Trying to find climate maps of South America from the end of the Pleistocene has been...challenging.
I've got the area of the map I want to work with, but the temperatures aren't quite right (current climate is too warm for the setting I want). Problem is, moving to a colder time period throws off the environment, and while that's...um...kind of fine, I'm not a climatologist or archaeo-geologist and trying to figure exactly how tundra turns into arid desert turns into grasslands (and vice versa) is painfully complex.
I'm on the verge of just faking it.
*sigh* But at least I'm happy with the geography. Finally.
[this is what I was working on most of the morning]
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| My world...more or less. |
If you got a Holdridge map of South America, you could use a Holdridge triangle to work the temperature down.
ReplyDeleteAre you starting your setting design back up?
For the last couple weeks or so, I’ve been “working” on my setting. It’s been a struggle finding the right themes (meaning style/aesthetic) but I think I’ve finally got THAT part nailed down and am now ready to place the bits and pieces on a map.
DeleteI appreciate the info...I’d never heard of Holdridge. Looks promising.
: )
If you haven't seen this, it might help. It links vegetation to temperature and precipitation.
ReplyDeletehttps://s4.lite.msu.edu/res/msu/botonl/b_online/e56/56.htm
This is also excellent, though I'll have to convert the metric system into measurements my poor American brain can grasp. ; )
DeleteFigure 23 in this article might be of help to you.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Faol: I've seen similar maps, but this article is still useful, especially with the political boundary lines (which helps me in placing landmarks) and the discussion on megafauna (which I might end up adapting for fantasy monsters).
DeleteI'm from South America so I can help you if you wish. I started writing something but I noticed that it would become too long so what exactly do you want to know?
ReplyDeleteDoing the inverse of climate warming here in the Atlantic Forest and the Pampas, I think it will have more rains around the year but they will be less severe. If it became too cold maybe it can snows up north to higher elevations around São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. If not winter at least will have a lot of rime and hail. Patagonia on the other hand would be a dry cold desert, an extension of Antarctica.
What I think is gamable material from today's climate:
- The winter is usually dry so it rarelly snows. On the other hand, rime, night frost and hail are common.
- In winter, there is the Minuano wind. A cold and dry wind that can cut your skin if it is too strong.
- In summer, you can have a very hot sunny day with a 10min rain so heavy that it can flood everything. Not exactly a monsoon but close.
- Also in summer, some days are so sultry that it feels like an open air sauna.
Anything else?
No, I think I've got a handle on what I want. I want the dry, cold desert to the south (the "extension of Antarctica") because I want a reason to cut off population expansion south of the area. But I still need grasslands in the more temperate area because my fantasy land is going to have horses.
DeleteStill want SOME rainforest though...that's going to be the northern border if I can swing it.
Ok. Some named areas besides Amazon that you can use to search:
Delete- Pampas. Grassland with some rolling hills. Horses? Of course! Search "gaucho a cavalo" (gaucho on horse) and you got your steppe lancer.
- Cerrado. In central Brazil, it is your highlands. It is a mixed bag of hills, mountains, woodland, glassland, etc. Don't let the flat images fool you, the place is high above sea and there is a lot of cliffs there (usually named "chapada" there). Search "cerrado chapada" (or "planalto brasileiro") and you'll see more rocky landscapes.
- Atlantic Forest. Streching most of the brazilian coast, this is the second largest forest here and where most people live (even when there was only natives). This can be where your temperate forests are as it has a lot of mountains to make things colder. The northmost place that snowed in Brazil is here in the Pico das Agulhas Negras (Black Needles Peak) near Rio de Janeiro.
- Caatinga. This is a "small" arid region in the northeast. A desert but not a sandy one. Mostly cacti and thorny wood. Probably still a desert and hot in pleistocene because it is the equator and suffers pro rain shadow.
- Pantanal. A huge wetland in the middle of the continent. It is home of many large animals. Maybe kind of siberian bogs in older times.
"Trying to find climate maps of South America from the end of the Pleistocene has been...challenging."
ReplyDeleteWell, this is certainly my tribe. ;D
When writing anything for a game that uses historical data; be that the Pleistocene or the Victorian era many designers try to serve the master of "Historical Accuracy."
ReplyDeleteThat is great, if you are writing a History book. You are writing a game piece. While it is good to be historically accurate (and my years of getting two Ph.Ds makes me do the same) there is really only one master her you need to serve.
Does it work for your game?
Do try to find historically accurate data. Figure out what your game needs and use that.
It would not matter a slight if you were off by a few degrees or even by a dozen or more.
Your world. You make the rules.
@ Timothy:
DeleteYes, I get that.