| The Wagon Peoples are nomadic, roaming across the vast, grassy prairies of the southern hemisphere. These prairies are largely treeless and often flat, though there are some areas of small hills. The prairies teem with wildlife, from deadly prairie sleen, vicious predators, to tiny, brown prairie urts, scavengers. You will also find herds of kailiauk, tumits, and maybe even a larl that descended from the Ta Thassa Mountains. These prairies extend over 2500 pasangs from the coast of Thassa, at the Ta Thassa Mountains, to the southern foothills of the Voltai Range.
Due to their great size, these plains have a diverse climate with some of the more southern regions receiving snow in the winter. The northern regions, closer to the equator, do not receive any snow. Winter on the plains can be brutal, with harsh snowstorms and strong winds. The grass then dies or becomes frozen and nearly worthless. One must often dig deep beneath the snow to find a handful of useable grass. When the snow arrives, the Wagon Peoples must then move their bosks and wagons to the winter pastures, far north of Turia. It is not unusual for bosk to starve to death during this snowy trek, unable to garner sufficient grass. This also means that some wagons might have to be abandoned, as there is usually no time to train new bosk to pull the wagons.
The plains seem to extend as far north as the banks of the Cartius River. The Cartius River was once thought to be a tributary of the Vosk River, and is even stated as such in Nomads of Gor. But, Explorers of Gor showed this belief to be incorrect. The explorer Ramus eventually discovered that the Cartius and Thassa Cartius were different rivers and that the Cartius is not a tributary to the Vosk. The Cartius is actually an important subequatorial waterway that flows generally west by northwest. It enters the tropical rainforests and finally empties into Lake Ushindi. The regions of the Cartius may sometimes be referred to as either the eastern or western Cartius, dependent on which geographic area one is referring to. For example, one might refer to the valleys of the eastern Cartius. The western Cartius is located far from the cities of Gor.
The Cartius River derives its name from the direction, Cart, it lies from Ar. Cart is roughly equivalent to "southwest." Once, the great city of Ar, at the start of Tarnsman of Gor, claimed hegemony over all of the lands between the Vosk and the Cartius. But even then, the tarnsmen of Ar rarely fly south of the Cartius River. And even though Ar no longer claims hegemony over those lands, they still rarely fly beneath the river. When travelers do seek to cross the Cartius, they commonly do so on barges pulled by teams of domesticated river tharlarions. The bargemen, who claim to be a caste though not all accept their claim, consist of interrelated clans. When the Wagon Peoples choose to cross the Cartius, they generally do not use the barges. Instead, they swim their bosk and kaiila across, while riding on the backs of the bosk. They will also float their wagons.
With the information from Nomads of Gor, we do gain a better understanding of some of the geography of the region. We understand that the lands of the Tahari are to the east of the southern plains. And we understand that the equatorial jungles only extend a certain distance east, and it is not necessary to cross those jungles to travel from the plains north toward Ar. It is also said that Ar is located hundreds of pasangs away, across the Cartius. When Tarl Cabot traveled from the Sardar Mountains to the plains, he generally traveled south and southwest, though more southwest. We should note that the popular map from the German editions of the Gor novels apparently places the Sardar in the wrong location, to the west of Ar. If this were accurate, then Tarl's directions from the Sardar to the plains would have placed him into Thassa. Tarl left the Sardar in Se'Var, a winter month in the northern hemisphere, and arrived in the Plains during their autumn.
In the midst of the plains is the great city of Turia, which must continually deal with the threat of the Wagon Peoples. The plains may be called either the Plains of Turia or the Land of the Wagon Peoples, depending on who is speaking. There are others besides Turia and the Wagon Peoples who make their homes on the plains. There are a number of peasants who own farms within these prairies, engaging in agriculture and animal husbandry. But, they do live in constant worry that the Wagon Peoples may attack them one day, burning and destroying their farms. It seems likely that most of these farms are located fairly close to Turia, helping to supply the city with food and providing a close refuge if the peasants ever need to flee to safety. |