#tundra biome plants

[ronelgomes]

Tundra biome: one of the largest biomes in the world

[thetundratumbler]

COTTON GRASS || low lying / has thin leaves to reduce water loss by transpiration

[arolesbianism]

The sadness and agony that emerges everytime I start a new oni save and am forced to remember what it's like to have a dupe without a hat only to put them in a hat because I think they'd look cute only to remember hats make half of them look bald but I spent this long maxing out a skill for them so Im too stubborn to back down and remove the hat

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Habitats

Coniferous forest - Vast areas of Scandinavia, Russia, Alaska, and Canada are the site of coniferous forests—home to moose, beavers, and wolves.

Mountain - High mountain ranges have arctic climates near the peaks, where few plants grow. Animals must cope in dangerous terrain.

Savanna - These tropical grasslands with wet and dry seasons support huge herds of grazing animals and powerful predators.

Polar ice - The ice that forms on cold oceans is a refuge for animals that hunt in the water. The continental ice sheets are almost lifeless.

Tropical rainforest - The evergreen forests that grow near the equator are the richest of all biomes, with a huge diversity of plant and animal life.

Desert - Some deserts are barren rock and sand, but many support a range of plants and animals adapted to survive the dry conditions.

Tundra - These regions on the fringes of polar ice sheets thaw out in summer and attract animals such as reindeer and nesting birds.

Mediterranean - Dry scrub regions, such as around the Mediterranean, are home to a rich insect life and drought-resistant shrubs and plants.

Temperate grassland - The dry, grassy prairies with hot summers and cold winters, support grazing herds such as antelope and bison.

Deciduous forest - In cool, moist regions, many trees grow fast in summer but lose their leaves in winter. The wildlife here changes with the seasons.

Animals, plants, and all living things are adapted to life in their natural surroundings. These environments are called habitats.

Every living species on Earth has its own favored habitat, which it shares with others. These different species interact with each other and with their natural environment—be it hot or cold, wet or dry—to create a web of life called an ecosystem.

Some ecosystems are very small, but others such as rainforests or deserts cover huge areas. These are called biomes.

Life on Land

Different climates create different types of habitats for life on land. Warm, wet places grow lush forests, for example, while hot, dry regions develop deserts. Each biome consists of many smaller habitats and, in many areas, human activity such as farming has completely changed their character.

Source ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References ⚜ Worldbuilding

[ivys-garden]

More Minecraft ideas, what part of Minecraft needs improvement?

You're wrong, it's ponds.

Ponds, lakes, lava pools. They all suck in Minecraft, they end up just being big holes in the ground with nothing interesting about them that make the landscape ugly and hole ridden

Now you might say “Ivy, literally no one cares” and to that I say, wheesht and accept my ramblings ya donut

So, how do we fix Ponds? It's simply really: make ponds generated structures.

Ponds would now be generated structures taking up one chunk, with an actual human made design to make them, you know, look good. There would be, say, 100 or so different designs to stop them looking to samey (they'd be so small that something like that would be feasible)

Lakes would be done similarly, only with the key difference, they would be made up of 4 chunk “cells”, each making up a corner of the lake.

ponds and lakes in plains or forest biomes would be made of blocks like mud and dirt.

Ponds and lakes in deserts (or oases if you want) would be made up of grass and sand

Ponds and lakes in tundras would be frozen over on the top layer of the water and with clay spawning around the water

Now, let's see some things that can be found in ponds and lakes:

Frogs

Nothing new here, frogs and frogspawn are most common ponds, pond frogs also only come in the green frog varietie.

Perhaps the oasis can have a desert rain frog variant that gives a purple frog light

Toads

Toads and toad spawn can be found in lakes and ponds in forest and plains biomes. Toads emerge from toad spawn in the same way frogs do. Toads have an exaggerated size, being double the size of the frog

Toads come in several colours (Green, Brown, Yellow, Orange and Lime) but these colours do not harbour any game mechanics (in other words: sorry but there are no toadlights)

Toads will eat all mobs with wings, that being the Parrot, Chicken, Phantom, Bat, Bee and the player if they are wearing an elytra, so watch out.

All the aforementioned mobs are scared of Toads, making them and effective deterrent to phantoms in particular

Cattails, Reeds, Rice, Algae and Papyrus

I'll just do all the plant life stuff at once (these will generate dependent on the pond or lake cell)

Algae is a new decorative blocks that can be placed on water

It will connect to other blocks, creating an unbroken surface across the water

Algae has a bright green hue and can be found in both ponds and lakes with the same frequency

Papyrus is a new plant that spawns naturally in the oasis, it is used as a more efficient way of making paper as it can be bonemealed and only one papyrus is needed to make paper

Rice is a plant that grows in water in lakes and ponds spawning in cherry groves.

Rice can be used in two recipes:

Rice Bowls:Putting rice, a bowl and any meat together will craft a rice bowl

This food source that can be eaten twice, eating the meat and then the rice

Sushi: putting rice, dried kelp and one fish into a crafting table creates Sushi, a foodsoarch that can be eaten instantly without playing the eating animation, not very nutritious but good in a pinch

Cattails are a purely decorative plant found in ponds and swamps

Reeds are more common around rivers and lakes, being a fern like plant that grows two tall.

Reeds can be used to craft a new item: Pan Pipes

Combining 3 reeds and 3 string will create pan pipes, these can be played to draw passive mobs towards you so long as the button to play them is held down.

