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Flora and Fauna Everything that's good to eat, hunt, cuddle, or run away from! |
Flora Imported flora Native flora Cherries and other fruit trees can be found mostly on Tana, in the plains
lands or light forests. The small township of Ablan in the center of Difar
is commonly known to produce the best cherry wines, pies and wood products
of that tree. In the north of Tana, in the H'lan and K'vora valleys, the
banana tree is extremely populous. Everything is made from these trees,
including clothing and paper. Tana itself has the most varied group of
trees and fruits on the planet, with the low shrub-shaped kolli fruit
in the cold Tule marshes offering a bitter but useful blueberry-like treat,
to the northern Meht woods and their globe-fruits which are nearly the
size of grapefruits, but have the texture and taste of yellow grapes. Curra has its share of fruit bearing trees, though it is mostly used
to grow Steed grains and common barleys and rice. There is a black rice
grain found here particularly south of Tam in the hills, which is rich
and provides not only food but the stalks and leaves of the plant are
used for cloth dye, a very dark indigo black. Kiran is dominated in the north by palms and ferns, since most of its
northern coast is touched by the yearly storm systems. The hard-nut plant,
or coconut, is harvested here as well as the southern areas of Zerin along
Neres bay. Grasses and wild rice, grains and such are found anywhere in the world.
Most are used as Steed feed, but some can be mulched into fertilizer,
used as coloration or dye, or made into useful items such as hats, paper,
or baskets.Dry, sandy soil and easily eroded areas give way to Zekiran
environmental powers and there are many scrub land areas around Kiran
which will slowly be transformed into fertile soils. High lands and mountains offer the best evergreen trees any world could
find. There are not terribly many mountains around the world which have
what can be considered a "tree line" although those in Stetil
are almost bare on their peaks. Stiff, dry wood and hard resinous trees
exist mostly north of the equator. The trees found on flat or hilly land
(rather than mountains) are often broader, leafy ones. All kinds of wood
and substances can be gotten from those or their evergreen counterparts. The very closest that the world comes to having a tropics is north west
of Corit, in the Web Valley. An extremely narrow section of land has almost
constant cloud cover and moisture, and life there has adapted to these
conditions with large leafed plants, tall towering parasol trees, and
creepers of every description. There are far more bugs in this area of
the world than any other, and fill nearly every ecological niche which
animals and birds would here on Earth. Animals just don't get on well
in this area of the world. There are plants which extrude poisons (collected
by very brave or very evil Zekirans), as well as ones which can be harvested
to provide soothing gels and cure-alls. This tropic is not in any danger
of being over-harvested, Zekirans don't get on well here, either. One unique feature is in the desert of Wo'ad, south of Slust and north
of Karif. The deserts encroachment thousands of years before obviously
took the forest and scrub by surprise: there is a huge petrified wood
zone near the scrub lands. Some of these trees look almost tropical in
nature, but most are hardy evergreens. What they were doing in that part
of the world is still not known. There are many opportunities to create plants for specific purposes in
a Zekiran game. If the Animal Master in the party is a plant-sensitive
or uses their powers to alter things, perhaps they have found a special
poisonous flower; maybe it is essential to the plot that the characters
find a rare hardwood plant to duplicate an item they have stolen. Anything
goes with genetic engineering: Animal Masters will usually be the ones
who have access to any complex information, rather than Breeders (who
deal nearly exclusively with human genes). |
Zekiran Fauna
There are two categories of Zekiran animals: native and imported. The
Native population of animals is varied and fills many of the same niches
as earthly animals of most terrains and areas (with the exception of purely
rain-forest creatures), and as has been mentioned before the dominant
form of mammal is the rodent, and there are no primates. The Imported
kinds of animals are very small in number, and are mainly Steeds and Cats,
some variation with household animals we're familiar with on earth. Hooved Animals On Zerin, Lowland Grazers are typically grey-brown in color with their
hides used for many leather and fur industries, and closely resemble water
buffalo, with their horns curved back against their head and close to
their necks. Zerin Highland Grazers, those usually found in the high mountains
of Stetil and Ka are short in body and sure of foot, quite like mountain
goats. On Tana, the Grazer has been bred around the long legs and compact body
of deer or antelope, with longer necks and thinner legs, typically looking
like a Sable antelope or an elk, shorter horns than either of those earthly
types. There is a very small number of an isolated relative of the Tana
Grazer, living exclusively in the marshy area of the H'lan Valley, deepest
violet and brown in color, this animal bears a striking resemblance to
the earthly okapi. The Curran Forest Grazer is shorter and darker, with heavy fur and more
bi-focal vision than their other relatives, their horns are straight and
usually either head back over their neck or straight out past their nose.
