Re: Praxian climate

From: Chris Lemens <chrislemens_at_...>
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 09:34:13 -0800 (PST)


Mitch, responding to me:

First, an answer about sources related to multiple points: The main sources on the wastes are The Book of Drastic Resolutions Volume Prax and Tales of the Reaching Moon issues 14 and 15. There is a partial map in Drastic Prax.

> With the word 'balance' I was referring to
> dynamic equilibrium in the ecological sense.
> Annual changes occur as always (especially
> in a flashy system like the Wastes with
> several large, influential disturbance
> regimes) but on a grand scale, the Wastes
> are business as usual. Said another way,
> if the Wastes were out of equilibrium, one
> particular community type would be replacing
> a prior type.

I think it is not in balance, using your definitions, if you measure on an annual and local basis. There are longer disturbances on a local basis that will kill off the then-predominant plant life. For example, if there are three bad years in a row, brushy areas will go dry and the animal life there will try to move to the nearest better area (or die). Of you look at the Wastes as a whole over longer priods of time (say 20 years), then yes it is largely balanced.

> I must defer to you here. Your prior mentioning
> of the Serpents is the first I have heard of
> this (that I recollect at least). I'm assuming
> the Serpents are arroyos with mythological
> importance?

The serpents are water entities from before time. They invaded the land, but Waha bound them to their courses, with one exception. They flow into Dead Bottom, a huge sink in the Wastes that goes all the way to hell. Sometimes the water rises in Dead Bottom, but that is not a good thing because you can't drink water from the Underworld. In flood years, a particularly bad serpent, the Wicked Writher, runs up through one of the other Serpents' course. The Serpents suck up runoff water and drives it into Dead Bottom. The nomads know they are evil (not chaotic, just malign).

> But it would have to get to these 'sinks'
> somehow, hence ephemeral channels (Serpents?).

Yes, in epehemeral channels. In the Wastes, these are inhabited by the Serpents, but in Prax I think they are just natural water.

> Sheet flow is an uncommon way for water to
> travel.

Yes, except for the massive initial sheet flow off of the Vulture Country uplift. This gets gatheres up in seasonal streams on both sides, which you can see from existing maps.

> River of Cradles breaks it down by Season Early
> and Late, thus two numbers for each season. It
> breaks down as follows:
> Sea-E 10"
> Sea-L 4"
> Fire none
> Earth-E 2"
> Earth-L 3"
> Dark-E 2"
> Dark-L 4"
> Storm-E 6"
> Storm-L 10"
> Sacred 3"

I guess my Glorantha varies. I'd say these numbers are averages that hide the fact that when the rain falls varies radically from year to year, and that 85% of it is concentrated in about 3-4 weeks (maybe not consecutive weeks, though).

> Most of this is the first I've heard of it.
> Storm Bull wind is old hat, but Rain Man is
> new to me.

Rain Man is Orlanth, the wet west wind. He brings rain, except that he is cowardly, so does not come every year.

> So, you don't see the valley as being a
> depositional zone?

No, not really in Pavis County or Sun County. I think it deposits further south.

> River of Cradles describes the river as
> "leisurely in pace, with many long
> lake-like pools, and without serious
> obstacles".

I think this is further south.

> This gave me the impression that the river was
> in equilibrium, not significantly agrading or
> cutting.

Take a look at the valley banks's altitude in some of the older publications. I can't remember off hand which one it was, but Moon Design recently republished it. Maybe it was in RoC, but I'm drawing a blank. I was left with the impression of steep banks. Also, one of the covers shows a picture of a steep bank (30 feet vertically, perhaps) at Pavis.

> With this picture, the Zola Fel would overbank
> on "average years" (granted that term is sort of
> silly with such a flashy system), but could
> barely be navigable in drought years, and
> could be catostrophic in big rain years, or
> rain on snow events.

You might be right about this. The River is impassable in its flood stage. There are people who live on the river year round, so I assume they have some way of either tying up or otherwise surviving it.

> Most importantly, it would mean Pavis and Sun
> Counties would be the best farmland, but living
> next to the river in these areas would be a
> struggle fit for a heroquest. Further downstream
> in the Grantlands, the arable land is much poorer
> in quality, but the river generally behaves more
> dependably having already diffused its
> energy upstream. (those louts upstream receive
> all the hassle). I could even see the
> Grantlands section of the river having less
> seasonality due to the large flood sourced
> groundwater aquifers of Pavis and Sun County
> fueling the flow downstream. I can go on
> about the narrow canyon being a nickpoint and
> the subterrenean bedrock "pushing" the river
> above ground yadda yadda.

This does not match my mental picture. I still have a strong mental picture of Pavis County being dusty dusty dusty during the dry season. Tan dust, not dark earth. Also, I don't see that the Big Rubble would still be there if it was swept by massive floods ever year that go substantially over the banks.

> If the river is actively cutting in the upper
> reaches, I would expect steep banks,

I think it has them.

> lots of active erosion,

Yep.

> not much meandering,

It is pretty stright for a river (if I recall the maps correcty).

> and no overbank flooding each spring.

Well, dunno about that one. It is really a conclusion and you challenged my assumptions pretty effectively.

> It would behave more like a perennial
> wash or arroyo (I know its an oxymoron),
> and would be fairly safe to live by in Pavis
> County, and possibly even Sun County (just
> don't go near it in Sea Season children.),

This sounds right. Why would anyone build a city on its banks otherwise? It is perennial because it received water from two sources that occur at different times: runoff during the winter and snowmelt through early summer or so.

> but would be devastatingly dangerous to live by
> down river near the Grantlands.

Which is why no one lived there until recently.

> It also means the best farmland would be just
> below the Grantlands canyon where an
> enormous annual flood, spills its wad every
> year (or wherever this flood erupts from the
> steep banked channel and spills onto a flood
> plain).

This seems reasonable. There have frequently been cities founded near the delta (Feroda, for example). They have apparently been impermanent, perhaps because they get flooded too frequently for life to be comfortable. I seem to recall that the ruins of Feroda are buried in mud, but I might be confused. Also, a flood plain is hard to defend against nomads.

> I think we are pretty much agreed on the "look
> and feel" of the place, but I am struggling
> with understanding where hundreds of thousands
> of acre feet of water go when it falls in
> 2 weeks in Sea Season?

It is a good question.

> Is this because of my ignorance of Serpents?

I think the serpents are only in the wastes.

> Without some mechanism I envision some
> major ephemeral streams in Prax.

The western area of Prax drains into the River through known water courses. The basin around the Dead Place kills water that flows into it. I see the Dead Place as cut with lots of gullies that go nowhere. The swamp must have some sort of hole underneath it to soak up all of Sounder's River plus whatever else drains into it (including lots of what drains down from the mountains to the west). The comparatively lush grasslands soak up the rest. I think some of it soaks down into the acquifer and comes out as springs along the coastal cliffs, maybe explaining why there are coastal swamps next to a coastal cliff.

> Or if there are none, then I would imagine that
> large basins prevent water from flowing out, and
> instead many large vernal pools fill up in
> winter.

I think there is a large basin in northern Prax, with two low spots: Dead Place and Devil's Swamp. These dispose of water magically. To the south of Eiritha Hills, the water runs into the sea; maps of the coast show where it is cut by arroyos.

I'm away from my sources, so some of this could be bad memory.



Chris Lemens

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