Just wondering......Where in the Flanaess would one find warm plains - ones that would support the lions, elephants, hyenas, jackals, cheetahs and rhinos? - an African safari-type environment. Does this area exist? Or, do I have to go to Hepmonaland or west of the Dry Steppes?
This gets into the long debate over the climate of the Flanaess. Personally, I have the savanna/veldt/karoo type of regions well off the map, outside of the Flanaess. Sadly, this kind of leaves out lions, elephants, rhinos and that sort of thing. You could consider the southern Sheldomar Valley and Ahlissa as subtropical enough to allow such animals. If memory serves, in the Valley of the Mage sourcebook/adventure there are jaguars and elephants, but I personally find this improbable. The Tiger Nomads obviously know of tigers, and thus tigers (Siberian, I'm sure) are found there. Surely leopards and tigers exist in Hepmonaland and/or the Amedio Jungle, and I remember an old adventure from Dungeon set in Hepmonaland that featured elephants. Hope that helps... _________________ Greyhawk is dead; long live Greyahwk! It is not heresy; I will not recant!
There is no reason why the South-Central Flaness couldn't support elephants. There are elephant reserves here in Texas and the Valley of the Mage would not necessarily have to be a place where Elephants are Native to but they certainly could survive and even thrive there. As for why would the Mage of the Valley bring elephants to his Valley? Why do crazy people do what they do? In 1967 a man named Robert McCulloch purchased the London Bridge and shipped it to Lake Havasu, Arizona, Pablo Escobar, of Colombian Cocaine Cartel fame, purchased a whole bunch of Hippopotomi and after he was killed they were released into the surrounding swamp land. He also built a park with life sized dinosaur models and a zoo with lots of exotic animals.
Besides crazy things that people do to manipulate their environments, there is no reason why you couldn't have somewhere in the Flanness where animals like that are common. The area around Greyhawk would actually be perfect. Of course they wouldn't be native to the region, they would have been important in from a distant and mysterious land by everyone's favorite Lord Mayor of course.
The question here is not weather or not animals such as elephants, lions, cheetahs and such are native to the central Flaness, but where there are environments that are capable of handling such creatures. Based on the general map of the Flanaess, you could sustain such creatures in the Sheldomar Valley, Urnst, Veluna, Furyondy and the Yeomanry along with the vast majority of the Great Kingdom. The only problem with those areas is that even though they may support life like that, with the exception of the Province of Ahlissa in the Great Kingdom, and the Yeomanry and Keoland in the Shaldomar valley they aren't really ideal and none of them would be areas where creatures like that are indigenous life they would all have to be imports.
I'd go with the Dry Steppes if you want a self-contained region where all of these critters are likely to roam. See your 83' Greyhawk Boxed Set entry for a description of the area.
The Dry Steppes aren't a bad choice, although IMO the primary factor in whether or not these critters appear in the Flanaess is going to be how much have these animals been hunted by humans and other sentients and predators. There were asiatic lions in the Caucasus region up to about 11th century and asiatic elephants were used in warfare up to the introduction of gunpowder. Cheetahs were found in Persia. Looking at the wandering monster charts in the 1e DMG lions seem to be pretty common in temperate to subtropical areas. Elephants are another story but it looks like mammoths and mastadons could be pretty common in the northlands if they haven't been hunted to extinction. If I remember right there are weretigers in the Gnarley, and where there are weretigers there are probably tigers (and IMC there were). I always assumed wherever there were gnolls you'd find hyenas, and if Iuz is breeding baboons with orcs to make losels I'd assume there is probably a steady supply of baboons somewhere nearby. If your main point is to find an African savannah type environment though I'd probably stick with Hepmonaland or do something with Zindia or some other similar area outside of the Flanaess.
Aren't the Dry Steps a bit dry for something the size of an elephants and rhinos to live? Steppes are by definition dry and arid, not the kind of area capable of supporting large herbivores like elephants. The area would have to be flat, as defined by the premise of the initial post. The Dry steeppes are really nothing more then scrub land and they certainly don't fit the parameters required for these types of animals.
Read the description of the Dry Steppes. Most of the area is dry and arid, but not all. The central portion is actually quite hospitable apparently. In some places it is likely similar to that part of the African savanah where the rivers pretty much dry out in summer and fill back up during winter. There was a National Geographic/Animal Planet/Discovery Channel show on this type of location that featured elephants, lions, gazelle, croco-gators, etc. as the water supply is important to all of them.
The Plains of the Paynim have the Wadi Khijab; granted it is dry for half the year. The Dry Steppe has the Rumikadath River and Lake Udrukanar; should anyone wonder why the steppe nomads think highly of the Mahdi.
Besides steppe doesn't mean desolate desert but scrub grassland; the steppe of mongolia maybe harsh but rain does occassionally fall. The moisture from the ocean and the high mountains should encourage some rainfall.
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