Curra also sports the Reed Grazer, which should more accurately be called
the Tall Grass Grazer, for they do not live in wetland conditions at all,
they have long thin necks, while much shorter than earthly giraffes, that
is their closest comparison. The Kiran Grazer comes in several distinct types, the Southern Grazer
is a large, bulky and short-furred creature resembling a shaved bison,
and is the easiest to led into the slaughterhouse; while the Western or
Desert Grazer is lithe, tiny, and is faster than all the others. Bred
with pale fur, the Western Grazer is great to hunt because of its speed,
and its meat is prized. Kiran has several sub-races of Marsh Grazers,
similar in nature to the elusive H'lan creature, they are smaller and
shorter, with thin horns and often they can be found climbing trees as
well as sprinting over marsh lilypads. Larger beasts resembling rhinos or elephants run around Emosah. There
are creatures that defy description wandering the huge plains of Difar:
the size of water buffalo, the color of wine, with three huge horns and
two on their back, shaggy fur in winter which sheds come spring... Did
I mention they have six legs? Other Hoofstock include tiny mouse-deer found in Curra's forests and
in the lower of the mountain ranges; Kiran's Mountain Springers, which
resemble nothing more than billy goats; North Zerin Trumpet Horns, which
are about the size, disposition and desirability as Moose on earth; the
Zucan Woodbreaker, which acts similarly to a bighorn sheep but is most
often found in deep forest; and the Tana Splay, which has the widest feet
of all the hoofstock, and is designed to run rather quickly in the Kvora
marshes. Carnivores Ice Wolves are exactly that, one singular species of canine left on Zekira.
They exist only in the Curran Tundra, are exclusively white in color,
mate for life, and are never taken into captivity. Their will to live
is strong, but if they are separated from their mate they actually pine
away and die shortly. They are canny hunters, but their prey is not always
available. They can eat up to their own weight at one sitting, and often
they must if they take down a large grazer: they might not see another
meal in the next moon cycle, so they hunt and eat as they can. Animal
Masters have attempted to raise these animals in semi-captivity, as long
as the procedure of family-ties is maintained they are okay. If anything
happens to throw off that balance, the entire family usually dies. It
is possibly due to this phenomenon that the other canine species died
out, before the Ice Wolves, because there is fossil evidence of at least
seven other species before the colony ships arrived. There are three species of Bear on Zekira, all found in the mountains
and deeper forests of their homelands, with the exception of the Winter
bear, which is usually in the light forest and tundra. Small Animals Birds Reptiles Bugs Imported animals Lions, tigers and cheetahs are the typical earthly equivalents to the
plains and subtropical forest cats which have been Bred and released.
The lion is bigger than earthly ones, more like the extinct Black Lion,
and is just as social. Tigers come in several color combinations, here,
striped cat is the typical description, but there are flame patterns,
jaged lines, dots and all, in pretty much the same variety of colors which
Zekirans come in. Fast Cats or cheetahs come in three distinct flavors:
like ours, the orange and black one is common. There is a white version,
and a grey and violet variety. They have had a slighly easier time adjusting
to life on this planet, because their prey is larger and they do not compete
much with the Hern Rats. Show cats and prize winning breeders exist, and are gaining popularity
with people who have either no space or not quite enough money for Steeds.
They cannot be raced, but they can be watched. Canines also have been imported, with very little difference from any
earthly types. Everything from yappy poodles to pleasant hounds, to greyhounds
used to race, guard dogs and huge sheep dogs. Most of these animals are
never found in the wild, nor even in feral conditions. They don't survive
long because of the Hern Rats. Hern Rats have been known (like earthly
coyotes) to take a pet from its yard and simply eat it. Rodents of a small showy variety have been bred for centuries based on those scavengers and tagalongs found on the colony ships! They hadn't fully intended to bring them, but once the ships and their landing crews came to the planet, of course they discovered the hitch hikers. Rather than allowing them to run rampant in the ecosystem, the colonists successfully captured almost 95% of the rats and mice, and what was left has long adapted to life in the localized areas where the ships landed. The rats are large and hardy, and pretty smart. Mice have become very popular as pets, however they are also pests in certain areas and must be kept under control just like any other rodent. Stats for Animals Creature Int Strength Health Agility Reaction Located/Notes Grazer/Lowland 10 140 100 50 40 Zerin, marsh, low Hern Rats 25 80 80 70 70 Northern; domesticated Tiny Rodent 5 5 20 70 70 houses everywhere Tiny Bird n/a 5 5 60 60 everywhere Any bird from Earth usually qualifies in the 10/15 Str/Hea area, and most have 'equivalent' versions on Zekira. Int Str Heal Agi Reac There are millions of different bugs, most are lower than 15/10 Str/Hea, and most of those are over 100 Agi/Rea Tiny Fish n/a n/a 1 150 150 like tetras, neons Note that with the fish the scale of Body Type is different from most.
Anything bigger than "human sized" is ignored and is not desired
as food or other interactive bits. They just don't want to mess with things
that size in water they can't swim in. Note also that octopods are exponentially
more intelligent than other sea animals, and when used in splices tend
to produce very smart results. |