I've been pondering this question again and several thoughts occur to me.
On earth agriculture/civilization were dependant on the domestication and exploitation of grains (grass seeds), an easily obtainable, easily preparable and very nutritious. Ie, rice, wheat, corn etc.
There are a FEW examples of earth cultures dependant wholly on non-grain carbohydrates such as taro and some others. The (historical) problem with these is that the energy gained from consumption is barely greater than the energy used in preparation and those cultures had difficulty getting far beyond subsistence.
How do Pamaltelan cultures get their carbohydrates? Off hand, I don't recall much Pamaltelan information about city building, but I'm sure there was some mention of it. How would the builders generate enough excess food to invest in the expense of urbanisation? Has this been explored at all?
I'm thinking I'll get two types of answer. Either, "it's in book such-and-such," or that I've raised a good point. OK, three types of answer, the third being, "it's magic, dummy!" [;)]
> Also, remember that the ecology shifts from east to west and north to
south.
> Dryer in the west and south.
>
So, the south west of Pamaltela is therefor very dry. Hmmm, I know that Prax is described as chapparal. I'd like to suggest that the driest parts of Pamaltela are more like the Sonoran desert, lots of extreme adaptation to low rainfall/low humidity and lots and lots of spiky bits. The Tohono O'odham and Yaqui tribes have devised many ways to eat the desert plants and I would imagine the SW Pamaltelans would do similar.
I have to admit, it's the sadist GM in me, but I would love to see the Gloranthan god(ess) of cholla <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opuntia> (or better yet, boojums <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boojum_tree> ). [>:)]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Powered by hypermail