#desert highlands

[ilona-art]

Simple animation I've made of one of my favorite spots in GW2 Been spending alot of time here lately to just take in the ambience. It's especially nice actually without the music in the background. It was a very interesting mood.  Sponsored by ArenaNet

[thescreenshotblog]

[mystic-forgery]

Night Lights.

[salty-medley]

[myuniverseinabox]

Highlands

Speedpaint

[serpentface]

Here's a heavily improved Imperial Wardin map, with a focus on climate and geography (uses the Koppen Climate Classification). This is an attempt to infuse pre-existing lore too established to retcon with a degree of realism, but there's only so much I can do.

The majority of the climate falls under the hot mediterranean and semi-arid classification, with small pockets of warm mediterranean and arid climes. The entire region experiences a rainshadow effect from the eastern Blackmane Mountain range, which blocks northeasterly winds from the eastern ocean and starkly divides the Sub-Viper landmass between its humid east and dry west.

Most of the interior is grassland, savannah, and scrub. Savannah heavily coincides with a history of human occupation and controlled burns, and is mostly based around oak. Grassland, scrub, and semi-desert dominates the semi-arid regions. Small pockets of high desert and salt flats occur in the arid zones.

A forest originally spanned much of the north, consisting of predominantly oak. This was gradually eliminated due to multiple factors- a warming climate, low intensity human intervention (hunter-gatherers and pastoralists clearing land with controlled burns), and high intensity exploitation (deforestation for timber). Additional woodlands found along the major riverways have been wholly eliminated by logging within the past several centuries.

The largest remaining span of woodland occurs within and north of the Highlands, and in the sparsely populated northeast, where a major and mostly intact oak forest stretches to the Blackmane mountains. A smaller pocket of woodland occurs in the volcanic highlands of Lobera. Other pockets remain, but are isolated and insignificant on the map.

Most of the geography is flat, divided by a range of hills that are the heavily eroded remains of an ancient mountain range. The highest peaks of this range comprise the contemporary Highlands, which have the highest elevations and coldest climate in the region. This is the only territory that regularly receives snowfall, and is the source of several major rivers. The rest of the range is too low to drastically affect the climate, save for the Red Hills east of the Cholemdi basin, whose rain shadow effect (heavily compounded by the basin's low elevation) renders this valley the hottest and driest part of the region. This range once formed a land bridge across the Viper into Finnerich (though this was prior to anatomically modern humans Existing) with its only remnants being smatterings of islands.

The province Lobera holds a small range of volcanic highlands, composed of a network of mostly dead volcanic craters. The volcano Odatoche is the only active site in the region, though has been dormant for centuries and has not had a major eruption in millenia. The other major geological feature is the Sons of Creation, which is the fabled site of God’s self-sacrifice from which the world was made. This is the eroded range of a very large impact crater, consisting of two impact rings (visible as a circular formation of hills) a ring lake, and an elevated center.

The most fertile land is found in Ephennos, owing to the presence of the Black River and its highly fertile delta (which contains the only major semi-permanent marshes outside of Highland river valleys). This is the second largest river in the region, being a confluence of two major river systems out of the Highlands (the Urbin/Erubin and Troibad/Nedachemi rivers). Erubinnos has the largest river, the Kannethod, which originates in the Blackmane mountains.

Agriculture around some of the other river systems is mostly or entirely dependent on their post-rainy season flooding. The most prominent is the Yellowtail river (flows south past Erub). In the very distant past, this was the longest river in the region, and carved out the Cholemdi basin and reached the sea. In the contemporary, it dries out long before even approaching the sea (though occasionally still floods the basin in abnormally rainy years). The Brilla river system out of the Red Hills (flows to Wardin) reaches the sea year-round, but has been known to run dry in exceptionally severe drought, and irrigation along its length depends on its flooding.

There are very few significant lakes in the region (small lakes are unmarked). The biggest is the volcanic crater lake Aganagarre in Lobera, the Yellowtail lake north of Erub, and the ring lake within the Sons of Creation.

