I am currently doing a write up on the Rushmoors. This is a large swamp in the Gran March and Northern Keoland. This swamp is as large as the largest swamps in Africa or North America. Using precedent from similar swamps in our world, I am adding a flood cycle to this swamp. Due to its size, this cycle takes nearly the entire year, and thus maintains a steady flow rate in the Sheldomar and Javan Rivers.
What would be the peak of the wet season, and what would be the peak of the dry season?
Well - canon would suggest the winter as that's when the rains are supposed to come to the Flanaess
But that's also when the prevailing winds are supposed to be from the north. Polar winds in this world are generally cold and dry. Very little in the way of moisture and therefore rain (unless of course they clash with warm, moist equatorial winds and form weather fronts - which is possible).
In summer, canon tells us the winds are from the south and south west. Which sounds like a classic recipe for a monsoon cycle. Wet summers as moisture laden winds sweep north and hit the landmass of the Flanaess and dry winters as the winds reverse.
Of course, you have to take into account magic to cover the holes in Gary's lack of climatological logic. :) With magic anything can happen (like the unnaturally balmy, yet near-polar Dramij Ocean and the temperate zone Bright Desert, with a sea coast in the direction of the prevailing winds and hills/mountains to leeward - so no chance of a rainshadow effect).
As for the Rushmoors...well if you go with canon (unless that applies to the central Flanaess only), you'd have rains in winter (or at least in autumn and perhaps spring). The Rushmoors might then leach out their water to top up the snowmelt floods in the Javan and keep the Sheldomar (and agriculture in the Uleks and eastern Keoland) in business during the long hot sweltering months of High Summer.
With magic anything can happen (like the . . . temperate zone Bright Desert, with a sea coast in the direction of the prevailing winds and hills/mountains to leeward - so no chance of a rainshadow effect).
Prevailing winds in the Flanaess are from the east, not from the west as in North America. Thus, you do have the "rainshadow" effect in the Bright Desert.
I believe the wet season in the Rushmoors would be during the winter months, with average temperatures in the upper 40's and about a 50% chance of rain on any given day. The dry season would come in late summer, when temperatures climb to around 90°F and the chance of precipitation drops to 38%. (This data extrapolated from the Glossography for the Guide to the WORLD OF GREYHAWK™ Fantasy Setting, pp. 18-22.)
Given its size, I would expect the Rushmoors to have both permanent and seasonal flood areas and quite possibly to generate its own rain as would a rain forest.
Magic could very well contribute to its size. Is there any connection to the Sunless Sea? How about the Elemental Plane of Water? Is not there some connection of this area to modules concerning elementals? Also, Vecna could have contributed to the size of the swamp as part of his grand plan.
First, the Rushmoors are a marsh, not a swamp. That means it has grasses and such rather than trees and shrubs.
Second, bear in mind that it is at a medium latittude, which despite the mellow climate of the Flanaess means it will see some hefty winter weather.
Third, remember that it is inland and not coastal.
So altogether, probably look at the American Midwest for a comparison.
(Which means there shouldn't be any fricking crocodiles swimming around it. But that's another rant.)
Given the location, I am sure the Rushmoors are wet the entire year. And I expect they pick up a sizable portion of the floodwaters of the Javan as it flows south, either directly or indirectly somehow. It wouldn't affect the Sheldomar as much, as that gains a lot of water from the rivers coming from the Lortmils.
Prevailing winds in the Flanaess are from the east, not from the west as in North America. Thus, you do have the "rainshadow" effect in the Bright Desert.
My bad, I meant south east (always get my west and east confused in the Flanaess!).
There isn't really a sizable enough mountain range south of the Bright to cause a rainshadow. It's got a warm sea directly to the south (the Gearnat - which we know has violent storms in summer and autumn - which don't seem to leave any precipitation in the Bright for all that) in the direction of the prevailing winds in summer. Magic has to be involved, as it doesn't make sense otherwise. If there's a rainshadow in the Bright, it'd be worse to the north and west of the Abbor-Alz - Greyhawk and Urnst - but they're pleasently temperate.
Samwise just made some good points, but I have to take issue with the first: “First, the Rushmoors are a marsh, not a swamp. That means it has grasses and such rather than trees and shrubs.”
I would bet that he has a canon references behind that, but I still think it should be looked at with a critical eye.
I cannot say that I know well the differences between a marsh, swamp, bog, fen, moor, wetland, etc. I am sure that there are some differences, but every place is unique and they get named often inaccurately by people. Something might be called a marsh thought it might more accurately be named a swamp.
The Rushmoors might be a good example of that. I think “moors” are boggy peat uplands, where you would not likely find any rushes.
I have to go back to my prior assertion that because of the size of the region, you are going to have a diversity of types of wetlands. Maybe even some soggy hills covered in vampiric rushes and demon shrubs.
You might want to consider including some areas, even large ones, within the Rushmoors that are not even wetlands of one kind or another. I think I read onces that there is a desert in Poland resulting from a mountains blocking rain.
