stone Way aren't the only passes through the Red Mountains into Dorne, just the two "principal" passes...so there are others, but they're not as widely used (and it should be considered that the route along the coast isn't going through the Red Mountains, but around it). Admittedly, for gameplay purposes, it could be a good idea to add a few impassable walls between provinces to force the AI to take certain routes, or to perhaps edit the adjacencies file or something to make the route through the mountains faster.
Thirdly, it's mentioned in the same book that the Lords of the Torrentine have fought battles with the inhabitants of the Reach; House Blackmont; the northernmost settlement on the river, is mentioned as one of the Houses who were usually involved in fighting along the Dornish Marches, along with Houses Manwoody and Fowler of the Prince's Pass, and Houses Wyl and Yronwood of the Stone Way, suggesting that they have some way of getting to the Reach without going down the Torrentine past Starfall. Later on, it's noted that House Starfall besieged Oldtown during Aegon's Conquest...if impassable mountains did surround all Dorne, that'd mean they'd have either needed to go past Highgarden and Horn Hill (two of the most powerful castles in the Reach, who would have almost certainly taken up arms against them) or take ships down the Redwyne Straits, and ships aren't mentioned as a part of the assault; the narrative implies the attacks were purely on land.
On that note, the section for the Reach mentions that two separate Kings from the Red Mountains attacked and besieged Oldtown and Highgarden...which suggests to me that the two Kings took completely different routes to get to their two destinations, as surely a King going past Highgarden to get to Oldtown would have attacked it as well? It's also worth remembering that the Western Marches region of the Reach actually doesn't include the castle of Uplands; they're sworn to Oldtown, which was an independent state for some time...perhaps Oldtown and Starfall had a much more cordial relationship with one another than the Reach/Western Marches and the houses in the two main passes?
Food for thought, in any case...plus, consider that the Stormlands controls Nightsong, which, in the old map, is in the way of the only real route for the Reach to get to Dorne. Considering how many battles were fought, and how the peace between the Reach and the Stormlands wasn't constant, there'd need to be another route for the Reachmen to use to get into Dorne...
- 2
.png){kind=avatar}
