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Anauroch - The Frozen Sea

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Darkheyr
Learned Scribe

264 Posts

Posted - 03 Sep 2014 : 11:30:03

Greetings scribes,

Our NWN project is currently reworking some areas to bring them a bit closer to the actual setting, and some discrepancies have turned up.

Our areas include part of the western Anauroch, specifically the so-called Frozen Sea. What we're unsure about is how that area actually looks. Numerous sources speak of "frozen sand dunes" and ice, others simply of sand. The old Elminster's Ecology Anauroch booklet even mentions said frozen dunes first, and later on claims that a modern traveller wouldn't find any actual water or ice there.

Anyone know something else pertaining to the 3E era?

silm.pw - A Neverwinter Nights Persistent World

Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6353 Posts

Posted - 03 Sep 2014 : 12:52:40

Okay well it sounds like you are confusing bits of the Anauroch terrain.

There is the High Ice that dominates the central and northern sections of Anauroch. From what i can gather it is an extension of the great glacier/Peluvuria that has grown into the Anauroch basin.

It is described as a glacial wilderness and so i imagine it to be a very thick layer of ice sitting atop a permafrost layer of sand. Huge crevasses, plateaus, and other glacial terrain are going to be common here with high speed freezing winds and plenty of snow.

The Frozen Sea however is the remains of terrain that was once the Narrow Sea that ran from west to east across the middle of Netheril.
When the phaerimm began draining everything the sea appears to have gradually dried up and turned to sand, leaving the dunes you noted.

However it appears that during the spring/summer months water runs off the Greypeak mountains and freezes the dunes.

To further complicate things, the narrow sea actually extends underneath the High Ice somewhat so if you are talking about a geographic distinction (rather than a geographic feature distinction) the frozen sea and high ice may overlap somewhat even though you would not be able to see the frozen sea under the high ice.

Once the city of shade reappears though that all changes. They start melting the High Ice which i guess recedes somewhat, potentially exposing all of the frozen sea.

Darkheyr
Learned Scribe

264 Posts

Posted - 03 Sep 2014 : 14:21:35

I'm aware of the difference between the high ice and the frozen sea. As said, sources just seem to be inprecise and even contradictory concerning the Frozen Sea.

I found the water-from-Graypeaks-bit, but even then... When would it be frozen? I mean, apparently it's still a waterless, hot desert according Elminster's Ecologies, and any water running down there would be unlikely to freeze, except maybe at night.

silm.pw - A Neverwinter Nights Persistent World

Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6353 Posts

Posted - 03 Sep 2014 : 15:00:39

From what i gather only the southern part is hot, and to be honest im not sure why.

Certainly the Narrow Sea was frozen at various points in Netheril's history (although the Netheril sourcebook is far from consistent).

It seemed to me that before the Mythallars, the Narrow Sea should have frozen over in the winter months and thawed in the summer months. It doesnt mention this effect until the fall of Netheril when the phaerimm magic drains started to interfere with the mythallars of Netheril and the portions of the Narrow Sea froze, as did some of the more northerly settlements.

I think everything on line with the Bay of Ascore should have been freezing and thawing with the seasons. Everything south of that should be largely ice free except in really bad years.

Of course with the complete desertification of the anauroch basin the ice could expand much further south than normal and so we have the High Ice covering the northern half of the Teeth of Tagorlar (which would have been the Channel Mountains in Netheril's time) pretty much permanently from the maps. So today northern anauroch is really cold and icy (High Ice, Frozen Sea), and southern Anauroch is baking hot desert (the sword and the plain of standing stones).

I would go with whatever makes sense to you. Given the excesses of magic in the Anauroch basin in the past i am fine with having scorching desert and arctic plains side by side, but then i know nothing about geography and so it may be that such terrains are possible to exist near one another without the need for magic.

I have the frozen sea as frozen during winter and sandy during summer (when the ice melts the water just sinks to the bottom of the sand and makes its way into the Buried Realms).

xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore

USA
1853 Posts

Posted - 03 Sep 2014 : 16:44:15

The following is all my take on it.

There were effectively two Narrow Seas. The Frozen Sea on the 2e Anauroch map corresponds to the ancient north-south Narrow Sea, which was diverted by magic during the fall of Isstossefifil circa -30,000 DR.

By the time Netheril was founded, that original Narrow Sea was long gone. So far gone that the sarrukh's settlements had fallen to rubble and been buried by time. (I suspect that the Netherese never even discovered Oreme, as evidenced by its absence from the Netheril maps.) The Narrow Sea was east-west at that point, and following the fall of Netheril it was completely covered/absorbed by the High Ice.

There's also the matter of the phaerimm lifedrain spells. The Sword (the southern, sandy, hot part of the desert) is still splotched with lifedrains circa 1357. This causes an extremely inhospitable lack of humidity, and the accompanying lack of cloud cover and precipitation, which makes this area very hot and dry.

The Plain of Standing Stones is higher ground, blasted clear of sand by constant winds. (FR13 p59) There's slightly more moisture here, but only in areas that are sheltered from the wind and sun.

The modern "Frozen Sea" is part of the Sword. It's sandy and suffers a near-total lack of moisture. So "frozen" can only refer to temperature. For some reason it's cold here even though it's hot in the southern part of the Sword. In my game, the runoff from the Graypeaks will vanish once it reaches the sand.

I suspect the reason for the cold temperatures in the Frozen Sea (which should still be significantly warmer during the day) is a combination of the geographical features. First, the fact that it was once a sea means that it's probably a giant gully, so the whole Frozen Sea should be lower elevation than the Sword, which is lower than the Plain of Standing Stones, which is lower than the High Ice. The cold air from the whole western wall of the High Ice drops into the Frozen Sea, and stays there, hemmed in by the Gray Peaks and the Fallen Lands, the Nether Mountains, and the mountains up by Ascore. Due to the lower elevation, the wind that blasts the High Ice and the Plain passes high over the Frozen Sea without blowing the cold air out.

I would describe the Frozen Sea as a typical sandy desert, but cool (60-70 F) during the day and very chilly (10-20 F) at night... at the south end. Up by the High Ice it's probably 20-30 during the day and maybe -20 F at night.

Again, just my impressions.

Rymac
Learned Scribe

USA
315 Posts

Posted - 07 Sep 2014 : 05:48:34

quote:
Originally posted by xaeyruudh

There were effectively two Narrow Seas. The Frozen Sea on the 2e Anauroch map corresponds to the ancient north-south Narrow Sea, which was diverted by magic during the fall of Isstossefifil circa -30,000 DR.

I was trying to find an image online from page 6 of The Grand History of the Realms. (I'd rather not run afoul of scanning it and violating copyright.) There are, depending upon how one counts, five to seven small seas that will eventually make up the Sea of Fallen Stars. The "Sembia-Cormyr" sea has a connecting river that runs north, then eventually widens into the Narrow Sea.

After the redirecting of the Narrow Sea by the Sarrukh, what remained of this river system became the Farsea Marshes, the Marsh of Tun, and the Tun River.

Updated:
Found a picture at the Forgotten Realms wiki, specifically at the Days of Thunder overview <http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Days_of_Thunder_overview>. The direct link to the picture is <http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140315091744/forgottenrealms/images/7/75/Pic_11.jpg>. Where the word "Boitumelo" is placed is the original location of the Narrow Sea.

Edited by - Rymac on 08 Sep 2014 07:02:43

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