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Ionik Knight
Learned Scribe
USA
222 Posts |
 Posted - 21 Oct 2014 : 23:01:13
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So I have decided to convert the old supermodule to 3.5 and have immediately found something weird. Bactrian (two-hump) camels are listed as possible mounts. My understanding is that these are cold desert camels and I also was under the impression that the DoD is a hot desert. Am I wrong? Is there a good explanation or should I just switch it to dromedary camels?
Thanks
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Fools to right of them,
Jesters to left of them,
Clowns in front of them
Pun'd and parody'd. |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36805 Posts |
Posted - 21 Oct 2014 : 23:17:02
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From a quick look at Wikipedia, it appears the bactrian camels can handled a wide range of temperatures, including your typical unpleasantly warm desert.
That said, it would prolly be best to just call them dromedary camels... Though most people wouldn't know the different between the two species, other than the number of humps. |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 22 Oct 2014 : 12:44:33
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| The northern wastes are more of the 'tundra' type of desert, where those camels would prove useful. They were probably imported from the nearby Quoya desert, where they are fairly common (however, that desert also isn't more then a 1000 years old, so who knows? Another Earth-import, perhaps?) |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 22 Oct 2014 : 16:50:09
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
(however, that desert also isn't more then a 1000 years old)
Where does this come from? |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 23 Oct 2014 : 21:59:59
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quote:
Originally posted by xaeyruudh
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
(however, that desert also isn't more then a 1000 years old)
Where does this come from?
Dragon Magazine #228, 'Athalantan Campaign' article (by Ed Greenwood), pg.34 -
quote:
"237 DR, Year of the Disappearing Dragons: Ansryn Tehvyae, a crazed hermit-mage who dwells in Tsharoon (a land since swallowed by the Quoya Desert) develops a spell that teleports unwitting and unwilling dragons from place to place, from afar."
Accent, mine.
Some of us have surmised that Tros (as in, "Copper Demon of Tros") was a city in Tsharoon - perhaps even its capital, and that the 'Copper Demon' was actually a fiend trapped within a Narfelli automaton. I have also theorized that Thsaroon was 'swallowed up by the desert' not in some act of powerful magic (like the Raurin, Anauroch, and Calim deserts), but rather, by an ancient magic (Fey?) finally 'running out'.
I prefer this, so that we have at least one desert that wasn't created by a cataclysm (thus, the current desert is 'how it should be', and someone in the distant past had changed all that). On the other hand, it could have also been a side-effect of the nearby Raurin 'drying up'. There was at least one major waterway within ancient Imaskar (River Athis - see Desert of Desolation), which probably had tributaries and other rivers, and when all of that was magically obliterated (by the Pharonic pantheon), it may had 'dried out' the surrounding regions. I Just checked DoD just now, and I realize that the series of events that lead-up to that module were a thousand years in the making, so the timing would be right to link the creation of the Quoya with the drying-up of the Athis.
As for who modified everything in the first place - the Fey, or the Imaskari, or both. The River Athis itself was magically created, and we can figure the Imaskari probably weren't beyond other forms of terra-forming. Maybe all the Egyptian gods needed to do was turn-off the magic that was already there (create a massive magic-dead zone). To Imaskar, that would be akin to setting-off a continent-wide EM-pulse here and sending the U.S. back into the stone-age.
Anyhow, I do tend to ramble when someone mentions my favorite region. You have your quote: make of it what you will.  |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 23 Oct 2014 22:03:18 |
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 23 Oct 2014 : 22:25:52
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Wild. I remember that article, and the name Tsharoon, but I completely blanked on the part in parens.
I'm having a tough time seeing the Quoya as a naturally occurring desert, but I'm not a climatologist and there's probably a way to explain just about anything. This region is in a sort of rainshadow; moisture blowing off Yal Tengri would be almost entirely blocked by the Hagga Shan and the Glittering Spires. The weirdness is that there's 400+ miles of steppe between the mountains and the desert. Logically, the desert should start at the foot of the mountains... the steppe should be desert, and the desert should be steppe. Instead, there's a forest on the southern slopes of the Hagga Shan. And the Arundi River flows out of the desert, and there aren't any other significant rivers in the steppe.
It also seems strange that the desert butts up against the Dragonwall, but doesn't cross it. If it were a naturally occurring desert, both sides of the wall should have very similar conditions. Unless Shou Lung uses climate control magic.
Anyway, not arguing. I agree that there should probably be at least one naturally occurring desert somewhere in the Realms.
One more thing to figure out for my history of Imaskar.
Thanks for the quote!  |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 24 Oct 2014 : 22:56:05
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Don't forget to include the stuff in Dragon Magic, under the Wyrmsbane Helm entry (pg.104).
FR lore hides in the oddest places.  |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 24 Oct 2014 : 23:24:13
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Bah humbug @ setting material in core books.
Good little bit of lore, though. Thanks for the heads-up! |
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Desert of Desolation Camels
