WFP - Geography & Fauna
The smallest and least diverse of the CNCS leagues, the Western Frontier Protectorate is nonetheless a home to widely divergent landscapes, flora and fauna. The league occupies the fertile Great Western Plain, the northern extension of the Barrington Basin encircled on three sides by the Westridge and Serpentine Ranges. These mountains play a major role in the Protectorate ecology, inducing precipitation that irrigates the northern latitudes and feeds the MacAllen Network. Unfortunately, they provide scant protection from the massive storms that form in the Barrington Basin and which frequently ravage communities along the Badlands fringe. Indeed; an average of one settlement a cycle is lost to these great tempests whose winds, which can exceed 250 kph, scour the landscape. Predicting such killer storms has become a major industry in the Protectorate, and the residents of many rural communities have developed a strong weather sense in order to survive.
Geography
The Pampas
There is no solid boundary between the dune-sea of the Barrington Basin and the Great Western Plain. Instead there is a slow transition between the Badlands and the fertile farmlands, sandy erg giving way to arid scrub which increases in density the further north you travel. Below the 20th parallel, the aridity makes arable farming difficult and thus ranching is more common among the communities scattered along the Badlands fringe. These tight-knit groups typify the Protectorate's clan structure, with each fortified farmstead usually home to a single extended family. These work together to manage the estates, everyone from the youngest children to the elderly playing an important role in the community.
Though rain is scarce across the Protectorate, numerous small streams and rivers - mostly seasonal - as well as the MacAllen Network irrigate the territory above the twentieth parallel. Only in the far north do permanent watercourses and lakes exist, most notably the River Guadalquivir that rises southwest of Fort William. Spared the worst of the tempests, the soils across the region, named the Pampas by the locals after a similar area back on Earth, are deep and rich, ideally suited to agriculture. Indeed, the alluvial soils in these river valleys and around the lakes are among the best farmlands in the CNCS, and ownership of such land is highly prized and the subject of innumerable inter-clan disputes. Johar is the staple crop and in the later summer the harvesters appear to be tiny ships afloat on a grass sea.
Hills and Mountains
Mountain ranges bound the WFP on three sides. Having crossed the Badlands, the low and narrow Serpentine Range forms the league’s western boundary before merging with the Westridge Range in a convoluted series of ridges and valleys south-west of Franklin Harbor in the NLC. The higher and broader Westridge Range forms the eastern border, dividing the Protectorate from the UMF, and then arcs around to define the northern border with the NLC. Though in many cases WFP territory stops short of the encircling mountain ranges (the notable exceptions being around Fort William, where WFP control extends across the range, and the border with the UMF where, for the most part, the watershed marks the boundary between the two nations) their foothills form a distinct area of the Protectorate. Water is more readily available in these areas than in much of the WFP, a combination of increased precipitation and run-off from the mountains.
The wooded hills and valleys in the north-west of the league, a region known variously as the Crescent or the Colina Aterriza (hill lands), form a distinct topographic and climatic zone, mild and humid, more akin to the NLC than the rest of the Protectorate. This region is dotted with many small lakes and rivers that teem with life, and on whose shores many of the First Clans have summer hacienda. While the area is fertile and holds abundant resources, the government has maintained tight controls on immigration to the region and though a host of small towns and villages dot the region, few exceed 20,000 inhabitants.
The Grazalema Proclamation ceded control of the Pacifica Range and its mineral resources to the NLC. Unfortunately, the control of the Westridge Range and its strategic passes has long been contested with the UMF. One of these routes, the Cajun Pass near Mainz, was the target of UMF biological weapons during the WFP invasion of the Federation in TN 1570. The agents used were so virulent that no cleanup operation has been effective, and the pass has remained closed to civilian traffic.
The highest mountain in the Protectorate, Mount Mulhacen, is located in the Westridge Range south of Fort William, and the mountain and those around it are the few areas in the league where snow can be found. Indeed, the mountain and the Cordillera that surround it are regarded as a distinct environmental, climatic and economic region.
