#urchin barren

[life-on-our-planet]

The kelp's holdfast, its crucial attachment to the rocks, is incredibly tough. Each sea urchin has five teeth, which are self-sharpening and are replaced every few months. With them the urchins fell vast areas of kelp, creating clearings known as "urchin barrens". BBC | Planet Earth

[wearepaladin]

a bit of context for some of my recent asks about oaths: i've been working on modifying some OCs to be part of a larger team of adventurers, and I had this idea of reworking an Exalted character (a chosen of the moon who is a liberator of the oppressed and terror of tyrants) into a similar concept as that ancient dinosaur warrior I tossed a while back. I thought of making oaths a part of his character and wanted to look up stuff on the Oaths for inspiration, and Ancients seems interesting?

The Ancients is an Oath is a deliberately radiant oath, focusing on the Light in every tenant. Out of all the oaths, it is the most purely altruistic, encouraging it’s keeper to find the goodness in themselves, in others, and defend it all.

Kindle the Light. Through your acts of mercy, kindness, and forgiveness, kindle the light of hope in the world, beating back despair.

Shelter the Light. Where there is good, beauty, love, and laughter in the world, stand against the wickedness that would swallow it. Where life flourishes, stand against the forces that would render it barren.

Preserve Your Own Light. Delight in song and laughter, in beauty and art. If you allow the light to die in your own heart, you can't preserve it in the world.

Be the Light. Be a glorious beacon for all who live in despair. Let the light of your joy and courage shine forth in all your deeds.

The issue, if one can find difficulty with such a thing, is that it’s nebulous beyond being a servant of light, it does not define the dark, or how the light is to be ignited against shadow. It’s one that embraces an altruistic consequentialism, where the end result is more important than the direction one takes to get there.

Or, more importantly, it allows anyone to find a place for themselves as an oathkeeper, be they trained knight, wily urchin, or reformed monster finding a way to harness and grow the light within and without.

[tearlessrain]

what about the companion questions from the tav ask game, for mallory!!

eey thanks! (ask meme here for everyone else lost in the bg3 sauce)

for reference here's Mallory, looking very offended that the obviously hazardous rune had the audacity to zap him when he poked it

he's a half-drow gold draconic sorcerer and as extra as that lineage would suggest. he's also got the urchin background, but he doesn't tell people that.

I also feel it's important to mention that he was the first character I created for my initial blind playthrough and by the time I realized that his backstory and personality had a similar vibe to Astarion it was too late. as a pc it works because he romanced Astarion and the two of them have a wonderful time being insufferable and flamboyant together and bonding over their similar trauma, but as a companion he'd feel a bit "why do we have this guy, there's already one of these but better". but for the moment we'll ignore that lol.

1. What would your Tav’s greetings be (at different levels of approval)

Negative:

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" (intensely sarcastic)

"Oh. It's you."

"I was just wishing someone would come over and bother me." (also sarcastic)

Neutral+:

"Can I help you?"

"A pleasure."

"Hello, darling."

High+:

"Everything all right?"

"You know, I actually enjoy these talks."

"I hope you're well, aside from... you know."

Flirting:

"Well, hello."

"My dear, you have my full attention."

"Oh, just here to talk? Pity."

Partnered:

"I'm here."

"Gods, what would I do without you?"

"Do you need something, love?"

Broken up:

"Darling! Whatever can I do for you?" (intensely sarcastic)

"Keep wandering over here and people will talk, you know."

"Straight to business, I suppose?"

"Hm, I liked you better when you were fawning over me."

2. Describe their tent setup! What’s on the outside? The inside? The inside would be cluttered but in a deliberate organized chaos kind of way, Mallory decidedly lives up to his dragon blood in that he collects shiny things and trinkets and has maximalist decorating tastes when he's able to. the outside would be comfortable but fairly unassuming and barren. The reason for this is not personal taste, it's so that anyone who might come along to burgle the camp will go for the externally fancy-looking tents first and leave his alone.

3. What would their character quest be titled? Why? oh god I'm so bad at titles, probably something gold-related or dragon-related. idk the writers are talented they'd come up with something snappy.

