World

World layouts

• Scattered biomes

  Every kind of land close together, small seas between them. · 0–120 km

  Landmasses of about 120 km with the biomes close together: every kind of land is a short trip away.

• Giant continents

  A few huge continents between oceans: travel to find every resource. · 1000–3000 km

  A few giant continents of 1,000 to 3,000 km between true oceans: long journeys, climates far apart.

Caves

Caves fill a band of 200 m under the ground, never in the bedrock, and keep 2 m of rock between them and any water or lava. Closed caves keep about 3 m of rock above them; entrances and ravines open to the surface.

• Winding tunnels

  2–9 m wide

  Long winding tunnels with flat floors, forks, rooms at the crossings, entrances from the ground and ravines: the backbone of every cave network.

• Round tubes

  2.5–4 m wide

  Round tubes winding at every angle: the ramps and shafts between the levels of a network.

• Caverns

  10–60 m wide · 45 to 95 m deep

  Rare great halls on a flat floor, with domed ceilings and stone pillars.

Trees

• Oak

  14–23 m tall, crown 11 m

  Temperate broadleaf with a stocky trunk and a wide, rounded crown carried by a few big gnarled branches. Common in forests and plains.

• Great oak

  17–31 m tall, crown 16 m

  Colossal old oak: a trunk two to three meters thick flaring over its roots, huge almost horizontal branches that undulate then rise toward a crown thirty meters wide. Rare, standing alone in the plains and meadows.

• Birch

  12–21 m tall, crown 6.5 m

  Thin white trunk, sometimes a coppice of two or three stems, light and airy crown with drooping twigs. Birch forests and woodland edges.

• Maple

  12–19 m tall, crown 8.5 m

  Dense, round crown with orange and red leaves. Autumn forests.

• Cherry tree

  7–13 m tall, crown 9.5 m

  Small tree with a dark, twisted trunk and a wide, flat crown covered in pink blossom. Cherry groves.

• Spruce

  15–31 m tall, crown 6.5 m

  Straight, conical conifer, tiers of branches that droop then lift their tips. Taiga and mountains.

• Redwood

  50–81 m tall, crown 10 m

  Giant of sixty meters and more: a red trunk three to four meters thick, fluted at the base, bare for more than half its height, a narrow crown right at the top. Old taiga forests.

• Pine

  18–29 m tall, crown 9 m

  Long, bare, slightly winding trunk, a few rising branches carrying an irregular umbrella-shaped crown. Conifer forests and hills.

• Acacia

  8–13 m tall, crown 10 m

  Short trunk splitting into slanting branches, a flat umbrella-shaped crown, thin and wide. Savanna.

• Baobab

  12–19 m tall, crown 9 m

  Enormous bottle-shaped trunk, short thick gnarled branches radiating from the top, sparse foliage. Savanna.

• Giant kapok

  40–56 m tall, crown 16 m

  Emergent tree forty to fifty-five meters tall: winged buttress roots at the base, bare trunk, an immense flattened crown from which vines hang. Jungle.

• Jungle tree

  15–26 m tall, crown 9.5 m

  Canopy tree with dense foliage and hanging vines, sometimes with two trunks. Jungle.

• Palm tree

  8–17 m tall, crown 9.5 m

  Slender, curved trunk, a crown of arching, drooping fronds around a few coconuts. Beaches and warm coasts.

• Weeping willow

  10–16 m tall, crown 10 m

  Short, thick trunk, a wide crown from which long curtains of foliage fall. Water edges and swamps.

• Mangrove tree

  8–13 m tall, crown 8 m

  Trunk perched on arching stilt roots that plunge into the mud and water, dense crown. Mangroves.

• Dead tree

  6–15 m tall, crown 7 m

  Bare snag with broken branches, without a single leaf. Swamps, dry savannas and badlands.

• Saguaro cactus

  3–8.5 m tall, crown 3 m

  Green column three to eight meters tall, with up to four raised arms. Deserts.

• Giant mushroom

  6–15 m tall, crown 8 m

  Thick, pale stalk under a wide, domed, spotted cap, glows under the cap. Mushroom lands.

• Bush

  1–2.75 m tall, crown 2.5 m

  Shrub one to two meters tall, a few short stems under bushy foliage, sometimes flowering. Wherever trees grow.

Worlds

The world in numbers