Whispering Wind: You begin subtly changing a particular type of grass common across the Whispering Hills. [-20 NAT] You craft a subspecies of the parent grass, and your changes are small enough that they take full effect across the Hills. The resulting grass grows longer blades, and takes up more nutrients from the soil to make it more nutritious. This might be the end of the story, but you follow up by adjusting the climate slightly to provide plenty of rain and ideal temperature conditions for growth. [-10 GEN]
In the process you learn an interesting thing about ecology. High biodiversity is not necessarily brought about by plenty, but more often by scarcity. In fields poor in nutrient, wildflowers abound from the many different types of grasses and plants. In nutrient-rich fields, one or two grass types dominate. The new Whispergrass requires a lot of water and nutrients to sustain, but with the plenty you have afforded it, it is quickly able to dominate much of the hills. The new long grass dominates the hillsides, driving out several other varieties of grass.
On the flip side, the new grass is a boon to grazers. The grazer and ground animal population booms, although there is not enough selective pressure to increase biodiversity amongst the animal life in the hills. The net effect of your changes is a great increase in biomass at the price of biodiversity. However, this benefits the human inhabitants with their goat herds. This will surely draw more people to the hills.
The Grass: You interfere with the 18 farmers living on the Grasslands, gently tweaking their brain chemistry. [-20 NAT] The effects are not immediately obvious, but slowly and surely the grasslander humans are observed to be a little sharper, a little quicker on the uptake than their brethren.
You then whisper secrets of working the land to the grasslanders, but your voice is faint and weak. [-2 CUL] The compulsion to improve the land settles in their minds, along with an inkling of how to proceed. With their enhanced intelligence though, the drive to experiment bears fruit. You allow yourself to view the results over a longer period of time. [-2 GEN] Agriculture takes time to refine, but you have nothing but time. You don't really have the resolution to see every individual action, but the broad changes are easily apparent to you. To begin with, the grasslanders start using heavy sticks to begin tilling the earth for planting, laying down root vegetables in as ideal conditions as they can manage. After a few more years, someone starts sowing a particular type of grass with large seeds, reaping the benefits of grain later in the year. By the time your focus fades, the grasslanders have advanced from subsistence semi-farming to sufficiently basic agriculture to begin harvesting a surplus.
Ancestors: You turn your attention to the cairns at the edge of the forest, listening to the prayers of the living while observing their actions. [-4 GEN] People visit the cairns irregularly, mostly to pay their respects to their deceased kin, and many days pass without visitations. They speak to their passed kinsmen in the hope they may still hear them, and sometimes gather to tell stories about the deceased. A few carry on the stories of their ancestors in the places they lived before settling in the valley. One of the older woodcutters, the son of the elder whose cairn has become the unofficial place of prayer, has begun to be regarded as a keeper of these ancestor tales. Living nearby, he spends a lot of time around the cairns.
The prayers to the ancestors are many, and you can't pick out individual ones. They mostly fall into the same categories though. People wish that their ancestors are well in the next world, they pray for their ancestors to bring them luck, to watch over them in times of trouble, to heal their sicknesses and help with childbirth. When years are hard, they mostly pray to see the next winter. When years are very hard, one or two pray for death.
You keep this focus, but also take a broader look at the hamlet. [-2 GEN] The settlement is spread along the river, with a majority of people making their living off the water with woven fish traps and spearfishing. The three grasslander families grow vegetables and in time grain, trading it with the fishermen to supplement one anothers' diets, and some of the children and womenfolk make small pieces of jewllery and the like. Food is traded for wood from the forests, and for wool and rough felt clothes from the hills. The hillfolk are becoming quite prosperous with their fat herds, but the half-wild goats are testy and independent creatures, often roaming off on their own. You continue viewing the hamlet for now.