Pan Pipes can also calm neutral mobs like wolves, iron golems and bees, but doing this instantly focus the Pan pipes into cool down

Pan pipes have a cool down double that of the Goat Horn

Bagpipes

By putting Pan Pipes, 3 iron nuggets, 3 red wool and 3 green wool together you can make Bagpipes.

Bagpipes have durability on top of having the same level of cool down as Pan Pipes. Bagpipes cannot be enchanted.

Bagpipes have the ability to PERMANENTLY pacify all hostile mobs in the chunk the player is in.

Bagpipes will break after 10 or so uses

Willow and Palm

Willow and palm are new wood types, Willow spawns around lakes and ponds and Palm spawns around oases.

Willow has a dark Bluish-green colour, complementing mangrove, where as Palm is a desaturated pale white

(These will generate depending on the pond or lake cell)

(Part 1/3)

[elbiotipo]

If you're from Argentina, you've probably heard about the Iberá wetlands, and you know the tourist pitch: a vast expanse of natural wonders in the middle of Corrientes, full of beautiful lapachos, cute carpinchos and yacarés, and now home to the fastest-growing wild yaguareté population, all with the unique Guaraní influenced culture of rural Corrientes.

Now, things aren't as shiny as they look, since the creation and management of the new national park is still a point of contention in many ways, but you will be suprised that this kind of thinking about the Iberá is very, very recent. Most people considered it an obstacle to progress, a big bunch of swamp in the middle of what could be a very productive ranching province. In a geography book from the 1910s (unfortunately I lost the screencap) it says something like "the biggest obstacle for the development of the province is this swamp, and it should be drained"

This took me to the other side of the world, to the Netherlands. They're known for land reclamation, from literally building their country from the sea. Especially when we're facing rising sea levels because of climate change, the Dutch seem like miracle workers, a look into our future. You will find no shortage of praise about how with some windmills and dams, the Dutch took land "from the sea", and turned it into quaint little polders, making a tiny country in Europe a food exporter and don't they look so nice? But when you look about it, you can barely find anything about what came before those polders. You have to dig and dig to find any mentions of not "sea", but of complex tidal marshes and wetlands, things I've learned are ecologically diverse and protected in many places, but you won't find people talking about that at all when talking about the Netherlands. It's all just polders now. What came before was useless swamp, or a sea to be triumphantly conquered. It's like they were erased from history

The use of that language reminded me of the failed vision of draining Iberá... and the triumphing vision in the Netherlands, and many other places. Maybe those wonderful places, those unique wetlands, would have been a footnote, you wouldn't find anything unless you were a bored ecologist who looked, and not even then. Now, far it be from me to accuse the medieval Dutch, who wanted to have more space to farm, of ecocide. And don't think this is going to be a rant against European ecological imperialism either, as the most anthropized places you can find are actually in China and India. But it does get me thinking.

I work with the concept of landscape, and landscape managing. (Not landscaping, those guys get better paid than me) The concept of landscape is somewhat similar to the concept of ecosystem you know from basic biology, but besides biotic and abiotic factors, you also have to involve cultural factors, that is, humans. There is not a single area of "pristine" untouched nature in the world, that is a myth. Humans have managed these landscapes for as long as they have lived in them. The Amazon, what many people think about when they think about "unspoilt" nature, has a high proportion of domesticated plants growing on it, which were and are still used by the people who live on it, and there once were great civilizations thriving on it. Forests and gardens leave their mark, so much that we can use them to find abandoned settlements. From hunter-gatherers tending and preserving the species vital to their survival in the tundra to engineers in Hong-Kong creating new islands for airports, every human culture has managed their natural resources, creating a landscape.

And this means these landscapes we enjoy are not natural creations. They are affected by natural enviroments; biomes do exist, species have a natural distribution. But they are created and managed by humans. Humans who decide what is valuable to them and what is not. The Dutch, seemingly, found the tidal marshes useless, and they created a new landscape, which changed the history of their nation forever. We here in modern Argentina changed our perception of Iberá, decided to take another approach, and now we made it a cherished part of our heritage, which will also speak about us in the future.

Ultimately, what is a useless swamp to be drained or a beautiful expanse of nature to be cherished depends in our culture, in us humans. We are the ones who manage and change ecosystems based in our economics, our culture, our society. This will become increasingly important, as climate change and ecological degradation becomes harsher and undeniable. We will have to decide what nature is worth to us. Think about what is it worth to you.

[garblegarden]

Palindromes have a bunch of different words for colors, each based on the colors of their surroundings. For example, the "color of water" is usually blue, and the "color of soil" is usually brown. However, each biome often has unique species and terrain which confuses things.

For example, this saltpan palindrome and tundra palindrome have two different words for red. The saltpan palindrome calls red "the color of water" because pools in the saltpan are filled with red microbes. The tundra palindrome calls red "the color of ash leaves" because the groundcover in their territory turns red when reacting with ash from a volcanic eruption. Tundra palindromes don't have a specific word for "water color" but they'd probably describe water as the color of a leaf who has reacted with acidic substances. (The tundra is one big pH indicator. I should draw it sometime...)

Palindrome ecotypes mostly have their own languages, but are easily translated. It just gets confusing when you two are both talking about something being the color of dirt, but one of you means orange while the other means grey.

Most of them have six colors: dark, light, "person colored", "leaf colored", "soil colored" and "water colored". Palindromes from regions where "plants" regularly change colors often have two "leaf colored" words, and some have more or less depending on what their surroundings are.

