FLORA & FAUNA PT 3

From: owner-glorantha_at_hops.wharton.upenn.edu
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 1994 13:13:35 +1100 (EST)


PART THREE OF FOUR 3. THE FLORA OF FAR POINT 'These woods stretch unbroken over a vast regionÉ dense woods, and so stillÉ in many places all the ground is hidden for miles under a thick cushion of mossÉ A holy and eternal gloom pervades the pillared aisles.'
SilverFoot the Poet (now missing in Dagori Inkarth).

(As well as Euro-Siberian flora, extensive use has been
made in this section of Rodin Greenbeak's Guide to Gloranthan Flora, available at Soda. Greenbeak's work is highly recommended to anyone making use of this list.
(Who was the author? - he or she is to be congratulated.)
Darkblooms are common in Far Point: they are plants that bloom in winter, feeding on cold and dark in the same way that normal plants feed on sunlight. Humans have little use for them: they have few known herbal or medicinal properties. However, they are used by the Uz.

Some of the following species will be known to you as domesticated garden plants. However, they represent wild ancestors, and may bear little resemblance to the carefully bred domesticated varieties.

COMMON PLANTS AND FUNGI; - All Heal:
Amberplant: Apple Plum: Armour Grass: Arroin's Lily: Athoforia (Aldryami): Barley Wild-seed: Bastard Palm: Bellflower: Bilberry: Bird's Nest Orchid: Bittersweet Nightshade: Blackberry: Bluebell: Blueberry: Boarweed: Bramble: Briarhell (smaller variety than Dorastor's): Brittle Bladder: Brown Hair Moss: Bryony: Bullrush: Buttercup: Buttercup Maiden (?): Carnis: Calfonilla (Aldryami): Clingvine (Aldryami): Clothfern: Clover: Cold Orchid: Cotton Grass: Cow Bloom (Yolk of Egg): Cranes-Bill: Dandelion: Day's Eye (Daisy): Darkblooms (many

species): Darkdart Bush: Darkfoil (Aldryami): Darkslip: 
Dead Nettles: Devil's Bit: Dock: Dog Mercury: Dour-root: 
Dragon Lily: Dreamweed (Aldryami): Eel Grass: Elven 
Fighting Fungus (Aldryami): Eurmal's Crumbs: Eyebright: Figwort: Fleabane: Flowering Rush: Forest Candle: Foxglove: Foxtail Lily: GallowMan: Gas Mushroom: Gas Plant: Giant Anemone: Giant Tarbush: Gooseberry: Great Bladderwort: Green Moss: GreenCone: Hart's Tongue: Hawkbit: Hazia: Healbeet: Henbit: Herder's Purse: Hobham Root: Iris: Jewelflor (Aldryami): King's Spear
(Asphodelus or Daffodil): Knotweed: Kokolonni: Kraken
Weed: Lady Slipper Orchid: Larkspur: Leechbush: Leopard's Bane: Lilac: Lily: Ling: Linseed: Lynxtooth: Mad Dog Mushroom: Masterwort: Meadow Thistle: Mee Vorala
(Fungi): Mistle Root: Monkshood: Moonwort: Moss:
Mostal's Salad: Mustard: Ne'er Forget: Ne'er Forgive: NeverDie: Night Poppy: Nightshade: Nymph Eye: Orlanth's Sceptre: Peacherry: Plantain: Poison Hemlock: Pricklymelon: Primrose: Princess Plant (Aldryami): Ragwort: Rainbowvine (Aldryami): Ramson (Wild Garlic): Red Clover: Red Thistle Men: Ribwood: Rosebay: Royal Fern: Rundown Toadstool: Runner Root: Sacred Time: Satin Flower: Saxifrage: Screamer (Aldryami): Season-  Sedge: Shield Fern: Silver Thistle: SoulVine: SnowDrop (Nalda's Taper): Sow Thistle: Spirit Moss: Spleenwort: Spurge: Star Captain (Aster): Star-of-Love: Star-of-War: Sticky-whip: Stinging Nettle: StormHood: Sweet Pyse (Sweet Pea): Tangibar: Tanglebriar
(Aldryami): Tansic (Everbloom, Carnation): Tansy
Ragwort: Tarsh Tomato: Tears of Hope): Thievesbane
(Aldryami): Thistle: Tulip: Twayblade: Uleria's Crown
(Rose): Water Gourd: Water Lily: Water Soldier: Waymole:
Were-Flower: Whipbush: Wild Rose: Willow Herb: Winter Gallant: Winter Grapes: Winter Wheat: Woad: Woad Warrior (Mamax): Woodbine (Honeysuckle): Wood Anemone: Wood Sorrel: Wormwood.

