Everything about Tundras & the Far North- World Building

Hello everybody today we’re going to analyze scrat from ice age and correct the god awful physics engine they used in the game ice age 5 sky rim Tundra environments can be hard to world build so that they’re cool look at that that’s not interesting that’s moss so today let’s go over what tundras are where they form the features that make them unique and do a little bit of world building with arctic minotaurs get excited i’m excited are you excited

Whoa not that excited put your pants back on please guys the youtube ceo has me trapped in her basement making videos for her and every time somebody clicks off without subscribing they shock me with a michael reeves device so i need your help to enjoy the discords in the minecraft server

Tundras are the mushy gushy frozen frosty biomes at the north and south poles where they receive long and extreme winters and short mild summers there’s three descriptive categories of tundra that are important to cover here plains tundra alpine tundra and polar deserts all three are characterized by dry conditions extremely cold

Temperatures and the inability for large plants to grow planes tundras are the regular snowscapes that we usually think about as tundras in the summer a plane’s tundra will look like rolling hills of low shrubs and grass large rock scapes and martian swampland the placement of plains tundra on a global scaled map is

Rather straightforward on earth tundra makes up a band along the arctic coast of the northern hemisphere if you start in southern canada and make your way north you’ll first pass through a forest of mixed evergreens and hardwood deciduous trees then you’ll go through a massive band of all evergreen tiger forest

Then at either 60 or 66 degrees north the pine forest will become less dense more fragmented and smaller sized until you’re totally in a tundra plain up here plains tundras are characterized by its permafrost where the ground itself is frozen solid the summer sun might melt the surface so

A foot or two at the top isn’t frozen but beneath that stays rock hard large plants can’t sink their roots into this stuff so you only get stuff like mosses grass small shrubs flowers anything with shallow roots that can go dormant during a long long winter there’s not much plant matter up here

But some animals like reindeer can travel and graze off of these shrubs otherwise the foxes wolves and bears here will have to hunt for small prey feed off of large migratory bird populations or hunt for fish in the rivers and ocean nearby a traveler in the summer

Tundra may find it to be a surprisingly alien place if you’re here in the summer it might be pretty foggy mostly on the ground it’ll be stretches of soggy land of melted permafrost and mosses but you also get ponds lakes rivers these things called pingos which are like

Sudden pimple hills with small ponds inside of them also patterned grounds mosaics of marshy ridges and ponds that look man-made kettles glacier formed pockets of round ponds that create a landscape of dimpled circular lakes and pulsas mounds of decayed organic material most of these features are lowland ponds and swampy terrain

But the tundra also consists of rolling hills rock scapy landscapes plateaus gullies cliffs and mountains it’s weird to hear that plains tundras are dry places because as you can see the environment here is quite waterlogged i’ve read that a lot of summer tundra soil is like stepping on a big

Mossy sponge this water gives way to there being so many goddamn bugs ah it’s like a bethesda game my friend who wants to settle in alaska tells me that the only way to deal with this is on an early spring night you get pissed drunk and walk naked outside for the mosquitoes to

Feast you’d look like smallpox had been training in a montage for 40 years just to come crashing down on you alone you’d seem like the michelin man lived to be 120 and tried to relive the glory days with a bike pump you’d get sucked dry like a capri sun bag and your

Pouch will not be respected but godspeed good friend i hope you have enough whiskey to drown out those titanic taint tingles turning away from my friend’s ball side to our maps most world builders are happy to put a simple band of tundra around their northern and southern continents

At about 66 degrees latitude and call it a day and that’s perfectly acceptable to do but in real life tundras often stretch further downwards running along mountain ridges like alpine tundras or they can even sit below areas of lush taiga forest like happens in alaska the stretching down of

A tundra below that band can be caused by large land masses or cold ocean water which can both make a place cold and dry if you don’t care about the specifics and reasoning behind this all go down below and skip to where i give a shorthand after this

Russia is huge and it sees more tundra and very cold sub-arctic conditions in its east than its west this is for two main reasons one asia is a massive blocky land mass its inland is so far from the ocean that there’s a lot less evaporation and moisture in the air here

A key point here is that dry air is denser colder and higher pressure than warm wet air and tundras form where it’s cold and dry siberia and central asia end up having this bubble of cold dry weather because there’s so little evaporation here especially in the winter time this big

Block of cold dry air that sticks around causes a lot of the deserts in central asia as well as the tundras of siberia siberia is also colder than western russia because western russia is affected by the warm waters around europe the warm wet air from these ocean currents is pushed by eastward winds

Into the european portion of russia over this vast landmass though these winds lose their moisture and their warmth so by the time they’re in the east the wind is really dry and cold siberia also gets oceanic winds from the north which is a super cold high pressure zone from the arctic

So that doesn’t help warm it up at all so in placing these tundras we’re focusing on land masses and ocean currents these things also give alaska a weird biome profile the southern coast is a more temperate oceanic environment the middle is a cold tiger while the western outjut

