Pre-colonial literary practice.

Literacy was first established in the West African region now known as Senegal following the introduction of Islam during the 11th century. As a result, a hybridized African form of writing which combined the Arabic script with the phonology of local languages (such as Wolof and Fulfulde) emerged. This came to be known as "Ajami" (“barbarism” in Arabic due to its interpretation being incomprehensible to Arabic speakers).  The literature which emerged as a result of this new form of expression was initially limited to the study and advancement of Islamic theology such as prayers and religious edicts. However, secular functions soon followed during the rapid growth of islam during the 11th-15th century, during which time "Ajami" was used for administrative purposes, eulogies, poetry and public announcements.  The majority of known pieces of literature produced during the era preceding the period of French expansion into Senegal during the 1850s, are mostly poems. Two distinct poetic motifs were used during this period, being didactic and lyrical (the elegy and panegyric). Examples include Ahmad Ayan Sih, whose fluid metaphoric expressions are some of the most well-documented pieces of Arabic poetry to have been produced in Senegal. Another example includes Dhu al-nun, whose panegyric poetry made allusions to the Quran and issues of piety.

Oral tradition.

"Main article: Griot"  Prior to the introduction of written language (Arabic and "Ajami") in the greater Senegambian region, spoken word was the medium through which societies preserved their traditions and histories. Masters of this oral tradition, who belong to a specific hereditary caste within cultural hierarchies, are known as griots ("guewel" in Wolof or "Jali" in Mandinka. Griot originates from the French "guiriot", a possible transliteration of the Portuguese term "criado", meaning servant). In Manlinke (Mandinka), Wolof, Futa, Soninke, Bambara and Pulaar culture these storytellers are often limited to the term “praise singers”. However they often play the combined role of historians, genealogists, musicians, spokespeople, advisors, diplomats, interpreters, reporters, composers, teachers and poets. In the precolonial monarchical societies of Senegal (ie. Jolof, Futa Toro and Bundu empires), griots were directly attached as advisors to an aristocratic court. Later, with the expansion of Islam in Senegal from the 11th-15th centuries, some griots became attendants to Islamic scholars. Some, however, remained independent and charged a fee for their services at both solemn (funeral rituals) and festive occasions (births, marriage ceremonies and circumcision rites). Griots tend to be categorised as either "waxkats" (mediators or spokesperson for a noble; or “a person who speaks”) or "woykats" (“someone who sings”).  A griot’s training often involves an apprenticeship with an older man (ie. father or uncle, as griots usually belong to a familial heritage), whereby the apprentice masters a repertoire of stories and songs as well as a specific instrument to accompany them. The chordophones used often include the khalam, xalamkat or ngoni (lute with one to five strings), kora (harp lute) and riti (one-stringed bow handled lute). Percussion instruments include dried, hollow gourds, the tamal (armpit drum) as well as the balafon (percussion instrument akin to the xylophone). One of the most frequently retold oral epics in the geographical region of Senegambia is the mythic story of the Bundu Kingdom’s establishment in the 1690s. The story has varying interpretations and many alternative narratives, however the story follows a common thematic sequence. The tale follows a Pulaar-speaking cleric called Maalik Sii from Suyuuma, a region within the Futa Toro kingdom, located along the modern day border of Senegal and Mauritania. He and his followers, through skillful diplomacy and military strategy, expelled the Soninke-speaking Gajaaga kingdom from the region known as Bundu and granted political independence to the many Pulaar people already inhabiting the area. The story is often told in such a way that justifies the existence of the state legitimises the authority of its rulers.  In the contemporary age, griots have maintained their significance as traditional custodians through performance. Senegalese singers and instrumentalists who fall under the griot genre due to hereditary caste include Mansour Seck, Thione Seck, Ablaye Cissoko and Youssou N'Dour. However many musicians have adopted the role in a break from traditional values. These include Baaba Mal, Nuru Kane and Coumba Gawlo. A typical contemporary example of a “praise-song” would be Khar M’Baye Maadiaga’s (a female musician of griot descent) “Democratie”, which praised the second president of Senegal Abdou Diouf and the Parti Socialiste.

Colonial-era writing.

The most documented authors active during the era of French colonialism in Senegal were David Abbé Boilat, Leopold Panet and Bakary Diallo. David Boilat’s most discussed work "Esquisses Senegalaises" (1853), was a proto-ethnographic piece calling for the full colonisation of Senegal by the French. Having trained as catholic priest in France in the 1840s, Boilat believed in the need for a comprehensive missionary program (outlined in "Esquisses"), which would convert the “heathen” and “misguided” muslim majority in Senegal to Catholicism. Panet’s "Première exploration du Sahara occidental: Relation d’un voyage du Sénégal au Maroc" (1851), is a similarly colonial travel document charting Panet’s exploration of the Sahara desert. Diallo’s most influential work, "Force-bonte" (1926) is yet another widely studied Senegalese francophonic text which displayed the writer’s admiration for the French colonial administration.  Both Boilat’s and Diallo’s work are considered controversial contributions towards the Senegalese literary canon, as both works were heralded as motives for further French expansion into West Africa.

