<< > But there is some variation, which is why the cottonmouth moved to
> Maniria; I wanted something really venomous to scare the Heortlings with!
;-)
We Scandinavians get plenty scared with our small adders, thank you! >>
A cottonmouth is significantly more venomous than an adder. Indeed, the only really dangerous* snakes in Europe are the nose-horned viper in the drier parts of the SE, and the Milos viper of the Greek islands. Viper/adders are found throughout Genertela, of course, but I wanted something both reasonably familiar and genuinely dangerous for Maniria.
Douglas Seay:
<<Just about all poisonous snakes in North Carolina are in the pit viper family (Cotton Mouth [aka Water Moccasin], Rattlesnake and Copperhead). I don't know if one is more deadly than another, but I fear the Cotton Mouths far more than the others. They are aggressive, territorial, and instead of injecting a large amount of venom in a quick bite, they latch on and gnaw. Ungh.>>
You probably get eastern diamondbacks and canebreak rattlesnakes, whose venom is roughly equivalent to that of the cottonmouth (copperheads, while dangerous, aren't in the same league). OTOH, as you say, the cottonmouth is a short tempered and aggressive bugger, even compared with the local rattlesnakes. So you're quite right to fear it the most IMO...
Oliver Bernuetz:
<<My only problem with this is that cottonmouths don't live anywhere in the RW where it gets really cold and snowy in the winter and doesn't Dragon Pass get "bitterly cold" in the winter? (Subjectively that is).>>
Not in the lowlands of Maniria, which are near-tropical and are where I intended them to come from. Obviously you wouldn't get cottonmouths up in the hills, I agree. As for the Upland Marsh, it doesn't freeze over in winter to the best of my knowledge, so it can't get all that cold there.
Forward the glorious Red Army!
Trotsky
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