JUNGLE



KIMWITU/INLANDER PEOPLE The indigenous inhabitants of the vast Gorean Equatorial rainforest. Of Earth Bantu stock.

Their physical description is tall, long limbs, high cheekbones, dark eyes, black tightly curled hair. Majestic bearing.

The various Kimwitu/Inlander nations speak some variant dialect of Inlander Speech, Terran Swahili.


 * see Kimwitu/Inlander People main article

TALUNAS Non-Inlander tribes of Earth European stock females. Savage tribes of outlaw females who capture and enslave the unwary who intrude upon their territories within the Rainforest. Not to be confused with the Northern Panther Girls.

MAMBA PEOPLE Cannibals of the Rainforest. Distinguished by their filed teeth.

PYGMY TRIBES The Little People of the Rainforest. They are suspicious of strangers but will trade with outsiders.

Jungle/Rainforest Climate


In a word, wet.

It rains throughout the year in the Equatorial and sub-Equatorial Belts. The only seasonal difference being that it rains more in the Summer than in the Winter. The winter storm and severe weather which plague the Northern lattitude, and force the closing of ports in that part of the world, are non-existent in the ‘Tropics ’ of Gor. The benevolent weather allows the great port of Schendi to remain open year-round, one reason for its fabulous weath and cosmopolitan culture.

This is not to say that there aren’t storms in the Equatorial regions, there are.

'‘…It is not always easy to make a fire in the forest. There are commonly two large rains during the day, one in the late af¬ternoon and the other late in the evening, usually an Ahn or so before midnight, or the twentieth hour. These rains are of¬ten accompanied by violent winds, sometimes, I conjecture, ranging between one hundred and ten and one hundred and twenty pasangs an Ahn. The forest is drenched. One searches for wood beneath rock overhangs or under faIlen trees…’'13:32:309

'‘…One does not make one's camp in the jungle near tall trees. Because of the abundant amount of moisture the trees do not send down deep tap roots, but their root systems spread more horizontally. In the fierce winds which often lash the jungle it is not unusual for these shallowly rooted trees, uprooted and overturned, to come crashing down…'’13:32:310

But, these periodic and brief squalls are more a nuisance to shipping rather than a true hazard in the lanes. At sea, upon the broad glassy green breast of Thassa, such rains are expected by ship-captains and can usually be sighted and avoided.

The tropical climate is also defined by its heat.

The vast Great Rainforest is one big heat-sink, holding an eternally moist atmosphere beneath its steamy and leafy canopy. Exact figures on Gorean tropical humidity and temperature are not currently available, but Terran figures of typical tropical humidity, at sea-level, follow a normal range of 75 to over 100 percent , varying seasonally. Seasonal temperature lows ranging from the 60’s F. around the Winter Solstice to low 80’s F. at the Summer Solstice. Highs averaging from the low 80’s F. to low 100’s F.

The Inlanders, the indigenous people of the Jungle, usually employ minimal dress to survive the heat and heavy air.

'Note- ‘Tropics’ is an Earth-specific term, denoting the area around its globe between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. These designations do not exist on Gor and therefore the use is a misnomer. However, Tropical tarns were mentioned in Book 5 and Tarl Cabot uttered the term in Scroll 13, thereby legitimizing its use on Gor.'

Waterways of the Jungle/Rainforest


The Gorean Jungle/Rainforest extends in a very wide band across the planet's equator. How wide a band is unknown for very little of the Jungle has been charted by outsiders and few native Rainforest inhabitants are interested in a comprehensive geographical survey. However, several major features of the Jungle are known. The Cartius Proper River flows from the north and feeds the great interior Lake Ushindi. Two rivers drain Ushindi, Kamba and Nyoka. Both rivers drain to Thassa, Nyoka through the City of Schendi’s harbor. The core of Bila Huruma’s ubarate exists around Ushindi, on its southern shores. Forming a crescent west and eastward of Ushindi is extensive flood plain collectively known as the Great Marsh. East of Ushindi is the Rainforest’s second known great lake, Ngao. Ngao is fed by the mighty Ua River, which runs west/southwesterly. The Ua cannot be navigated throughout its length because of its many falls and cateracts. There are very hostile tribes along the river as well. The source of the Ua is the third, and last discovered by Outlanders, of the great equatorial lakes, Lake Shaba. By eyewitness accounts, Shaba is larger than Ushindi and Ngao, fed by thousands of streams.