[vkelleyart]

“Remember the earth whose skin you are: red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth brown earth, we are earth. Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them, listen to them. They are alive poems.” - Joy Harjo, Native American Poet Laureate

Getting in Earth Day art just under the wire! The five dancers represent the five main biomes of Earth: Tundra, Aquatic, Desert, Grassland, & Forest. My hope was to demonstrate the power and fragility of each environment as they balance precariously against each other—or perhaps *alongside* each other. Either way, we’re all part of the dance. 🌎❤️

Time-lapse video under the cut!

[nova--spark]

Earth 101 : A Manual for the Visiting Cybertronian

Chapter One : Planet Earth

Planet Earth is located within the aptly named ‘Milky Way’ galaxy, as the humans liken the hazy starlight to ‘spilled milk’ [ See: Earth Fuel/Foods ,Earth Phrases for more information ]. A young star system in comparison to Cybertron, the planet of Earth is located in what the humans rather creatively called the Solar system, as their measurements of time are based on the rotations their planet takes around the center of their system, a star they call the Sun.

They appear to regard it as one of the main factors for life capabilities on Earth.

Earth is the 3rd planet from this Sun, and is in what humans call the 'Goldilocks Zone' [See: Earth Fables and Folklore for 'Goldilocks' definition.] , resulting in its capabilities for sustaining life.

Earth has only one moon orbiting itself, and is not a large planet, but still one of impressive accomplishments, being the only planetary body in its system which hosts any form of life at all.

Earth is a planet rich in water, as an impressive 71% of the planet is covered in dihydrogen monoxide, also known as H20, or commonly referred to by the native humans as water. 

Astoundingly however, the majority of this water is not able to be used by the population as sustanence due to the large part of their seas being salt water, which in large quantities is harmful to the populace.

The Earth is divided into several continents, which they populate, save for a handful which are so cold that no human in their right mind would inhabit.

Editor’s Note: It appears this information was flawed, as human scientists have in fact resided in the Arctic and Antarctic on months long expeditions in sometimes sub zero temperatures that would be harmful if not for their fortified shelters in these cold enviroments.  Why they would do this remains wholly confusing to our own kind, as such temperatures are deadly if exposed for too long.

Within these continents, various countries exist, which are populated by various organic beings, but the majority being human cities or colonies which vary in levels of technology and density of population.

Most impressive about Earth is the biodiversity, as its entire planet houses various forms of weather and ecosystems.

Earth can go through various types of ecosystems, ranging from calm forests, scorching deserts, freezing tundras, lush rainforests and jungles, and even entire cavern systems below ground, and amazingly, there is a report of an entire cavern in a secluded area of the planet, which created its own weather system of a sort. A fascinating show of how wondrous this planet can be.

Our Maximal and Eukarian natives have often stated that the various biomes of Earth remind them of their own home worlds and other planets that they had visited eons ago, which has offered a comforting reminder for some.

Terran flora can come in a great and numerous variations.

Flowers who grow and blossom for a mere few hours, and trees whose height far surpasses that of any regular Cybertronian, and could rival that of Combiners or a smaller classed Titan. Terran flora can also be quite vicious, as there are many a poisonous plant that exist and can harm humans if used incorrectly in medicinal and even casual usage such as cooking.

When asked how humans determined which plants were safe to eat and which were not, the method of 'trial and error' was the most recognized, despite the fact this meant the possibility of grievous harm to their health.

It is truly a miracle how humans survive such a deadly and dangerous planet so easily and calmly, though human media suggests they are quite heroic in survival matters.

Editor’s Note: I have been informed that the 'heroic propaganda' cited above is what is known as action movies, a common pastime and entertainment form on Earth. Apologies for this error.

Equally impressive however is the existence of flora who in fact hunt, consuming insects rather than photosynthesizing for survival. The plants are small but it would appear that some can capture quite large [for human standards] bugs or even small animals if they are the correct size.

That said, though we are of great stature in comparison to Terran fauna, please do not feel inclined to challenge the native wildlife.

Many a Cybertronian medic has had to repair dented frames from foolish mechs and femmes alike who did the following :

Gave chase to predator species in an attempt to scare them off. Result : Scratch marks and punctures of claws 

Fought undersea wildlife, primarily sharks who in self preservation tactics, would bite and leave teeth imprints and even teeth themselves on a mech's plating.

Said undersea incident also resulted in the tangling of seaweed and kelp within said bot's joints.

Bots who attempted to befriend wildlife instead would also be met with hostile reactions at times. This is a reminder that a real wild bear is not the equivalent of the toy known as the 'Teddy Bear'. Real bears will attack you. 

There are animals who have tusks and horns as defensive features to their bodies. These will dent and at worst, puncture your plating or even through your frame. 

Do not attempt to pet the bison/buffalo. They look friendly. They are not.

No, predatory species known as the 'big cats' are not in fact like regular domesticated household pet cats. They are not friendly.

Wolves are also not the same as household dogs. Approach with caution. Or don't. Please.

Birds of many varieties like to collect 'shinies'. We apologize to those who are stationed in the continent of Australia, as the species known as magpies are particularly vicious. 

Reinforced plating is advised for those visiting the particularly wild nation of Australia. All Australian wildlife in general appears to be particularly deadly in some capacity. 

Though small in size, bugs will splatter on windshields in your vehicular form. No, it cannot be prevented. We advise regular trips to the human creation known as a 'car wash'.

Rather interestingly as well, Earth’s native flora and fauna sometimes resembles Cybertron’s very own, just in organic manner. This could be due to the fact that centuries ago, Earth was one of the many worlds which Energon hoards were stashed till the planet itself began to grow its very own after the prolonged exposure.

