Explore the real places in San Francisco that appear in A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Gont, Ged's Village (Ten Alders), Roke Island, Havnor, The Kargad Lands and 8 more.
Great island of wizards and sorcerers, Ged's homeland
Gont is the island where Ged is born and spends his early childhood. Here his aunt first recognizes his power and teaches him a few words of the Old Speech. Ogion the Silent comes to Gont Port to take the young Ged as his apprentice after Ged's remarkable defense of the village against Kargish raiders.
Gont is a great mountainous island said to be one of the most powerful sources of wizardly talent in all of Earthsea. The island has a long tradition of producing great mages and its rough terrain and hard people forge strong spirits. Ogion himself, one of the greatest mages alive, hails from Gont.
Gont represents Ged's origins and the raw, untamed potential within him. The island's harsh beauty mirrors Ged's own character — powerful, proud, and ultimately shaped by hardship into something extraordinary.
Small mountain village where Ged was born and raised
In Ten Alders, Ged grows up as the son of a bronzesmith. It is here as a young boy that he first uses the word of the Old Speech without understanding it, calling goats to him. When Kargish longboats attack, Ged wraps the village in a fog using only half-learned spells, saving the villagers and revealing his extraordinary gift.
Ten Alders is a humble farming and herding village high in the mountains of Gont, typical of many small communities that dot the island's interior. The village has no great history or legend attached to it — only the quiet labor of ordinary people — making Ged's emergence from it all the more remarkable.
Ten Alders establishes the humble origins from which greatness can spring, a central theme of the novel. It also marks the first moment Ged's pride and power come into dangerous conflict, foreshadowing his later tragedy at Roke.
Island of the School of Wizardry, center of magical learning
Roke is where Ged studies under the nine Masters of the school. Consumed by rivalry with the older student Jasper, Ged attempts a forbidden spell to summon the dead and instead tears open the boundary between the living and the dead, unleashing a nameless shadow creature. The Masters barely manage to seal the rift, leaving Ged gravely wounded and scarred.
Roke Island is protected by powerful wards that prevent all but those invited from landing — its shores are shrouded in mist and magic. The Archmage sits at the center of all wizardly knowledge in the Archipelago, and the nine Masters represent each great art of magic. The island itself is said to have been made by Segoy's word at the founding of the world.
Roke is the site of Ged's greatest failure and the moment his shadow is born. It represents the danger of unchecked ambition and pride, and the tragic irony that the very place meant to teach wisdom becomes the place where Ged nearly destroys himself and the world.
Great Isle and capital city, seat of the High King's throne
Havnor Great Port is the greatest city in all of Earthsea, mentioned as the ancient seat of the kings before the kingship was broken. Ged passes through its legendary harbor on his journey from Gont to Roke, marveling at the Tower of the Kings and the Sword of Erreth-Akbe mounted above the city. It represents civilization and human achievement at their height.
Havnor is the historical heart of the Archipelago, where the great King Erreth-Akbe once held court before the breaking of the Ring. Its harbor is said to be the finest in the known world, and its streets are filled with merchants and wizards and sailors from every island. The Tower of the Kings rises above all buildings, a monument to past glory.
Havnor serves as a symbol of lost unity and greatness in Earthsea — a civilization that was once whole and is now fragmented. Its grandeur in contrast to the chaos Ged encounters elsewhere underscores the novel's themes of balance and the consequences of broken order.
Empire of the Kargs, enemies of the Archipelago
The Kargad Lands send raiders in longboats who attack Gont in Ged's childhood, an event that first reveals his remarkable power. The Kargs are described as a fierce, pale-skinned people who worship the Twin Gods and hold the Old Powers of the earth rather than the magic of the Archipelago. Their empire looms as a constant threat across the eastern sea.
The four Kargad lands — Karego-At, Atuan, Hur-at-Hur, and Atnini — are ruled by the God-King at Awabath. The Kargs do not practice the magic of the Archipelago and regard it with superstition and hostility. They worship the Nameless Ones and the Twin Gods, and their priests wield a different kind of power rooted in older, darker forces.
The Kargad Lands represent the Other — a civilization entirely different from everything Ged knows, challenging the assumption that the Archipelago's way is the only way. They also foreshadow later volumes where the truth about the Nameless Ones becomes central to the story.
Cold northern island where the shadow nearly catches Ged
Ged flees to Osskil after an encounter with the shadow creature leaves him badly drained. On the road to the Court of the Terrenon, the shadow catches Ged and nearly takes him, possessing a man named Skiorh who acts as its agent. Ged barely escapes into the fortress where the Stone of Terrenon is kept, only to face a new danger in the stone's seductive power.
Osskil is a cold, grey island in the north, culturally closer to the Kargad Lands than to the Archipelago in many ways, and its people speak a different tongue. The Court of the Terrenon is an ancient fortress built around a great stone of terrible power said to have been made before the world itself, containing a bound entity of immense evil.
Osskil marks the lowest point of Ged's flight from his shadow, where he nearly loses himself to both the shadow and the Stone's corruption. It forces Ged to confront the folly of endless flight and foreshadows his eventual decision to turn and hunt the shadow rather than be hunted.
Island home of Ged's friend Vetch
Iffish is the home island of Vetch, Ged's closest friend from their days at Roke. After Ged escapes from Osskil and recovers somewhat, he seeks out Vetch on Iffish. Vetch, now a respected wizard of the island, welcomes Ged without judgment and insists on accompanying him on his final quest to hunt down the shadow creature across the open sea.
Iffish is a modest island in the east of the Archipelago, known primarily as a fishing and farming community. Its people are warm and practical, and Vetch's family — including his sister Yarrow — represent the simple goodness of ordinary Archipelagan life far from the grand politics of Havnor or the mysteries of Roke.
