Settling the Anarouch/Great Glacier debate.

[jester47]

Apparently detractors of the FR setting seem to think that Anarouch is a hot and dry desert bordering a glacier. Apparently they have not taken th4e time to read the material:

The area of the Great Desert is in fact a collection of different types of deserts, and includes hot sandy wastes similar to the Dust Desert of Raurin, rocky badlands with very sparse scrubs and no available water, basins filled with salt flats and prickly cacti, windswept sandstone mountains carved by wind into bizarre shapes, and polar steppes and icy wastes in the north which would rival those of Vassa.

The previous paragraph was reiterated in 1993's A grand Tour of the Realms in the FRCS Boxed Set.

Although outsiders think of the Great Desert as a single gigantic waste, it is in fact a succession of different types of deserts: sere [ed: searing?] dustbowls turn to wind scoured rocky steppes that give way to frozen tundra, inhospitable mountains, and finally the gigantic Glacier known as the High Ice.

So its been reiterated 3 times over 14 years. Its been 18 years since it was first published. I would think that people would have actually read about the desert and glacier in question before they dis the setting.

Aaron.

 

[Dragonblade]

The desert isn't even natural. It was created by the Phaerimm's draining magic. Its pointless to criticize the geography of a fantasy world anyway. Rivers, mountains, deserts, etc. can exist in the most unlikely places simply because of magical upheavals, gods battling, or what have you.

 

[SHARK]

Magical Deserts

Greetings!

Dragonblade! How are you? Hmmm...magical deserts--I tend to think that anyone who is overly critical of such lack of realistic ecology hasn't really read FR. The place is highly magical, as stated throughout the material, and therefore to criticise such as it is seems obtuse. It's a highly magical world, where such ecological anomolies are rather common and explainable.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[Darkness]

Hello, SHARK. Good to see you again. I hope you are well?

 

[ephemeron]

eytmological tangent

sere [ed: searing?] dustbowls

"Sere" is a real word -- it means "dried up" (probably related to "to sear", but closer in meaning to "seared" than "searing", FWIW).

 

[Numion]

Apparently detractors of the FR setting seem to think that Anarouch is a hot and dry desert bordering a glacier. Apparently they have not taken th4e time to read the material:

Part of it has to do with that people think that deserts must be hot, so they jump to conclusion that all of Anauroch is hot. In fact, by definition of deserts, antarctica is one. It has to do with dryness, not heat.

 

[Davelozzi]

It might have something to do with the 1991 accessory Anauroch and novel The Parched Sea. Though Anauroch clearly describes the separate sections of the desert as being ecologically distinct, both it and the novel make the Sword (the hot, sandy part) their main focus. And the addition of the Bedine (bedouin) as the dominant culture certainly makes Anauroch seem like a another rip-off of the Arabian Desert, which traditionally conjures up images of a hot, sandy waste.

I'd have to say, I've always dislike Anauroch. If the focus was more on the savage cold parts, I might feel that it fit better, but as it is I always felt like they just threw it in there so you could use your desert-based adventure modules without making everyone treck across the continent.

But the realism factor doesn't bother me, because it is clearly indicated that the main reason for the desert's existence is magic.

 

[Desdichado]

Yeah, it's so unusual that there's this big desert next to this terminally cold area. That's nothing like the proximity of Siberia and the Gobi desert, for instance...

Or Tibet and the Taklamakan.

Yeah, it's simply impossible for there to be a desert right next to a glacier...

 

[JPL]

"Any time something like that happens, a wizard did it."

 

[Mean Eyed Cat]

My players recently went through the northwestern part of the Anauroch desert (near the Silver Marches). I treated it like the steppelands/desert of Central Washington (which actually extends up into B.C.- see more here). In terms of latitude, it makes sense. During the summer, this area of Washington still gets mighty hot and dry (and there's even cacti).