Editor’s Note: Things have been revealed that this editor will simply say…they explain a lot more now.

A LOT more.

To be explained perhaps in another section of this field guide/manual to your cohabitation on Earth.

However, Earth does very clearly differ still from our own home, as it is as stated before, organic in nature, and its iron, steel and other metals are found deep within the Earth, not like on our world where they’re so clearly topside in comparison. Earth manufactures its metals, wiring, and other technological components, which are otherwise not found naturally.

Earth also, despite having Energon, doesn't use it as a fuel source, instead it will use oil, most commonly petrol, electrical currents and in some bizarre cases, even use nuclear power to power various forms of human settlements.

Editor's Note: As it seems, humanity is actually unaware of what Energon is despite the planet being quite rich in its deposits. 

They appear to not have the technology to even detect it, deeming it as, in the words of one of our allies 'Just another pretty thing to look at'. Absurd by our standards, but we do not judge for their inability to comprehend the importance of it.

Despite this, Earth has been trying for roughly a vorn, to transition to alternative power sources, such as solar power, kinetic energy like that of the air with their windmill turbines, and even using organic matter of various kinds to attempt to form alternative fuels.

These endeavors are well documented and admirable, as their main source of fuels, aptly named fossil fuels, are in fact, the liquidized form of the planet’s previous inhabitants known as 'Dinosaurs' ,which went extinct many many centi-vorns ago.

 [See: Cybertronian-Earth interconnections : Dinobots for more details. ]

This concludes the introduction to the basics of the planet Earth’s status.

Any and all queries related to further information of the Earth’s composition, atmosphere, and otherwise related geographical information, please direct them to the author appropriately so that your query, dear reader, is properly answered with dutiful knowledge and understanding, to help your fellow Cybertronian!

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: The weeds of the universe

Extract from “Galactic invasive Species”

“One would be hard pressed to find a more expansive species in this galaxy then that of humanity.

Where another galactic species would have developed on a planet housing a single biome, humanity’s homeworld has several biomes ranging from scorching deserts to frozen tundra’s. This has made their species incredibly flexible when being introduced to a new world. The habitability of a planet itself has been of little consequence to humans as they will immediately begin terraforming or begin construction of artificial habitats.

When terraforming plants humans employ massive city sized machines that begin altering the planets environment in a matter of decades were as other species have needed centuries. Even on lifeless rocks and moons humans invested untold hours into pumping out trillions of tons in CO2 to creat artificial atmospheres. If that was not enough on more developed worlds they have the capacity to alter climates to engineer their desired climates.

Terga III was once a burning ball of sand circling a pair of burning stars. Any water on the planet had been driven deep beneath the planet’s surface leaving the topside all but uninhabitable; that is until the humans came.

Deploying three continental sized terraforming plants on the southern hemisphere and within a week a series of dark clouds began dotting the sky providing shade to the planet. While that was going on several dozen deep drilling operations began which dove far beneath the surface to the underground water supplies. From there the water was once again brought back to the surface and deployed along numerous fabricated canals. This added with a few hundred metric tons of imported soil began the first steps to reforestation on the planet which would finally be completed fifty years later when Terga III became one of the most popular resort worlds in the sector.

When humans encountered a planet that was too far gone for terraforming they instead began deploying vast habitation complexes. Ranging from a small hab unit to mega city sized domes; these structures began spreading outwards in an elaborate web of connection pathways and transit tubes until the entire surface of the world would be covered in metal and glass. A prime example of this infrastructure would be the world of sin “Hermes Nova”, a lifeless rock floating in space that just so happens to be decorated with more casinos and gambling dens then there are stars in the sky.

Some worlds they don’t even bother to terraform or build hab structures on. They just plop themselves down and make do on the world like it was there home all along.

The pale ones of the winter moons, the mud people of Hermits Rest, the night clans of Demia VI; all human colonists that settled on the world and, using their own words, “Went Native”. One could say that they are being rather brave, or incredibly foolish depending on how each have adapted.

If there is a world out there in the universe that is so uninhabitable, so dangerous and ferocious that all those that have stepped foot on it have never left do not tell humanity. They’ll probably be on it within a week as their next challenge.

[aswegoalong72]

Reyal At A Glance - Climate

Map by @nexelart (twit)

Reyal - A World of Extremes

As per the previous post stated, Reyal is much like our own Earth in terms of biodiversity, as well as a few other traits. In this post, we'll explore Reyal's weather and biosphere a bit more!

Reyal's climate has shifted greatly during it's history. From the early start of life, it was a much hotter world; it's atmosphere used to contain much higher amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses, making it a much more tropical world than it is today.

Nowadays, Reyal experiences a much colder climate than Earth, as it lost much of it's greenhouse gasses during its several billion year long evolution. On top of this, Reyal orbits a bit further out from Tenav's habitable zone than we do around our own Sol.

At the poles, including wind chill, temperatures drop down to -103c on average at the surface. At the equator, the highest you can expect is a balmy 27c. Weather can of course influence these temperatures, but thanks to Reyal's lack of seasons and relative climatic stability, these tend to be year-round temperatures.

Thanks to it's colder climate, most of the planet is dominated by humid continental biomes, as well taiga and tundra. Due to a lack of water compared to Earth, most of the equator tends to be dominated by savanna and desert, with only a few key areas near the equator bearing rainforests.

Life has taken a massive advantage of this stability, and as such, Reyal can be very well described as a garden planet. Flowers and fruiting plants tend to grow very rapidly, leading to an abundance of food and other biological resources.

