Calandyrion
A History of Calandyrion
Originally there were only two continents, one in the north known as the Northern Reach and the other in the south called the Southern Landmass. Both of these landmasses exist today although the Southern Landmass is smaller than it was before. Calandyrion is the newest continent created 200 million years ago when, due to tectonic movement, it broke off from the Southern Landmass its present topography is the result of a long landscape history when Calandyrion was very near the Southern Landmass, and much of the continent was glaciated by large ice caps. After the ice melted about 150 million years ago parts of the continent subsided and formed sedimentary basins in South Calandyrion.
Geography
Originally there were only two continents, one in the north known as the Northern Reach and the other in the south called the Southern Landmass. Both of these landmasses exist today although the Southern Landmass is smaller than it was before. Calandyrion is the newest continent created 200 million years ago when, due to tectonic movement, it broke off from the Southern Landmass its present topography is the result of a long landscape history when Calandyrion was very near the Southern Landmass, and much of the continent was glaciated by large ice caps. After the ice melted about 150 million years ago parts of the continent subsided and formed sedimentary basins in South Calandyrion.
Between 60,000,0000 to 20,450,000 Calandyrion was made up of a broadly undulating landscape, varied by a number of sedimentary. The Eastern Highlands also were uplifted about this time to form the Great Divide which separates rivers flowing towards inland Calandyrion from rivers flowing to the Great Western Ocean.
During this period, volcanoes erupted in eastern Calandyrion and huge lava plains covered large areas. This activity continued up to a few thousand years ago in eastern side of the Central Mountains. Calandyrion youngest mainland volcano is Mt Gambier in South Calandyrion which last erupted only about 6000 years ago.
Much of the Western Plateau has existed as a landmass for more than 500 million years and is made up of individual plateaus. The Sivil Plains is uplifted sea floor, a limestone plain. The rocks along a coastal strip around the Western Akkalion capital of Emerum are much younger than the eastern part of the continent and are separated from it by the Central Mountains.
The landforms of today are the result of prolonged, continuous processes of movement and erosion over millions of years giving rise to a variety of landscapes across Calandyrion. These are continuing to undergo change as the continent moves north. Changing climate has been important also, with increasing aridity during the past 10 million years having a distinct impact, especially in southwestern Calandyrion where lakes and river systems became drier and more reliant on flows from the wetter margins of the continent.
Today the new continent has 5 mountain ranges which are commonly known as the Southern Wall, the Arrak Mountains, the Garian Mountains, the Central Mountains, the Eastern Wall and the lesser hills of the Tubilian Heights. In addition, an inland sea, The Smet, was formed and over the ages has changed, with the help of runoff from the Great Central Mountains, from the body of saltwater it was to a large freshwater lake. Finally, all known minerals and gemstones found on Calandyrion were already available on the Southern Landmass and naturally stayed with the new continent.
As a result of its creation and the movement of the tectonic plates Calandyrion developed four climatic biomes, a temperate forest on the northeastern side of the Central Mountains, the savannahs on both sides of the Central Mountains, the Alpine biome in the Central Mountains and a subtropical forest in the area to the southwest of the Central Mountains.
Fauna & Flora
In the mountains Alpine biomes are found at an altitude of about 10,000 feet or more and ends just before you reach the snowline. As you go up a mountain, you will travel through many biomes. As you climb you go through a deciduous forest biome, grassland biome, steppe biome, and taiga biome before you reach the cold Alpine biome.
In the summer average temperatures range from 50 to 59° F. In the winter the temperatures are below freezing. The winter season can last from October to May. The summer season may last from June to September. The temperatures in the Alpine biome can also change from warm to freezing in one day.
Because the severe climate of the Alpine biome, plants and animals have developed adaptations to those conditions. There are only about 200 species of Alpine plants. At high altitudes there is very little CO2, which plants need to carry on photosynthesis. Because of the cold and wind, most plants are small perennial groundcover plants. However, soil conditions are poor. Most Alpine plants can grow in sandy and rocky soil. Plants have also adapted to the dry conditions of the Alpine biome.