4. What would your Tav’s romance scenes look like? How many would they have? He would definitely be on the "bone first ask questions later" end of the companion spectrum and would probably come onto the player fairly early on. Mallory flirts with Everyone whether he's invested in following through or not and prior to The Tadpolening he'd been clawing his way up the ranks of the upper class mages in his home city via a carefully balanced combination of fucking and blackmail and it was a marked improvement on the situation he was in before that, so his perspective on both sex and relationships is not what you'd call rose-tinted. He'd be doing the same thing here, looking for leverage and a way to establish himself with the person who's taking charge of things. It would definitely be a fun romance in act one, very weighted toward the sex scenes and light banter, but he'd be deflecting any attempts to take things further emotionally or get him to open up (and might show a bit of a vicious streak if he's pushed too hard) until the latter two acts of the game, when you'd probably see more in the way of heart to heart conversations with him as he starts trusting the player. And that trust would mean a lot to him, considering all his prior "relationships" have been transactional at best and abusive at worst.

He'd also be among the companions who's fully down with you hooking up with Halsin, and would only complain if he never gets invited. He's not well suited to monogamy.

5. Describe their idle animations! Doing little tricks with conjured fire to entertain himself, straightening his clothes/hair a bit surreptitiously and/or being preoccupied with some dirt that's not coming out, maybe doing some stretches. Pacing because he's not very good at waiting around. admiring some bauble he found while out adventuring with you and trying to figure out where to put it. if companions autonomously interacted with each other he and Gale would be arguing about magic frequently.

6. How would the player go about meeting them in Act 1? What is their introduction? I feel like the player would probably find him standing in a ring of char not far from the crash, surrounded by several smoldering intellect devourers and looking like he was not at all planning to do any adventuring the day he got abducted. He'd be wary initially but would warm up very quickly once he realizes you're not also here to attack him and suggest sticking together until the whole situation gets resolved.

The first impression he tends to give off is "mildly snobby ivory tower mage who's never had to boil water before" but it's a very curated image that he designed to navigate a very specific environment and it starts to break down once you realize he can pick locks and has a lot of random mundane survival skills and will immediately adopt any orphan that stands still long enough if he's allowed to. he is very good at being a mage though, that part is accurate.

7. Describe their arc. How would a player help resolve it? What choices can be made? Can your Tav be turned down a dark path, or pulled to a lighter one? Mallory definitely has the potential to go to the dark side, one of the ways he's most similar to Astarion is that he fears/resents others having power over him and is willing to take dubious measures to make himself as untouchable as possible. He's also manipulative at times and the kind of person who fully believes he could outwit the devil (not without reason, but he's much less impervious to consequences than he thinks he is), and he's got a lot of pent up resentment and grief and anger he's never really dealt with, so it's entirely possible that he could end up in a very bad place (both for him and for everyone around him). I've thought about one unfortunate timeline that eventually ends with him becoming a devil himself, which ultimately just traps him in a worse version of everything he was trying to escape from as a mortal but gives him the illusion of power and control (so at least he can tell himself it was worth it, even knowing it wasn't).

If influenced away from that though, he's just as capable of turning all that toward improving things instead of tearing them down, and he does have a good heart when it comes down to it.

He's got a huge soft spot for kids and a strong drive to make sure as few as possible ever have the kind of childhood he did, so I could see his arc tying in with the tiefling babies and/or Yenna in some way.

It would also likely involve Darius, his abusive ex who "took him in" in his late teens when he was in a particularly bad spot, and who he didn't get away from until he was essentially bought by someone else (which is how he ended up in the social groups he did) for more gold than Darius felt keeping him was worth. There was never any real closure there prior to the events of the game but that guy honestly needs to die. whether things end well depends on what's motivating him by the end and how he gets there; this will either be a turning point where he'll realize he's better off helping people who need it than hurting people who deserve it, or he'll go full tumblr revolutionary and decide that killing Darius wasn't enough and the only way to fix anything is to burn it all down and start from the ground up so he can do things properly, collateral damage be damned.

8. After Act 3, what does their life look like? What are they talking about at the reunion party? Regardless of his ending he will have been continuing to develop his magic, guy was like two levels away from sprouting wings by max level and he's not gonna pass that up, plus he just enjoys it.

If he had a good ending he will 100% have adopted Yenna and/or a tiefling orphan or two, and has definitely been making a huge nuisance of himself to the city's patriars in an effort to help improve things in the lower city, to great success all things considered. Mallory is extremely good at making a nuisance of himself effectively. It will be pretty clear that he's doing a lot better mental health wise and takes a lot of pride in what he's doing.

If he had a bad ending... he will insist that all his power plays and growing spiderweb of faustian bargains and revenge plots are going fantastically, and he's doing great.