This all works out perfectly for the Lyratet, however, as they have evolved to be more adapted to colder climates. Due to their thick fur, habitation near or on the equator is near impossible, lest they suffer from the effects of overheating. Only a few settlements exist in the equator, and are primarily underground. Despite the heat, some do inhabit the surface briefly during the night or Tenavset/rise.

Edit of @nexelart's map, showing the equator and northernmost/southernmost parts of the poles greyed out

As seen in the image above, this excludes a fairly large part of Reyal for habitation. Most of the equator is designated as a ecological reserve then, with very little being known about it. Scientists do mount expeditions to document flora and fauna, but more often than not, the region is left to itself.

This lack of habitability at the equator has greatly affected Lyratet history. For almost the entirety of the two hundred thousand years that they have first had cultures, they had no real means of accessing the northern hemisphere. As such, they were relegated to the south, and struggled to develop for much of their history. In what would be 1113 A.D. our calendar, two brave souls finally took it upon themselves to transfer through the mountain ranges that intersect with the Great Desert Rings, and set foot up north. This is a story for another time, though!

In the next post, we'll be exploring the origin land of the Lyratet; the Land of Tenav's Dawn.

Directory: Intro | Climate | the Land of Tenav's Dawn | the Desert Rings | Therikine | the Great Central Desert Mountains | the North Glacial Plains | the Yuniv-Semat Basin | Juleg Marrdev Technocracy | Yuniv-Semat Trail | Ro | Velgae

[thetundratumbler]

LABRADOR TEA || retain old leaves rather than drop them

[pudding-parade]

Because I can, have some pictures of ladies in the snow.

Lady reindeer, that is. In Planet Zoo.

I started a new franchise-mode game. My plan is to eventually have three smallish zoos in the franchise -- one tropical, one desert/grassland, and this one, which is in a taiga biome and will have taiga, tundra, and temperate animals. Across the franchise, I want to focus on breeding high-quality endangered/critically-endangered/extinct-in-the-wild animals to release to the wild, and I want to have all of them living in environments that are as natural-looking as possible, keeping visible habitat barriers to a minimum and not focusing so much on stuff for guests beyond the basics to keep them somewhat happy in order to keep money coming in. To the extent possible, I also want to build very large habitats with multiple species living in them, both for naturalism purposes as well as for interspecies enrichment bonuses.

So do you see any habitat barriers in these pictures? No. No, you do not. They are there, though. Especially because this habitat isn't close to finished yet, so one side of it will have ugly barriers until I build the hard shelter that I need to build for my ladies here. It also needs a lot more terrain painting and plantings and stuff. But, I'm quite proud of the terrain sculpting so far as well as how I've concealed the barriers in ways that blend in with the surroundings.

And no, reindeer aren't endangered, but since I'm just starting out, I don't yet have the resources to buy the kinds of animals I ultimately want to breed. I managed to find my ladies here in the online market, and they have decent appeal to bring in guests money. They each have decent-to-good genes, so once a decent-to-good male shows up in the market, they can start making with the babies. Eventually, the herd of reindeer will move to a multispecies habitat, where they will live with a herd of Przewalski's horses, a herd of takins, and some Bactrian camels, and this habitat will be taken over by a pack of timber wolves.

I do have a male red panda that I managed to catch in the market for an affordable price waiting in quarantine, and red pandas are actually endangered. And also incredibly adorable. But, he'll be staying in quarantine until I finish the reindeers' temporary habitat and let some cash build up. And then I'll keep my fingers crossed and hopefully find a female red panda with decent fertility for a price I can afford. That's half the difficulty of franchise mode, really, especially if you want the more endangered animals.

Anyway, yeah, if you don't see me for a while this'll be why. LOL Maybe I'll share some more pics as I go, though. Because I can.

[unityrain24]

❅MCU Jotun Headcanons❅ 

in honor of @jotun-design-party by magpiemurder. I had been looking forward to this contest for several months, but i have not been able to do anything for it and i doubt i will magically be able to do something and submit it by the time the deadline roles around (which is in like less than a week). This makes me sad, especially since i was something i was actually looking forward to participating in (and for such a long time) :(.

but anyways. headcanons instead, i suppose:

(also these are not very organized so have fun with that)

while jotuns do have extremly low body temperatures, the "frost-bite" affect you see them inflict in Thor 2011 is not because of that. Instead, it is due to a residue on their skin (like poison dart frogs).

Unlike poison dart frogs, however, the residue doesn't just stay on their skin 24/7. Rather, it secretes out of their pores

When jotuns are young, it secretes automatically when they feel scared/threatened (or exhibit other strong emotions), but as they get older they learn how to control it and can do it on command (and also keep it from happening). (<- my reasoning for why loki's cloths froze and chipped away the first time but not the second)(sort of)

the blocky/chunky/heavy type architecture you see is because it is sturdy and can survive blizzards/other harsh elements

based off of what odin said in his monologue, jotunheim is "cold dark and barren," so the next few sort of are in line with that, but who know if he was actually telling the truth lol 

not a lot of biodiversity (and FAR less plants than animals) :/ (i actually think it'd be cool to have a frozen planet teeming with life, but again, prev reason...)

since it's hard for plants to grow in such cold/dark places (lack of sun, dirt/nurtients, nutrient flow, liquid water, etc), the only "normal" plants you see are in the north pole (which is warmer, and is sort of a tundra type biome)(most plants typically aren't even there year-round). Everywhere else, plants have to find other ways to survive. Since photosynthesis isn't really a viable option (though there are a rare few that do!), most plants either perform chemosynthesis (x) or are parasitic (x). This also means that lots of plants are a ghostly white, rather than green (no chlorophyll).

