Zone of Fire
From Almeopedia
| Author: Primordial Soup |
Contents |
Physical characteristics
The Zone of Fire is a narrow band (approx. 500 km wide) of climate inhospitable to humans, centered on Almea's equator and running all the way around the globe. On land, it typically contains an additional obstacle: a 30 km wide equatorial strip of barren rock, totally devoid of life. Even in the sea, the Zone is practically impossible to traverse; the heat makes rowing and other muscle-powered methods of propulsion impractical, and permanent equatorial doldrums usually prevent sailing through.
Biology
What is true for humans is also true for most other forms of life. Almean animals (with the exception of a few very tough migratory animals in the air or possibly the sea) never cross the Zone, and it is both wide and calm enough to generally prevent the wind from carrying plant seeds to the other side. Consequently, the biology of Almea's two hemispheres are nearly closed systems, with almost entirely distinct assortments of species. However, the species are not as different as would be expected had the Zone always existed; most phyla, classes, and orders have representatives on both sides of the Zone. This suggests that the Zone has not always been there, and was probably absent several million years ago. The explanation is unknown.
Lesuniae
A significant exception to the generalisation that each species only exists on one side of the Zone is that certain sentient lesuniae are found in both hemispheres, including humans, ktuvoks, elcarî, icëlanî, and iliî. This can be explained in the case of the iliî, who are reportedly able to cross the Zone by sea, either by swimming across (a difficult feat, even for an iliu), or by other methods, the details of which are presently unknown (it has been speculated that they use vehicles of some kind, or that they exploit larger, hardier animals to carry them across).
The question of how the other species came to be on both sides of the barrier is unanswered. It is not plausible that they independently evolved in both hemispheres, as the northern and southern varieties of, say, humans clearly constitute a single biological species. None of them have the technological capacity to cross the Zone except in highly exceptional circumstances, and there is no evidence that they have ever did, so although colonization of one hemisphere by the inhabitants of the other is a possibility, it does not seem particularly likely. An alternative hypothesis (proposed by certain scholars from Oikumene) is that the current distribution of lesuniae is artificial - the more technologically-advanced iliî having transported other lesuniae in the distant past. The role of iliî as demigods or bringers of civilization in many human mythologies is cited in support of this, but one problem with it is the motive of the iliî: what could their reason have been for transporting other sapient beings between continents? The other sapient lesuniae, being terrestrial, would not be useful as slaves to the marine iliî, and it is unlikely that the iliî would have used them for food.
Origin
The origin of the Zone of Fire is shrouded in mystery. Although at the present time the heat retention of the central band of rock makes it stable, as noted above it cannot have always existed. It could be there as the result of a geological process, but the nature of that process is anyone's guess. If it is geological in nature, it may be an intermittent phenomenon like Oikumene's ice ages, or it may be that this time is the one and only time it has ever existed.
The possibility also exists that it is artificial, created by the iliî or by some long-gone technological species for reasons that have been lost to history. Almean mythology tends to support this idea, as in most Almean creation myths that feature it, it is said to have been created by sapient beings. In the Cuzeian cosmology, for instance, it is a relic of a global war between iliî and ktuvoks.