He is definitely not doing great.

[gravitytrips]

this will be the multi chapter one. The prompts have been altered a bit

Chapter one

Things were not looking good. The townspeople had rubbed their brain cells together in a way that made them realize that they could call the FBI. And boy was the government interested.

Clones? Respawning? An infinite war? That was enough to get their hands dirty, let alone the individual abilities of each mercenary.

RED Scout was the first to get captured. When the feds first arrived, they busted into the base, pointing guns in everyone’s faces. They weren’t afraid to die, but they did not have access to their weapons. Scout was dragged away, kicking and screaming.

There was two reasons that Scout was taken first. One was that they thought it would bring the team’s morale down to see their youngest get carted off to Lord knows where. The second was that they were incredibly interesting in Scout’s ability to “double jump”. So, after they had successfully dragged Scout out of the reach of his friends, they sedated him and took him away.

The BLU Medic was the next to go. The FBI had ruled the RED Medic to be too dangerous to keep in custody, but they still wanted to get ahold of that healing liquid, so they went after BLU.

The agents saw the BLU Medic attempting to sneak supplies back into his base. They made quick work of him. The tranquilizer darts to the neck, and he was down.

Scout woke up strapped to a table. There were people in surgical scrubs cutting open his legs. The pain hit him like a wave full of sea urchins. Scout screamed and bucked against the restraints. There was shouting. Swearing. His consciousness quickly fell away from him again.

Blu Medic woke up in a dim room. The gray cube was barren, sporting only four metal walls. He didn’t feel good. How he wished he had his medical supplies.

The Medic’s schemes to escape were interrupted an hour or so later by the feds throwing something into his room. Once the agents left, he turned to see what it was. Blu Medic stifled a gasp when he recognized the boy on the floor. 

The Red Scout’s legs were a mess. They had been cut open in several places, and there had clearly been some tampering. Unlike that crazy Red, the Blu Medic had been trained as a military doctor, which meant helping anyone wounded, even those on the other team. 

Scout awoke again in a terrible pain. His legs were throbbing. He heard a shuffling sound at his feet. When he looked down, he was horrified to find the Blu Medic winding bandages around his legs.

Scout tried to drag himself away from the man, but he was too weak from the anesthesia the surgeons had used.

This small movement alerted Medic to the fact that Scout was awake. He quickly saw the panic in the boy’s eyes and began to comfort him. After Medic managed to calm Scout down, he began asking him questions.

“Does your team know you’re missing?”

“How do you feel right now?”

“How much do your legs hurt?”

“Is it enough that I could convince our captors to let me heal you?”

Scout answered the best he could. Yes, his team knew he was missing. He felt awful right now. They hurt a lot. Probably.

Blu Medic nodded, then gently set the boy’s legs down. He stood and walked to the door. Just as he was about to knock, the door was thrown open. 

A gun was shoved in the Blu Medic’s face. The feds ordered him to come with them. Medic was fairly certain he knew what they wanted from him. He quickly went back over to where Scout lay, lifting the boy’s head up and grabbing his overcoat from under him. Gently placing Scout’s head in the floor, he assured the boy that he would return. Then, he turned, threw his coat on, and buttoned it as he walked out the door.

@aerowolf

[endlingmusings]

[ Illustration of a Steller’s sea cow from “Extinct Monsters: A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal Life” (1896). ]

“On a Russian-led expedition in the northern Pacific Ocean in the 1740s, German botanist Georg Wilhelm Steller laid eyes on a species that captured his imagination. It looked like a manatee but was bigger than a killer whale, and it grazed similarly to a cow or horse. After Steller described the animal, it became known as Steller’s sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas).

The sea cow could grow about 9 meters (30 feet) in length and weigh up to 10 metric tons, but this colossal creature had few defenses. Covered with thick blubber, the sea cow could not fully submerge itself in the water, but floated at the surface, grazing on kelp. This tendency made the species vulnerable to hunting.

“These animals are very voracious and eat incessantly, and because they are so greedy they keep their heads always under water, without regard to life and safety,” Steller wrote in his account. “Hence a man in a boat, or swimming naked, can move among them without danger and select at ease the one of the herd he desires to strike — and accomplish it all while they are feeding.”

By 1768, less than three decades after Steller formally described the species, the sea cow was extinct. But in a new paper, some scientists suggest the species left a considerable legacy in the coastal waters of the North Pacific: the enhancement of kelp forests through its eating habits.