licehen is less common than here, but can be found on occasion (and can be eaten)

mushrooms are relatively common, however (and unlike our mushrooms, can survive alright in the cold)

There isn't really any liquid water (and what little is seasonal), yet there are still life in the frozen water. There is a species of fish that produces so much warmth that the ice around them melts, and they swim through their self-made streams (that freeze back up once they've left). These fish eat snow/ice algae and ice worms (the algae and worms are actually real things in real life btw) (x) (x)

I thought it was interesting in the film how it's such a cold planet but nothing seemed to have fur, just skin... perhaps there are furred creatures, though, and they simply live in other regions. Id say the south pole, maybe the north pole, and and/or an isolated bit of land ("continent") on the opposite side of the planet. Long wooly fur. Horns. These creatures evolved to be warm on the cold, and the creatures we saw in the film simply evolved to not need to be warm at all.

the clothing you see the jotnar wear in the Thor 2011 is not their usual wear, it is their wartime/battle clothing.

This is because even though they are no longer literally warring, odin's treaty (aka sentence to slow genocide) was a "war against their people." As such, the majority of the jotnar choose to wear the wartime clothing until they all die out (as sort of a statement against odin/asgard's colonialism/imperialism)

(also probably "honor" or other culture type situation)

War clothing components:

Shaved Head: The jotnar typically grow their hair out long in times of peace, but shave it when times of war arise. In some regions, it is only those that go to battle that shave it, but in other regions all people shave it

Loincloth: made from Frost Beast leather. While frost beast hide is blue, the process to turn it into leather gives it a green tone (and is also becomes more rubbery than our leather). The sewing pattern of the loincloth itself typically is what gives it creative design, rather than having added embroidery/beading/embossing/etc.

Misc Decorations:

small decorative pieces are stuck directly to the skin via freezing water or using sticky sap-like substances. The most common places for these decorations are the head, upper chest, and shoulders. These pieces serve no protective functions, save the ones that are used to cover the nipples of jotuns with breasts (just around the nipple and areola, not the full breast).

small bracers, pauldrons, and greaves are sometimes worn.

Never shoes, pants/bottoms, shirts/tops.

Clothing should be NON besides the loincloth, and armour should be minimal and mainly decorative.

Decorative pieces are typically also made of frost beast leather. Metal is not usually used on jotunheim, because it is far to cold to melt anything (and to actually start a fire that hot would cause massive environmental damage). The only metal typically used it mercury, because it has such a low melting point (-38.829° C/-37.892° F). Interestingly, leather and mercury (and ice) are the only materials used in war clothing, not bone, even though bone is used in non-wartime clothing.

Overall Scarcity of clothing: While the jotnar don't typically get cold, they do want protection from cutting winds, ice, and snow (blizzards are strong enough that the snow can cause cuts/"burns"). As such, having such scarcity of clothing is a statement of strength/bravery and used to deter the enemy. 

regular cloths cover more (to protect from the elements, not provide warmth). Leather, metal, fur, and fabric woven from wool are used. Bone and metal are also used. Typical colours would be the familiar green, dusty purple, grey/brown/black/white (fur colours), and some blue

piercings and gauging are popular, even though not always practical. Most popular places to pierce/gauge are the ears and nose.

Hair texture in the region where we visited in thor 2011 is typically smooth and silky (like lokis), but other hair textures (curly, coily) exist in different areas. All hair is typically raven-black, unless the jotun is albino (in which case, it would be white)

Unsure of:

i feel like jotuns would be carnivores, but at the same time i feel like loki would enjoy more vegetarian/pescatarian food options, so idk what to think :|

I feel like the casket of ancient winters would be taken straight from the core of the planet, and is super condensed ice and seiðr, and that's why taking it away ruined the planet

(but then that poses other questions, like why would they mine something and keep it as an artifact? were there warring tribes and they wanted to get ahead? did some foreign colonial/imperial power mine it and for their own gain and the jotuns only got it back later?)

also the other possibility is that the casket has to do with something of the passing of ancestors/powerful jotuns of the past and their seiðr or souls or smth is in it (and that would give more power to the "casket" part)

i actually i can think of a lot of things... but those are my main two for the casket

wait why are my indented bullet points not working anymore what!!! this was more neat-looking i swear

jotun breast milk does not have lactose. i will not elaborate.

ok those are all i can think of right now

(bonus loki-specific one: the reason he is so small was because his mom got stuck by lightning when she was pregnant)

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Some Ecology Vocabulary

for your next poem/story

Autotroph - Any organism that is able to manufacture its own food; derive energy from inorganic sources (light or inorganic chemical reactions)

Benthic - Organisms that live on the bottom of the ocean

Biome - A community of plants & animals that occupy a distinct region; defined by climate and dominant vegetation: tundra, desert, grassland & forest; can be subdivided, i.e. boreal, temperate, tropical forests

Boreal forest - (also called Taiga) Largest terrestrial biome, characterized by having very cold winters and coniferous forests

Dessication - Mummification

Detritus - Accumulated organic debris from dead organisms

Detrivore - Any organism which obtains most of its nutrients from the detritus in an ecosystem

Disturbance - An event that alters the ecosystem, i.e. the plant community and possibly the physical environment; natural disturbances include fire, landslides, windthrow, insects, disease, etc. Levels of Disturbance:

Tree-level: affects single trees or small groups of trees

Stand-level: affecting large groups (many hectares) of trees (insect epidemic, hurricane, logging, wildfire)

Site-level: affecting the physical environment is a dramatic way that all life is lost and a new soil environment is created (lavaflow, glacier, landslide)

Planet-level: affecting the planet as a whole (big meteor, death star...)

