I have a planet, Líker, that is set in the Carpathian mountain range, the Black Forest of Germany, the British Isles-specifically Ireland, and the fantasy idea of Romania when Vampires lived there. Oh, and it's got a gigantic ocean that is never calm, and the weather in general constantly overcast and storming.

I've never been to any of these places and have no idea what flora or fauna would be native there, but I need to populate my planet. A website or any facts would be very welcome, as would any other suggestions.

Thank you very much!

I don't know much about any of those places but Ireland (since I live there). Ireland is very green, and it used to be covered with forest before the people living here stripped it. Currently, it is mostly farms. It has no dangerous animals at all, practically, though that is more because it is an island than because of its climate or geography, I think. The most dangerous things here are foxes as far as I know.

You can ask questions if you want to know something more in particular, I'm having a hard time thinking up anything off the top of my head. * laughs *

Ireland had forests? Apparently I was closer in my geography than I though...I just included the forest because I needed cover. That's sad...

What kind of herbs does it have? What harmless animals does it have? What's the typical climate? What edible crops grow well there? Does it have any springs? Hot or cold? What sort of winds does it have?

Sorry...my mind tends to take off...

* wrote a whole response and lost it * >_<

I don't know much about them.... I've never known much about the things that grow, except that they look beautiful. a good link If you take care of them right, a lot of things from all over can grow here.

And that link reminded me that peat is a big thing here. When we have a fire, we nearly always use peat, and awhile back it was even more common for peat to be the fuel for people, especially the poor.

Hedgehogs, rabbits, rats, red foxes. Lots of birds. Squirrels, though not where we live. There's lots of others that I've never seen, though, like stoats and badgers and pine martens. I've only seen them in the museum of natural history in Dublin.

Irish say, that you can tell when it's summer when the rain gets warmer.

* grins * It's not quite that bad, but it does rain a lot. It's what all Irishmen complain about. It's very sunny, though, as well. There's almost always both sun and rain in a single day. The winters don't get very cold, and the summers don't get very hot. It's very mild, really. We do have snow some winters, though, and hail occasionally.

Mostly everything, I think. They like raising sheep and cattle as well. I'm always seeing them everywhere, though there is a fair amount of plant crops too.

Nothing they talk about – I actually don't know. But they aren't particularly notable if there are any.

Generally soft, but often pretty gale-y. We live fairly near the coast. It gets rough here sometimes. But it's usually just a really nice breeziness that throws the trees around a bit.

Thoroughly all right, I wouldn't know what to say otherwise.

Well, your posted response was tons of help!! It certainly gives me a working background for my planet!

And thanks especially for the link to the plants and the info on peat!! That keeps me from having to replenish/chop down trees, and still keep the castles warm.

If I think of more questions later, I'll post them here again. But you helped a lot! Thanks again!

Awesome!

Yep, it's an awesome fuel. I love to use it myself, and it's interesting in a lot of ways too.

You're welcome!

Is it smoky? How does it burn? How do you gather it?

Quite smoky, especially if you keep it low. It burns well. It's more trouble to get started than wood is, at least the form we use, but it burns hotter longer. You don't want to stir it up too much, unlike wood, because it just makes the fire die down instead of build up. You have to hit it sometimes, though, because it makes such a huge amount of tannish, powdery ash it would kill itself if you let it – it just buries itself with ash. You could leave it all night and find coals still red and hot in the centre of it.

I've never done it myself, but when we drive through the boggier parts of Ireland we see the peat bogs with ditches and cut away parts, where the peat has been used. There are a lot of modern machines and such for harvesting, but the general idea is that you find a piece of ground that is peat, and you cut it up and dry it (it's pretty boggy) and cart it away.

If it smokes, how would one keep the smoke from spreading into the room? Especially in old, open hearths?

You don't. We have a good enough fireplace, but in the older, poorer houses the whole thing is permeated with peat smoke.

Ah...

Okay, another question. Do you have any ideas as to how to keep the smoke to a minimum?

No, I don't know. Sorry.

Peat smoke smells pretty nice, though. * grins *

Really? How does it smell?

Hm. It's really hard to describe. Sort of earthy, mossy, smoky, maybe sort of a bit tangy.

Hmmmm...

Tangy?

Sort of.

Okay...