Geography - How do you see TSM?

General forum for server information, questions, and announcements.

Moderators: Wynna, NWN2 - 03 DM

User avatar
ElCadaver
Rust Monster
Posts: 1202
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 3:22 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Geography - How do you see TSM?

Post by ElCadaver »

From "The Silver Marches" by WoTC

"Major Geographical Features

The Silver Marches generally includes the lands west of Anauroch, east of the River Surbrin, and north of the River Rauvin, although vast stretches of the forests and mountains within these borders are unsettled wilds.

The Cold Wood: A pine, birch, and spruce forest unmarked by civilized settlers or foresters, the Cold Wood is home to some Uthgardt tribes whose members never cut down living trees. Snow cats, orcs, and ettins roam the wood.

The Moonwood: The large forest north of Silverymoon is blessedly free of orcs and other goblinoids. Unfortunately, this has little to do with the efforts of Silverymoon's rangers and much to do with the fearsome reputation of the lycanthropes who inhabit the forest's northern quarter. Many of these evil lycanthropes are members of the People of the Black Blood, a sect of Malar-worshiping werebeasts who resent the civilizing influence of Silverymoon.

Nether Mountains: Silverymoon may be civilized, but its people will never grow soft as long as they have to contend with the yearly tides of monsters that tire of the hard life in the mountain snows and look to the lowlands for plunder. The pass between Silverymoon and Sundabar is closed about six months of the year by heavy snows.

Rauvin Mountains: Goblin kingdoms and orc warrens infest these mountains. The River Rauvin passes through the peaks in a steep-sided, mist-filled gorge of roaring white water. A perilous trail climbs along the shoulder of the gorge through Dead Orc Pass to the north side of the Rauvin, but most travelers choose to pass around the mountains to the east, since the pass is the home of a particularly strong and aggressive orc tribe."

Further reading says that the geography of TSM is like that of Western Europe.. Here are some nice shots I've found

Image
Minus Penguins

Image

Image

Image
Minus Git

Feel free to add more.... the reason I'm asking is that I'm playing round with world builder and YATT, and I want to see how good I can get it.
Image
User avatar
hollyfant
Staff Head on a Pike - Standards
Posts: 3481
Joined: Mon Oct 24, 2005 3:33 pm
Location: the Netherworl... lands! I meant the Netherlands.

Post by hollyfant »

The Spine of the World always struck me as a "young" mountain range, so more like the Alps than like Scotland. Also, considering the latitude, pines should get more and more common the further north you get, at the expense of leaf bearing trees.

The rivers all are fed by melting snow from the mountains, and so would vary greatly in width based on the season. Assuming Toril has had ice ages, valleys would be U-shaped as they were formed by gletchers. Large, loose boulders would also have been deposited then.

Given that Orcs and Goblins are common, caves would have to be too.

"Western Europe" means nothing, geography-wise. Fjords, (near-)deserts, marshlands, mountains, plains... take your pick, we got the lot!
User avatar
Grand Fromage
Goon Spy
Posts: 1838
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2004 9:04 am
Location: Chengdu, Sichuan, China

Post by Grand Fromage »

I always went with Siberia/Alaska as my mental guide. Mostly because the climate description in zee book is just a copy of central Alaska's, plus the latitude.

Image
Image

The short, hot summer.

Image
Image
Image

And the more typical look.
User avatar
dergon darkhelm
Fionn In Disguise
Posts: 4258
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2005 1:21 pm
Location: Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Post by dergon darkhelm »

Most PCs thus far have really only seen the Rauvin Vale, which in my mind is intermittantly a tight river valley al GF's top image above (say where HH sits on craggy river bend) and at other times a more wide and flat river valley with a flood plane. Rivermoot would be this latter I figure, with two rivers meeting.


As for the rest of TSM I picture Alaska or northwest canada.
PCs: NWN1: Trailyn "Wayfarer" Krast, Nashkel hayseed

NWN2: ??

gsid: merado_1
Mikayla
Valsharess of ALFA
Posts: 3707
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2004 5:37 pm
Location: Qu'ellar Faen Tlabbar, Noble Room 7, Menzoberranzan, NorthUnderdark

Post by Mikayla »

Its not Alaska. I spent four years in the Army in Alaska - and aside from some picturesque beauty around the shores and Denali, Alaska is mostly muskag and scraggly forests of tall, but very thin pines, willows and birch. To be honest, its ugly. And its got more mosquitos than you would believe if I described it. The whole interior is basically blanketed with muskag, which is peat-moss boggy stuff - in the winter its frozen hard, but in summer when everything melts, it is like a giant wet green sponge which is perfect for mosquitos to breed in. And when you are out in the field in central Alaska, unless you are up in a mountain, the dominant experience is the experience of uneven muskag under your feet and mosquito swarms in the air. Like, thick enough to blot out the sun. Well, almost.

Its a f***ing miserable place. Oh, and there are really only three seasons in Alaska - Winter (dark and frozen, with -20 farenheit a typical temperature, but I did exerperience ambient lows as far down as -63 and with windchill, as low as -115); Summer (generally 60s to 70s at best, with one or two heat-waves into the 80s, often cloudy, and often rainy); and then "break-up" which is a 3-4 week "spring" season when all the snow and ice melts and everything is wet and muddy and flooded. There is no real fall/autumn. Oh, and you can divide into "mosquito season" and "not mosquito season" - mosquito season really starts in late June/early July - break up usually occurs in April-May, but the mosquitos don't get out of control for another month (so, late June-ish). So, from late May to late June you get the ONE and only tolerable month in central Alaska. The rest of the time its either flooded, frozen, or full of mosquitos.