Las Vegas is in the Mojave Desert, but we have a wetland park of a few square miles with trees, shrubs, grasses and rushes, depending on where you are in the park in relation to the water. Believe it or not but there are storks and beavers, too.
No "fricking crocodiles swimming around" in LV yet, that I know of, but given the lack of regulation of exotics, if it has not happened yet, it will soon.
The Rushmoors might be a good example of that. I think “moors” are boggy peat uplands, where you would not likely find any rushes.
As well as upland peat bogs, you can also get lowland deep peat blanket bogs, that have rushes and reeds aplenty near pools and water courses. The Bog of Allan in Ireland is a classic example of this (or it was until we dug a lot of up for peat).
Wolfsire wrote:
I have to go back to my prior assertion that because of the size of the region, you are going to have a diversity of types of wetlands. Maybe even some soggy hills covered in vampiric rushes and demon shrubs.
That's a fair point though - it's going to be fairly diverse.
Samwise just made some good points, but I have to take issue with the first: “First, the Rushmoors are a marsh, not a swamp. That means it has grasses and such rather than trees and shrubs.”
I would bet that he has a canon references behind that, but I still think it should be looked at with a critical eye.
I cannot say that I know well the differences between a marsh, swamp, bog, fen, moor, wetland, etc. I am sure that there are some differences, but every place is unique and they get named often inaccurately by people. Something might be called a marsh thought it might more accurately be named a swamp.
The Rushmoors might be a good example of that. I think “moors” are boggy peat uplands, where you would not likely find any rushes.
As a matter of fact, I do have a canon reference.
The geographical features entry in the 83 set lists it as:
Rushmoor (marsh)
That pretty well establishes that.
Otherwise I would agree that being called the RushMOORS would mean it was an upland moor, and not a marsh, swamp, bog, or fen. (All of them are different varieties of wetland.) That is why I checked for the reference.
If you want more information on the differences, check out an online encylopedia, or the US EPA site. (Which were the ones I checked, although I already knew the basic differences.)
Samwise, I hope you did not take my reference to “critical eye” as meaning anyone should second guess your reference. To the contrary, my “bet” was what you knew what you were talking about.
However, at least to my mind, you have just substantiated that it does need to be looked at more carefully. IMO, a one word parenthetical is too slim of a basis for establishing that the entire region is only grasses and no trees, particularly when that one word is almost synonymous with the others. It has been a long time since I looked at N1, but I would not be surprised if there were pictures of the wetland that are relevant to the type of wetland in that area.
AM: “In our Gran March Gazzatteer we are diligently trying to stay within the bounds of written canon, whenever possible. When it is not, or the canon is so confused/obtuse/unusable/incongruent, we go outside of Canon, and note it in a footnote. But even more, we try to make the incongruent congruent by working it through.”
Maybe “(marsh)” is something that needs to be addressed in a footnote.
If I were AM, I would give more weight to your Midwest comparison. AM indicated a desire to make it seasonable, but perhaps that should only be some areas. Perhaps the technically marshy areas should be where it has been most explored by humans. Near the non-Bakluni Shiboleth?
Turning to the issue of crocodiles, I take it from the context of your reference that their presence in the Rushmoors is canon based on the encounter tables of the boxed set? I cannot speak for others, but I would welcome such a rant. I would bet that the problem is not just their presence, but also their frequency. Perhaps canon should be violated that they should be stricken from the list. I could imagine such creatures holding on in niches with adaptive behavior, but that would only go so far. Morphological changes might also be necessary. Just to get the thoughts going, what about small, brightly-feathered, swarming, hibernating crocodiles. I seem to recall reading in a fantasy setting about arctic fury crocodiles.
No, I knew you meant the critical eye for the concept in general. I just wanted to cite the reference so people knew there was one. As I said, my general inclination would be to make the place a moor and not a marsh because of the name. The two are quite different, and that difference is very big.
As for N1, that treats it as more of a sub-tropical salt-water coastal marsh than a temperate inland marsh that isn't even on a major lake. So when it comes to critical eyes, that definitely calls for one.
Indeed, I would suggest he use something several people have suggested, that the Rushmoors is a result of fallout from the death of Vecna. That the entire are subsided enough to turn into a marsh as opposed to the slightly dry grasslands like the rest of northern Keoland and the Gran March.
As for crocodiles, in canon they begin with N1. There was no separate encounter table for the Rushmoors in the 83 set, although there were for some other marshes. I think there was one in FtA, and that it contained crocodiles, but I'd have to go digging for it to be sure.
As for a rant, ask any LG player and you will get a big one to the effect that it is impossible to enter any marsh or swamp or what not in the Flanaess and not get jumped by a crocodile, typically a giant one. (And if you ask a particular few, you might even hear the legend of how all crocodiles in Keoland got racing stripes. Naturally, that was my all my fault. )
As for striking it, I'd be in favor of it. Lizard men I can see that far north. They could hibernate. Crocodiles would have trouble closing up shop for that long as far as I know. Or would someone like to do some checking on that?
