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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nyeshet" data-source="post: 3584732" data-attributes="member: 18363">For the equator region (say 5 - or at most 10 - degress north and south of the equator), I was thinking along the lines of the following: the wet season looking something like this: (typical savanna)<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Male_lion_on_savanna.jpg" target="_blank">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Male_lion_on_savanna.jpg</a>(dry woodland / thorn scrubland)<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/14/9706101.jpg" target="_blank">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/14/9706101.jpg</a>(at height of the rainy season)<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c9/East_-_Guinean_Savanna_001.JPG" target="_blank">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c9/East_-_Guinean_Savanna_001.JPG</a>the in-between non-season (ie: late in the rainy season or very early into the rainy season) like this: <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f0/Joshuatreescape.jpg" target="_blank">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f0/Joshuatreescape.jpg</a><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e4/Tharparkar1_Pakistan.jpg" target="_blank">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e4/Tharparkar1_Pakistan.jpg</a><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Nullabor_plain_from_the_indian_pacific.jpg" target="_blank">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Nullabor_plain_from_the_indian_pacific.jpg</a>and the dry season looking something like this: <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Kingston_Range_from_Emigrant_Pass.jpg" target="_blank">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Kingston_Range_from_Emigrant_Pass.jpg</a><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/48/NamibDesert01.jpg" target="_blank">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/48/NamibDesert01.jpg</a><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Baja_California_Desert.jpg" target="_blank">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Baja_California_Desert.jpg</a>So it would be nearly desert throughout much of the year, but for a few months each year it would be nearly savanna like in its greenery (or at least in the length of its grasses and number of leaves and thorns on its trees). The problem with presuming that no oceans for winds to blow over would mean desert for the equator is that much of the african rain forest receives its (rain-laden) winds (ultimately) from the sahara desert. The super-dry winds, coming down from the stratosphere, strip the moisture from the air, but the moisture continues to build up in the air as the winds travel over literally thousands of miles toward the equator. Eventually the moisture density finally becomes too much and the moisture begins to fall as rain - first minorly, when it just starts to be enough to fall and thus wetting the savanna, and then majorly once it crashes into the winds coming from the south and move upwards - with both north and south winds dropping all moisture as the winds rise into the stratosphere and dry out due to the chill temperature. Then they travel poleward again until they crash into stratosphere winds coming from the poles, forcing both to move downwards - into the sahara where they soak up whatever moisture might be present and begin again the cycle of taking the moisture towards the equator.So even if the world is bone dry north and south of it, the slight traces of moisture that exist - but are too minor to fall as rain - would be gathered by these winds and deposited on the equator. Perhaps only for a two to three hundred mile stretch along the equator, and perhaps it would be no better than a savanna, but the combined minimal moisture of literally tens of millions of square miles, compressed to only a few hundreds of thousands of square miles, should be enough for at least a savanna or thorn scrubland / dry woodland, even if it only ranges for 2 to 4 degrees north and south of the equator (rather than 10-15 degrees of rain forest followed by another 5-10 degrees of grassland and thornscrub before becoming desert). Cacti, tumbleweed, and bare thorn-scrub and thorn-covered trees might dot the landscape most of the year, but when the few months of rain come, the grasses swiftly grow, the seeds of flowers briefly bloom, the trees sprout leaves (and flowers, the fruits falling around the end of the rainy season), and for a time even small lakes and streams exist - until it all dries up or sinks below a month or two later. And then the leaves and the thickly rinded and thorny fruit falls, the grasses yellows, dies, and lies flat upon the ground, the flowers and herbs wither and die, and the land returns to its denuded, arid, withered state for another 8 to 10 months. Note that without this middle ground at the equator for refueling (and travel plans would have to plan for arriving during the brief wet season even for this), any travel between the north and south polar regions would be nearly impossible. Caverns might help a bit, but many will be underwater or collapsing every few decades at the equator just from the rains that form the caverns (and send the waters of the underworld rivers poleward, forming more caverns and underground seas for your adventurers). Some travel will need to be made (at least occasionally) overland.</blockquote>

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