From Baja California to southeastern Alaska, giant kelp forests sprout from the seabed along the coast. Giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera), a kind of algae, can grow up to 60 centimeters (2 ft) daily in ideal conditions, making it one of the fastest-growing species in the world. While the average length of giant kelp is 30 m (100 ft), it can grow up to 53 m (173 ft) — about half the length of a football field.

These vast underwater forests provide multiple benefits: food and habitat for thousands of species, water oxygenation that helps reduce ocean acidification, and the protection of coastlines from powerful waves and storm surges, which are getting stronger and more frequent with human-induced climate change.

But globally, kelp forests are threatened by warming temperatures, overfishing, pollution and other human activities.

In their new paper, scientists argue that the sea cow impacted kelp forests in the North Pacific by browsing at the surface, which would have encouraged the growth and strengthening of different kinds of understory algae. This thick, rich algae would then provide a food source for predatory urchins that can devour kelp, turning the ecosystem into what’s known as “urchin barren.” In California, for instance, it’s estimated that 95% of the kelp has recently disappeared, primarily because of urchin predation.”

- Excerpt from “Extinct sea cow’s underwater engineering legacy lives on today, study finds” by Elizabeth Claire Alberts.

[willtheweaver]

A writer’s guide to forests: from the poles to the tropics, part 3

And now for something completely different:

Kelp forest

Forests are a fixture of the land, but there is one type that can be found below the waves.

Location- Shallow coastal waters in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

Climate- Temperate to subpolar. Currents mean that the seas will be cooler than the land. Kelp does not like warm waters, and die-offs can occur if the waters are abnormally warm.

Plant life- Not a true plant, kelp fill the same niche. Giant kelp are the most common, but in areas of the NW America, currents and tidal movements mean that bull kelp grow in abundance. Kelp forests are seasonal, and many varieties die back in late autumn.

Animal life- Various fish dart in and out of the kelp fronds, including several species of sharks and rays. Bryozoans, anemones, and soft corals cling to rocks, and some even to kelp fronds. Mobile invertebrates include sea urchins, starfish, crabs,and octopus. Seals and sea lions are among the top predators. Otters inhabit the northern and southern reaches of the Americas. While many pelagic species shun the kelp forest, some will venture close, or be blown in by storms.

How the forest affects the story- Being underwater presents challenges to characters that are not found on land. Unless aided by some form of magic, fire is one thing a society will have to go without. This has great implications, as there are many things that cannot be done without fire (such as cooking and metal working). A body will lose heat faster in water than in the air, so how do your characters stay warm? Are they fully aquatic, or can they venture onto land? Think about how characters communicate; water is a great medium for sound to travel through. Do they use bioluminescence at night? Hunting would be the default choice for a society, but it would also be fun to imagine some kind of aquaculture. One more thing to think about would be outside forces. Fishing and kelp harvesting would definitely present a challenge, and force characters to confront humans, or their story equivalent. Warm waters weaken kelp, and encourage the growth of many invertebrates. Imagine your characters having to deal with a kelp forest being devoured and turning into an urchin barren. This is not even getting into the fact that storm surges can uproot vast swaths of kelp. Such disasters would be the equivalent of a major forest fire or deforestation. Would your character be able to cope with such an event?

[praetorqueenreyna]

30, 34, and 40 for the aquatic ask game please🌊⛴️⚓️

(marine biology ask game!)

30. Stupidest aquatic animal name?

Oh absolutely has to be the Northern Right Whale Dolphin.

That is not a typo. They are called whale dolphins. they are dolphins named after the right whale because they also don't have a dorsal fin. it's a terrible name.

34. Best extinct aquatic animal?

It's SO basic but it has to be Dunkleosteus

idk why but I love her SO MUCH, she is my favorite extinct animal EVER, I have a giant tattoo of her on my leg. She is everything to me.

40. Share a pet peeve about something marine-related (e.g. a misconception, a portrayal or lack of portrayal of an animal, etc.) that drives you up the walls.

SOUTHERN SEA OTTERS ARE NOT A KEYSTONE SPECIES FOR THE KELP FOREST!!! THEY DO NOT PREVENT URCHIN BARRENS!!! THEY DO NOT PROTECT THE KELP!!! STOP SPREADING SEA OTTER PROPAGANDA!!!!

