Tarva

[Mark A Vandermeulen]

On Wed, 19 Nov 1997, Neil Barnes wrote:

>
> One of the things that's been bugging me recently is just why the plain
> states of Khinasi are so arid. While their sheltered from the prevailing
> winds by the Drochandragh they should still recieve a fair amount of
> rain off the southern sea.
>

Interesting stuff there, Neil. But of course you don't HAVE to use this
explanation to explain dry lands near oceans. On earth, anyway, the
atmosphere is in constant motion, and where it is hottest, near the
equator, it expands due to the heat, and so rises. Doing so lets it
encounter the cooler temperatures in the upper atmosphere, and the water
in the air condenses, becomes clouds, and then rain (and thus we get
tropical rain forests, because the rain is so predicatable). However, the
air beneath this now-cool and dry air is still heated and still rising,
and so our now-dry air has to go somewhere. It is pushed out away from the
tropics, until it is now longer over the upwelling air from near the
equator. Then, because it is cooler and more dense, it falls back
downward. This is where some of the driest deserts on earth occur, because
nearly all the air they recieve has already had nearly all of its moisture
removed from it over the tropics.
This is also part of the reason that I always assumed that the
contintent of Cerilia is much bigger than apparently the designers assumed
it to be (due to their scale indications). I thought that the continent
extended from the polar regions to this desertified area, which would make
it a continent nearly twice the size of north america. But aparrently the
world of Aebrynnis has different air current patterns than the earth does,
or else your tale of Tarva is really the correct explanation. :)

Mark VanderMeulen
vander+@pitt.edu

[Glenn Robb]

Rich Baker wrote:

> At 02:42 PM 11/19/97 +0000, you wrote:
> >
> >One of the things that's been bugging me recently is just why the plai=
n
> >states of Khinasi are so arid. While their sheltered from the prevaili=
ng
> >winds by the Drochandragh they should still recieve a fair amount of
> >rain off the southern sea.
> >
> Actually, there are many places in the real world where arid regions ar=
e
> adjacent to oceans. The deserts of Angola, Chile, and Peru are outstand=
ing
> examples. The Arabian peninsula, southern California, and the northern
> coast of Africa also qualify. If the prevailing wind doesn't blow onsho=
re
> from the ocean, it's very possible for deserts to exist next to seas.
>
> Rich Baker
> Birthright Designer

Everyone, he's right, you know. If the winds change as a result of geogr=
aphy,
and the monsoons stops coming, a thriving desert can be next to a thrivin=
g
sea. And if the temperature is just right in the morning, you might get =
fog
coming inland. Besides that, a desert is a place that does not have much
water.

So a sandy beach is a desert at certain times. Also, deserts can be cold=
,
blowing places. The mongolian desert is such a place, so is Anartica.

So Rich is justified by putting a desert next to an ocean. As long as he=
has
the weather pattern information to back it up.

=97 Elton Robb

[Neil Barnes]

On Wed, 19 Nov 1997, Rich Baker wrote:
> Actually, there are many places in the real world where arid regions are
> adjacent to oceans. The deserts of Angola, Chile, and Peru are outstanding
> examples. The Arabian peninsula, southern California, and the northern
> coast of Africa also qualify. If the prevailing wind doesn't blow onshore
> from the ocean, it's very possible for deserts to exist next to seas.

My understanding is that the expansion of the Arabian desert & the
Sahara can be directly attributed to human activity. In Roman times the
North African coast was pretty fertile & supprted lions & elephants and
other fauna. AFAIK the Romans drove most of these animals to extinction.
Thus the Sahara was originally an inland desert, sheltered by the Atlas
mountains. Due to over grazing it's expanded towards the coast in
historical times. The same thing has happened in the fertile crescent
area (Mespots & Syria/ Israel/ Egypt).

The other good examle is Australia, which artificially maintained as
arid plains by the activity of the Aboriginies. The natural climax
vegetation is mixed woodland.

neil

[Neil Barnes]

On Thu, 20 Nov 1997, Mark A Vandermeulen wrote:
> This is also part of the reason that I always assumed that the
> contintent of Cerilia is much bigger than apparently the designers assumed
> it to be (due to their scale indications). I thought that the continent
> extended from the polar regions to this desertified area, which would make
> it a continent nearly twice the size of north america.

I've not checked the sizes, but I'd imagine that it's similar in size to
Europe. Spain has some fairly arid territory, and it's on roughly the
same latitude as Maine IIRC. The gulf strem has quite a pronounced
climactic effect. My impression of the southern coast of Anuire was that
it was pretty Mediterranean in climate.