COMMON TREES AND LARGE SCRUBS; -
Alder: Thorn Apple: Ash (Black, Mountain, Blue, Green, Red, White and Stone varieties): Aspen (Poplar - Trembling, Quaking and Screaming varieties): Balsam
(includes Red Balsam and the legendary High Balsam):
Basswood (Linden): Sweet Bay: Beech: Birch (includes Black, Canoe, Paper, River, Silver, Sweet, White and River varieties): Bitternut (Hickory): BrooBud: Buck Eye: Butternut (White Walnut): Cork: Crabapple: Creeper Tree
(Marshbark): Cyprus (including Bald and SkyDome

varieties): Elder (including Box Elder): Elm (including 
Dinosaur Elm): Hawthorn: Hemlock: Holly: Horn Beam: 
Irontree (Pine): Swamp Maple: Mockernut: Never-Bend: 
Oak (including Sartar, Black, White, Steadfast, Pine and Willow varieties): Pine (including Dwarf, White, Grey, and Geo's varieties): Poplars (including Long-Tooth varieties): Rootless Ones (Aldryami walking trees): Shagbark: Silver Wood: Spruce: Storm Apple (rare): Storm Cedar: Wailing Tree: Walnut: Willow (including Weeping, White and Ghost varieties): Windberry Tree: Yelm Tree: Yew (Death Tree).

4. FAR POINT AND SARTAR ENVIRONMENTS These environmental types are primarily based upon the Euro-Siberian Province circa 5,000 BP.

HIGH MOUNTAINSIDE Above the tree line, the upper mountain soils are frozen much of the year, and the conditions are desert-like. In sheltered regions, moss and lichen prevail, while the following plants will flower briefly - campions, saxifranges, sedge and dwarf willows. Some deer and birds will occasionally be found, as will Wind Children and Griffins.

BOREAL FOREST; (literally, 'Forest of the North Wind')

Trees here are tall but shallow rooted. You will find small mammals aplenty - mole shrew, rats and squirrels. Larger animals include lynx, wolverine, marten, rubble runner, weasel and stoat. Woodpeckers and owls are plentiful, while wood grouse or hazel grouse nest among tree roots. Crossbills feed by winkling out pine seeds. Raptors include haggar, buzzard, goshawk and owl.

Elementals and Land Spirits are potent forces in these forests.

Deer take refuge in the high forest in the colder seasons, as wolves rarely penetrate here, preferring more open areas.

HIGH FOREST MARSH Birds predominate here - swans, sandpipers, teals (ducks), wagtails and yellowhammers. The most common raptor is the hen harrier. The most sought-after fish are carp, pike, perch and salmonoids.

MIXED AND BROAD LEAF FOREST This environment primarily consists of broad-leafed deciduous trees with marshes, plus clearings with deciduous ground cover. Animal life includes alynx, hare, rodent, snake, lizard, vole, hedgehog, weasel, red fox, rubble runner, polecat and badger. Larger predators include bear, horned boar, (small) tusker, wolf and lynx. Deer, ibex and chamoix spend the warmer seasons on mountain pastures, and winter in the forest valleys. Birds include treecreepers, nightingales, blackbirds, jays, bullfinches, tits, goshawks, buzzards and sparrowhawks.

(In Neolithic Europe the siberian tiger sat at the top of this
food chain. A suitable Gloranthan equivalent would be sabretooth, griffin or wyrm).

INLAND WATERS This is an environment of willow and poplar, peat moss and marsh marigold, bulrush, reed, waterlily and duckweed. Giant semi-intelligent turtles are the dominant species. Smaller life abounds, a multitude of birds and insects and fish. Common species include snail, frog, tree frog, salamander lizard, grass snake, otter, egret, and kingfisher
(halcyon)*. Wild Horses, cattle and boar also inhabit the
wetlands. Broo may often be found in the more remote marshes.