 * see Gorean Maps

Animals of the Tropics and Rainforest


BIRDS--

Ushindi Fisher; A tufted waterbird with long white feathers and long legs. Fleer; Nocturnal long hook-billed bird. Fruit Tindel; Brightly plumaged bird. Gant; Gorean duck. Hook-billed Gort: Preys largely on rodents like ground urts. Grub Borer; an insectivorous bird. Gull  Yellow Gim; Owl, makes a throaty warbling. Jard: A small, yellow-winged scavenger bird. Lit; There are several varieties of this bird including the Common Lit, Crested Lit, Crested Lit is brightly plumaged with red and yellow feathers. and the Needle-t ailed Lit. The Mindar: Hummingbird. Parrot Tanager: A brightly plumaged bird. Tibit: This is a small, thin-legged bird that lives on tiny mollusks on the shores of Thassa. Tropical Tarn; The jungle tarn is a rare bird, gloriously plumaged, from the tropical reaches of the Cartius. They are extremely light so that two men could lift one. Its wings are broader and shorter permitting a swifter take off and a capacity for extremely abrupt turns and shifts in flight. They lack the stamina of most other tarns and cannot carry heavy weight but are fast and excellent for racing. Umbrella bird Wader: There are at least two varieties, the Ring-necked Wader and the Yellow-legged Wader. Jungle Zad: This is a large, broad winged, black and white bird with a long, narrow, yellowish, hooked beak. Perfers to tear out the eyes of weakened victims.

FISH--

Bint; River piranha. Crayfish, Eel,  Giant Gint: A four-spined dorsal fin, ten feet long, thousand pounds lungfish. River Shark.

INSECTS--

Ant; also called Tiny Marchers, bite is extremely painful but not poisonous. Honey Bee, Beetle, Centipede, Flies, Jungle Grasshopper: Red and weighs about four ounces in weight. Leech,&nbsp Lice: Lice vary in size from very tiny to the size of marbles. The larger variety infest tarns so tarnsman must remove them. When they remove them, they might feed them to the tarn. Lice can be dangerous though as they transmit the pox. Rock Spider; They are usually brown or black and when they fold their legs beneath them, they look almost like a rock. Can be grow to upwards of eight feet thick. Roach: This is commonly an oblong, flat-bodied black creature about half a hort long. It has long feelers and is basically harmless. Snails, Termites; They are also called White Ants. Zarlit fly: the Gorean Dragon-fly, it is large, harmless, purple insect about two feet long with four translucent wings spanning a yard across. It is insectivorous. It hums over water and alights on the water with its padlike feet daintily walking across the surface.

MAMMALS--

Jungle Anteater; There are six varieties of anteaters in the rainforests near Schendi. One type is the great spined anteater. It is about twenty feet long and has heavy clawed forefeet. These claws are generally used to break into termite nests, its primary prey. They are also strong enough to eviscerate a larl. The anteater's four-foot long tongue is coated with an adhesive saliva that it uses to collect them. It also commonly makes a whistling sound. Baleen Whales, Frevet; Small, quick, and friendly mammalian insectivores. They sometimes live in insulae in the cities and eat pests. As they cannot eat through walls, then they do not harm the insulae. Gatch, armored; Marsupial. Giani; Solitary, prowling, tiny cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man. Kailiauk; A short-trunked, stocky, awkward ruminant. There are several varieties including the Yellow Kailiauk. The yellow variety are tawny and their haunches are marked in red and brown bars. The males have a trident of horns and usually stand about ten hands at the shoulder. Females only stand about eight. The males weigh about sixteen hundred to two thousand pounds and the females only weigh twelve hundred to sixteen hundred pounds. They are located in the savannahs and plains north and south of the rain forests. Some herds even frequent the forests. Leopard; spotted and striped. Monkeys: The Guenon, Tarsiers, and the nocturnal Jit monkeys. Panther,&nbsp Long-tailed Porcupine, Slee: This is a rodent of the rainforests. Tabuk; There are twenty varieties of tabuk in the rainforests.Tropical Sleen; smaller than the Northern type. Jungle Tarsk; There are several varieties of tarsks in the rainforests, both large and small. They can be domesticated and the rencers keep some. They are best hunted from the back of kaiila with lances and the giant tarsk is often hunted on tarnback with lances. Tarsk meat tends to be salty. Urt; In the rainforests there are Gliding, Ground, Leaf and Tree urts. Jungle Vart; Gorean bat. Zeder; This is a small, sleen-like carnivore from the rainforests. It frequents the Ua River and its tributaries. It grows to two feet and weighs eight to ten pounds. It is diurnal, can swim well, and builds a stick and mud nest in tree branches where it sleeps at night.

