Re: Forests and wildlands in Heortland, Sartar, Tarsh

From: David Dunham <david_at_Pi1oQ7pD8HphcWmw4M_zA30xtMtAUVvM5SqWigNbTptrWplPdVmz3NEZ5HL4EMKYrXQCPK>
Date: Fri, 25 May 2007 08:30:51 -0700


The ever-curious Adept

>So how much forest is there to be seen when you travel in these
>barbarian lands? Is Dragon Pass basically covered by old growth forest
>into which the tulas have been cleared, or has the recent human
>inhabitation already turned the place into something like modern
>Scotland, Wales or New Zeland, rolling hills covered in grass with
>hardly a tree in sight.

Surely it's neither.

Dragon Pass has been occupied for centuries. Right before a gap, it was attacked by dragons, known for breathing fire. So there's really not huge expanses of old growth left. (I think Tarndisi's Grove is one exception.)

But the human habitation isn't on a modern scale, and there's no extreme use of timber for making ships or glass or whatever.

I don't remember the "wildland" percentages you see in King of Dragon Pass, but those would be a good guideline for woods.

>I've long assumed that the scale is systematically wrong. I read the
>old kilometer scale maps at with a 6x increase in distances, and the
>newer mile scale maps with a 4x increase.

Wow. That's awfully extreme. The two areas I looked at with an eye to population density were Umathela and Anadikki. They came out with numbers that fit swidden agriculture and hoe cultivation respectively, which seemed consistent with the source material.

Oh the other area was the Grazelands, and that indicated that they weren't nomads. Which as we know, they're not, any longer.

-- 

David Dunham
Glorantha/HQ/RQ page: http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html

           

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