Chris made an interesting rebuttal of Mitch's points. All I can add to those, based on RW situations, is that it may not matter how much rain Prax/Pavis gets. If the land is inherently infertile since the death of Genert, or magically devoid of any urge to grow abundantly, then ordinary good husbandry (as in my suggestion of conserving water) is useless without enough magic to supply the lack.
There must have been some horrible years for the early Sartari settlers, before they learnt enough from neighbours or heroquests to use rituals better suited to the ZF valley to bless their fields and livestock.
(Chris) Where in the Zola Fel valley would one find
"sensible" farmers? Sensible farmers would leave as
soon as possible. ;-)
I'm sure they would if they could!
(Me) Sensible farmers will be making serious
collective efforts to corral that rain into cisterns
and ponds
(Chris) Also, that way, they can grow _extra_
mosquitoes. And don't forget that bad or chaotic
spirits (the arsenic spirit, etc.) may leach from the
rocks into their ponds.
Yes, those are probably risks. And maybe that's why the nomads think that the Oasis peoples are all stupid cattle made for raiding; they really are brain-damaged from lead or mercury poisoning. Stored water used as crop water, probably not so bad. Dying of thirst or starvation are generally much higher on a farmer's list of visible problems than gradual poisons, though.
A longterm risk like heavy metal poisoning is one of these things that Ernalda and Eiritha priestesses probably have to look for very carefully to know for certain it's happening. It's going to look like a long-acting curse, which in Gloranthan terms it is, I guess. They may not be able to do a hell of a lot about it, either.
Mosquitoes, just add a bit of soap to the water. That fixes them nicely.
(Me) Fortunately for the settlers, nomads don't
organise worth a damn.
(Chris) That's not what the ground men say in 1625.
Yeah, but the Lunars are still patting themselves on the back for their divide-and-conquer success at Moonbroth. Some of the brighter ones may realise that the nomads will have learnt from that. (Note to tribes - don't fight where moon magic is strong, you idiots!).
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