[astralarias]

"Their long ears and wiggly noses are charming, but the springer's greatest strength is their ability to make jaw-dropping vertical leaps. Traveling merchants and couriers use them to cross sheer cliffs in the Crystal Highlands, shaving weeks off their journeys."

[godihatethiswebsite]

Desert Oasis

✽ Johnny "Soap" Mactavish x f!reader (The Mummy AU)

Main Masterlist ✽ Ao3

✽ Part 1 - Learning about your cousin and his past

Maybe Kyle actually used to serve with John until one mission pushed him a bit too far past his moral compass and he ended up leaving his military career behind, travelling down to see his last remaining relative - you.

You two had been thick as thieves growing up, family always visiting on holidays as his much more persuasive self - quite a charmer even for a seven year old - was fond of conning you into mischief you had no business being a part of. Now when he's not pestering you he frequents bars to help shake off the PTSD and find people with some coin to do odds and ends jobs for.

Catching up with Kyle usually always included a stroll down memory lane reminiscing about his old war stories. His troublemaking tendencies didn't change as he got older. He was just better about talking his way out of getting disciplined for it. But you'd heard plenty of tales about what he got up to with the notorious Sergeant MacTavish back in the day. More than enough to suggest the man was a scoundrel despite the praise your cousin laid on thick regarding his ability to always have your back in a skirmish.

So when an anonymous tip leads you to a man who can supposedly get you to the fabled city of Hamunaptra and they pull John out of his jail cell, Kyle just gives him a shit eating grin leaning against the bars and says, "Hope you didn't have to bend over for anyone in there."

"Nah. They said mah mouth's prettier than mah arse anyways."

Meanwhile you're standing there watching this conversation with your eyes glued to the man behind the bars with filthy desert tanned skin, bit-too-long stubble, the strangest choice in hairstyle, and cerulean blue eyes sparkling with the promise of mischief thinking 'dear lord what am I getting myself into?'

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[Edited 5/8/24: changed formatting, title, tags, and numbering system]

[mau-mao]

favorite cat breed?!?!?! and why they ur fave!!!!

I would have to say the Mohave Bobs cat.

One of these cats can hold up to four mutations. This one has a natural bob tail, polydactyl feet, curled ears and a curled coat. And don't get me started on how they can be colorpoint. !!!

The fluffier they are, the more they look like little sheep. :] It looks this way due the crossing of the Desert Lynx, Highland Lynx and Selkirk Rex (which are also super cool breeds).

[historia-vitae-magistras]

Can you tell us more about who England refers too as mother? And did you divide the UK siblings roughly into two pairs because of Roman Britain? I'm sorry you just keep dropping hints and no one else has asked 💌

Oh lord, okay. So disclaimer, working with prehistory is a fucking crap shoot. Archaeology has a lot of interpretations and not as many facts as historians and archivists like me, especially who studied modern history, would like. And even when history does come to the islands in the form of the Roman writers, that is also largely questionable because propaganda is as old as human communication. So I try to work with what we do know, but before a certain point, I'm basically writing fantasy. But also, no one has to work with history ever in a fucking stupid anime fandom. I'm just a diagnosed anxious headcase who copes with the uncertainty of existence by researching the fuck out of every choice I've ever made sober, including this shitshow of a blog and predecessors. Most of my focus is on much later history, so I'm taking a minimalist approach here and making as little work for myself as possible while at least taking some guidance from history to fit the themes I like so none of this is likely going to be the best take, tbh. That said, onwards into the breach, I fucken guess.

Can you tell us more about who England refers to as mother?