Frugivore - Animal which primarily eats fruit

Groundwater - Water found underground as a result of rainfall, ice and snow melt, submerged rivers, lakes, and springs. This water often carries minerals. These minerals can accumulate in the remains of buried organisms and eventually cause fossilization.

Halophile - Organism which lives in areas of high salt concentration. These organisms must have special adaptations to permit them to survive under these conditions.

Limnology - The study of river system ecology and life

Orographic Lift - Occurs when an air mass moves over a mountain range, air cools, drops precipitation, then as air moves down the lee side it warms and creates a rain shadow

Pelagic - Organisms that swim through the ocean, and may rise to the surface, or sink to the bottom

Rain shadow - The dry region on the leeward side of a mountain range, where rainfall is noticeably less than on the windward side

Riparian - Having to do with the edges of streams or rivers

Saprophyte - Organism which feeds on dead and decaying organisms, allowing the nutrients to be recycled into the ecosystem. Fungi and bacteria are two groups with many important saprophytes.

Silvics - The study of the life history, characteristics and ecology of forest trees

Tolerance - The capacity/ability of an organism to endure (survive, withstand) adverse effects from unfavourable environmental conditions; the opposite of sensitivity

Upwelling - The raising of benthic nutrients to the surface waters. This occurs in regions where the flow of water brings currents of differing temperatures together, and increases productivity of the ecosystem.

Xeric - Describes an environment or habitat with little moisture; dry to very dry

Sources: 1 2 ⚜ More: Word Lists

[theworldvsyoshiko]

Now that the mod list has mostly stabilized, a slightly more useful overview of all hundred-something mods I've got installed right now. Mostly, because I found a lot of these mods from other people making similar lists. It turns out that Steam Workshop search isn't always great.

This is exported from RimPy but obviously not in the load order.

Obligatory Vanilla Expanded Category

Actually I'm not even going to list all of these, because basically anybody who mods this game has them installed. Really the only noteworthy part is that I skipped some of them, mostly some of the Vanilla Factions Expanded ones that added more mechanics to enemies who are already too annoying, or sounded way too complicated. I also added Vanilla Outposts Expanded recently, which will probably become very relevant before long. Oh, and skipped Vanilla Genetics Expanded, both because the game has genetics now, and a friend told me horror stories about it.

Prereqs for other mods

Not even gonna describe these. They're mostly frameworks. Besides, everyone knows Harmony and HugsLib.

Prepatcher [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2934420800]

Harmony [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2009463077]

HugsLib [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=818773962]

Pathfinding Framework [https:// no link (local mod)]

TDS Bug Fixes [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895035527]

TD Find Lib [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895299310]

Humanoid Alien Races [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=839005762]

Mechanical Humanlikes Core [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2974524016]

Boring technical stuff

Performance Optimizer... does just that, mostly by cutting down on unnecessary background calculations.

Performance Optimizer [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2664723367]

Worldgen

All of the ReGrowth mods either add more plants/animals/features to existing biomes, or rarely introduce biomes of their own.

Real Ruins adds scattered ruins all over the place, using (heavily degraded) blueprints of the bases of other people who are using the same mod. tbh if I do another game I'll probably drop Real Ruins. It's fun, but sometimes it's wildly unbalanced. If you've noticed that the current colony has like five vanometric power cells, this is where a few of them came from.

ReGrowth: Core [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2260097569]

ReGrowth: Arid [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2466442910]

ReGrowth: Boreal [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2106597000]

ReGrowth: Extinct Animals [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2266685892]

ReGrowth: Swamp [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2182111148]

ReGrowth: Temperate [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2261114471]

ReGrowth: Tropical [https:// no link (local mod)]

ReGrowth: Tundra [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2107412614]

ReGrowth: Wastelands [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2122461695]

Real Ruins [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1552146295]

ReGrowth: Aspen [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2545774148]

ReGrowth: Boiling [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2981924439]

UI/functionality

ZiTools objects seeker is the best fucking mod out there and it should be in the core game. It's the solution to the standard 'well shit, somebody made a masterwork charge rifle, but I don't know where it is in my 340 tile storeroom' problem.

Recycle This adds a button to order people to smelt/deconstruct/destroy specific items.

More Harvest Designators adds buttons like 'chop all the mature trees in this area' and 'cut all the blighted plants in this area.'

Food Alert adds a status line on the main screen that estimates how many days of food the colony has stored.

Skill Master adds a list to the work tab showing the highest level in each skill in the colony, which you can click to go to that person.

Everybody Gets One adds new options to production buildings like 'always make this thing until we have four per colonist' or 'make dusters whenever we have more than 100 leather.' Very handy for things like food production when your population level is fluctuating wildly.

ZiTools objects seeker [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2021885930]

Recycle This [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2567877605]

More Harvest Designators! [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1541250497]

Food Alert (Continued) [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2017538067]

Skill Master [https:// no link (local mod)]

Everybody Gets One [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1687566130]

Functionality From Dwarf Fortress

Follow The Vein adds a 'mine this mineral, and any new tiles of the same mineral that you uncover' designator. Like Dwarf Fortress has.

Path Avoid lets you make colonists prefer to walk around certain areas when possible. Like you can in Dwarf Fortress. Great for discouraging people from using your freezer as a shortcut.