Alpine animals have to deal with two types of problems: the cold and too much high UV wavelengths. This is because there is less atmosphere to filter UV rays from the sun. There are only warm-blooded animals in the Alpine biome, although there are insects. Alpine animals adapt to the cold by hibernating, migrating to lower, warmer areas, or insulating their bodies with layers of fat. Animals will also tend to have shorter legs, tails, and ears, in order to reduce heat loss. Alpine animals also have larger lungs, more blood cells and hemoglobin because of the increase of pressure and lack of oxygen at higher altitudes. This is also true for people who have lived on mountains for a long time.
At lower altitudes you will find more resources such as many gems and metals of value. While humans sometimes mine these items it is more likely that dwarves do that work and trade with the humans for items they may not produce on their own.
Taiga the largest biome on the Calandyrion. It is the biome of the needleleaf forest. Living in the taiga is cold and lonely. Coldness and food shortages make things very difficult, mostly in the winter. Some of the animals in the taiga hibernate in the winter, some fly south if they can, while some just cooperate with the environment, which is very difficult. It stretches the length of the Central Mountain Range. The taiga is located near the top of the world, just below the tundra biome. The winters in the taiga are very cold with only snowfall. The summers are warm, rainy, and humid. A lot of coniferous trees grow in the taiga. The taiga is also known as the boreal forest.
The taiga doesn't have as many plant and animal species as the tropical or the deciduous forest biomes. It does have millions of insects in the summertime. Birds migrate there every year to nest and feed.
Here is some information about the temperatures and weather in the taiga. The average temperature is below freezing for six months out of the year. The winter temperature range is -65 to 30° F. The winters, as you can see, are really cold, with lots of snow. Temperature range in the summer gets as low as 20° F. The high in summer can be 70° F. The summers are mostly warm, rainy and humid. They are also very short with about 50 to 100 frost free days. The total precipitation in a year is 12 - 33 inches. The precipitation comes in the form of rain, snow and dew. Most of the precipitation in the taiga falls as rain in the summer.
The main seasons in the taiga are winter and summer. The spring and autumn are so short, you hardly know they exist. It is either hot and humid or very cold in the taiga.
There are not a lot of species of plants in the taiga because of the harsh conditions. Not many plants can survive the extreme cold of the taiga winter. There are some lichens and mosses, but most plants are coniferous trees like pine, white spruce, hemlock and Douglas fir.
Coniferous trees are also known as evergreens. They have long, thin waxy needles. The wax gives them some protection from freezing temperatures and from drying out. Evergreens don't lose their leaves in the winter like deciduous trees. They keep their needles all year long. This is so they can start photosynthesis as soon as the weather gets warm. The dark color of evergreen needles allows them to absorb heat from the sun and also helps them start photosynthesis early.
Evergreens in the taiga tend to be thin and grow close together. This gives them protection from the cold and wind. Evergreens also are usually shaped like an upside-down cone to protects the branches from breaking under the weight of all that snow. The snow slides right off the slanted branches.
The taiga is susceptible to many wildfires. Trees have adapted by growing thick bark. The fires will burn away the upper canopy of the trees and let sunlight reach the ground. New plants will grow and provide food for animals that once could not live there because there were only evergreen trees.
Animals of the taiga tend to be predators like the lynx and members of the weasel family like wolverines, bobcat, minks and ermine. They hunt herbivores like snowshoe rabbits, red squirrels and voles. Red deer, elk, and moose can be found in regions of the taiga where more deciduous trees grow.
Many insect eating birds come to the taiga to breed. They leave when the breeding season is over. Seed eaters like finches and sparrows, and omnivorous birds like crows stay all year long.
Deciduous forests can be found in the eastern half of Calandyrion. The average annual temperature is 50° F. The average rainfall is 30 to 60 inches per year.
