**Potential Spoilers** Questions about the new map

I haven't quite finished the story for Season 4 ep 1 yet, so maybe this is explained at some point. But I will ask anyway:

1. Why is there Kralkatite ore in Istan? Seems like an odd currency for the area, such removed from Kralk's brand.
2. Whats up with Joko's huge "Berlin wall" splitting Istan in half? Lore reason? Or just something to keep us restrained to this map area?

Thanks in advance.

Kralkatite ore comes from the meteorites falling in the region. It's assumed that as meteorites fall through branded storms, they become corrupted and produce kralkatite.

Lore and restraint. The story doesn't mention the wall specifically, but one can infer why Joko would want to keep the residents from exploring closer to The First City.

@Orimidu.9604 said:

2. Lore and restraint. The story doesn't mention the wall specifically, but one can infer why Joko would want to keep the residents from exploring closer to The First City.

It's an interesting choice to have it so far east, though. Barricading off two-thirds of the main island is peculiar enough, but about half of Istan's productive farmland in GW1 was behind that wall, and it also blocks off the only land access to the Issnur/Mehtani region.

@Aaron Ansari.1604 said:

@Orimidu.9604 said:

2. Lore and restraint. The story doesn't mention the wall specifically, but one can infer why Joko would want to keep the residents from exploring closer to The First City.

Considering that Istan was the origin and capital of the Sunspears, I'd bet Joko wasn't willing to risk allowing Istan the possibility of a return of the Sunspears. Hence why Palawadan is hoarding all the food and water.

@Orimidu.9604 said:

@Aaron Ansari.1604 said:

@Orimidu.9604 said:

2. Lore and restraint. The story doesn't mention the wall specifically, but one can infer why Joko would want to keep the residents from exploring closer to The First City.

According to the NPCs, that's a recent development, only going back to Balthazar's invasion.

Kralkatorrik's new powers, as shown in the first instance, allows him to create pockets of brandstorm and even brand-meteorites (very similar to the Searing crystals really) far from where he is. That's pretty much the source of the Kralkatite Ore.

I've not seen a lore mention, but I've put the mechanical reasons as "Anet wanted a non-mountain source for a border because people always complain about maps being boxed in by mountains". And Joko does seem to like his bone walls and structures in general - which honestly cannot be healthy for living population, all that tar and bone and flying ickiness in the air... How is this an empire of dead and living again?

Thanks for the replies guys. Provides at least some clarity :-)

Do we think that Joko has a wall that goes all the way around the perimeter of ALL of his holdings? (AKA Kourna too?)

@Aaron Ansari.1604 said:Barricading off two-thirds of the main island is peculiar enough, but about half of Istan's productive farmland in GW1 was behind that wall, and it also blocks off the only land access to the Issnur/Mehtani region.It's not that unusual for Joko to wall off farmland. I might be misremembering, but I think there was dialogue in southern Elon Riverlands that talks about the farmers there north of the Bonewall sending food back south across the wall to Vabbi. I'm sure there's a similar deal on Istan, with Champion's Dawn being starved out until they fall in line.

@Lankmaster.6507 said:Do we think that Joko has a wall that goes all the way around the perimeter of ALL of his holdings? (AKA Kourna too?)

That would not surprise me. The Bone Wall north of the Desolation was designed to prevent people fleeing. I don't know why he had one in Istan built but left docks go, but one preventing Kournans fleeing east into the greener lands there would make sense.

It's really a matter of whether he could get enough bones to build such a wall.

@Rognik.2579 said:

@"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:Barricading off two-thirds of the main island is peculiar enough, but about half of Istan's productive farmland in GW1 was behind that wall, and it also blocks off the only land access to the Issnur/Mehtani region.It's not that unusual for Joko to wall off farmland. I might be misremembering, but I think there was dialogue in southern Elon Riverlands that talks about the farmers there north of the Bonewall sending food back south across the wall to Vabbi. I'm sure there's a similar deal on Istan, with Champion's Dawn being starved out until they fall in line.

Southern Elon Riverlands is used by Joko's empire as farm lands as an exile prison camp, but the Bone Wall there is meant to keep defectors from leaving his empire. Which makes the Istani Bone Wall... strange, in comparison.

I suppose it is possible that the other side is another prison camp of sorts, with the threat of "proximity to the cursed First City" (expounded by Jokonian lies) being motivation to not get sent there.

@Rognik.2579 said:

@Aaron Ansari.1604 said:Barricading off two-thirds of the main island is peculiar enough, but about half of Istan's productive farmland in GW1 was behind that wall, and it also blocks off the only land access to the Issnur/Mehtani region.It's not that unusual for Joko to wall off farmland. I might be misremembering, but I think there was dialogue in southern Elon Riverlands that talks about the farmers there north of the Bonewall sending food back south across the wall to Vabbi. I'm sure there's a similar deal on Istan, with Champion's Dawn being starved out until they fall in line.

That was my first thought too, but a little digging and the NPCs say that the island's food comes from the mainland. Not to say that he doesn't have work camps back there, but if they were farming, I would expect at least some of it to go to Palawadan.