Iffish and Vetch together represent the power of friendship and loyalty in contrast to Ged's proud isolation. The fact that Ged must humble himself to seek help here is a turning point, and Vetch's willingness to sail into unknown waters beside his friend is one of the novel's most moving acts.
Westernmost island at the edge of the world, site of Ged's final confrontation
Selidor is the far western island where Ged and Vetch sail in their small boat Lookfar after following the shadow across the open ocean. Here, beyond the last shores of the known world, Ged faces the shadow and calls it by his own name — Ged — completing the confrontation and reuniting his spirit, making himself whole again. Vetch watches in awe as Ged and the shadow merge into one.
Selidor is described as one of the oldest islands, home to the bones of the great dragon Orm, the mightiest dragon of legend. It lies at the very edge of the world where the sea runs off into nothing, and only the most desperate or reckless sailors have ever reached it. The island is ancient and empty, a place outside ordinary time.
Selidor is the spiritual and narrative climax of the entire book, the place where Ged completes his journey of self-discovery. It embodies the novel's central theme: that the greatest enemy one faces is the shadow within oneself, and that wholeness comes only from accepting rather than fleeing one's own darkness.
The vast, trackless waters beyond the known islands
Ged and Vetch sail through the Open Sea in their small boat Lookfar, following the shadow as it retreats ever westward. The journey becomes a test of endurance and courage as they leave all charted waters behind and sail into the unknown reaches where no island breaks the horizon. The sea itself seems alive with ancient presence as they near the edge of the world.
The Open Sea is the vast outer ocean beyond the Archipelago, largely unmapped and rarely sailed. Ancient lore holds that the world is finite and that the sea eventually ends, though none who have sailed to that edge have returned to confirm it until Ged. The waters here are said to be older than the islands and to remember the first words spoken at creation.
The Open Sea represents the existential unknown that every hero must eventually face alone. It strips away all the landmarks, titles, and certainties that Ged has built around himself, leaving only the raw question of who he truly is when everything familiar has vanished behind him.
Fishing village where Ged serves as a young wizard
Low Torning is where Ged is sent as a young wizard after recovering from his ordeal at Roke, assigned to protect the people of a cluster of small islands from a dragon threat on the island of Pendor. It is here that Ged comes into his own as a practicing mage, earning the trust of common folk and learning what it means to use his power in service of others rather than pride.
Low Torning is a modest fishing village typical of the lesser islands of the Archipelago. Its people are practical and superstitious, deeply dependent on the sea for survival and wary of the dragon known to lair on nearby Pendor. The village has requested a wizard from Roke for protection, having too little money and status to attract anyone of great renown.
Low Torning marks Ged's first real engagement with the world as a responsible adult. His decision to face the dragon of Pendor — against the caution of those who sent him — shows both his courage and the lingering recklessness of his pride, setting the stage for the shadow's renewed pursuit.
Dragon-haunted island near Low Torning
Pendor is the island where Ged sails alone to confront the dragon Yevaud and its whelps, who have been terrorizing the fishing villages of the area for years. Ged defeats the young dragons and then binds Yevaud by speaking its true name — one of his first great acts of wizardry in the world. Yevaud attempts to trade Ged's own true name for its freedom, revealing it already knows it.
Pendor was once inhabited by humans but was abandoned generations ago when dragons took up residence in the ruins. The great dragon Yevaud, old and cunning, raised a brood of young dragons there and grew fat on the terror of the surrounding islands. Dragons in Earthsea are deeply magical creatures of great age who know the Old Speech natively.
The confrontation at Pendor is Ged's first great triumph, but also a deeply unsettling moment — Yevaud's knowledge of Ged's true name suggests the shadow creature has been sharing what it knows of him. It foreshadows the ultimate confrontation and deepens the urgency of Ged's quest.
The great harbor town of Gont island
Gont Port is where Ogion the Silent arrives to give Ged his true name and take him as an apprentice, marking the formal beginning of Ged's magical education. Later, after the catastrophe at Roke, a badly scarred and broken Ged is brought back to Gont Port by the Archmage's magic, and it is here that Ogion nurses him back to health and urges him to choose his own path.
Gont Port is the largest and most prosperous town on Gont island, its harbor busy with trading vessels and fishing boats. It is the main point of contact between Gont and the wider Archipelago, and many of the island's famous wizards have passed through its gates on their way to Roke or to their callings. Ogion himself is deeply respected here.
Gont Port serves as a threshold place — it is where Ged crosses from the world of his childhood into the wider world of magic and consequence. Each time he returns, it measures how much he has changed, and Ogion's presence there anchors the novel's theme of wise guidance versus prideful independence.
Fortress housing the ancient and evil Stone of Terrenon
Ged takes refuge in the Court of the Terrenon after barely escaping the shadow on Osskil. The court is ruled by the sorceress Serret — the daughter of the Lord of Re Albi who once tempted Ged as a boy — and her cold lord Benderesk. Serret urges Ged to speak to the Stone of Terrenon, promising it will give him power over the shadow, but Ged recognizes it as a trap and flees, transforming into a hawk to escape.
The Stone of Terrenon is one of the Old Powers, a being of immense evil bound into a great stone before the foundation of the world. The Court built around it is ancient and strange, and those who serve the stone are slowly consumed by it. Serret herself is eventually destroyed by the stone's creatures when she tries to flee with Ged, a fate Ged mourns despite everything.
The Court of the Terrenon represents the temptation of power without wisdom — the very flaw that created Ged's shadow in the first place. Serret, who offers easy power through the stone, mirrors the part of Ged that once sought power for its own sake, and his refusal marks a crucial step in his maturation.
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