Actually just like....sea otter media in general. it's all full of lies and misconceptions.

[marineexplorer]

Status Rock showing reef and barrens #marineexplorer by John Turnbull Via Flickr: Our western survey site is on the bottom of the shot along the curved reef. You can see the lighter-coloured urchin barrens curving around to the darker algae and cunjevoi in the shallows. Seal Rocks

[drhoz]

#1963 - Cheilodactylus spectabilis - Red Moki

Photo by @purrdence​ 

AKA banded morwong, brown-banded morwong, carp or nanua. It might not be a Cheilodactylus, however - recent genetic and morphological evidence puts it in the genus Chirodactylus, in a different family. 

First described in 1872 by Frederick Wollaston Hutton, from the Cook Straits in New Zealand. ‘spectabilis means "notable" or "showy", a reference to the markings.

Found along the coasts of southern Australia, and northern New Zealand, where it lives in caves and crevices, and emerges to feed in the kelp forests. They feed on gastropods, bivalves, crustaceans, polychaetes and other benthic invertebrates such as small sea urchins. The latter may play a role in preventing the creation of urchin barrens. A long lived and slow growing species, living up to 90 years old, growing up to a meter in size.

[bumblebeeappletree]

In recent years scientists monitoring the seafloor noticed something strange was happening... The beautiful and mysterious kelp forests and seagrass meadows are disappearing and being replaced with a barren landscape, covered in sea urchins and devoid of life.

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

===============================

The beautiful and mysterious kelp forests and seagrass meadows are disappearing and being replaced with a barren landscape, covered in sea urchins and devoid of life. The coastal ecosystem is rapidly collapsing under our watch so scientists have set out to understand this phenomenon. Why are these massive urchin takeovers taking place? and Why is something that has maintained its balance for tens of thousands of years suddenly tipping over and falling apart?

We have found some answers in an unlikely character, a fluffy, cute looking marine mammal that inhabits these kelp forests, the sea otter.

🦦 Learn more about our sea otter project: https://mossy.earth/projects/rewildin...

Originally posted on YouTube on September 7th, 2021.

[wanda-the-anaconda]

howdy-do lynnguine! so i hope you dont mind but ive decided forgo zorse zonkey zaturday today to finally tell you all i know about urchin barrens!! so here you have it (complete with reference links and everything :D !!)

(quick disclaimer, all the shade i’ve been throwing to sea urchins is /lh. they are an essential part to the ecosystem, and urchin barrens are naturally occurring, the problem is they’re becoming wayyyy too common and creating an unstable food web and ecosystem)

okay so!!

as you well know, urchin barrens are formed due to an overabundance of sea urchin and a lack of predation on them, which leads to them over feeding on kelp, and that decimates the forests. the increase in sea urchin population can be traced back to two other keystone species’s population declinations: sea otters and sunflower sea stars

obviously everyone knows that sea otters came super duper close to extinction back in the late 1700s/early 1800s due to fur trades (it was actually thought that they were completely extinct until a raft of 50 otters was discovered back in the 20th century!!), and their numbers are still very low despite human intervention. the reason they aren’t as potent in helping revive kelp forests is because one: in the US, they aren’t widespread enough in the west coast to have a larger effect outside of the central/south california coastline; and two is for the same reasons we can’t harvest some of the urchins to eat: they’re inedible. if there’s an area that has been completely wiped of kelp, all of the urchins there are barely clinging to life and have zero nutritional value because they’re starving over a lack of sustenance. that gives them 0 market value.

so who’s been shouldering the burden to keep kelp forests alive? sunflower sea stars. but back in 2013, there was this new marine virus that practically decimated at least 20 species of sea stars on the pacific coast. it’s called sea star wasting disease or sea star wasting syndrome (also abbreviated as sswd and ssws respectively), and because of it, the sunflower sea star’s population dropped by 94% within the past decade, causing it to go regionally extinct in large portions of the west coast that range from all the way up to alaska and down to baja california.

scientists still actually have no idea what caused sswd and although it hasn’t been proven yet, there seems to be a correlation between the rising temperature of the earth and the declination of all sea star species affected by sswd, especially when you think about the recent marine heatwaves that are only growing warmer and lasting longer. (in fact, i just read an article that theorized that all common sea stars might go extinct by 2100 if the temperature keeps increasing :( ) and climate change isn’t only just weakening the sea stars, but the kelp itself! marine heatwaves and huge storms like el niño make it hard for kelp to grow, thrive, and reproduce

