Saving another note here. https://www.nps.gov/sucr/learn/historyculture/people.htm
This, I think, is an important side-bar in the world the Mage and Red Knight inhabit.
The volcano — now dormant — drove people away and rearranged the landscape. It was barely 1,000 years ago. People fled and were replaced, and the disruption has ripples into the timelines of the books.