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Artemas Entreri
Great Reader
USA
3131 Posts |
 Posted - 25 Mar 2015 : 18:56:09
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So I was printing out Realms maps today and noticed that the Quoya Desert is now the Quoya Sea. I assume this happened during the Spellplague. Is there any specific information on HOW this happened or is this just one of those vague Spellplague changes? Thanks in advance!
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Some people have a way with words, and other people...oh, uh, not have way. -Steve Martin
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Edited by - Artemas Entreri on 25 Mar 2015 19:50:31
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deserk
Learned Scribe
Norway
237 Posts |
Posted - 26 Mar 2015 : 08:49:37
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| What new map, since 2nd edition shows the Quoya desert/sea? |
Edited by - deserk on 26 Mar 2015 08:50:05 |
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hashimashadoo
Master of Realmslore
United Kingdom
1150 Posts |
Posted - 26 Mar 2015 : 12:10:53
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| Yea, it's been alternately written as the Quoya Sea for a long time. |
When life turns it's back on you...sneak attack for extra damage.
Head admin of the FR wiki:
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/ |
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Artemas Entreri
Great Reader
USA
3131 Posts |
Posted - 26 Mar 2015 : 13:07:26
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quote:
Originally posted by deserk
What new map, since 2nd edition shows the Quoya desert/sea?
Can't remember where I found it but the Quoya Desert is literally replaced and renamed the Quoya Sea. |
Some people have a way with words, and other people...oh, uh, not have way. -Steve Martin
Amazon "KindleUnlimited" Free Trial: http://amzn.to/2AJ4yD2
Try Audible and Get 2 Free Audio Books! https://amzn.to/2IgBede |
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 26 Mar 2015 : 14:15:34
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If it's water instead of sand, it's possibly a homebrew thing. The 4e Campaign Guide implies that it's still hot sand.
quote:
The steppes north of Murghôm are blasted in winter by storms from the Great Ice Sea, and baked in summer by searing winds from the Quoya Desert.
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Artemas Entreri
Great Reader
USA
3131 Posts |
Posted - 26 Mar 2015 : 14:19:24
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| Argh, so frustrated. I'd prefer for it to still remain a desert, but if it was officially transformed into a sea I'm curious as to how that happened. |
Some people have a way with words, and other people...oh, uh, not have way. -Steve Martin
Amazon "KindleUnlimited" Free Trial: http://amzn.to/2AJ4yD2
Try Audible and Get 2 Free Audio Books! https://amzn.to/2IgBede |
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Baltas
Senior Scribe
Poland
955 Posts |
Posted - 26 Mar 2015 : 14:52:22
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| Artemas, were did you got this map? I think if we determine the map's original source, we will faster discover if, and how the Quoya Desert, became the Quoya Sea. It's possible, like hashimashadoo suggested, that's it just another name for the Quoya Desert, just like Anauroch, is sometimes called Great Sand Sea. |
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 26 Mar 2015 : 14:55:32
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I only took one class in climatology, but if I wanted to turn it into a sea it wouldn't be hard to justify. Especially if I was excited about 4e. 
1. Big boom causes a drop in the water level in the Sea of Fallen Stars.
2. This causes a shift in wind and precipitation patterns over that area. Slight, but it doesn't take much because what matters is that the location of high- and low-pressure cells changes.
3. That causes shifts over a larger area. Specifically, changes in which way the wind blows. In this case we just need to shift some warmer air northward.
3a. There's a little bit of hand-waving here, because the Great Glacier is in the way and we need the warm air to bypass it and go further northeast. It's not impossible, because weather can do funny things even in our world and introducing magic (and the funkifying of magic which happened during the death of Mystra) could yield even funnier effects.
3b. So we interpret the Great Glacier as a unique sort of thing -- which it is because of how it was formed. We're going to say that the Great Glacier is cold because it generates cold from within, and the air above it doesn't matter the way it does above normal glaciers. Warm winds from the Inner Sea region blow over it without (A) warming the glacier or (B) being cooled off due to the glacier. The glacier is just like an insulated ice cube; it stays cold in spite of whatever is going on in the air over it. It's not the only right way to think about the Great Glacier, but it works and it enables this story to work with minimal hand-waving, which is better than resorting to greater hand-waving like "there's a rise in temperatures over the polar ice cap, which we're not going to explain because we don't have a believable explanation."
4. A bit of the northern ice cap melts into Yal Tengri, raising the water level there. A foot, maybe two: not difficult, given the quantity of ice available.
5. The influx of even-colder water from the glacier, plus the increased area for evaporation, changes the wind patterns here too. I'm not going for a "Day After Tomorrow" scenario; this is only important because of 7.
6. There's some backwash up the Arundi River. Probably not as far as the western Quoya, but enough to flood a couple of small depressions in the Plain of Horses and create a few shallow lakes.
7. The increase in water evaporating has to drop somewhere. In this case we just need it to drop further east, which will happen naturally due to polar winds coming off the ice cap (north of Yal Tengri, not the Great Glacier) -- they've always done that and always will.
So ultimately we just need more water in Yal Tengri. Natural evaporation picks the water up from Yal Tengri and the many new small lakes, the wind coming out of the northwest blows the clouds naturally to the southeast. Then the clouds hit the warm air over the Quoya. This is like a brick wall due to warm winds coming off the hot Chukei Plateau, so the clouds dump their water on the Quoya.
At first the water will just soak into the sand. As the sand saturates (and the water table rises), water will accumulate in the Merket Depression -- which to my knowledge is the lowest point in the Quoya. A lake forms in the Depression. This creates a new source of evaporation. The winds off the Chukei are constant... they're not going to stop or cool, because their source isn't cooling off.