I believe the Rushmoors are at the same latitude as northern Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. While they may not be coastal, they don't have particularly harsh winters -- and, in the Flanaess, winter is only nine weeks long anyway. Could there be 'gators instead of croc's? I think they're the same in game terms.
The southern border of the Rushmoors is in hex row 58. According to the Glossography for the Guide to the WORLD OF GREYHAWK™ Fantasy Setting, p. 18, this corresponds to 30°N latitude, which is roughly the location of the Florida panhandle in North America. So, actually, my initial estimate was a bit conservative. The Rushmoors would be equivalent to southern Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.
Looking at the map I'd put it a bit further north, around the middle of Mississippi or Alabama, and of course significantly further inland.
I hadn't thought it was that far south. For some reason I thought Greyhawk was at 40* N, and I knew the Rushmoors wasn't much further south.
Hmmm . . .
Don't forget that being so far inland, it'd have a continental climate - less moderating effects from the sea and so more extreme summers and winters than you'd have closer to the coast.
Well, your comments on the Rushmoors have been helpful. I have based them, generally, on the swamps and marshes in general. One reason I noted its size was to show from the outset that it is generally unlike anything in our world.
In the Gran March version of Rushmoors, it is largely marsh. However, the sheer size of the Rushmoors necessitates a change, if only to eliminate the horrible monotony. In my concept they are based on the area near the Georgia/Florida border, where the Okeefenokee Swamp turns to the Everglades. Thus it is extremely varied, with the vast bulk being moors of rushes, but with multiple mini habitats throughout.
Using the map created by Yabusama, the southern edge is the most and least accesible. It is deeper, and more like a swamp. There are vast plains of rushes, in shallow depths of water, but the waterways are ringed with trees which makes access to these "moors," impossible for any thing other than an unarmored man on foot. Once there though, he finds that these nearly endless plains are almost impossible to walk across, as a man sinks to his knees in the muck.
Here is the entirety of the text I have worked out to this point.
"The Rushmarch
The Rushmoors have always been the northern boundry of Keoland, and the since its inception, an obstacle to the Gran March. Despite its name, the Rushmoors are far more than rushes. A swamp the size of the Rushmoor has to be. It has tree lined waterways, bottomless pools, vast mud boggs, salt domes surmounted by ancient ruins and, of course, endless fields of rushes. It is inhabited by many vile and dangerous creatures, including sentient trees, lizardmen, trolls, goblins, orcs, Flan Tribesmen, and primordal lizards of enourmous size. One of the most perplexing creatures of the Rushmoors are the undead. Where the undead come from have perplexed sages for centuries, but since the first chroniclers arrived, they come. Every flood season, skeletons and zombies, among others, straggle out of the mire to attack the hapless.
The original parties of Knight's thought that the moors were a great inland lake. They arrived in the middle of the rainy season, and were unable to move beyond the natural waterways due to the soft soil on the "banks," and the weight of their armor. They saw vast areas with unusual rushes and reeds growing in the water. Only later, in cooperation with certain Flan tribes did they begin to understand the seasonal shifts and the variety associated with the Rushmoors.
The Rushmoors also include floating islands, or hammocks, covered with shrubs or trees, open grassland-looking prairies which slowly flood for half the year, then slowly drain the rest of the year. One of the most unusual features are both large and small mats of floating peat, the decayed remains of long-dead vegetation, some that will support the weight of a person or people and some that will not. It was these very islands that took many members of the first Keoish forays to their deaths.
The water in the Rushmoors are generally shallow, averaging two feet but sometimes going to nine feet. Under the water is generally two to four feet of soft mud which prevents walking across these shallow areas. Water in the Rushmoors is clear but stained the color of iced tea by tannins and other products of decaying vegetation. There is at least two blue holes known in the Rushmoors that are seemingly bottomless holes of water that continually boil forth, pure and clean, but so cold that ice floats to the surface on occaion.
The Flood Season
Each year, beginning in XXXXXXX, the rains come and the Javan begins to rise, and the Rushmoors begin to fill up. For half the year, the one of the largest swamp in the world begins to rise, nearly becoming an inland lake. Then, for the remainder of the year, the Rushmoors drain.
This has two results. First, and most important for the residents of the Rushmoors and the surrounding lands, the rising waters drive many of the more fearsome residents of the Rushmoors out into human habit. This has been a cycle since the founding of the March, and no one is surprised to see the denziens come. What is suprising, at least to people from other lands, is the number of undead that..."
That is excellent. If you have not had a chance to look at it, in OJ 16 you will find a fair amount to work into the Rushmoors (as well as GM in general). I saw in parts they were alternately called swamp, fen and marshland. The longest section relevant to your questions is at p. 42, but there are bits throughout the Keoland article.
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The longest section relevant to your questions is at p. 42, but there are bits throughout the Keoland article.