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Description

275 Million Years PE

It is now five million years since the end of the Mid-Ultimocene. The hothouse age has arrived.

Serina is now a global wetland, as a carbon dioxide-heavy atmosphere traps heat and moisture in a self-perpetuating cycle of nearly constant rain that floods the land and turns the world into a maze of ponds, rivers, lakes and inland oceans. Seas are at their highest ever levels with no ice caps remaining, and oceans have claimed the edges of all continents hundreds of miles inland, forming thousands of islands along coastlines the world wide. A hothouse world lacking temperature changes throughout the year has virtually removed all trace of seasons except near the poles, where they are defined by changing day length from light to dark. Serina is now warm and wet all year, every year, and everywhere. It has never been warmer, ever, with a global temperature now averaging a steamy 81 degrees Fahrenheit (27 Celsius). This temperature is not only an average of all global regions, but is very likely to be the temperature you will experience anywhere from pole to equator, for heat is distributed extremely evenly across Serina’s surface so that even in the polar winter the air near the ground remains balmy.

This climate - hot but not dry - is highly favorable to life in general, as many organisms have now adapted to this new - and very different - condition. Trees have already returned to Serina, evolving from the ramblerooters, hiddenwoods, and other woody ice-age survivors quick to take advantage of the new endless summer, and have spread across Serinaustra and across offshore islands the world wide. Yet forests are almost nonexistent across the entire northern mainland: thorngrazers, still the most successful land animals by numbers, so heavily graze the landscape as to completely prevent the growth of trees wherever they can reach. Only the steepest slopes escape their appetites, as well as islands in deep water, for thorngrazers are heavy and dense, making them very unsuited swimmers.

Plants and animal biodiversity has already recovered to pre-ice age levels, but this new world is not a paradise. Storms form readily in the hot atmosphere, and thunderstorms form everywhere nearly daily, burning fast and angry as they blow across the land and light the sky with electricity. Warm oceans likewise regularly produce immense, towering cyclones bigger than any in known Earth history, which may batter the coastal regions with winds in excess of 300 miles per hour. Inland, the muggy climate favors the proliferation of parasites and the spread of pathogens which in a colder world were of little concern, requiring animals to be incredibly resilient - or incredibly good at keeping themselves clean. This is a world of equal parts endless abundance and incredible danger. Food, for most, is everywhere - but so too can be death around any corner. To thrive here takes great caution, the sharpest wit, or the most brutal brute strength, and Serina’s animal life has found ways to utilize all three in the hothouse - a period already shaping up to be an age like no other.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Read the full entry here: sites.google.com/site/worldofs…

Description

275 Million Years PE

It is now five million years since the end of the Mid-Ultimocene. The hothouse age has arrived.

Serina is now a global wetland, as a carbon dioxide-heavy atmosphere traps heat and moisture in a self-perpetuating cycle of nearly constant rain that floods the land and turns the world into a maze of ponds, rivers, lakes and inland oceans. Seas are at their highest ever levels with no ice caps remaining, and oceans have claimed the edges of all continents hundreds of miles inland, forming thousands of islands along coastlines the world wide. A hothouse world lacking temperature changes throughout the year has virtually removed all trace of seasons except near the poles, where they are defined by changing day length from light to dark. Serina is now warm and wet all year, every year, and everywhere. It has never been warmer, ever, with a global temperature now averaging a steamy 81 degrees Fahrenheit (27 Celsius). This temperature is not only an average of all global regions, but is very likely to be the temperature you will experience anywhere from pole to equator, for heat is distributed extremely evenly across Serina’s surface so that even in the polar winter the air near the ground remains balmy.

This climate - hot but not dry - is highly favorable to life in general, as many organisms have now adapted to this new - and very different - condition. Trees have already returned to Serina, evolving from the ramblerooters, hiddenwoods, and other woody ice-age survivors quick to take advantage of the new endless summer, and have spread across Serinaustra and across offshore islands the world wide. Yet forests are almost nonexistent across the entire northern mainland: thorngrazers, still the most successful land animals by numbers, so heavily graze the landscape as to completely prevent the growth of trees wherever they can reach. Only the steepest slopes escape their appetites, as well as islands in deep water, for thorngrazers are heavy and dense, making them very unsuited swimmers.

Plants and animal biodiversity has already recovered to pre-ice age levels, but this new world is not a paradise. Storms form readily in the hot atmosphere, and thunderstorms form everywhere nearly daily, burning fast and angry as they blow across the land and light the sky with electricity. Warm oceans likewise regularly produce immense, towering cyclones bigger than any in known Earth history, which may batter the coastal regions with winds in excess of 300 miles per hour. Inland, the muggy climate favors the proliferation of parasites and the spread of pathogens which in a colder world were of little concern, requiring animals to be incredibly resilient - or incredibly good at keeping themselves clean. This is a world of equal parts endless abundance and incredible danger. Food, for most, is everywhere - but so too can be death around any corner. To thrive here takes great caution, the sharpest wit, or the most brutal brute strength, and Serina’s animal life has found ways to utilize all three in the hothouse - a period already shaping up to be an age like no other.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Read the full entry here: sites.google.com/site/worldofs…