^^this is a neat info graphic that has more info on kelp forest biodiversity (check out the note on zombie urchins at the bottom of the pic!)

so ya got the cause of urchin barrens, but here are some current solutions going around!!

in areas with denser urchin populations some people are smashing them (although running the very small risk of having more urchin eggs become fertilized as their gonads float all over the place). they are also either harvesting the urchins with more nutritional value, or removing the zombie urchins for studying in order to research how properly feeding the less nutritious urchins could help them regain market value so that way there’s an alternative to simply destroying them. (important to note that smashing/removing urchins doesn’t mean completely depleting their numbers, it means bringing it back down to normal levels in order to allow the kelp to regain some ground)

there is a large campaign for researching sunflower sea stars and helping them recover (which i learned a lot about when i read the official roadmap to recovery pdf) and also understanding sswd to help see if there’s a way to help cure all other sea stars affected by it, and by extension, help rein in the urchin population

and, there is actually a petition to reintroduce sea otters up in oregon and down in baja california to bring balance back into the ecosystem, along with more recovery efforts in central california. however, talk about reintroduction efforts are receiving some backlash from people working in the shellfish industry, seeing as sea otters would infringe on their industry by creating competition for food and thus harm their profits and livelihood

and yeah! thats kinda it!! ty for reading <3

(if you actually got through all of that, then you get a prize. the prize is a smooch or a hug, whichever you want)

okay I tried sosososo hard to come up with a clever response but I cannot. however I will say this is so interesting and also fuck climate change

[afatlotofchance]

So... There is a fantasy roleplaying game called “Shadowrun”. You might have heard of it before. Basically it is Dungeons and Dragons meets the Cyberpunk, as you play in a distant, technological future of virtual worlds and mega-corporations, but where human society was shaken forever after a cataclysmic “return of magic” into the world resurrected long gone species (like dragons), gave people and objects various magical abilities, and cause widespread mutations of various humans into traditional fantasy species like elves or orks. 

But we aren’t here to talk about the roleplaying game. We are here to talk about the video games adapted from the roleplaying game. Well... not all the games, because there was a lot of Shadowrun fantasy games; one in particular. The fifth in the series, “Shadowrun Returns”. And we are not even going to talk about this game specifically, but about a sub-game of it, “Shadowrun Hong Kong”. Why do I call it a sub-game? Because... Technically speaking Shadowrun Hong Kong was conceived as one of the additional campaigns of the main game of “Shadowrun Returns”, but then got split up and published as its own unique game part of the vast Shadowrun series, with its own DLC to drive the point... It’s a bit complicated.

But what interests me here is one of the secondary characters - or rather one of the main characters, part of the group with which you, the player, tag along. Duncan Wu, an ork who is a sort of “honorary brother” of the protagonist, as they grew up together as typical street urchins in the poor and unhospitable land known as “The Barrens”. Duncan was the brawn to the protagonist’s brain in their various plans and fights - being an ork, it made him stronger and bigger than other people, as well as more violent. The actual campaign takes place as the protagonist finds back Duncan many, many years later as an adult. He now works for a security company known as “Lone Star”, but soon joins the protagonist and their group on their dangerous adventures - and still fulfills  his role of the “muscle” of the group. In fact, it is a recurring point that he has a hot bodybuilder muscular body that everything keeps commenting or drooling about, which gave him the nickname “Gun Show” (nickname that he does not like).

But here is the interesting thing... I saw online, in a few posts, that according to in-game lore and info, Duncan used to be fat. When he was a teenager, growing up in the Redmond Barrens, he was pretty chubby, had a bit of a gut, which led him to being nickname by people back then “Duncan Donut” ( a nickname that still embarasses him to this day). He only lost the fat when he started regularly exercizing, due to joining the Lone Star company. 

And here is the thing... I don’t know much about this game, I don’t own, I can’t pay for it - so there is one thing I cannot check: does the game show Duncan as a fat teen or not? It is made pretty clear in my sources that the whole “Duncan Donut” story actually pops up in dialogues, when you talk with Duncan more than the game requires you to (the game is played by moving small 3D avatars across the city, and when interesting with people dialogue options pop up on the side with their 2D portrait on the side). But there is an unclear implication that there might be a “flashback” to his “Duncan Donut” period. I know the game does have flashback sequences - but I can’t find anything that confirms a flashback to the teenagehood of the main characters. So if anyone has more info, can tell me if the Duncan Donut story is just part of a dialogue or actually received art (3D or 2D) don’t hesitate to tell me!

