Affect of a 3,000ft cliff on the landscape

[Munin]

I'm adding a unique piece of terrain to my gameworld. Essentially, an entire sub-continent is seperated by the rest of the campaign world by a massive, wall-like cliff. The reason for this element is that the world itself (a sentient being) created it to segregate a portion of humanity from the rest of the planet. Over the centuries, myths have been born that speculate what lies on the other side.

What I'm interested in is your speculation on the affect this feature would have on the campaign world itself.

 

[gamecat]

Look at Esthar in FFVIII, at least for geographical concerns.

 

[BSF]

There would be some minor climatic considerations there. But it wouldn't be much different than a small mountain range. You do need to consider the impact of sea trade. Is this a sheer cliff? Does it have any way to ascend/descend? Have enterprising individuals created a massive elevator to explore beyond the cliff?

 

[sydbar]

Think of the lost world for inspiration.

 

[ForceUser]

What I'm interested in is your speculation on the affect this feature would have on the campaign world itself.

Cliffs are created by the forces of erosion--wind and water. Over time, a gigantic cliff like that would fall victim to erosion in many places, creating mass movements of loose earth and rock that would fall down or flow overland due to gravity's pull. If a fall occured, thousands or even millions of tons of earth would break off from the cliff face and crush anything directly below. In some places, if the angle of the cliff sloped toward the ground, a flow would occur instead of a fall, creating a "tidal wave" of rock and earth that would flow like water for miles over the terrain, burying anything in the way. Nothing built by people could survive indefinitely in the shadow of a large cliff face--at some point in history, a movement will occur, spurred by erosional forces.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Cliffs are created by the forces of erosion...

Or, in this case by the sentient world, which would eliminate all the other problems you mentioned.

 

[TheYeti1775]

About 300d6

 

[mythusmage]

It would be great for hang-gliding.

As for the climate effects, that depends. Where is the cliff located? What latitude? How far from the ocean? What is the prevailing wind? What about oceanic currents? Is there a monsoon season either side of the cliffs? (Under the right conditions my home town, San Diego CA gets rain from east of the mountains.) How long do the cliffs stretch?

Some things to think about.

 

[JamesDJarvis]

Except for flying creatures there'd be virtually no travel up or down the cliff of note so animal species would vary if they were topside or down low. Soem specied would be totally absent topside compared to down low.

Even among flying creatues I can think of 5 general groupings off the top of my head I am sure there could be more variations, avains that dwell and feed on the cliff, avians that dwell on the cliff and feed down low, avians that dwell on the cliff and feed topside, avians that dwell down low and fly to topside and avians that dwell topside and fly down low. That doesn't souf all that signifigant but cultures that dwell down low woudl nevr see the eggs/young of some species of avians and such minor details as this is where legends and myths grow.

 

[Ubiaratne the weird]

big cliff? think weather disruption, and no rain on one side of the cliff because all the rain is stuck on the top of the cliff. That would mean the culture on top of the cliff would be very wet and might have several weather gods because of all the rain they get. It would also mean that on one side of the cliff is a massive desert. Why would the world itself want to segregate a culture?