REPTILES--

Hith: This is the huge, many banded python of Gor. The Great Banded Horned hith is the most feared constrictor but is only native to certain areas of the Great Forests. The Golden hith is a rare snake. Its body would be difficult for a grown man to encircle with his arms. Mamba; A large long, log-like body with short powerful legs. It has a long snout and tail. Gorean alligator. Ost: The osts of the rainforests are red with black stripes. Its bite causes an excruciating death within seconds. Tharlarion; of the crocodilia familiy

UNSPECIFIED LIFE-FORM Yellow pool monster: A passive but deadly predator. A gelatinous animal which devours its prey by solidifying around it and digesting it with highly corrosive acids.

Plants of the Jungle/Rainforest


'There is an incredible variety of trees in the rain forest, how many I cannot conjecture. There are, however, more than ''fifteen hundred varieties and types of palm alone. Some of these palms have leaves which are twenty feet in length. One type of palm, the fan palm, more than twenty feet high, which spreads its leaves in the form of an opened fan, is an excellent source of pure water, as much as a liter of such water being found, almost as though cupped, at the base of each leafs stem. Another useful source of water is the liana vine. One makes the first cut high, over one's head, to keep the water from being withdrawn by contraction and surface adhesion up the vine. The second cut, made a foot or so from the ground, gives a vine tube which, drained, yields in the neighborhood of a liter of water. In the rain forest some trees grow and lose leaves all year tong, remaining always in foli­age. Others, though not at the same time, even in the same species, will lose their foliage for a few weeks and then again produce buds and a new set of leaves. They have maintained their cycles of regeneration but these cycles, interestingly, are often no longer synchronized with either the northern or southern winters and springs. --from Book 13, Explorers of Gor

Specific names of the Gorean rainforest flora are few. Palms are mentioned, in a generic way. It's stated there are hundreds of varieties of palms, but only the Fan Palm is mentioned by specific name. Canopy trees are mentioned without exact names. Vines and creepers and underbrush are also mentioned without proper names, excepting the Liane Vine, which is a ready source of fresh water.One tree which is mentioned by name is the Pod Tree, known as the Mulberry Tree on Earth. It is from this tree's inner-bark fiber that the supple bark cloth of Jungle slave wear is fashioned.

It is stated that the banks of the mighty Ua River is festooned with flowers, Ua being the Inlander word for flower, but no exact names are given in this instance either. It is not unreasonable to expect Terran stock to be among the blossoms, irises, orchids, hibiscus.

Beyond the specifically mentioned, one must conjecture that among the hundreds of variety of palms in the Jungle is the majestic Coconut Palm, the sheltering frond Travelers Palm. It would not be unreasonable to assume Banana Trees are present, Mangoes, Papayas, Vanilla vines, Avocados, the whole spectrum of Terran tropical flora, in one form or another.

To stumble across the hardwoods such as Koa, Mahogany, Ebony is not too fantastic a supposition. Even the lightweight Cork.

In any case, all of the above will be allowed in the Home's roleplay. What the hell, throw in a Pineapple while you're at it.