And northern section are both tundras this is strange especially that cold dry western coast so this is because a relatively warm pacific current travels eastward at about northern california’s latitude then it splits and it goes up the coast and creates a gyre south of alaska basically a big spinny water current

Some water here goes more north through the aleutian islands and forms another gyre in the bering sea then it goes more north up into the arctic ocean when water forms a gyre up in the north like this it releases its warmth and moisture as it takes time to spin around

That’s why the southern coast is decently warm and humid the water is spending time here and making the weather warmer and wetter the water that goes into the bering sea then is colder and this affects the weather of western alaska turning it into a tundra if this alaskan peninsula didn’t exist

I don’t think it would form a gyre and the water would flow straight up into the bering sea so i bet the southern and western coast would both be a taiga just like those latitudes are in canada if you want to do the winds and currents of your world’s land masses

In depth on your own here is an artifexion video on it but i’ll give you a shorthand here this list covers it for the northern hemisphere first anything in the highest latitudes of the hemisphere should be a tundra if it’s on a massive land mass make the tundra take up more area

Especially on the eastern portion of it if there’s a waterway from the arctic down to the temperate oceans the land on the waterways left will be very cold now the land on the waterways right if a current from the southwest could come up and hit that coast unobstructed by land it’ll be warmer

It’ll look more like iceland scotland or juno alaska if not it’ll be a tundra if there is a big island with currents connecting the arctic and temperate oceans on both sides of it that land will be super cold like greenland now if you’re making something in the southern hemisphere

The directions are flipped so the land to the right of the waterways is cold and the land on the other side with an unobstructed current from the northeast is warmer and for both hemispheres if there are high mountains there will be alpine tundra along those high ridges

Tundra can even form in the tropics if these mountains are high enough peep this tibetan plateau with permafrost on it this cold bald windy patches on the top of mountains are called alpine tundras as you go up a mountain it gets colder and the air gets windier and thinner

Climbing up is kind of like walking north as you hit deciduous forest then mixed then evergreen then you pass the tree line where now you’re in an alpine tundra why do we refer to the alps in the biome name i don’t know europe just likes to think it’s the entire world

The higher north of the mountains are the lower the elevation of the tree line and the lower the alpine tundra starts there’s this fascinating thing that happens at the tree line when the conditions become too harsh and windy for trees to live it’s called a crumb holes

The winds blow on the trees so hard that they can’t grow naturally unless it’s protected by a rock or a ridge or something crumb holds trees can form like flags where the trunk itself protects the branches so they only grow on the windless side or the trees can grow to be gnarly and

Knotted whereas stuff is pushed over twisty and grows deformed so as to create a larger space of protection for its branches i would love for there to be a dnd boss fight on a giant gnarled tree like this where the boss can change the direction of the wind and absolutely

the party over if he hits the branches holding on would be like a dex and a strength check if you can continue further up past the tundra zone you’ll eventually reach the snow line where snow and ice stay year round if the ridge is big enough glaciers will form

This highest line on the mountains has the same features as a polar desert polar deserts are completely desolate landscapes of glaciers rock and snow think the top of mount everest the south pole or greenland any life that exists here relies on aquatic hunting like seals penguins walruses and polar bears do so

You won’t get many of these on a glacial zone at the top of a mountain of course unless you world build it you could figure that out this desolate area may seem boring but you can get interesting features to world build with like glacial crevices cliffs boulders jagged spires avalanches sub-glacial

Lakes tunnels rivers and more just take a look at this footage of people crossing glaciers on mount everest and add a big dong dude hurling boulders at them and there’s your next d d glacial encounter if you want to go more in depth about glaciers and ice ages

These two videos will help you out a lot as they talk about glacial landforms mountain glaciers and floods on your maps though it’s only vital that you know that in the northern tundras where glaciers used to be you’ll have large areas of lakes scraped out by their movement

See canada finland or again these videos for more detail now world building a settled human civilization for the tundra is not as simple as making one for forests or shrub lands tundras have a lot of harshnesses to overcome but by god we’ve still done it let’s take a look at three examples of

Real tundra peoples and then we’ll discuss some arctic based cultural beliefs religious ideas and traditions the nanettes inuits and scandinavians are all far northerners but they have different ways of going about food shelter and transportation the nanettes are peoples who live in the northwest and north central regions of russia

The inuits are a group of native american peoples stretching from alaska to greenland and the scandinavians settled from canada to eastern europe all three of these people groups had populations living in the tundra those tundra sectors would always rely on fishing and hunting for food and export goods

The inuits are the most hardcore tundra peoples they pretty much exclusively hunted and gathered and they’d make their clothes teepees and kayaks out of reindeer and seal skins many inuit peoples lived deep into the tundra so they’d have to use bones walrus ivory teeth and driftwood for their tools and grafts

