Forestry and related trivia. from Erik Sieurin on 1995-12-14 (Glorantha Digest Vol 02)

From: Erik Sieurin <BV9521_at_utb.hb.se>
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 1995 16:09:30 +0100

Sandy:
> I don't know about Swedish woods, but many forests in the
> USA started out as fairly open and became more brushy and
> undergrowth-filled with the advent of man. Humans chop down certain
> trees, and small growths spring up in the gaps.
We don't have any praeries in Sweden, but back in ye good old days we were very cattle-dependent, and so the cattle was herded in the forests. They tended to eat the underbrush, not the big firs and pines. Nowadays they want space for the great machines that cut down the forests to make toilet paper, so the forest is still open. (Don't worry, we plant new trees. Mainly genetically perfected preferrably clones in straight-lines monoculture, but what the heck.)

BTW, I tend to think that you get the "lower Aldryami" in many places outside the Great forests. For instance, though in the official game you get the impression that Red Elves - or Goblins, as I prefer to call them - only live in the giant swamps of Pamaltela, I would let people getting muddy elsewere meet some small Goblins of the local moss and fern fauna.

The Kitori are not the only ones. The fabulous Lichen Realm of the Rockwood Mountains is a good example of combined cultures. Lichen is symbiotic, algae living together with fungi, and thus are created the Foursome Goblins. They have four "sexes", Male Mainly-Voralan, Female Mainly-Voralan, Male Mainly-Murthdryan and Female Mainly-Murthdryan. The Foursome Goblins have their own Lichen Kingdom, almost invisible to the humans since the Foursome Goblins are only half an inch tall. There are various Runners in the area, of mountain plants like shrub birch and so on, but they are all subjects to the Foursome Goblins. The Lichen Realm is as complex and powerful as any Aldryami Forest, and has the added danger for humans of being not-so-easily-noticed as the Standard Elven Forest. The nearest-dwelling humans only know of a large area were it is suicidal to wander too long, since you can be caught by the hypnotic circular patterns of the lichens, swallowed by the Moss Monsters of the bogs and added to their armies of undead Moss Mummies, haunted by the Mosquito Sprites who suck your sanity as mosquitoes suck blood and (the silliest danger, but the one against one have the least defense) getting knocked down by the lemmings that regularily rain down from the clouds and start their suicidal wanderings. The only safe way of passing is known by Kolatings, who command the Quickburst Wind spirits of Kolat, the Frostghasts of Valind and the Humathi Silent Blackwinds that are the eternal enemies of the Lichen Realm, fighting to sweep the mountains free of vegetation.

Erik
And if I don't get another chance to do it - I'll leave this computer temporarely from Saturday onwards - a Very Merry Sacred Time and a Happy New Year! Post a lot during the holidays, for when I'll return I have a set of exams to do, and I want to be able to sit and read Gloranthan postings after them, as an alternative to alcohol. :-)