Explore the real-world places that appear in Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. 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 Rifthold, The Glass Castle, Endovier, Terrasen, Eyllwe and 8 more.
Capital city of Adarlan, seat of the king's power
Rifthold is where Celaena Sardothien is brought after being selected as the King of Adarlan's Champion in his deadly competition. She trains in the glass castle's grounds, navigates court politics with Chaol Westfall and Prince Dorian, and confronts dark magic lurking beneath the palace. The city's glittering streets conceal corruption and tyranny at every turn.
Rifthold rose to dominance as Adarlan's empire expanded across the continent, its sprawling streets and ornate architecture a testament to conquered wealth. The city sits on the Avery River, its docks bustling with trade from enslaved nations. Once a modest port town, it was transformed by the Havilliard dynasty into a monument to imperial ambition.
Rifthold is the gilded cage in which Celaena must perform her deadliest role, forced to serve the empire that destroyed her homeland. Its luxury and cruelty in equal measure represent the corrupting seduction of power that Celaena must resist while plotting her own survival and eventual liberation.
Crystalline palace of the King of Adarlan
The Glass Castle towers over Rifthold as the king's seat of absolute power, where Celaena is housed during the competition and meets Prince Dorian and Captain Chaol. Champions are murdered by a mysterious supernatural force within its corridors, and Celaena uncovers an ancient evil bound to the castle itself. The king conducts dark rituals in its depths to strip magic from the world.
Built by the current king from enchanted glass quarried in the conquered northern territories, the castle is said to have no equal in architectural wonder across Erilea. Beneath its gleaming towers lie dungeons and chambers older than the Havilliard line, where ancient Wyrdmarks were carved into the stone long before the castle's construction. Its beauty is a deliberate weapon — dazzling visitors into forgetting its sinister purpose.
The Glass Castle embodies the false promise of the empire: brilliant and cold, beautiful and deadly. For Celaena, navigating its halls represents her struggle between survival within a corrupt system and the fire of rebellion that defines her true identity as Aelin Galathynius.
Salt mines and death camp for the empire's prisoners
Endovier is where Celaena Sardothien spends a year as a slave before being retrieved by Prince Dorian and Captain Chaol to compete in the king's tournament. The brutal salt mines in the frozen north are a death sentence — most prisoners die within months from the brutal conditions, overseers' whips, and the collar of submission around their necks. Celaena survives through sheer will and cunning.
Established by the King of Adarlan as a final destination for political prisoners, assassins, and conquered people deemed too dangerous for ordinary imprisonment, Endovier is located on the edge of the Staghorn Mountains near the Terrasen border. The mines were once productive silver and salt operations, but under the empire they became instruments of slow execution. Few prisoners have ever escaped its walls.
Endovier is the crucible from which Celaena's story begins — it represents the absolute lowest point of her fall from Terrasen's lost princess to broken slave. Her survival there establishes her extraordinary resilience and becomes the psychological wound she carries throughout the entire series.
The fallen northern kingdom, Celaena's true homeland
Terrasen is the kingdom that Celaena — whose true name is Aelin Galathynius — is heir to, conquered by the King of Adarlan a decade before the story begins. The memory of Terrasen haunts Celaena throughout the competition, driving her desire for vengeance. Characters like Nehemia know of Terrasen's lost royal line and its connection to the magic the king seeks to destroy.
Once ruled by the Galathynius bloodline, Terrasen was renowned for its powerful magic users and its sacred connection to the god Mala Fire-Bringer. The kingdom fell when Adarlan's armies swept through its borders, slaughtering the royal family — though the young princess Aelin escaped with the aid of the assassin Arobynn Hamel. Terrasen's people still whisper of a royal heir who will one day return to reclaim the throne.
Terrasen is the spiritual heart of the entire series — the lost homeland that gives Celaena her true purpose. Reclaiming Terrasen is not merely a political goal but a deeply personal act of identity: accepting who she truly is after years of hiding behind the mask of Celaena Sardothien.
Conquered southern kingdom, homeland of Princess Nehemia
Eyllwe is the kingdom from which Princess Nehemia Ytger travels to Rifthold, ostensibly as a diplomatic hostage but secretly to undermine Adarlan's control over her people. Nehemia becomes Celaena's closest friend and confidante, sharing knowledge of Wyrdmarks and ancient magic. The suffering of Eyllwe's people under Adarlan's occupation is a constant source of anguish for Nehemia and a moral compass for Celaena.
