Birthright Campaign played- need info

[Nikolai II]

Originally posted by Landen_Haesri

I've changed all of Aerenwe's sources back up to their full potential. That leaves some provinces as plains; elves *do* live in areas other than forests, right? Hmm. The wizard isn't getting the free sources; the elf king created a lieutenant whom we decided was allowed the sources that were freed up.

The elves used to live on the plains as well, but there the humans had an easier time beating them back. (And at first humans were granted plains, since they liked it so much more than the elves).

Maybe it is light forests? I recall there being forests with little source (5). Am I wrong?
Else go for the plains, keeps the map good-looking.:P

[ryancaveney]

On Wed, 23 Apr 2003, Nikolai II wrote:

> Landen_Haesri wrote:
>
> > I`ve changed all of Aerenwe`s sources back up to their full
> > potential. That leaves some provinces as plains; elves *do*
> > live in areas other than forests, right? Hmm.

I would be strongly inclined to say no -- anywhere elves are still living
should definitely be changed to heavy forest IMO.

> The elves used to live on the plains as well, but there the humans had
> an easier time beating them back. (And at first humans were granted
> plains, since they liked it so much more than the elves).

I don`t seem to recall this being canon, but if it is I think it is a
misunderstanding of historical vegetation change on the part of the person
who wrote that. There are some places in the world which are naturally
plains, and some places in the world which are naturally forest; but these
regions tend to be immensely vast, and not really intermingled much at
all. Pretty much all of Europe and all of eastern North America each used
to be one huge forest -- essentially all the unforested areas now present
in those locations are the result of humans cutting down trees. One could
make similar "natural biome" maps for Cerilia, and what they would say is
this: except for the desert and associated steppe in western Khinasi,
certain high mountains (and perhaps their lees), and the glaciers at the
top of the continent, before the humans came nearly every single province
in Cerilia was of the Ancient Forest type. Even the deserts may be
largely caused by human activity -- on Earth, the primary driver of the
growth of the Sahara desert is livestock (goats) kept by humans. Less
long ago than the Masetian arrival is to the "present day" of the BR
books, northern Africa was the breadbasket of the Roman Empire!

In envisioning the map of Cerilia before the humans, at the very least you
ought to link up most of the smaller forests -- Tuarhievel, Sielwode, that
one province in Mhoried, the Erebannien and the Spiderfell I think all
used to be part of the same big forest. I don`t think the borders of the
Sielwode and the Spiderfell look like they do because the elves and the
Spider retreated into the forests -- I think they look like they do
because humans couldn`t go into those forests to cut them down. All of
Anuire used to be forest, and if the humans aren`t stopped, one day it
will all be plains; the PS of Talinie focuses strongly on this idea.

> Maybe it is light forests? I recall there being forests with little
> source (5). Am I wrong?

Ancient forest has source potential 9, light forest has source potential 7.

> Else go for the plains, keeps the map good-looking.:P

I think the map is the result of where the elves defended, not the cause
of it. Anywhere an elven court has continuously ruled since the coming of
humans ought to be heavily forested. In this case, the political changes
of your campaign IMO require a change to the map`s terrain types.


Ryan Caveney

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[darknightlost]

Since when does a change of politics equal a change of land scape? Maybe the elves are trying to grow a forest there and are having terible luck (fire, floods paricites or just bad soil ;) ) If the player wants to owne a plains area he has that right. Remeber that this is a group of players, no single person can really know what they will do or try, and any DM who tells his players 'no' is going to have some very dissapointed players. Just tell them it will be really hard and go from there. some of the best RP sessions I ever played are when my players tryed some thig I had not thought they would do and was completly contrary to the flow of the game. Once that starts, you'll be amazed at what they can do!
I say, 'as long as it's within the concept of the game, go for it!' , so obviously no High tech stuff, but other wise Why not? So they started a civil war... So they took over some one elses land... This is BirthRight, This is what the game is all about! Why does every thing have to fit a nice rule or law? Let havoc reign! Because that is what most players are to a world... Havoc!

[Landen_Haesri]

([_] Cheers to that!

;)

Charlie