Re: Palmaltela, grass, bad days & list question

Peter Metcalfe

> In my opinion, there is conventional (ie Genertelan) vegetation north
> of the Fensi which the veldt dwellers blame on Bandaku/Fonrit's
> corruption during the Gods War.

Along with plants typical or even special to Pamaltela.

rune.writer

> I've been pondering this question again and several thoughts
> occur to me.

> On earth agriculture/civilization were dependant on the
> domestication and exploitation of grains (grass seeds), an
> easily obtainable, easily preparable and very nutritious.
> Ie, rice, wheat, corn etc.

Corn/Maize and sugarcane are not the same kind of grass as the common grains. They have a fast C8 metabolism rather than the slower C6 metabolism of common grains, resulting in the typical thick hollow stems we also know from e.g. sunflowers.

(Interesting family of plants, grasses... Wikipedia wasn't too well organized, however. Any better sources freely accessible?)

I will agree that agriculture depended on domesticated grass - but also on use of the plow. Digging stick horticulture (used in the Americas for maize cultivation) takes a fundamentally different approach to agriculture, with almost individually positioned seeds. Think of the difference this makes in the magical relation between sower and plant.  

> There are a FEW examples of earth cultures dependant wholly on
> non-grain carbohydrates such as taro and some others.

Potatoes, yams and similar plants can be a source for a grain-free carbohydrate diet. It is possible to base civilizations on these. Having some sort of grain in addition makes survival easier, since (apart from locusts and drought or flooding) there are few foes that affect both crops at once.

You might even conceive a culture that survives on grapes and flower nectar for carbohydrate sources. Along with milk, of course.

> The (historical) problem with these is that the energy gained
> from consumption is barely greater than the energy used in
> preparation and those cultures had difficulty
> getting far beyond subsistence.

Can't be true for potatoes, and again: you underestimate the carbo-hydrate value of dairy products.

Another example appear to be the Aegaean bronze age palace cities, which seem to have been rather weak on grain cultivation if I remember Oliver Dickinson's book correctly.

> How do Pamaltelan cultures get their carbohydrates? Off hand, I don't
> recall much Pamaltelan information about city building, but I'm sure
> there was some mention of it. How would the builders generate enough
> excess food to invest in the expense of urbanisation? Has this been
> explored at all?

A mythically important fact is that the Doraddi are descended from a pure hunter culture. Their mythology has the plants descended from the first humans who died, indicating a purely carnivorous mythical existance before Death came. The Men-and-a-Half of Prax still have a diet mainly consisting of meat, with plants only an afterthought.

This gets us to the question how the Doraddi cities worked. IMO the Doraddi attitude to cities is similar to that of the Orlanthi - while far from intrinsic to their way of life, cities are possible when the circumstances are right and slight changes to that way of life are made.

Modern Doraddi come in (at least) two variations for the Right Footpath, oasis gardeners and migrating veldt hunters. Oasis dwellers still hunt, and veldt wanderers still have graveyard gardens which they regularly tend and harvest as they make their cyclical migrations, but there is a "two cultures in one" situation similar to classical era and early medieval Arabia with nomads and sedentary folk in close interaction.

The Pamaltelan oases are for all such purposes scaled down cities (or vice versa, the Storm Age cities oversized oasis settlements). The architecture may have deteriorated down to almost temporary huts (I would expect the ancient Doraddi cities (or city) to have made use of mudbrick, with wood being scarce), but irrigation work and the gardening in general will have been similar.

The cities probably had gardens and living quarters integrated. Perhaps a bit like Tenochtitlan, which even had floating gardens. The great capital city of the Doraddi was situated on the shore of the Nargan Sea, on a major river mouth. It appears to have functioned only by taking tribute from the hinterland, a situation similar to the non-Kresh Doraddi of Kothar nowadays.

Perhaps the Kresh reanimated part of the culture of that ancient city?

The need for irrigation:
The Pamaltelan veldt may be lush compared to Prax and the Wastes, but presumably the plants worth cultivation require more than nature is willing to offer them to thrive.

Bloodbean (Jolar), Lagniappe (Kothar) and Squaa (Tarien) appear to be similar to soy, lupines, rape, peas, beans or lentils. Presumably it has been bred to have lower bitter component (and protein?) content.

The descriptive name of Hosofori oasis ("where men always fart") seems to support this thesis.

Note that Fonrit is the only Pamaltelan land goddess food based on grain. Vralos has peas instead, and Zamokil's Sweet Grass sounds very much like sugarcane to me.

The "best plants" of the Veldt are those that grow on the graves of the ancestors. I have the suspicion that burial rites are firmly integrated into the horticultural practice of the Doraddi. There might even be contests to have a body buried in one's garden...

The rivers in Jolar (especially the Rinka) have ordinary reed - another variety of grass - but perhaps only in places that are usually flooded (i.e. magically "not-land").

> I'm thinking I'll get two types of answer. Either, "it's in book
> such-and-such," or that I've raised a good point.

Well, "it's in" Missing Lands and Revealed Mythology - those (in addition to Glorantha: Introduction to the Hero Wars, and Tales #11, IIRC) are our best sources on Doraddic Pamaltela.

> OK, three types of answer, the third being, "it's magic, dummy!" [;)]

A little bit of that, too (since river reeds exist).

> So, the south west of Pamaltela is therefor very dry. Hmmm, I know that
> Prax is described as chapparal. I'd like to suggest that the driest
> parts of Pamaltela are more like the Sonoran desert, lots of extreme
> adaptation to low rainfall/low humidity and lots and lots of spiky bits.

That's more likely for Zamokil in the southeast - the southwest is Slarge territory, and who knows what vegetation their prey will thrive on.

The driest part are the Nargan, with no real vegetation, and the fire lands where the Enmal mountains can be found and where only fire plants (i.e. plants made of fire, related to the extinct White Elves) may stand a chance.             Received on Mon 07 May 2007 - 07:32:52 EEST