Anti-colonial works and the era of independence.

The era of Senegalese independence produced a wealth of politically conscious works categorised as “national literature”. These were works stressing the engagement between language, national identity and literature. An acclaimed novel composed in the early phases of independence includes Cheikh Hamidou Kane’s "L'Aventure ambiguë" (1961), which explores the interaction between western and African culture as well as concepts of hybrid African identity. Ousmane Sembene, the writer and filmmaker, wrote "Le Docker Noir" (Black Docker) in 1956. The novel is a loose reconstruction of Sembene’s experience of racism as a dock worker in Marseilles. Sembene went on to publish nine more novels and dozens of manuscripts, widening the breadth and thematic coverage of the Senegalese literary canon.  The leader of the Senegalese independence movement Leopold Sedar Senghor, is yet another significant literary figure. Through the publication of his first poetic anthology, "Chants D’Ombre" (1945), Senghor became a founding writer of the philosophy of negritude. The defining feature of Senghor’s philosophy was a sense of cultural nationalism which stressed the importance of indigenous tradition and cultural practices. Senghor’s poetry often placed emphasis on the black experience within the colonial context, encouraging reevaluation and reconciliation of the African identity. Other notable anthologies include "Nocturnes" (1961) and "The Collected Poetry" (1991). He also composed numerous works of nonfiction on linguistics, philosophy, sociology and politics.  In Senghor’s introduction to his anthology of Senegalese literature (1977), the concept of “"francite"” is outlined. Senghor believed that the Senegalese culture maintained a balance of both French “logic” and Senegalese “passion”, forming a hybrid consciousness introduced by colonial rule. Senghor saw Bakary Diallo and David Boilat as founders of the Franco-Senegalese tradition, and praised their works.  Other notable novelists include Boubacar Boris Diop, author of "Le Temps de Tamango" (1981) and "Tamboure de la Memoirs" (1987), and Ibrahima Sall, author of "Les Routiers de Chimères" (1982). Diop’s novels make consistent reference to African revolutions, and explore the grandeur of African history. Sall’s work, particularly in "Les Routiers de Chimeres", has a distinct focus on the intersection of mysticism and realism, with allusions to the postmodernist literary movement.

Women’s contribution and Feminism.

Senegalese women only started to publish their own material after the country gained its independence in 1960. Female writers have since then made significant contributions in literature through the Senegalese novel. Mariama Bâ, feminist author of "So Long a Letter" (1979), is one such figure. Her work is an epistolary novel which explores the female condition within Senegalese society as well as the polygamic family dynamic present in certain African cultures. Her second work, "Scarlet Song" (1985), explores the dynamic of the interracial relationship from a third person perspective, allowing for an unbiased approach regarding the antagonisms of western and African cultures.  Aminata Sow Fall, considered the “grande dame” of Senegalese epistolary, has written four novels. Her subject matter ranges from the corruptibility of power and the nature of Senegalese society and culture to concepts of manhood. Other notable feminist authors include sociologist Fatou Sow, Fatou Diome and Ndeye Fatou Kane.

Film and cinema.

Following its independence in June 1960, Senegalese cinema flourished throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In 1974 alone, six feature-length films were produced by Senegalese filmmakers. Due to the high illiteracy rates at the time, many directors viewed cinema as a means of reconciling the themes of Senegalese writers and artists with the wider populous. Acclaimed filmmaker Ousmane Sembene drew inspiration from Nazi director Leni Riefenstahl’s "Olympiad" with regards to film as a platform for national communication. During the era of independence, film became a manifestation of the post-colonial identity, and is thus intimately tied to the country’s wider social and political history.  Historian and Filmmaker Paulin Soumanou Vieyra as well as writer Ousmane Sembene lay the basis for the film industry in the early 1960s, with "Une nation est née" (A nation was born) in 1961 and short film "Boroom Sarret" (The Wagoner) in 1963 respectively. "Boroom Sarret" captured the changing landscape of Senegalese society, reflecting the challenges of developing a national identity which incorporates over a century of colonial domination. Sembene continued to write and direct a multitude of films, including prize-winning pictures "La noire de..." (Black girl) in 1966, "Xala" in 1975 and "Guelwaar, une légende du 21 ème siècle" (Guelwaar, a Legend of the 21st Century) in 1993.  Other filmmakers who defined the expanding Senegalese film industry during the 1970s and 1980s include Mahama Johnson Traoré, Safi Faye, and Djibril Diop Mambéty, whose first feature-length film was entitled "Touki Bouki" (The Hyena’s Journey), released in 1973. The film portrays the duality of Senegalese identity and the longing for a livelihood in the highly romanticised France, as well as the struggle associated with fleeing one’s homeland.  Following an economic recession during the mid-1980s, Senegal’s film industry fell into decline. Throughout the following decades, the industry would experience severe difficulties with funding, production and exhibition. During the 2010s, however, a new wave of Senegalese cinema arose. Alain Gomis’ film "Tey" was released in 2012 and featured at the Cannes and London Film Festival, whilst Moussa Toure’s "La Pirogue" received international acclaim and was screened worldwide. in 2019, female director Mati Diop released "Atlantique" (Atlantics), which similarly screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Her debut feature film considers the female perspective of arranged marriage as well as the dangers of mass migration from West Africa to Europe.

