Clarifying some Fog

From: Greg Stafford <greg_at_glorantha.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 08:09:18 -0800

Friends,

>Subject: Westerners on Kahar's Sea?
>

>IMO the Kahar Sea is generally covered by a thick
>fog reaching higher than
>the top masts of either Haragalan Tallships or
>Kralori Warbarges or trade
>junks.

Yes, absolutely. The fog is usually much taller than the masts.

>I don't think that Kahar is about to invade the
>adjacent coasts - nothing
>in his history hints at him repeating the faults of
>the sea gods he
>conquered.

Agreed, not on purpose anyway.

>However, nothing will prevent parts of
>his fog body to be torn
>away by the stronger storms which occur in these
>parts. If I recall
>correctly, the Orlanth typhoons rage southwards,
>with Veldru pushing
>against it northwards.

Yes, at times portionsof the fog are ripped away and sent scudding to other seas, evenonto land. Oh, those poor zabdamar who are caught in sucha fog as it dissolves over dry land!

>The Kahar Fog is nothing but sea level clouds,
>probably anchored within
>the water below by Kahar's mastery of stillness.
>These may be pushed into
>swirling currents, thinned up or compressed, but I
>don't think that short
>of extremely powerful magic the fog can be taken
>away from the sea.

Generally correct, remembering that the storm gods who war over the territory are sufficiently powerful.

>to the floor, maybe - it might behave like seaweeds
>or grass under a
>storm, beaten low, but not pushed away unless
>uprooted. Thus the storms
>can go right through this fog without pushing it
>away.

Generally, yes, correct. They do stir it up at times, though.

>At the coasts, the fog may thin out into a light
>mist, or there may be a
>threatening grey wall impenetrable to sight right
>where the effects of the
>Closing sets in. IMO the fishermen of the eastern
>Kralorelan shore have
>learned to sail no farther than the fog begins, and
>run like hell to the
>shore whenever it moves shorewards.

Again, this is my view as well.

>The photic zone of the Kahar Sea can't be very
>deep. This makes fish and
>other water creatures usually associated with deep
>water regions live
>fairly close to the surface, and in turn makes the
>fishermen's catch along
>the coast fairly monstrous. Dragons of the Sea
>indeed. We know, however,
>that the Zabdamar are able to swim the fog as if it
>was the sea. How about
>fog-borne plankton to feed the sea-life below,
>pushing the photic zone of
>the Kahar Sea up into the atmosphere? This might
>make for interesting
>creature encounters, such as fish combing the fog
>above the waves for this
>plankton.

I have generally thought that there are a number of life forms which can also swim through this fog, like thezabdamar. They dominate by far, but I thinkthat over themillenia other creatures have learned this type of magic, or magically adapted to do it on their oww

>>But is actually Sea of Fog always in the mouth of
>>Suam Chow?
>
>I don't think so.

Nor do I. though of course, sometimes it does, and on occasions, floats over the Suam Chow itself, causing great constarnation and magical efforts to push it back.

>>Though there is no description of climate in
>Genertela Book as
>>Missing Lands, I think the boundary of Sea of Fog
>moving throughout year.
>
>Quite likely, yes. Further south, the Sofali
>islands east of Trowjang may
>have sunny and foggy seasons, too, depending on the
>ebbing and flooding of
>the warm Sshorg currents.

Yep.

>Greg:
>> Yes, so do I. The boundaries of the sea vary from
>season to season,and
>> even form day to day. There are empty patches of
>clear air amidst the
>> fogs.
>
>How large would these non-fog banks be? The size of
>fog-banks elsewhere?

The Kahar Sea is pretty large, and som eof the clear areas are large too.

>If viewed from above, would the Kahar Fog appear
>like arctic pack ice,
>mostly closed, with straits of free water opening
>and closing?

Yes, nice image.

>
>Climate: I picture the Kahar sea as a fairly cold
>body of water (as
>eastern Seas go), unlike the Sshorg current. It
>reaches far north to
>Koromondol, and might be fed by some current
>diverted south from Sramak's
>River.

Yes, a part of the circling sea does come down, southward, int the Kahar. These are not as cold as the Neliomi, but much colder thanthe northern flowing Sshorg.

Sincerely,
Greg Stafford

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