ELDER FORESTS In the north of Far Point exist incursions of spore, giant mushroom and Aldryami forests similar to those found in neighbouring Dagori Inkarth and Shadows Dance. See TrollPack for details.

GINIJJI In the west of Far Point lies the nightmare realm of Ginijji, known to outsiders as Snakepipe Hollow. This place is Chaos-cursed, and by its nature defies orderly description. Anything is possible (and probable) there. See Snakepipe Hollow for details.

5. GENERAL NOTES AND COMMENTS 'Every Sacred Time, Odayla the Great Hunter marks each animal destined to be killed by his hunters in the following year. Any true hunter can see this mark; it is a gift of heart-sight. Odayla marks enough; enough and no more. If we are greedy in the kill, then others will starve.' Wisdom of the Tovtaros Tribe, 1630.

'When I hunt Odayla's deer, they stand still, the spears, the arrows fly of their own accord. So it seems when the God is with me.
Even when they are running away from me
I feel as though they are standing still. How easy it is when I hunt Odayla's Deer.' Song of the Life Spear.

My Far Point notes are gradually (finally!) being set onto disk and tidied up. Orlanth and Mike Dawson willing, some background articles may appear in a future Codex. I also plan to include an article or two in the 'RQ Down Under' book MOB and I preparing as a fund raiser for RQ Con Down Under. Stay tuned for official announcements.

As stated above, these notes are presented as a beginning, and I will happily accept suggestions and additions. I notice that in earlier replies to Nick, there was some opposition to including non-european species amongst Sartarite wildlife. Given the ecology of Prax, I have no objections to including non-european species if they will add to the fun (though I have tried to be accurate in the listings above).

Most animals will have personal names by which they are commonly known, such as Yinkin the Alynx. Many are kin, and have a special relationship with a clan as totems or protector animals. In my campaign, much prominence is given to 'TarosKarla', the epic poem that tells of Taros RidgeLeaper and his descendants in their settlement of Far Point after the Inhuman Occupation. Among the greatest of the hero ancestors are the Animal Twins, who forged the Elemental Covenant that rebound all the Tribes of Far Point - human, animal, plant and elemental - into a single community. As guardians of the Covenant, they are still alive, changing each Sacred Time into a different animal form. They breed each year and produce a single, magical animal offspring, the Herald of the Covenant. Because of this, the human and animal bloodlines are intermingled, and to the northern hunters animals are kin in the most literal way. Lifekind is a single family.

(Obviously, heavy inspiration here from Celtic myth -
particularly the Daughters of Lyr, the three Etains, and Gwydion and Gilfaethwy from the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogion.)

Of course, animals can only be fully integrated into a campaign if they have their own mythology and associated characteristics, taboos and totem stories. Often it's local colour and belief that makes an animal memorable: does anyone have Sartarite/Heortling animal stories to share? Generally, I think we have a long, long way to go in developing the nature of the 'normal' flora and fauna of Glorantha. Perhaps I'm continuing the bad habits by focussing on the 'non-magical' life of Far Point. Magical and non-magical, embodied and spirit (how I hate that particular RQ-inspired dichotomy) are all part of one ecosystem, and regarded by the tribes as such.

However 'straight' the transplanting of plant and animal analogues seem to be, I always feel that we are dealing with very different forms of life, with unique Gloranthan characteristics*. Magic (and Chaos) are virtually omnipresent, and bring strong selective pressures to bear on species. There are many other unique factors as well.

What are effects of FIVE seasons on breeding and growth? For example I posit many plants extruding 'armoured' shoots during Storm Season - nothing is a simple earth-analogue. Depending on the area, Storm Season will be either an extension of winter famine (the usual case for Sartar, according to KOS), or a particularly rough spring. Both of these alternatives have profound implications for animal and plant life. What are the effects of magic on life cycles? Migration, if it occurs will be typically very different from earth. Both continents experience summer and winter at the same time. For my Far Point campaign, I've decided that micro-migration is very important, with birds and animals moving to different biomes within a relatively small area. And what about gestation periods and breeding patterns? The different year-lengths and the different seasonal patterns mean that for many species we will either have to change the gestation period or move the breeding seasons.

END PART THREE


End of Glorantha Digest V1 #40


Powered by hypermail