Follow the Vein [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2923356196]

[KV] Path Avoid [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1180719857]

Genetics

Alpha Genes adds a zillion new genes and 14 new xenotypes. This is where we got the jellyfish and rock people. It also adds all the gene-tinkering tools that Yoshiko used to become a foxgirl vampire.

Alpha Genes [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2891845502]

Alpha Genes - Insectoid Mutations [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2906193379]

Cosmetic-only changes

World Map Beautification Project changes the textures on the world map to do things like make mountain chains more obvious.

Childrens Drawings adds more options to the pool of drawings that kids can leave on the floor.

Interaction Bubbles adds those nice overhead speech bubbles when colonists talk to each other. Otherwise you have to go to their social log to see what they've been talking about.

Dubs Apparel Tweaks allows you to hide certain clothing based on the situation. If you've noticed that nobody's wearing hats indoors, this is why. It's not perfect, though--apparently it has some minor conflicts. With one of the VE mods, I think? Also I haven't been able to find a working setting where it doesn't show everybody sleeping in the nude.

World Map Beautification Project [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2314407956]

Childrens Drawings [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2918817041]

Interaction Bubbles [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1516158345]

Dubs Apparel Tweaks [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2296697286]

Things that are just common sense

But not the Common Sense mod, funnily enough.

Stabilize allows you to tend to a somebody's wounds in place, without needing to pack them to a special designated spot for it.

Injured Carry lets colonists rescue people who are injured, but haven't collapsed. Because otherwise, by default, if somebody gets horribly wounded but has a high pain tolerance, it's entirely possible for them to crawl toward the hospital with nobody else able to help them until they pass out, two seconds away from bleeding out.

Beautiful Outdoors makes most wild plants at least a little pretty, so people will get some Beauty gain from being out in the forest or whatever.

Trading Spot lets you designate where visiting caravans should park, instead of them choosing a random spot to hang out.

Backup Power allows your colonists to figure out the advanced science of turning off the fuel-powered generators when the colony's already running an electricity surplus.

Prisoners Are Not Swines makes prisoners clean their cells sometimes, rather than just wallowing in trash while complaining about it.

Wall Lights - imagine a far-off future where we could use light bulbs for things other than floor lamps. Just imagine. Arguably a little OP since they use a bit less power and resources, but default lights are weirdly expensive on both axes anyway.

Dubs Break Mod makes the severity of a mental break partially dependent on how unhappy somebody is, so someone who's just a little grumpy is less likely to go on an arson spree than somebody who's been on the verge of a meltdown for weeks.

Stabilize [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2023407836]

Injured Carry [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2413690575]

Beautiful Outdoors [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2011794898]

[GMT] Trading Spot [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2874517333]

Backup Power (Updated) [https:// no link (local mod)]

Prisoners Are Not Swines [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2613966365]

Wall Light [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1423699208]

Dubs Break Mod [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1722398508]

Arguably OP stuff

Device Standby makes it so that, like... a machining table doesn't draw exactly as much power when it's just sitting there as when somebody's actively using it. imo this is common sense, but it drastically reduces the load on your electric grid, so I have to admit that it makes things a lot easier.

Losing The Faith makes people lose confidence in their beliefs when they're unhappy. This mostly makes it easier to convert prisoners to your ideology.

Impressionable Children adds a chance that people will influence a child toward their ideology while tutoring them. Also common sense imo, but it does make it a lot easier to convert kids. Which, you know, is kind of important for this colony.

Pick Up And Haul makes it so that when somebody goes to haul, they look for other things along the route that need hauled in the same direction, and keep grabbing stuff until they're at their carry limit. Again, common sense, but it makes hauling a lot faster. On the other hand it's fucking stupid that by default people will go 'well there's a pile of t-shirts that need carried to the storeroom right here, but I should only grab one at a time.'

Pocket Sand allows colonists to keep multiple weapons on them at all times, and adds a button to swap between the weapons (with the normal equip delay.) Again, common sense. This is such a massive QoL improvement, because now somebody can be a sniper and then swap to a shotgun when the enemies get close. This is how Yoshiko remains a world-class marksman while also bashing skulls with a big hammer. (I know there's a sidearms mod that makes the swapping automatic, but that looked like it had some significant conflicts and stuff last I checked.)

Childhood Backstories makes colony kids get an actual backstory upon turning 13. Mostly a bit OP because this means that it gives everyone some automatic skill boosts when they hit that point. But it adds character, and tbh with how many kids show up when they're like 10-12 years old, a lot of them need it just to get up to an average skill level.

Not My Fault makes other factions not blame you for things like accidental deaths on your map. This is abusable in theory, but it's worth it to not have my relations with a faction ruined because they insist on driving a caravan into an army of killer robots that just landed outside. Also I think it (inadvertently?) removes some relations bonuses for rescuing people.

Device Standby [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2967053451]

Losing The Faith [https:// no link (local mod)]

Impressionable Children [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2879996327]

Pick Up And Haul [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1279012058]

Pocket Sand [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2226330302]

Childhood Backstories [https:// no link (local mod)]

Not My Fault [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2870045856]

Misc

Persona Mechanoid Pawns is where we get Spencer.

Self Dyeing lets you instruct people to automatically go to the styling station to recolor their clothes, based on guidelines you set.

Inspiration Tweaks adds new inspirations and makes people more likely to get inspirations in skills they actually care about.

Custom Ritual Framework is where we get adoptions.

Persona Mechanoid Pawns [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2925172029]

Self Dyeing [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2562859859]

Inspiration Tweaks [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2117570018]

Custom Ritual Framework [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2561617361]