>Live Oaks look vaguely pathetic. They are a sort of oak that never
>sheds its leaves
I don't know; they don't get real tall, but they get pretty wide. They also live a pretty long time, even for oaks.
>I normally find them along seacoats. They aren't really an inland
>species. I think they can tolerate brackish water more than most trees
>as well. But the points you make are pretty good mythologically.
They're all over the place in Austin, TX, which isn't all that close to the seacoast, and they are common in Oklahoma, which is pretty far inland, all things considering.
>Let me ask you this: Would you prefer grackles to seagulls? (also
>known as sh** hawks up here) Toronto is overrun with them.
"Lot Gulls," we called them in Minneapolis -- about as far from a sea as you can get in this geologic age. Maybe they're heroquesting, and eating garbage is part of the magic....
>> benefits. First, Glorantha is a world, and we should assume that
>things,
>> while supported by myth, are also supported by natural processes --
>animals
>> have environments. Secondly, there's potential stories here -- maybe
>to
>
>I tend to presume its mostly divine/supernatural and leave nature and
>science out of it.
But that's half the fun. Even if the mountain range is there because Storm Bull put it up doesn't mean that it won't act like a mountain range (weathering, habitats for plants and animals, rain shadows, all that stuff). It's kind of like the political and economic aspects of Glorantha -- just because magic works, the gods are alive, and myth is everywhere doesn't mean that economic and political forces aren't also at work - they are just overridden or complicated from time to time.
>> bring the grackles back, the Avarnia heroquesters need to bring the
>Live
>> Oaks back, which means making deals with the Aldrayami (not too
>positive
>> about the Lunars). Thirdly, we don't think too much about what
>regular day
>> to day Glorantha is about. When your characters are riding through
>the
>> woods on the way to the Chaos Nest, what kinds of birds do they
>hear? What
>> are the trees and rocks like? And, if you like to get back to the
>myths,
>
>I always try to put this into my adventures - it gives the players a
>slightly better sense of being in a living world. Just like rumors and
>the like make them feel they are _not_ the center of attention.
Yup and double yup.
>> are there stories about native species -- the cry of the
>whippoorwill
>> strikes fear into the hearts of any sensible Call of Cthulhu
>investigator;
>
>GOOD point. We had them outside our camp. For years I spent each
>summer mildly creeped out.
It's one of the reasons I don't like grackles -- they let loose with this godawful noise without warning. Yesh.
>> is there a similar cry that scares even the hardiest Heortling? Or,
>> conversely, gives them hope? "We can rest safely here -- the Gret
>Owl never
>> nests near Chaos or Uz."
>
>Greeps. They cover the skies and deafen warriors with their voices...
Greeps?
Peter Larsen, who thinks that there must be a "snipe quest" somewhere in Glorantha....
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