[coralcalypso]

like if u would kelp them

ignore for urchin barren

[clawsbcared-a]

below the cut is basic info on the mormont muses:

GAWEN MORMONT:

current lord of house mormont of bear island, eldest son of howen mormont and brother to hugo mormont.

known as 'the papa bear', thought to have been a sweet nickname from his children, but actually due to his constant fathering of children - legitamite and bastard.

his first wife was said to have been the beauty of the vale, an arryn bride with an aura of softness about her - it was said her charm was like magic to have tamed the gruff beast that was gawen.

he taught each of his kids to hold a sword and gut a man by the age of six, each child, bastard or not, was to protect bear island from invaders and he would ensure his house's protection.

after his wife's death he found solace in talks of war under the tits of different women, until he was once again married to a younger woman - politically motivated this time. helya blacktyde, a woman of quick wit and intelligence from the iron islands, though has no love for the sea, only the creatures within.

he is intent on following his vassal house, house stark, during the dance, however, his house becomes split due to dacey's kidnapping and gawen's need for warfare.

HELYA MORMONT:

a blacktyde in name and blood, helya was the youngest of her siblings and the one to inherit nothing, no title or land, for she had to marry and marry well.

creatures of the water became her fascination from a young age and she became known as the 'sea urchin'.

her father made the negotiations between himself and gawen without helya's knowledge, her first meeting with her husband was on their wedding day in the cold of the north.

they have been married for almost two decades now and have no children together due to helya being barren - which worked in her favour as she never wished to carry children, it seemed bothersome to her.

she sits in protection of bear island during the dance and does not particularly leave the island due to the constant threat of invaders.

DORREN MORMONT:

lord heir to bear island and eldest son of the house, dorren was named after his father's uncle who had taken the black when he was eighteen due to his own growing reckless behaviour.

nicknamed the 'wayward beast', dorren has a penchant for neglecting his duties as heir and is often found practicing blades with serving boys or target practice with the kitchen's rotten fruit.

he has two bastard daughters that reside south in kings landing with their mother, an estranged lover he long lost feelings for after finding her in bed with the stableman. he is secretly glad for the distance as he does not believe he will be a good father.

he has never really accepted warrick as his brother due to his bastard lineage, and has not truly understood gawen's reasoning for bringing him into the home seeing as their are countless mormont bastards of the realm and no other has entered the castle grounds.

joins his father on dragonstone as the rumours of war build, his father's need for a battle and blood overcoming the sense of loyalty towards house stark and awaiting their stance of the war to come. they pledge their banners to rhaenyra and the blacks to fight alongside them.

DACEY MORMONT:

eldest daughter and once betrothed to a lannister son for trading routes, dacey was known as the 'dancing ghost' of bear island.

though trained in warfare and battle, dacey found preference and distraction in the bloom of flowers and the crunch of leaves beneath her feet, often dropping weapons mid practice to wander into the woods surrounding their castle.

no matter the injuries sustained by the bears surrounding the island, dacey has often been found wandering out in the middle of the night with sacks of meat or fruit for them.

there is a rumour that dacey is a seer, a dreamer of the future, but it is yet to be proven - none of her mutterings and soft riddles have yet come to pass.

her betrothal to the lannister boy was broken off as the rumours of war began, the deteriating health of viserys causing gawen to go full warfare commander and protect his house from those traitors. dacey wasn't devastated nor was she happy, she felt nothing as she did most days in the castle.

dacey was taken from the woods around the castle after her brother and father had travelled to dragonstone, an attempt at ransom and hostage in changing the mormont's small yet strong house against the blacks for the safety of their own. she is currently held in apartments at the red keep.

WYLLA MORMONT:

youngest daughter and killer of mother, wylla was troublesome from the moment she was conceived. causing her mother distress in both pregnancy and birth. due to wylla's positioning, she had to be cut from her mother's belly, ultimately causing her mother's untimely death.

gawen, though training her in sword and bow, could not look at his youngest daughter, nor did he truly acknowledge her existence among his children. his first wife was the love of his life and wylla had killed her.

wylla was not offered the same teachings as dacey, instead her learning was lenient and almost forgotten, allowing her to beat her brother with a wooden sword in anger and flee to the woods for the comfort of true bears.

independent and hard headed, wylla found a companion in her half brother, warrick. they grew together as the unwanted kids of the castle, the burdened mormonts who cause nothing but pain in every look or action.

there was no love between herself and helya, nor with her father, but when sweet dacey was taken to the keep in the south and nobody answered the call to have her returned. wylla and warrick did. they escaped the island, leaving it vulnerable of attack, and travelled south to petition their loyalty to the crown in return fo their sister. all under the nose of her father and brother who had already pledged to fight for rhaenyra.

