This is an OOC source for players to gain knowledge of the Highlands which can be used In Character. It must always be borne in mind that there are very few outsiders who are allowed to venture into the Central Highlands and consequently little is known outside the immediate clan. The information below should be treated in such a way. It was written by Steve Millis and is also available on the Bears Faction Forums.
Part One. The Environment.
Caledonia is wild and rugged, with several vast tracts of uninhabited forest. Parts of these forests have never been explored. The main mountain ranges are high and difficult to access for those not native to them. Although the major lochs are well marked, there are many smaller tarns and lakes both up in the mountains and across the lower more fertile regions. A high proportion of the land is hill country, not as impenetrable as the mountain ranges, but still difficult to traverse. The lowlands are also hilly, but with a higher proportion of downs, plains and fertile flat land. Below a certain altitude, trees and hedge row species are common, including woodlands too small to be marked as forests. Most of the highland is uncultivated, animal grazing being the most productive use of this land, sheep and goats at the highest ranges with the shaggy highland cattle at the lower end of the range. Glens and wide valleys are common through this landscape, most having running water. Due to silt from flooding and erosion, they are suprisingly fertile, protected as they are from the extremes of wind and temperature. Here the highlanders and hill folk raise grain and vegetable crops in small fields or enclosures. Rich grassland supports milk animals, and fish and woodland foraging complete the diet of these people.
The regions refered to as lowlands have a higher area of cultivation, more grains and heavier cattle breeds are produced here, and root and leaf vegetables are farmed more intensively, allowing for more people to inhabit smaller parcels of land. Surplus food supplies are available, and these are usually sold to the small towns and cities that are stategically placed to control trade or to prevent invasion from land and sea. Along the borders, and between the main mountain ranges are relatively good roads, but elswhere drovers' trails and footpaths are the best that can be expected. The high moors and peat bogs provide little in the way of crops and livestock, but eels and freshwater crayfish, the rugged highland cattle, marsh ponies, and peat for cooking fires, enable the people to exist with relative ease despite its apparent bleakness.
Game is widespread, red deer a common sight in the
highlands, and the smaller breeds such as the fallow, inhabit most of the
woodlands and moors. Reindeer and musk ox are occasionally spotted in the
colder nothern highlands being more prevelant though, in Orkneyjar. The wild
boar, rabbit, hare and red squirrel are often hunted and wildfowl species
are many and varied. Along with the common predators, wolves and bears compete
with a scattering of beasts that for want of a better term are called monsters.
These monsters, both scaled and furred are not to be confused with the tribes
of primitive creatures, mostly of the Uruk or Olog races. Examples include
ogres, giants, orcs and goblins, but there are also the rarer species, usually
seen infrequently and in smaller numbers such as trolls, fairy folk, dryads
and other magical creatures. Due to past conflicts, the majority of these
non humans and unintelligent species are uncommon in some parts of Caledonia,
particularly the highly cultivated areas. However there are many regions where
few or no people live, and crossing these wild places can be a risky endeavour.