Can you tell I am biased?
ALFA1-NWN1: Sheyreiza Valakahsa
NWN2: Layla (aka Aliyah, Amira, Snake and others) and Vellya
NWN1-WD: Shein'n Valakasha
User avatar
Grand Fromage
Goon Spy
Posts: 1838
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2004 9:04 am
Location: Chengdu, Sichuan, China

Post by Grand Fromage »

But that description is pretty accurate to the Marches. ;) Deep winter lasts seven months, with 2-5 feet of accumulation and 20 foot snowdrifts. The rivers remain partly frozen even in summer (and it still drops below freezing at night in much of the region), and the top of the permafrost turns to mud. No mention of mosquitos though.
Mikayla
Valsharess of ALFA
Posts: 3707
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2004 5:37 pm
Location: Qu'ellar Faen Tlabbar, Noble Room 7, Menzoberranzan, NorthUnderdark

Post by Mikayla »

If it is like Alaska then, we need to basically shut down the server in winter, or at that very least, make sure the sun doesn't rise more than a couple hours a day, blanket everything and snow, and make people take damage for being outside. I spent weeks living out of a tent in the winter of Alaska - and when you are doing that, literally 50% or more of your time and energy is spent just doing the things necessary to stay alive in that cold - yes, you can fight and run patrols and such ... but really, half or more of your time and energy is devoted to keeping the stove going, shoveling snow, rebuilding the tent, laying down branches for insulation inside the tent, maintaining your equipment, trying to eat 4,000+ calories a day to keep up your internal body temperature, switching your wet socks (which will soon be frozen) for dry socks, drying your wet socks (and your wet long-underwear), trying to get the feeling back in your fingers and toes, etc etc after miserable f***ing etc.

:P
ALFA1-NWN1: Sheyreiza Valakahsa
NWN2: Layla (aka Aliyah, Amira, Snake and others) and Vellya
NWN1-WD: Shein'n Valakasha
User avatar
Grand Fromage
Goon Spy
Posts: 1838
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2004 9:04 am
Location: Chengdu, Sichuan, China

Post by Grand Fromage »

That would be great. The winter weather is described as being as much or more of a threat to people in the Marches than monsters are. I always wanted to do that, but NWN1 was... less than capable. But with the ability to switch out textures easily, seasons could be done now.

hint hint :F
Mikayla
Valsharess of ALFA
Posts: 3707
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2004 5:37 pm
Location: Qu'ellar Faen Tlabbar, Noble Room 7, Menzoberranzan, NorthUnderdark

Post by Mikayla »

If thats the way it is .. I swear to the Red Knight I am f***ing moving! No way I am doing another tour in the military in a place like Alaska - did you all know that 10 years after leaving the Army I still have nightmares, several times a week, about being in the Army. In Alaska. And I never saw real combat! GAHHHHH!!!!

**shrugs**

Seeing the server blanketed in snow during the winter would be cool though. But that gets us into the comic book time progression thing, which is an argument going on elsewhere right now.
ALFA1-NWN1: Sheyreiza Valakahsa
NWN2: Layla (aka Aliyah, Amira, Snake and others) and Vellya
NWN1-WD: Shein'n Valakasha
User avatar
darrenhfx
Beholder
Posts: 1982
Joined: Fri Jul 30, 2004 5:35 pm
Location: Halifax, Canada GMT -4 (AST)

Post by darrenhfx »

We just had Greengrass a month ago sheesh. I'd like to bring on the seasons at some point.
User avatar
Burt
Nihilist
Posts: 1161
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2004 5:23 pm
Location: In-and-Out Burger, Camrose

Post by Burt »

Good old 24 hour Protection from Elements.
Jagoff.
User avatar
dirsa
Orc Champion
Posts: 417
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2005 12:33 pm

Post by dirsa »

Mikayla wrote:Its a f***ing miserable place. Oh, and there are really only three seasons in Alaska - Winter (dark and frozen, with -20 farenheit a typical temperature, but I did exerperience ambient lows as far down as -63 and with windchill, as low as -115); Summer (generally 60s to 70s at best, with one or two heat-waves into the 80s, often cloudy, and often rainy); and then "break-up" which is a 3-4 week "spring" season when all the snow and ice melts and everything is wet and muddy and flooded. There is no real fall/autumn. Oh, and you can divide into "mosquito season" and "not mosquito season" - mosquito season really starts in late June/early July - break up usually occurs in April-May, but the mosquitos don't get out of control for another month (so, late June-ish). So, from late May to late June you get the ONE and only tolerable month in central Alaska. The rest of the time its either flooded, frozen, or full of mosquitos.
sounds like home... no wander i live in tropics now.
fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity
User avatar
ElCadaver
Rust Monster
Posts: 1202
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 3:22 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by ElCadaver »

Sopt whinin and post some more pictures already.

I posted a demo mod on the toolsetting forum under YATT texture equations. possibly TSM foothills in summer
Image
User avatar
Swift
Mook
Posts: 4043
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2004 12:59 pm
Location: Im somewhere where i dont know where i am
Contact:

Post by Swift »

Burt wrote:Good old 24 hour Protection from Elements.
Wizards ftw!
paazin
Fionn In Disguise
Posts: 3544
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2004 1:07 am
Location: UTC +2
Contact:

Post by paazin »

Swift wrote:
Burt wrote:Good old 24 hour Protection from Elements.
Wizards ftw!
Pretty much can't argue that. Level 1 spell that prevents any damage or weariness due to natural environmental conditions
People talk of bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as man, so artistically cruel.
Post Reply