WARRICK SNOW:

bastard born to gawen and a kitchen maid, allyra, warrick was taken under gawen's wing at a young age after his mother passed away from illness. it was odd for a bastard to be brought into the household, especially when gawen had many, so for a time warrick felt special.

he was bullied relentlessly by dorren and serving boys, treating him as the runt of the litter, and in reality, he was. he was small and frail, thin and clumsy. he was the 'runt cub'.

warrick would practice out of site of his father alongside wylla, she would teach him swordplay and archery from her own lessons, pass on knowledge to her only friend.

he wasn't close to his other siblings, but admired dacey's soft touch around the castle, her graceful glide along the corridors and her barefeet walks into the woods. so when she was taken he stood by wylla's side and supported her plan, travelling south alongside her to save their sister.

[scienceinenglish]

Researchers call it the “sea cow effect”: To save the kelp forests, read history

In findings published today in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, scientists from the California Academy of Sciences describe how one unassuming undulator, the Stellar’s sea cow, affected the kelp forests ringing North America’s Pacific coast before European visitors hunted it to extinction in the 1760s.

According to the authors, our tendency to assess ecosystems based on current and recent factors, which they call shifting baseline syndrome, may prevent us from seeing the big picture. Ecologically speaking, the sea cows were around until relatively recently, but because “relatively” here means “before scientific method came into its own,” they’ve been left out of most model.s

Much like how beavers create openings in the terrestrial canopy by damming streams to create lakes, the sea cow’s mighty megaherbivory cleared away the upper fronds of the kelp forests, allowing shafts of sunlight to pass through the otherwise photon-thirsty upper kelp into the marine understory and smaller plants, most significantly algae. The algae in turn provided food for other organisms.

Over the past few decades, California’s kelp forests have been dying off. Sea urchins have thrived in the area’s warming waters and have devoured the kelp plants, creating desolate stretches called urchin barrens. This may be due to human overhunting of their principal predators—sea otters. But unlike the Stellar’s sea cow, sea otters survived the European onslaught until the advent of protective legislation and are now in recovery. In efforts to save the kelp forests, researchers usually remembered sea otters but forgot the sea cows.

“When kelp forests were evolving millions of years ago, there were large marine herbivores like the Steller’s sea cow, which are now extinct,” says study co-author Dr. Peter Roopnarine. “So when it comes to what’s driving their widespread decline, there might be a major component we’re missing.” Roopnarine went on to compare the sea cows to terrestrial wildfires. Human beings might think they’re helping the forests by putting them out, but they’re actually a necessary and natural part of its life cycle.

Roopnarine and co-authors proposed a new model: the Past-Present-Future approach (PPF). This model incorporates what we think of as modern scientific data, museum samples, and ecological knowledge from traditional Indigenous sources.

The research team built a mathematical model of a kelp forest using data about sea urchins, sea otters, and other extant factors and then added the sea cows. According to study co-author Dr. Roxanne Banker of the University of Nevada, this transformed the forest completely. Their findings suggested that before about 1750, the kelp forests would have been better described as kelp-and-algae forests. With the sea cows clearing the upper layers of kelp away, algae would have dominated the middle levels.

This kelp-algae ecosystem would have been much more resilient to such challenges as drastic changes in temperature or hordes of oncoming urchins. Urchins, Banker points out, like to eat algae, and their voracious appetite for kelp may have been caused by the disappearance of this other food source. The researchers call this the “sea cow effect”: Even though, intuitively, it might seem like removing the large herbivores would help the kelp, it seems to have hurt them and every other organism nearby.

Roopnarine hypothesizes that sending human beings out to trim the kelp fronds might be produce something similar to this older, healthier kelp ecosystem.

Read the full text in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

Roopnarine P, Banker R, Sampson S. Impact of the extinct megaherbivore Steller’s sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) on kelp forest resilience. Front. Ecol. Evol. November 28, 2022. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.983558

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