I was wondering if someone could give me some real world examples of what the country of Katapesh might look like. The map of the Inner Sea Region shows that besides the southern part of the country (which is desert) that the majority of the terrain is plains. The LoF adventures though describe more desert like terrain (or so it seems to me). So I'm having a hard time seeing it in my head.
Thanks for any insight.
I always imagined it as looking pretty much like the Great Basin of the United States.
That was me as well, has a very southwest feel to it
Do you play World of Warcraft? Think the Barrens.
For a more real world example, think the Serengeti Plains and similar areas in Africa. During and for a while after the wet season, it's a lush paradise of grass, full of herd grazers and their predators. During the dry season, its mostly dusty wasteland between shrinking oases.
I always imagined it as looking pretty much like the Great Basin of the United States.
Ah! Good photo, thanks!
I also did some thinking on it and realized it might look a lot like Afghanistan.
Here's one that shows desert, plains, and higher terrain: here
And of course the pesh fields!
pesh
Do you play World of Warcraft? Think the Barrens.
For a more real world example, think the Serengeti Plains and similar areas in Africa. During and for a while after the wet season, it's a lush paradise of grass, full of herd grazers and their predators. During the dry season, its mostly dusty wasteland between shrinking oases.
Thanks, another good suggestion!
The description in Dark Markets very much matches equatorial Africa. With the climate being so stable temperature-wise, you get variation from (1) the rainy season and (2) elevation. I've been in Africa multiple times and the variance based on these two things is interesting. In the span of a day I've driven from arid savannah where it was so hot I couldn't stay out in the sun for more than an hour up into the mountains where it was cool and misty. This matches the description from from Dark Markets of:
Deserts in the south bordering Nex
Rocky flatland to the west toward Barrier Wall mountains
Grassy savannah to the north until you hit the Brazen Peaks
Because of Katapesh's proximity to Osirion (Egypt), plus being near the lush areas of the Mwangi Expanse I pictured the country as being similar to north-eastern Africa - Sudan, Ethiopia - which have a smattering of deserts, highlands, and plains. Also, I envisioned Katapesh as being a faded equivalent to the ancient Axumite Empire of the region.
Although, after seeing the Afghanistan images, that equivalent seems to work as well.
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Do you play World of Warcraft? Think the Barrens.
For a more real world example, think the Serengeti Plains and similar areas in Africa. During and for a while after the wet season, it's a lush paradise of grass, full of herd grazers and their predators. During the dry season, its mostly dusty wasteland between shrinking oases.
Thanks, another good suggestion!
If it's similar to Tanzania, then the main rainy season runs from Pharast (March) to Desnus (May), which matches up with the current events in my campaign nicely.
Also, instead of sandy dunes (such as in Osirion), the desert surface is primarily volcanic ejecta hardpan (plumed off now-dormant volcanos in the Brazen Peaks).
Judging by the mountains and their opiate-driven economy, I had always figured it looked like Afghanistan.
Creative Director
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Judging by the mountains and their opiate-driven economy, I had always figured it looked like Afghanistan.
Afghanistan was actually the precise real-world region I kept in mind when working on Legacy of Fire. Especially the eerie rugged mountains.
But there's also a good dose of African savannah as well.