The Mulhacen Cordillera
The Mulhacen Cordillera is comprised of the mountains and valleys of the Westridge range south of Fort William. The plains surrounding the city-state itself are also generally considered to be part of the Cordillera. The region is the wettest in the West Frontier Protectorate and agriculture is common on the valley floors and the plains. As good land in the area is at a premium, many residents also eke out a living herding rockspringers and Mulhacen Cabra (a type of genetically engineered old Earth goat, capable of feeding on the hardy Terranovan vegetation) on the steep valley sides. The region is the principal source of the Protectorate’s mineral riches and raw material, including iron, tin and zinc, and both deep-shaft and open cast mines are a common sight. The Cordillera is also the heart of the Protectorate’s small but vigorous outdoor pursuits industry.
Localized Phenomena
Storm Warning
The great tempests that sweep across the Barrington Basin and into the Protectorate wreak havoc on ranches and farmsteads alike. Many farmsteads and settlements include weather stations that provide data to a central processing center in Fort William that monitors the growth and progress of weather systems. The center also gathers information from geo-stationary satellites above the Protectorate and the Badlands, issuing regular bulletins along with special storm warnings to areas at risk. Monitoring these broadcasts is an essential part of daily life in rural communities, though many farmers and ranchers have become familiar with the local climate and can predict a wide range of weather conditions.
The Great Western Plain has little protection from Badlands-born tempests, many of which rise in the Barrington Basin and cut up into the Protectorate. These storms can have a devastating effect on the landscape, alternately stripping the topsoil and depositing large quantities of sand. In an attempt to combat this erosion and the steady encroachment of the desert, the government provides incentives for farmers to plant trees and other vegetation. Unfortunately, many simply take the governments money and do nothing, leaving their lands exposed.
Tempest warnings are rated one to ten. Force one storms are little more than strong winds while a rating of force ten implies winds in excess of 250 kph that are often accompanied by chain lightning. Such storms are capable of damaging even the most solid buildings. Consequently, most Badlands fringe communities are built to withstand the tempests, adopting the oasis tower construction common in the equatorial regions. Most Pampas farmsteads are built on more traditional lines, though many have a storm shelter, a well-equipped bunker containing foodstuffs and medical supplies in which the residents can escape the worst of a tempest. Fortunately, most storms rarely exceed 150 kph (force six).
Climate
The climate of the WFP is predominantly warm and dry, verging on aridity in the south, but with high precipitation in the northwest. Much of the Protectorate suffers from drought conditions during the late spring and early summer, and moisture traps are a permanent requirement for settlements along the Badlands fringe. Together with careful recycling, they provide sufficient water for irrigation and daily life. Most rainfall occurs in the winter, but vicious electrical storms often occur in the late autumn. Most farmers hope for late storms as rainfall too early in the season can have a detrimental effect on the johar harvest.
Temperatures in the WFP average 28 C, though this rises to almost 40 C on the desert fringe and as low as 20 C in the mountains around Fort William. As with much of the north, the vatying topography and vegetation produce considerable local variations.
Fauna & Flora
Grasses and scrub plants form the bulk of vegetation in the Pampas, increasing in sire and diversity with distance from the Badlands. Lichen and rugged desert plants like waterroot and sand-beet dominate the arid southern regions, but these slowly give way to johar and its relatives like the thorny poker bush. The land around fringe settlements is a notable contrast to the dominant vegetation type, often irrigated with water collected from moisture traps and forming an oasis in the desolate landscape. Further north the land is verdant, particularly in the valleys, but the dry climate inhibits the growth of large vegetation and thus, save for the saguaro that line many watercourses, trees are rare. Only in the furthest reaches of the Protectorate, the foothills of the Serpentine and Westridge Ranges, do true forests exist, a mix of Terranovan pine, valuable eucalyptus and cork oak genetically modified from their Earth forbearers.
Grassrunners are common in the WFP but together with rock crabs are regarded as major pests, and runnerhunts are a common pastime in rural areas. Sandhoppers are also common, but unlike 'runners they are domesticated and play a major role in the rural community, serving as a source of food and hides. Herding springers and Tamaru (Western Barnabus Iguanas) dominate the stock of ranches on the Badlands fringe, but a few homesteads farm Terran cattle. Horses and riding springers play a major role in the ranching culture, the terrain frequently being unsuitable for vehicles. Dawgs and prairie jackals are the dominant carnivores in the WFP, regarded as much as a curse for their predation against livestock as a boon for their keeping the'runner population in check. Domesticated dawgs are common in many homes, rural and urban alike. The dawg's smaller cousin, the sand fox, is widespread on the Badlands fringe.
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