Obviously Khinasi gets the benefit of a South-easterly current that
sweeps along the southern coast, keeping it alot warmer than it would
otherwise be at that latitude.

neil

[Sorontar]

Breadcrumb2|Main Page|Khinasi

After the six tribes arrived in Cerilia the Masetians settled along the southern coast, building mainly coastal cities. However one group moved inland to take advantage of a number of mines in a group of low hills in the center of the great fertile plain to the north of them. Over the next few hundred years the population exploded as they took advantage of the open plains around them.
They built a huge city in the hills and called it Tarva, a word which meant '"Gold" in Masetian [1]. Having moved away from the sea, the people began to find the sea-goddess Masela's faith less and less relevant to their lives. At the same time priests appeared in their midst telling them of a new God, Asrus [2], who would teach them how to use the gold & steel they'd been mining much more productively.
At first this new faith seemed benevolent and much better suited to their new lifestyle than Masela's. The clement climate of their new home meant that the weather was of little concern to them. They learnt how to make steel weapons & golden jewellery. After a few years this religion was well established in Tarva & the people had begun to covet. Their new faith had taught them not only to desire possessions, but had also given them the means to gain those possessions.
Tarva's territory expanded rapidly as they subjugated wandering clans of Vos, Brecht & Basarji, as well as subjugating many of the Masetian cities on the Sun Coast. By this point the battle of Deismaar was no more than fifty years away, and it looked as if the people of Tarva would form a major part of Azrai's army.
As the Tarvan's took Saria (a feat that relied mainly on the magic of one who would survive Deismaar to become known as el-Sheighul) & the Masetians fled to the Islands to regroup, opposition finally appeared to the Tarvan.
Sarim al-Yaousoun was a Basarji clan leader, and a military genius. Coming from somewhere in modern Binsada (the Basarji had spread rapidly over the plains) he united several nomadic tribes of Basarji who were in danger of being crushed by the Tarvans and started doling out a remarkable series of reversals to the Tarvans. Tales of his epic battles with the forces of the Western Commander of Tarva, a potent mage taught magic by Azrai himself, would have been campfire classics for the Basarji, had things gone differently.
Sarim organised his people into several fast nomadic armies. Capable of living off the land they could raid deep into Tarva & escape before the Tarvan legions could respond. Sarim's wife Karida was a Paladin of Basaïa, and wielded one of the few Holy Avengers known in Cerilia, the 'Farisan'. Eventually Sarim lured the majority of the Tarvan Army to battle (somewhere near modern Turin), thus enabling him to sack Tarva itself.
Unfortunately the surviving Tarvan mages, incensed at the destruction of their city, set fire to the plains. Since it was late in the year, the wheat was dry in the fields and the fire spread like, well, wildfire. A full half of Sarim's army perished, including both him & Karida, choking to death in the thick smoke. The Tarvan army attempted to strike out for safety but starved in the middle of the self created desert. The few that survived earned the name Corpse-eaters & fought in the van of Azrai's army at Mount Deismaar.
The destruction of Sarim's army, followed by the deaths of many of the survivors at Deismaar meant that little of this story is known in modern Khinasi. Few know even that there was an empire that covered much of the modern Plains States and beyond. The few stories of Sarim's genius are usually attributed to el-Arrasi, or leaders resisting the Anuirean invasion. Ironically the most accurate version of this story is preserved in Anuire, where stories of Sir Siraen & his lady Kaerin are popular romances. The story usually places the story in the East - often Osoerde or Coeranys, or occasionally in Mhoried (when almost invariably the Gorgon is named as the evil mage).
There are probably no more than 20-30 people born since Deismaar and alive today who have heard of the City of Tarva, and many of those don't know the full story. The nomads of the modern Tarvan wastes know to avoid the rare ancient temples of the ancient Tarvan's and the ruins of the city itself are taboo, not even to be spoken of lest old evils arise again.
Loose threads:

• El-Sheighul is still alive (?) and out to cause trouble.

• The Serpent is probably not from Tarva (it would be too predictable), but certainly visited there while young - it's possible that he studied there.

• Tarva's treasure horde has yet to be found - supposedly it's out there somewhere in the wastes. The city was one of the richest in Cerilia's history, and its gold might prove a tempting prize.

• Farisan is out there somewhere too (probably) a Holy Avenger - something that's not too common.

• Something interesting probably happened to the Corpse-Eaters at Deismaar. Most would have died, but a few might have survived. Either that or some sort of summoning spell could summon them. Which could be nasty.

[1] Modern scholars generally think that the root of the name of the Tarvan wastes refers to the colour of the land. They're wrong.
Alternate transliterations might also be: Tarua, Thara, Darva, Dharva, Cserva or Tsarva depending on which language it's been transliterated from. When transliterating from Masetian into English Tarua is probably the best one.
[2] I'm going with the idea that the Tribes fleeing Aduria were fleeing the Shadow, & were unaware (at this point) of Azrai's name, so this obvious Masetianisation wouldn't have been noticed.
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