Silent Glow: You sent a whisper across the valley [-1 GEN], little more than a passing thought; head to the bogs. You then begin channelling energy into the swamplife [-8 NAT], but it has something of a different effect to when the Blessed Spirit did it. Nutrients in the bog are rare, and the food web is both complex and well balanced. A sudden increase of energy and wellbeing, instead of increasing the overall biomass of the bog, heightens the competition. The moquitoes bite harder, the trees fight for the dim light as if their lives depend upon it (which they do) and everything gets that little bit more toxic and voracious. While neither the diversity or biomass of the bogs really improve, harsh selective pressure permits only the healthiest to survive, and the overall health of the ecosystem improves.
A handful of people do come to the bogs, more out of curiosity than anything else. Several of them become sick or are uncomfortably bitten, but one of the grasslanders becomes enamoured with the place. She spends more and more time there, eventually setting up a crude hut at the bog's edge and venturing out into it to collect herbs and mushrooms of interest. In time, more may follow.
The Sleeping Giant: You focus on the funerary site, and those who live nearby. [-4 GEN]
People visit the cairns irregularly, mostly to pay their respects to their deceased kin, and many days pass without visitations. They speak to their passed kinsmen in the hope they may still hear them, and sometimes gather to tell stories about the deceased. A few carry on the stories of their ancestors in the places they lived before settling in the valley. One of the older woodcutters, the son of the elder whose cairn has become the unofficial place of prayer, has begun to be regarded as a keeper of these ancestor tales. Living nearby, he spends a lot of time around the cairns.
Of those who live nearby, most spend their time foresting - gathering wood, foraging or hunting with spears and javelins or simple traps in the forest. When death happens, they usually all chip in with the burial, often receiving small gifts in return. You will sustain this view for some time, if there is something specific you wish to study.
The Blessed Spirit: You broadly view the inhabitants of the Blessed River [-2 GEN]. There are quite a number of them now, living in over a dozen wood and mud huts along the riverbank. They are fairly close together, and their extensive fish traps make quite the obstacle for passing marine life. Life is good on the riverbank; food is plentiful thanks to your bounty, easy enough to catch and with the careful air-drying or smoking of fish one can lay down stores for times of less plenty. Life is good, life is peaceful, and because it is good and peaceful very little happens. The fishermen live quiet, happy lives and stick to the old ways they have always had. They benefit from the occasional felt garment in winter, and they trade fish for grains and vegetables from the grasslanders, but beyond the occasional bit of whittling or carving they do little else worth talking about.
Inhabitants: 47 (Fishermen)
Health: Moderate
Happiness: Optimistic
Ecology: Stable
Natural Health: Fairly Good
Biodiversity: Moderate
Biomass: Above Average
General Strength: 8
Natural Strength: 15
Cultural Strength: 2
Inhabitants: 18 (Farmers)
Health: Moderate
Happiness: Optimistic
Primitive Agriculture
3 Families: Intelligence Enhancement
Ecology: Stable
Natural Health: Fine
Biodiversity: Moderate
Biomass: Moderate
General Strength: 11
Natural Strength: 0
Cultural Strength: 0
Inhabitants: 7 (Foresters)
Health: Moderate
Happiness: Optimistic
Cairn Sites
Ecology: Stable
Natural Health: Fine
Biodiversity: Moderate
Biomass: Moderate
General Strength: 6
Natural Strength: 20
Cultural Strength: 3
Inhabitants: 5
Health: Moderate
Happiness: Optimistic
Ecology: Stable
Natural Health: Fine
Biodiversity: Moderate
Biomass: Above Average
Whispergrass
Growth-favoured Climate
General Strength: 3
Natural Strength: 0
Cultural Strength: 1
Inhabitants: 0
Health: -
Happiness: -
Ecology: Stable
Natural Health: Fairly Good
Biodiversity: Moderate
Biomass: Moderate
General Strength: 11
Natural Strength: 12
Cultural Strength: 0
Inhabitants: 77
Health: Moderate
Happiness: Optimistic
Ecology: None
Natural Health: -
Biodiversity: Nil
Biomass: Nil
General Strength: 6
Natural Strength: 0
Cultural Strength: 4
Author
Topic: The Valley (Genii Locus) [For 6 Players] (Read 8545 times)