Real Locations that should be fantasy

[Susano]

This was part of a post on the Star Hero forum (and much thanks to Susano for providing it), but IMO it absolutely belongs here too: Blood Falls, a pocket of sea water trapped beneath a glacier in Antarctica, filled with unique iron-rich bacteria, which occasionally gushes onto the surface ice: http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets...auto-4535.jpeg . You can read about the phenomenon here: http://www.nature.com/news/2009/0904....2009.368.html

Yeah... in a fantasy setting that could be "blood"... or it could be filtered for the iron (akin to gold) and used to make magical items.

[Kraven Kor]

Bigger Image





Terwilliger (aka "Cougar") Hot Springs.

Clouds carry fables
to inspire new lands
to build new empires
watch them wash
back into sand.

Remnants sing songs
Of worlds they deamed
Unaware their dreams become
Adam and Eve - Cycle of Creation, Scott Rockwood

[Susano]

Ischigualasto – The Valley of the Moon

The name is old – from the native Quechua tribe and it means the place where you put the moon. Ischigualasto is an extraordinary almost off world experience. Geologists have been visiting the valley in Argentina for more than one hundred years. It doesn’t take long to see what attracts them.



http://www.kuriositas.com/2010/11/is...y-of-moon.html

[Michael Hopcroft]

Ischigualasto – The Valley of the Moon

The name is old – from the native Quechua tribe and it means the place where you put the moon. Ischigualasto is an extraordinary almost off world experience. Geologists have been visiting the valley in Argentina for more than one hundred years. It doesn’t take long to see what attracts them.

Looks like what would be left after powerful sorcerers fight a magic war -- a blasted wasteland in which virtually nothing but the hardiest plants can live for long.

Which, needless to say, is where the PCs have to go to accomplish their mission....

[Michael Hopcroft]

This was part of a post on the Star Hero forum (and much thanks to Susano for providing it), but IMO it absolutely belongs here too: Blood Falls, a pocket of sea water trapped beneath a glacier in Antarctica, filled with unique iron-rich bacteria, which occasionally gushes onto the surface ice: http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets...auto-4535.jpeg . You can read about the phenomenon here: http://www.nature.com/news/2009/0904....2009.368.html

You know, it surprises me that unlike the Arctic, the Antarctic has no human inhabitants. It is the only place on Earth that has the distinction of being completely devoid of mankind with the exception of the expeditions who go there deliberately and do not stay permanently. In a fantastical environment, such a place would, of course, be inhabited -- by very strange creatures indeed.

[Old Man]

In a fantastical environment, such a place would, of course, be inhabited -- by very strange creatures indeed.

Like flightless birds that swim and giant carnivorous seals?

[Michael Hopcroft]

Like flightless birds that swim and giant carnivorous seals?

He is a Walrus. Goo Goo Goo Joob.

Part of my point though is that the farther in you get from the coast the less likely it is to find any kind of life at all. Close to the pole absolutely nothing can survive for long. So magical creatures in the polar region would have several interesting characteristics, such as not need much food if any at all.

The South Pole of a fantasy Earth might well be guarded by something big, nasty and magical placed there for that specific purpose.

[Cancer]

Te Rua Manga on Rarotonga (called "The Needle" in English). You can see the god's face in the rock.

[Old Man]

Get that god some botox!

[Lord Liaden]

Wonderful to see this great classic thread revived. Newcomers to these forums could benefit greatly from it.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Cathedral Grove over on Vancouver Island. It's falling down now, unfortunately.