Talk:Sidhe-Praxen

FYI: This is the most heavily linked, undefined page --Msallen 12:51, 15 December 2009 (EST)

Bastards! Their conspiracy against information extends even to the wiki! -Slitherrr

Fixt --Msallen 13:27, 15 December 2009 (EST)

Fix't your fix'n. Reads like hell, but at least it's close to useful now. Good thing we don't have any Elven PCs, or I bet they'd get pissed off when I point this out to them. -gm

If we had any damn dirty elves in our party I'd stab 'em in their nasty little faces. Let em get upset about that. --Msallen 15:10, 15 December 2009 (EST)

So, is the Mainland in the Southern hemisphere? I had assumed that the dotted line on the main map was the equivalent of the Arctic circle, but I suppose it's actually the Equator? -Slitherrr

As a side note, I suppose this would make Odessa potentially very Mediterranean in climate, which means it's quite a fortunate coincidence that Kib has olive skin. -Slitherrr

Side-side note, I should note Kib's description in his profile. -Slitherrr

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. --Msallen 16:03, 15 December 2009 (EST)

Is there no desire on the Mainland to conquer the Sidhe, and force them to open up? If not, is it because they're just that good at politics, or something else? Despite their lack of contact, do they keep any ambassadors around in the bigger countries to influence opinion? -Slitherrr

Indeed. The Mainland is in the Southern Hemisphere. Matt Allen, who is privy to some EYES ONLY maps, could tell you that the Ulan stretches south for a substantial way before ending up at the glacier/ice cap that feeds most of the rivers, one way or another, in the mainland. That line is actually NOT the equator, but the southern tropic. Somewhere below Petara is the antarctic circle. So, some vague and debatable climate descriptors. I've given the larger climate some thought, trying to incorporate the continents that are on the globe but not on this map. . .

Climate Ramblings:

Some of this, like other continents and wotnot, are totally unknown on the mainland so stay off the wiki till an actual PC actually figures some of them out. Just have to have faith until then.

However, there's quite a bit known that is not on the map and some stuff that can be dropped without major spoilers. (Monk stuff is already pushing it) Probably the most important thing driving the climate here is the equatorial regions, which are pretty empty of landmasses, causing some pretty terrific storms, waves, and wind. In our own world, the one part of the world where there is ocean covering the entire circumference of the globe is in the southern hemisphere, between S. American/Africa and Antarctica. What happens there, if you don't know, is the currents just go round and round and round and, with not continents to disrupt the flow, but some wicked power behind them. The place was legendary in the era of sail, I believe, for being an white knuckle place to do anything. My assumption is that by taking the same situation, except adding the heat energy of the tropics and a MUCH large circumference, we can make it be a pretty effective barrier separating the north from the south. Hurricane and Cyclones spawning in the south would, likewise, rise toward the equator and then just sort of join and add force, leading to a pretty-much constant, circular storm. The people of the mainland, particularly Odessan sailors, would have knowledge of this from ancient Elven sources, back when the Sidhe ruled the waves. (The Sidhe were the only race to ever do any amount of blue water sailing.)

Obviously, the prevailing winds here blow, as you would expect, from southeast to northwest. To the east, past the Breaker Islands, is a large ocean that spends about half the year spawning hurricanes, the force and fury of which the Breaker Islands - a large wetlands/island archipelago - mostly absorb and push north, leaving a near constant gentle rain falling in the Sea of Tears and southeastern Hakan. The storms usually push up into the tropics (Which, like I said, are largely empty of real estate. Mostly.) before having a great deal of effect, positive or negative. This means that Gildenhome and the Temporal Authority get adequate rainfall, but that peninsula forces the rest of the weather patterns the rest of the way into the tropics. Think of Western Alexia as Phonecia and Sumeraish : Once there were all these wonderful forests of ceder that made us fabulously wealthy, except when they were all gone the place turned into a desert. This makes Western Alexia a Woody Greek. Those forests are on foothills and small mountains, not a flat plain. Soil is rocky and not as good for agriculture, so the forests were not slash and burned, and so they are reasonably prosperous. (Except for the generation or two of refugees from the other side of the country. Concequently, Odessa really only occupies the WESTERN half. The CENTRAL Alexia is kind of a wasteland, cutting of the EAST which might as well be Bandit Kingdoms at this point again, for as long as they've been out of central authority. The Stormchalice is a great deal self sustaining, as it sort of scoops up and traps storm systems and wind storms from the Flannari Plains. Those mountains to the west of the Stormchalice are the tallest in the Mainland, Alps or higher level. So, Odessa, then, is mostly fed off of activity coming up from the Heretic Sea, which is substantial enough to guarantee reliable rainfall without any real significant downside. (So Cal, baby.) For the most part, anyway. The South of Odessa is a little more like Jolly Ol' England. Cold and gray and rainy as fuck. Central Odessa is kind of nice and generic, and in the north you start getting into Really Nice All The Time.

Also: The center of the map (Fresia and Flannary) are not complete. Fresia needs a lot more smaller, internal rivers and forests. Flanary needs. Well, cities. It's pretty flat.

Also Also: The Weather around Sidhe-Praxen is... always what it needs to be.

I think that last bit goes a small way toward answering the question that ALMOST BORKED THAT ENTIRE POST (damn you MediWiki!). Also, the dominant ideal on the mainland is balance and equilibrium. Not just in a Great Game way, but also in that the entire religion is really dedicated to keeping things the way they are, as it views the conflict with the Dark Lord as a crusade against Entropy, not necessarily Evil. Now, the consequence of that, of course, at least in the historical pattern, is that things stay preternaturally stable until a couple of things crop up that rapidly overwhelm the system. The least of these shakeups, the Interregnums, were bloody civil wars, each lasting long than the last. (well, all but the first, it was more of an administrative clusterfuck). Wars would usually be waged over succession disputes and other abstract objectives more often than territory. I think in medium-magic environments, some degree of family planning and population balance can be achieved, especially when the dominant institution of the world is a divine magic wielding one. (Going back to Tokugawa Japan, the population from 1600 to 1850 is preeeety static.)

ELVES: Elves are not allowed to leave Sidhe-Praxen. Those that do are never allowed back. Sometimes one will crop in up in some noble's harem or whatever, but it's a once a century affair. The appearance of an elf would certainly cause a regional sensation, even if they were just cleaning gutters. From the Mainland point of view, elves are the subject of lore and legend now, attributed all sorts of powers that certainly cannot be true. Still, a political loser, probably.