A warm and fertile kingdom in the south of Erilea, Eyllwe has a rich tradition of scholarship, warrior culture, and nature worship. Its people are known as fierce fighters who resisted Adarlan's conquest longer than most kingdoms, and resistance cells still operate in its jungles and river deltas. The kingdom's ancient texts preserve knowledge of the Wyrdmarks that the empire seeks to suppress.
Eyllwe represents the human cost of Adarlan's empire — the faces behind the statistics of conquest. Nehemia's role as Eyllwe's voice in the story forces Celaena to confront whether her survival instincts can coexist with genuine moral courage and solidarity with the oppressed.
Harsh western badlands, home of the Crochan witches
The Wastes are referenced as the desolate homeland of the witch clans — Ironteeth and Crochan — who war amongst themselves in the barren western lands. The three-faced witch and her companions originate from these blasted territories. Witch characters encountered throughout the series trace their bitter feuds back to the Wastes and the ancient war that cursed their homeland.
The Wastes were once the kingdom of Witch-Queen Rhiannon Crochan, a verdant land before a catastrophic war between the Ironteeth and Crochan witches shattered the landscape into barren rock and dying soil. The Ironteeth believe dominion over the Wastes is their birthright, while the Crochans dream of one day restoring their ancestral home to its former glory. No non-witch ruler has ever successfully claimed the territory.
The Wastes represent the tragedy of a people destroyed by internal hatred and manipulation — a counterpoint to Terrasen's story of conquest from without. The witches' connection to this blighted land mirrors Celaena's own exile from her homeland and the possibility of reclamation and restoration.
Distant western realm across the Endless Sea, haven of the Fae
Wendlyn is mentioned as the land across the sea where the Fae still dwell freely and where magic has not been suppressed by the king's dark power. Dorian and Chaol discuss sending Celaena there as a possible escape from the king's control. In later books Celaena actually travels to Wendlyn on a mission, encountering the Fae prince Rowan Whitethorn who becomes her companion and trainer.
Wendlyn is the ancestral homeland of the Fae and one of the only realms in the world where magic still flows openly, protected by the ancient wards of Fae kings. The land is ruled by the Fae royal family and is considered unreachable without special means — the Endless Sea between Erilea and Wendlyn is treacherous and magically guarded. Legends say Wendlyn and Erilea were once the same land before the gods sundered them.
Wendlyn represents the possibility of freedom and a world where magic and the old ways still flourish — a glimpse of what Erilea could be if the king's oppression is defeated. For Celaena, traveling to Wendlyn marks the moment she begins fully embracing her Fae heritage and the power of her true identity.
Pirate haven and port of the privateer captain Rolfe
Skull's Bay is the notorious pirate stronghold ruled by the Pirate Lord Rolfe, whose magical map of the seas is tattooed on his hands. The port serves as a neutral ground beyond Adarlan's immediate reach where criminals, merchants, and rebels do business. Celaena has a complicated history with Rolfe, having visited on guild business during her years as an assassin under Arobynn Hamel.
Built into the rocky sea cliffs of the southern coast, Skull's Bay grew from a single outlaw anchorage into a thriving city-state under Rolfe's iron fist. The bay itself is a natural fortress, its narrow entrance easily defended by the cannons mounted on the cliffs above. Rolfe's enchanted map, said to have been gifted by a sea god, shows the location of every ship on the Narrow Sea and makes him nearly impossible to ambush.
Skull's Bay represents the gray spaces outside imperial law — a reminder that power exists beyond kings and their courts. For Celaena, it is connected to her past as Arobynn's prized assassin, and her history with Rolfe forces her to confront the complicated web of debts, loyalties, and moral compromises from her former life.
The dominant empire conquering all of Erilea
Adarlan is the empire whose king serves as the primary antagonist of the series, having conquered kingdoms from Terrasen in the north to Eyllwe in the south. The competition Celaena enters is the king's scheme to select a personal Champion to do his darkest bidding. Chaol Westfall serves the empire as Captain of the Guard, conflicted between his loyalty to the throne and his growing feelings for Celaena.
The Adarlan empire was built over three generations of Havilliard kings, but it was the current unnamed king who accelerated expansion through dark magic and brutal military campaigns. Scholars believe the king made a Wyrd-bargain — sacrificing something profound to gain power that would let him conquer and suppress magic across the known world. The empire's expansion has accelerated in the past decade, suggesting the king's endgame is approaching.