This didn't happen in 1e/2e/3e because the climate was in equilibrium. It would be the sudden change introduced by mucking with the water level in the Inner Sea that changes everything. A little bit at a time of course, but the 100 year jump is plenty of time for a lake to start in the Quoya.
Anyway, just how I would do it, if I wanted to do it. |
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Artemas Entreri
Great Reader
USA
3131 Posts |
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Baltas
Senior Scribe
Poland
955 Posts |
Posted - 27 Mar 2015 : 15:02:52
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| I think that maybe you should PM Markustay about this. If the change of the Quoya Desert into an actual sea is based in canon,he will know.Although it's more like an great sea-like lake, like the Caspian Sea, because it's completely enclosed. |
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hashimashadoo
Master of Realmslore
United Kingdom
1150 Posts |
Posted - 27 Mar 2015 : 15:43:24
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Okay, well, while the Quoya Desert has been called the Quoya Sea in the past (think Great Sand Sea) it is not actually a body of water in canon.
Markustay often puts things that he's seen which interest him or he's developed himself into his maps. In this case, I believe he's seen some fan-made Spellfire cards which depict the Quoya Desert as an inland sea containing a small archipelago and incorporated it into this map.
Also, the Quoya Desert lies below sea level so it's entirely possible that it could have flooded during the turmoil of the Spellplague. There were extensive climate shifts and strange tidal forces in Kara-Tur during that time according to Dragon Magazine. |
When life turns it's back on you...sneak attack for extra damage.
Head admin of the FR wiki:
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/ |
Edited by - hashimashadoo on 27 Mar 2015 15:45:55 |
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Artemas Entreri
Great Reader
USA
3131 Posts |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 08 Apr 2015 : 21:28:13
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Sorry about that - I was toying with the idea of a water-route from K-T to The Sea of Fallen Stars in 5e. Notice the Canal (Shou is known for building those), and also the name 'Occupied Semphar' (I theorized the Shou would take a fairly light approach to ruling Semphar - which they have canonically done in the past). Basically, the Shou moved their troops in and built a few forts to keep the water traffic flowing and keep the Tuigan at bay (who are now mostly Hobgoblins in this 'parallel world').
It was a thought experiment, nothing more. Sorry for the confusion. 
However, in canon it wasn't always desert. At least one kingdom - Tsharoon - existed where the desert is now, and that was only a thousand years ago. It was NOT a desert at the time of Imaskar - you can even check the map on pg. 22 of tGHotR. My best bet is that the 'magical apocalypse' which befell the Imaskari also created the desert. There was an elaborate river-system throughout the Raurin basin, and I would hazard to guess there was at least one large central lake that was literally vaporized by the Pharonic Pantheon (none of which appears on that map, sadly). For a time the Survivor states managed to magically keep at least one major river flowing (see Desert of Desolation), but that eventually failed as well, and the desert slowly grew from the original plains of Purple Dust.
It only makes sense that nature would eventually right itself. We have some evidence of 'global warming' in FR (the icecap over Vassa & Damara only receding in the past five centuries or so), and then we have all that craziness from the Spellplague with the SoFS. Thats what gave rise to my experiment in the first place - I pictured a lot of the ice in the Yehimals and Northern chains melting, much like what is happening in RW China, and causing massive flooding in the east. I just assumed the Quoya was the region with the lowest altitude and went from there.
Once again, my apologies - I like doing 'what if' scenarios just to see what stuff would look like. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 08 Apr 2015 23:04:10 |
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Artemas Entreri
Great Reader
USA
3131 Posts |
Posted - 08 Apr 2015 : 21:44:49
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
Sorry about that - I was toying with the idea of a water-route from K-T to The Sea of Fallen Stars in 5e. Notice the Canal (Shou is known for building those), and also the name 'Occupied Semphar' (I theorized the Shou would take a fairly light approach to ruling Semphar - which they have canonically done in the past). Basically, the Shou moved their troops in and built a few forts to keep the water traffic flowing and keep the Tuigan at bay (who are now mostly Hobgoblins in this 'parallel world').
It was a thought experiment, nothing more. Sorry for the confusion.
However, in canon it wasn't always desert. At least one kingdom - Tsharoon - existed where the desert is now, and that was only a thousand years ago. It was NOT a desert at the time of Imaskar - you can even check the map on pg. 22 of tGHotR. My best bet is that the 'magical apocalypse' which befell the Imaskari also created the desert. There was an elaborate river-system throughout the Raurin basin, and I would hazard to guess there was at least on large central lake that was literally vaporized by the Pharonic Pantheon (none of which appears on that map, sadly). For a time the Survivor states managed to magically keep at least one major river flowing (see Desert of Desolation), but that eventually failed as well, and the desert slowly grew from the original plains of Purple Dust.
It only makes sense that nature would eventually right itself. We have some evidence of 'global warming' in FR (the icecap over Vassa & Damara only receding in the past five centuries or so), and then we have all that craziness from the Spellplague with the SoFS. Thats what gave rise to my experiment in the first place - I pictured a lot of the ice in the Yehimals and Northern chains melting, much like what is happening in RW China, and causing massive flooding in the east. I just assumed the Quoya was the region with the lowest altitude and went from there.
Once again, my apologies - I like doing 'what if' scenarios just to see what stuff would look like.
MT-I prefer your geographical changes to 99% of the canon changes to our beloved Realms.  |
Some people have a way with words, and other people...oh, uh, not have way. -Steve Martin
Amazon "KindleUnlimited" Free Trial: http://amzn.to/2AJ4yD2
Try Audible and Get 2 Free Audio Books! https://amzn.to/2IgBede |
Edited by - Artemas Entreri on 08 Apr 2015 21:45:06 |
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Quoya Desert/Sea