Yes. So most of the time, the conglomerate characters of "Germania" or the fanon "Native America," where dozens and hundreds and thousands of politically interlocked or entirely separate cultures are smushed into one character, make zero sense to me. In the case of Native America, it's downright racist, and in the case of Germania it's basically sucking Tacitus off 2,000 years after the fact. But Brittania could make sense. Being an island separated from mainland Europe made for some attractive socio-political and cultural unity hinted at in writing after the Roman invasion and before the fact in the archaeological record. But how long before the Romans? Where do I begin with Brittania, eh? The Red Lady of Paviland? The Creswell Crags? The Starr Mesolithic Site? Neolithic Chambered Tomb-Shrines? Stonehenge? The Iron Age Hillforts? Ah! There we go, the Celtic arrival in Britain. i.e. the option that makes me do the least work to get the job done. The Celts arrive in Britain about 1,300-800 BCE and in Ireland about 800-500 BCE depending on who you read. There is one tribe among the Celtic that had strong links to Britain and Ireland. The Brigantes were stuck in the border region between what is today Scotland and England, with at least some sort of material connections in Wales and Ireland. So my shortcut to a decent storyline that had some basis in fact, was to have her people interpret her as their patron goddess of Brigantia and link her tightly to Celtic paganism and weakened by the invasions of Rome but also the widespread adoption of Christianity in the 5th century. She was a proud woman who enjoyed the worship she once knew and who loved her children fiercely. She was every bit a Cartimandua or Boudicca. And when Christ and his nails bled her to death, her sons eventually dug her a barrow at the foot of an iron age hillfort, and her only daughter braided her hair and placed her golden jewelry on her one last time and their world was never the same.

And did you divide the UK siblings roughly into two pairs because of Roman Britain?

Yes and no. The Romans did take and hold England and Wales but Wales was much harder to hold onto. Under the Romans, life didn't change there or in Scotland nearly as much as in England. My main reason for splitting them into Brighid and Alasdair and Rhys and Arthur beyond much more modern politics is linguistic. Scottish Gaelic is much more related to Irish than it is to Welsh. And the Welsh word Cymru once referred to both the Welsh and Cumbrians. Now Cumbrian is a fascinating little language that is now dead, but it left a fantastic legacy in its counting system. @oumaheroes headcanons it as being something he uses to refer to his weans, and I, sobbing, concur wholeheartedly. I also have made random references to a shitfaced Arthur babbling in Cumbrian. So with that being a Celtic language in what is today England, et voila, two pairs.

[ilona-art]

Several Guild Wars 2 related artworks I’ve made these past few weeks. The first one being a Secret Santa for  @KoboldArt featuring the Asura sisters Zevvy and Zuzu. The second one is a Birthday gift for one of my RP Guildies of their character Lord Sethiel. The one below that one is based on a recent very wholesome RP I did with the guild. Artwork sponsored by ArenaNet

[thescreenshotblog]

[salty-medley]

Desert Highlands

This maybe will sound stupid but I had a question about Elona, and the Desert Highlands.

We know that after the Pretenders war, the 3 province, Istan, Kourna and Vabbi, are created. We also know that Amnoon is independant. But what about the Desert Highlands?

Their last known rulers were the Primeval kings & queens if I'm not wrong..?

So how does it work?

[golvio]

I finished the Yiga Hideout and Vah Naboris quests today. While in the hideout entrance, there was something I noticed that was interesting: the entrance room had big stone slabs similar to the one at the ancestral shrine in Riju’s room. I had a sneaking suspicion the text in the ruins was different from the text in the palace since the ruins themselves were so old, and it turns out I was right!

(Credit for translations comes from this thread and this wiki article.)

To start, here���s the text you’ll find at what I assume is Riju's ancestral shrine:

Gerudo A resilient desert flower, facing the sun's gaze, Gerudo grows, brilliant, while others fade

Next, here's some text you'll find around the palace:

We stand vigilant, in the desert sun. We are brilliant, over everyone

Vigilant in the sun growing brilliant Gerudo never outdone

Gerudo brilliant in the sun

And so on. There are also spots with just "Vigilant" and "Desert Sun" repeated over and over.

Now, let's move on to the text that's in the ruins the Yiga are squatting in:

Gerudo there is no strife Gerudo like water we flow with life

Okay, now that's different.

There's also one more line from a tablet that's broken:

Gerudo an unblemished desert flo (last word incomplete, presumably "flower")

Huh.

So, let's compare the general themes. The contemporary city where people are living repeats "vigilant" and has a solar motif, and the "flower" described is "resilient." The flower has survived great hardship and impossible conditions to bloom.

