David Scott
http://basicroleplaying.org/to...ology-in-the-wastes/
It's my intention to portray the Wastelands as a very nearly destroyed god's garden that has barely survived into time. I'm not intending to model it using ecology (hence my "Ecology" in the title) or real world evolution. I've studied enough of both evolution and ecology at uni, to know what to avoid. So
On 31 Mar 2016 at 7:38 PM, Jeff said:
Mythology explains Gloranthan reality far better than poorly applied terrestrial physics.
This is my starting point, erase from your minds, the real world of animals, ecological niches, etc. I fully understand that your Glorantha will vary, but that can come later.
So lets head back to the Great Darkness. Genert's garden is destroyed, it's fertility lost, Genert is dead. Eiritha's been buried to avoid death and there are pockets of survivors being barely sustained by those who will later become Waha's friends and part of the Praxian tradition. Waha gets everyone together and realises that the fertility is so badly damaged that without magical intervention, it's not going to be sustainable. Waha also ties the Wastelands back together, the damage is so bad that parts float away and are lost. Only that which Waha ties together is saved.
At the Dawn Ernalda does not return to the Wastelands, she can exist only at the Paps and then only really through her daughter Eiritha. Aldrya only exists at the paps, along with a few other fertility related gods. The only fertile spot is the Eiritha Hills and the sacred ground around the Paps. There is no land god or goddess present in the Wastelands. Any other fertility or plant can be brought into the Wastes, but has to fight to remain. Other sources of fertility are clearly the Zola Fel, a few other rivers and the Oases.
At the Dawn there are the tribes of the covenant, the independents and a few animal that survived the Great Darkness for their own reasons. The Basmoli are clearly the source of the lions. Tigers I'm unsure about - but there is clearly a cool myth called Waha and the Tigers.
If we drew a fertility map of the Wastes, it would be more fertile at the edges, around water, the Eiritha hills. Fertility like Ronance is ephemeral and localised.
23 hours ago, TRose said:
But then you could also have a rare plants and animals that have limited range. A Blood red flower that only grows at Tourney alter or a Herb that only grows at the Well Of Eriniala . Or a beetle that nest only on the tops of Condors Crag. And of course these rare plants and animals are the ones you really, really need for making magic potions and the like.
This is exactly how it works.
7 hours ago, Joerg said:
and those sort of emulating the Covenant like unicorns and war zebras (who are based on the still extant plains zebras, IIRC).
Unicorns returned due to a Green Age heroquest, War Zebras were bred magically by expert Pure Horse People breeders fulfilling a Paps prophesy to return the Zebras. There was also a Green Age Heroquest involved - just think who the Zebra founder really is.
Plants brought in by invaders need fertility magic to stay - the sun domers did it, Dorosar's settlers did it, Pavis did it. Ernalda and Aldrya at the Paps are clearly involved in this, as are the 48 old ones for some of the crops that are now successfully grown.
The broken fertility needs something big to change it, this comes with the Hero Wars, but not without a price.