Adarlan functions as the embodiment of authoritarian evil in the story — the system of oppression that Celaena must ultimately dismantle. The empire's apparent invincibility is a constant pressure that makes every small act of resistance feel momentous and every choice to collaborate a genuine moral tragedy.
Noble city of Terrasen, seat of the Lochan family
Perranth is referenced as one of Terrasen's great noble cities, associated with the powerful Lochan family. The city's fate following Adarlan's conquest of Terrasen is a point of grief for Celaena as she contemplates the kingdom she lost. The nobility of Terrasen who survived the conquest scattered to cities like Perranth, hiding their identities to avoid the empire's purges.
Perranth was the second city of Terrasen, its lords historically serving as the royal family's most trusted generals and administrators. The city is nestled in the wooded valleys south of the Staghorn Mountains, its thick stone walls having withstood many sieges over the centuries. After Adarlan's conquest, its noble families were forced to swear fealty to the empire or flee into hiding in the surrounding forests.
Perranth represents the broken aristocracy of Terrasen — the support structure that Aelin will need to rebuild if she is to reclaim her kingdom. Its survival, however diminished, suggests that Terrasen has not been entirely extinguished and that the seeds of restoration remain.
Frontier fortress city on the empire's western border
Anielle is Captain Chaol Westfall's home city, the frontier fortress his father lords over on the edge of civilized Adarlan. Chaol's complicated relationship with his father and his expectations as heir to Anielle's lordship creates personal tension throughout his arc. The city's position on the western frontier, facing The Wastes, shapes Chaol's martial worldview and sense of duty.
Anielle has served as Adarlan's westernmost bulwark for generations, its imposing walls holding back raiders from The Wastes and providing a staging ground for imperial expeditions into the badlands. The Westfall family has governed Anielle for centuries, their military tradition producing some of the empire's finest soldiers. The city is considered rough and provincial by Rifthold's standards but indispensable to border security.
Anielle represents Chaol's internal conflict — the duty to his family and his empire versus his growing conscience. His rejection of Anielle's lordship in favor of serving as Captain of the Guard is a choice that defines his character, and the city becomes a symbol of the life he both fled and remains shackled to.
Capital of Eyllwe, seat of Princess Nehemia's family
Banjali is the royal capital of Eyllwe and the home Princess Nehemia left behind to conduct her secret resistance work in Rifthold. News from Banjali — of massacres, uprisings, and Adarlan's tightening grip — regularly reaches Nehemia in the Glass Castle, fueling her desperate urgency. The city's suffering under occupation is the personal cost Nehemia pays for her mission.
Banjali is a magnificent city built along the great river delta of Eyllwe's heartland, its architecture combining grand ceremonial temples with sprawling riverside markets. The city has been an intellectual and trading center for centuries, its scholars preserving texts that Adarlan's censors have burned elsewhere. Despite occupation, Banjali's citizens maintain their cultural practices in defiance of imperial edicts.
Banjali is the human face of what Adarlan's empire destroys — not just armies and kings but entire civilizations with their own beauty and knowledge. Nehemia's sacrifice is given weight by everything she left in Banjali, and the city's fate motivates the moral stakes of the resistance forming around Celaena.
Kingdom allied with Adarlan, known for political intrigue
Melisande is referenced as one of the kingdoms that fell under Adarlan's dominion and whose noble houses became complicit collaborators with the empire. Characters from Melisande appear among the competitors and courtiers in Rifthold, their allegiances uncertain and their political maneuvering dangerous. The kingdom represents those who chose accommodation over resistance.
Melisande was once a proud independent kingdom with its own royal line and military tradition, but successive generations of intermarriage and trade dependency on Adarlan left it vulnerable to absorption without open conquest. Its nobility largely welcomed Adarlan's protection in exchange for maintaining their privileges, a bargain that has defined the kingdom's identity as collaborators in the eyes of the resistance.
Melisande embodies the moral compromise of accommodation — the price paid for safety under tyranny. It serves as a contrast to Terrasen's resistance and Eyllwe's defiance, raising uncomfortable questions about survival, complicity, and what people sacrifice when they choose the path of least resistance.
More by Sarah J. Maas: All Sarah J. Maas books