Agimori and Prax Weather

[svensson]

So, I'm digging around in the Bestiary again and looking up the Agimori, or Men-and-a-Half.

Has anyone noticed that the temperatures in Prax are FAR below their cold temps threshold for better than two full seasons of the year? I'm not talking about uncomfortable but survivable cold, but debilitating life threatening cold.

The Bestiary has 10C/50F as the Agimori limit of comfort [i.e. no statistical penalties] [table on RQB pg. 49]

By 0C/32F, we're at severe Perception and DEX penalties [a legitimate threat to survival for a nomadic hunting culture]

But the RQG Core Rules [pg. 122] state that Praxian weather is at or below 0C/32F for the entirety of Storm and Dark seasons and don't warm up much until mid-Sea season.

Now, the Agimori are a culture of nomadic hunters. This means that many means of storing provisions for a third of the year are unavailable to them. They can easily smoke, dry, and jerk meats in camps but without animal support they're going to be hard pressed to preserve enough meat to survive. And the temperatures pretty much discourage hunting for fresh meat during these seasons.

The American Plains Indians were able to survive winters on the Great Plains, but they had the support of their horses and could rely on the buffalo until Caucasians damned near hunted them to extinction. The Agimori have neither of these advantages. So how do they do it?

[Joerg]

25 minutes ago, svensson said:

So, I'm digging around in the Bestiary again and looking up the Agimori, or Men-and-a-Half.

Has anyone noticed that the temperatures in Prax are FAR below their cold temps threshold for better than two full seasons of the year? I'm not talking about uncomfortable but survivable cold, but debilitating life threatening cold.

The Bestiary has 10C/50F as the Agimori limit of comfort [i.e. no statistical penalties] [table on RQB pg. 49]

By 0C/32F, we're at severe Perception and DEX penalties [a legitimate threat to survival for a nomadic hunting culture]

But the RQG Core Rules [pg. 122] state that Praxian weather is at or below 0C/32F for the entirety of Storm and Dark seasons and don't warm up much until mid-Sea season.

That always depends on where in Prax you are. As it grows colder, the giant insects of the coastal marshes become less aggressive. The Rozgali current doesn't cool down significantly during Dark Season or Storm Season, although cold winds from the continent may lower air temperatures below comfort conditions. Still, there should be places where temperatures remain just tolerable. Places with geothermal springs or actual volcanic activity would be good, too. Otherwise, the East of Genert's wastes has much warmer climate. (That area was mostly devoid of Animal Nomads before the arrival of the Pure Horse Folk in western and northern Prax, though, leaving the weather conundrum for the time before.)

 

Other than the Agimori, I cannot help but wonder about the Impala tribe in the cold season. Their typical style of undress and their smaller size aren't really helpful under the conditions you cited above, either.

29 minutes ago, svensson said:

Now, the Agimori are a culture of nomadic hunters. This means that many means of storing provisions for a third of the year are unavailable to them. They can easily smoke, dry, and jerk meats in camps but without animal support they're going to be hard pressed to preserve enough meat to survive. And the temperatures pretty much discourage hunting for fresh meat during these seasons.

At the same time, these temperatures make conserving the meat a lot less of an issue.

One refuge from the cold might be the Storm Bull storm or the Eternal Battle, both weather systems independent from the rest of the Orlanth storm, and habitually somewhat warmer. These phenomena are mobile, which means that nomads might be able to follow them and hunt in their "shelter".

33 minutes ago, svensson said:

The American Plains Indians were able to survive winters on the Great Plains, but they had the support of their horses and could rely on the buffalo until Caucasians damned near hunted them to extinction. The Agimori have neither of these advantages. So how do they do it?

The Plains Indians only got their horses in the 16th century, but they had subsisted on the bison herds for millennia before. Horses (already bred to accept human riders) made their lives easier, but did not start the nomadic habitation of the plains.

I wonder what beasts exactly get hunted by the Agimori or the Baboons. Or the Foundchild cult, for that matter. It seems that the vast majority of the megafauna in Prax are Eirithan herd beasts under the protection of the Animal Rider tribes. There are a few predators and some scattered non-allied beasts in Prax and the Wastes, like the plains zebra was before Joraz Kyrem inter-bred it with his horses. Does the Foundchild cult bring home stray herd beasts away from their tribes?

[John Biles]

Take over an oasis during the cold times and exploit their timber for fire and their nice warm homes.

 

48 minutes ago, Joerg said:

I wonder what beasts exactly get hunted by the Agimori or the Baboons. Or the Foundchild cult, for that matter. It seems that the vast majority of the megafauna in Prax are Eirithan herd beasts under the protection of the Animal Rider tribes. There are a few predators and some scattered non-allied beasts in Prax and the Wastes, like the plains zebra was before Joraz Kyrem inter-bred it with his horses. Does the Foundchild cult bring home stray herd beasts away from their tribes?

Rabbits might be plentiful enough to be a food source.  It was one of two main meat sources for the Ute (the other being deer.)

 

[Kloster]

On 11/6/2024 at 8:12 PM, svensson said:

Has anyone noticed that the temperatures in Prax are FAR below their cold temps threshold for better than two full seasons of the year? I'm not talking about uncomfortable but survivable cold, but debilitating life threatening cold.

The Bestiary has 10C/50F as the Agimori limit of comfort [i.e. no statistical penalties] [table on RQB pg. 49]

By 0C/32F, we're at severe Perception and DEX penalties [a legitimate threat to survival for a nomadic hunting culture]

But the RQG Core Rules [pg. 122] state that Praxian weather is at or below 0C/32F for the entirety of Storm and Dark seasons and don't warm up much until mid-Sea season.

23 hours ago, John Biles said:

Take over an oasis during the cold times and exploit their timber for fire and their nice warm homes.

IIRC, the snow limit in Prax is north of Pavis (probably 100km north), so that means they just have to go south toward Corflu (for example).

[g33k]

On 11/6/2024 at 11:56 AM, Joerg said:

...

I wonder what beasts exactly get hunted by the Agimori or the Baboons. Or the Foundchild cult, for that matter. It seems that the vast majority of the megafauna in Prax are Eirithan herd beasts under the protection of the Animal Rider tribes. There are a few predators and some scattered non-allied beasts in Prax and the Wastes, like the plains zebra was before Joraz Kyrem inter-bred it with his horses. Does the Foundchild cult bring home stray herd beasts away from their tribes?

I have always presumed there were non-trivial numbers all the Herd Beasts living as wild herds.

The nomads protect their own herds, but don't actually have enough tribe-members to keep capturing & herding indefinitely-larger domesticated herds.

There's always a few escapee's & wander-off beasts going into the wild, and the Tribes can generally find a wild herd (if they want a few more of their beasts) within a few days to a week, and IMG there's a constant feed of "spontaneously generated" Herd-beasts wandering away from the Paps.