In the deciduous forests of Calandyrion you will find the following. The first zone contains such trees as oak, beech, maple, chestnut hickory, elm, basswood, linden, walnut, and sweet gum trees. This zone has height ranges between 60 feet and 100 feet.
The small tree and sapling zone are the second zone. This zone has young, and short trees. The third zone is called the shrub zone. Some of the shrubs in this zone are rhododendrons, azaleas, mountain laurel, and huckleberries. The Herb zone is the fourth zone. It contains short plants such as herbal plants. The final zone is the Ground zone. It contains lichen, club mosses, and true mosses.
The deciduous forest has four distinct seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. In the autumn the leaves change color. During the winter months the trees lose their leaves.
The animals adapt to the climate by hibernating in the winter and living off the land in the other three seasons. The animals have adapted to the land by trying the plants in the forest to see if they are good to eat for a good supply of food. Also, the trees provide shelter for them. Animal use the trees for food and a water source. Most of the animals are camouflaged to look like the ground.
The plants have adapted to the forests by leaning toward the sun. Soaking up the nutrients in the ground is also a way of adaptation.
Next comes the Sivil Plains a Grassland biomes are large, rolling terrains of grasses, flowers and herbs. In Addition, the plains contain more than 80 species of animals and 300 species of birds, and hundreds of species of plants.
There are two diverse types of grasslands; tall-grass, which are humid and very wet, and short-grass, which are dry, with hotter summers and colder winters than the tall-grass prairie. The settlers found that the land before the Caesion River was some very tall grass, some as high as 11 feet. Here it rained quite often and it was very humid. As they traveled further west and approached the Central Mountains Range, the grass becomes shorter. There was less rain in the summer and the winters got colder. These were the short-grass prairies.
In Sivil Plains grasslands, the length of the growing season is determined by how long the rainy season lasts. But in the temperate grasslands the length of the growing season is determined by temperature. Plants usually start growing when the daily temperature reached about 50° F.
In Sivil Plains the average rainfall per year ranges from 10-30 inches. The amount of rainfall is very important in determining which areas are grasslands because it's hard for trees to compete with grasses in places where the uppers layers of soil are moist during part of the year but where deeper layer of soil are always dry.
The most common types of plant life on the Sivil Plains are Buffalo Grass, Sunflower, Crazy Weed, Asters, Blazing Stars, Coneflowers, Goldenrods, Clover, and Wild Indigos.
Some common animals in the grasslands are Coyotes, Eagles, Bobcats, the Gray Wolf, Wild Turkey, Fly Catcher, Canadian Geese, Crickets, Dung Beetle, Bison, and Prairie Chicken.
Finally we come to the Hot and Dry Desert around Emerum. This Hot and Dry Deserts doesn't have very many plants. It does have some low-down plants though. The only animals they have that can survive have the ability to burrow underground. This is because they would not be able to live in the hot sun and heat. They only come out in the night when it is a little cooler.
The Emerum Desert temperature ranges from 68 to 77° F. The extreme maximum temperature for Hot Desert ranges from 110 to 140° C.In the Emerum Desert there is very little precipitation and rainfall or concentrated rainfall in short periods between long rainless periods. This averages out to under 15 cm a year.
The Emerum Desert is warm throughout the fall and spring seasons and very hot during the summer. the winters usually have very little if any rainfall.
The Emerum Desert vegetation is very rare. Plants are almost all ground-hugging shrubs and short woody trees. All of the leaves are replete (packed with nutrients). Some examples of these kinds of plant are Turpentine Bush, Prickly Pears, and Brittle Bush. For all of these plants to survive they have to have adaptations. Some of the adaptations in this case are the ability to store water for extended periods of time and the ability to stand the hot weather.
The fauna of the Emerum Desert includes small nocturnal carnivores. There are also insects, arachnids, reptiles, and birds. Some examples of these animals are Borrowers, Mourning Wheatears, and Horned Vipers.
Natural Resources
All known minerals and gemstones exist on Calandyrion as they existed on the Southern Landmass.
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