Meanwhile, the ruins in Karusa Valley have a theme of "life," "water," and "peace" (the absence of threats or "strife"). There's no mention of competition to be "outdone" by or need for "vigilance" against possible threats. Finally, the "flower" is "unblemished," unmarked by hardship.

How old are these ruins, exactly? It would be reasonable to think that the ruins near Gerudo Town were closer to 100 years ago, but I'm wondering if they might be older. And the Karusa ruins...they seem far, far older than anything you'd find in and around the city, and seem to have been abandoned for a long, long time before the Yiga showed up. The fact that they're connected to a tunnel network carved into the basalt of the Highlands also makes me suspicious that this location might become relevant a second time during TotK's underground segments. The presence of those deep holes in the Highlands and Wastelands makes me think there's some funky stuff buried underground in the Gerudo Desert.

But, also, the presence of the ruins near the valley's entrance in the desert seems to suggest that the ruins might not have belonged to the city, but to a settlement located somewhere in Karasu Valley. The valley itself seems like an ideal place to have a settlement; the wind-cut canyon offers shelter from both the sun and the sandstorms, provides protection from possible military invasions by liminating possible avenues of entry and creating natural chokepoints to exploit against invading forces, and its proximity to the Highlands means it's at a much more moderate temperature. The path leading up to the Yiga Hideout entrance has large, flat outcroppings that seem like they'd be perfect to build houses on top of. However, there's no sign of the valley ever being inhabited apart from the abandoned temple and tunnel systems. There are stone pillars scattered haphazardly in the area surrounding the valley entrance, but once you enter the valley itself, it's totally barren, with no sign anyone had ever lived there before the Yiga moved in beyond the temple at the end of the canyon and the Sheikah Shrine hidden off to the side. The fact that we've got a very intricately built temple carved into the side of the valley, but there seems to be no sign of indigenous human life on the very convenient path leading up to it is...odd.

The presence of the abandoned temple, on top of the sheer amount of ruins buried in the snow in the Highlands proper, plus the Eight Heroine statue and the odd state it's in with its sword thrown all the way to the top of the mountains while the statue rests down below, makes me think there may have been some kind of settlement in the Highlands in ancient times. But...something happened to it. Something that wiped it off the map forever. Either the survivors of that tragedy fled to the desert and came to settle there, or there was a separate tribe of Gerudo living in the desert already that were left unharmed by whatever tragedy befell the Highlands Gerudo.

I wouldn't be surprised if at least some of the city ended up buried underground, and we eventually visit its remains during TotK.

And then there's Creating a Champion, which mentioned that Kogha's dance moves and the general atmosphere of the Yiga Hideout were inspired by the Bon Odori festival, which is specifically a festival that involves the return of the souls of the dead to the living world. It's hard not to think of the frog guardian statues the Yiga decorated the path to their den with as being like little gravestones, or the souls of the dead who rest in the valley watching you with open, unblinking eyes as you approach.

I suspected it when BotW first came out years ago, and I suspect it even more now: whatever happened to that city in the Highlands has something to do with why Ganon hates the kingdom of Hyrule so much. I think he may have even hailed from there, rather than the desert. If the Desert Gerudo not only survived the disaster that fell the Highlands Gerudo, but then decided to ally themselves with Hyrule to spare themselves further suffering, it would explain why Ganon came to resent them so much even though, since he was the Gerudo King, they're technically also "his people." To sit by and do nothing while he and the rest of their neighbors suffered, only to join forces with the people responsible in order to save their own skin? That'd be enough to make anyone at least a little bit misanthropic.

And yet...although the people of the desert city have forgotten the existence of the Highlands Gerudo, they nevertheless still carry the scars of that history, with their ancestors who carved the reliefs in their center of government telling them to be vigilant, to be careful, to watch for competition and potential threats, lest what happened to their neighbors happens to them.

[unikornu]

Yzrahid Highlands - New 310 AP Zone

[EU] Unikornu

[y2cow]

A Christmas gift for some good friends of mine~