They were expert navigators in this region and would rely on landmarks carrots they’d set up and these cool wooden maps depicting coastlines other than that the inuits are famous for setting up igloos which are temporary houses that insulate themselves well when you light a fire in the middle

You must have some pretty cold balls in order to go up to a seal and smack it with a club or stab it with a spear because look at this thing the ninnets lived in the taiga and tundra though after recent soviet brutalization most traditional ninitz today live

In the russian tundra around the 1700s people groups here began domesticating reindeer in large herds since nanettes relied on reindeer meat for food skins for clothing and tepees antlers and organs for tools and trade and labor for pulling sleds a major economic activity of the tundra ninites was

Reindeer pastoralism on the tundra shrub of course this was additional to hunting and fishing but all these activities require you to move around as a nomadic clan a fun fact that comes from this each nenet’s clan carries with it a sacred sled pulled by dogs that only the elders can

Unpack this would have things like bear skins precious metals and religious symbols seemingly all stuff that has a material air of power and finally we get the scandinavians scandinavia is actually quite a diverse area but it’s mostly forests mountains sea lakes swamp and tundra while farming and herding were the main economic

Activities for the people the scandinavians still heavily relied on the ocean for fish travel and trade i mean the region is surrounded by water and islands with a bunch of different peoples on the far shores so it makes sense that they’re gonna get really good at shipbuilding and sailing

Because of their geography i think this is best shown in the mountainous northern coast of norway the fjord valleys here saw groups of families settle around them because they were often surrounded by fertile lands and had deep inlets that were perfect for shipbuilding and harbors so when the viking expansion started

Many came from this northern coastal area right now the most accepted theory as to why the vikings started raiding is because there weren’t that many women in the homeland as a consequence of selective female infanticide so young men would go together to increase their prospects of wealth and marriage

By looting places selling people into slavery and eventually conquering whole regions once one person goes and loots a monastery without any trouble and comes back with a bunch of gold you’re gonna get a lot more raiders trying to follow in those riches and glory scandinavians also famously settled

Greenland and iceland the latter of which edges the difference between tundra and sub-arctic plane look at this every corporate climate map of iceland claims it to be something different iceland has a warm climate for being this far north because it’s blasted by the warm gulf stream

And it’s got volcanic hot springs which is a pretty good resource up here the icelanders largely relied on pastoralism of traditional farm animals hunting as well as fishing and sea travel of course this was a particularly lush arctic landscape where people would settle in the fertile coastal lowlands and in the fjords

The inland would be used for grazing greenland is a different story eric the red famously explored the island and named it greenland to trick people into moving there where the tundras of iceland and scandinavia were close by to milder forests vegetation in greenland was sparse at best

Here they’d just hunt and fish and we have records of them traveling halfway up the island on expeditions to hunt walruses and polar bears of course though the scandinavian settlements on south greenland eventually failed probably due to overgrazing and deforestation of the sparse foliage there meanwhile the mega chad inuits were

Literally chilling at the northern end of greenland just in their everyday vibe watching the aurora borealis aurora aurora my accent and speech impediment do not like that word basically charged solar particles get deflected off the earth’s magnetosphere and sent to the poles where they clash with the charged part of the upper

Atmosphere and it goes if you are world building an arctic civilization and you don’t include the aurora in its religion i’ll charge the particles on your face the inuits told that the lights were ancestor spirits playing a ball game with a cosmic walrus skull norse mythology claims that the aurora

Was the reflection of the armor and shields of the valkyries women warriors who decided who would die in battle it was also seen as the bifrost the rainbow energy bridge that brought killed warriors to valhalla finnish mythology sees the lights as the trail kicked up by cosmic firefoxes

All of these stories are tripping but i like finland’s interpretation the best the finns also have traditions surrounding the midnight sun on the summer solstice the earth’s axial tilt is more pointed at the sun so there’s this fully illuminated circle at the very top as the earth rotates here the sun hits

Even the far side of it because it’s tilted that’s why the sun doesn’t set for a long time during mid-summer up here the same goes for winter but it’s just really dark and scary the finnish mid-summer holiday is called johannes named after the christian prophet john the baptist it was originally

Called uconn yuchala named after the finnish god of weather harvest and thunder being that it’s a long day in the middle of summer the celebration of this includes big bonfires it was also believed that magic rituals were more powerful at this time especially those involving young women trying to find love

And fertile humps this day is generally for drinking and outdoor partying and nowadays many fans go on vacation to northern summer cabins as you can see tundras aren’t just boring mosses they’re filled with all sorts of variety resources and dangers there’s a certain magic in the fog abyss to the swamps

And mystique within the ice if you want to see some fun world building about arctic minotaurs i’m gonna publish that separately because this has already been an episode of the world building tv show 20 minutes long i’m stoneworks jack if you liked this video please like comment dislike unsubscribe whatever and i’ll

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