Senegalese literature is written or literary work (novels, poetry, plays and films) which has been produced by writers born in the West African state. Senegalese literary works are mostly written in French, the language of the colonial administration. However, there are many instances of works being written in Arabic and the native languages of Wolof, Pulaar, Mandinka, Diola, Soninke and Serer. Oral traditions, in the form of Griot storytellers, constitute are a historical element of the Senegalese canon and have persisted as cultural custodians throughout the nation’s history. A form of proto-Senegalese literature arose during the mid 19th century with the works of David Abbé Boilat, who produced written ethnographic literature which supported French Colonial rule. This genre of Senegalese literature continued to expand during the 1920s with the works of Bakary Diallo and Ahmadou Mapaté Diagne. Earlier literary examples exist in the form of which led to the growth of a form African linguistic expressionism using the Arabic alphabet, known as "Ajami". Poets of this genre include Ahmad Ayan Sih and Dhu al-nun. Post-colonial Senegalese work often includes emphasis on “national literature”, a contemporary form of writing which stressed the engagement between language, national identity and literature. Senegalese novelists of this period include Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Boubacar Boris Diop and Ousmane Sembene. Poets include former Senegalese president and philosopher Léopold Sédar Senghor, Birago Diop, Cheikh Aliou Ndao and Alioune Badara Bèye.

La littérature sénégalaise est l'une des plus importantes de l'Afrique de l'Ouest. La plupart des œuvres ont été écrites en langue française, mais on trouve également des textes en arabe,wolof,Peul,sérére, Diola, Manding ou en Soninké.


Taxonomy.

French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot described the banded stilt in 1816, classifying it in the avocet genus "Recurvirostra" and giving it the name "Recurvirostra leucocephala", "L'avocette a tete blanche" ("white-headed avocet"). He only recorded the species as being found in "terres australes", the meaning of which is unclear. Amateur ornithologist Gregory Mathews interpreted this as Victoria, while Erwin Stresemann concluded this was Rottnest Island in Western Australia. The species name is derived from the Ancient Greek words "leukos" "white", and "kephale" "head". French naturalist Georges Cuvier described it as "Recurvirostra orientalis" the same year. Belgian ornithologist Bernard du Bus de Gisignies described it as a new genus and species, "Leptorhynchus pectoralis", to the Royal Academy of Belgium in 1835.  English zoologist George Robert Gray placed the banded stilt in its own genus "Cladorhynchus" in 1840, noting that the name "Leptorhynchus" had been previously used. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek "klados" "twig" and "rhynchos" "bill". Likewise, German naturalist Johannes Gistel proposed the name "Timeta" to replace "Leptorhynchus" in 1848. John Gould had described the banded stilt as "Himantopus palmatus" in 1837, but recorded it as "Cladorhynchus pectoralis" in his 1865 work "Handbook to the Birds of Australia". Gould also wrote that its distribution was unclear after it was first recorded at Rottnest Island though not elsewhere in Western Australia, and later in South Australia, until large numbers were seen by the British explorer Charles Sturt at Lepson's Lake north of Cooper Creek in what is now western Queensland. German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach placed it in a new genus, naming it "Xiphidiorhynchus pectoralis" in 1845. Australian ornithologist Fred Lawson gave it the name "Cladorhynchus australis" in 1904. Gregory Mathews in his 1913 "List of the Birds of Australia" synonymised all subsequent genus and species names, using "Cladorhynchus australis". He listed his subspecies "rottnesti" from 1913, though this has not been recognised since. Both Joseph G. Strauch in a 1978 study and Philip C. Chu in a 1995 re-analysis of bone and muscle characters found that the banded stilt was sister taxon to the avocets, with the stilts of the genus "Himantopus" an earlier offshoot. A 2004 study combining genetics and morphology reinforced its position as sister to the avocet lineage.  English naturalist John Latham gave the bird the name "oriental avocet" in 1824, after Cuvier's description. "Banded stilt" has been designated the official name by the International Ornithological Committee (IOC). Other common names include "Rottnest snipe" and "bishop snipe". The Ngarrindjeri people of the Lower Murray River region in South Australia knew it as "nilkani".

Description.

The banded stilt is long and weighs, with a wingspan of. Adults in breeding plumage are predominantly white with black wings and a broad well-demarcated u-shaped chestnut band across the breast. The central part of the base of the upper tail is tinted a pale grey-brown. The slender bill is black, relatively straight, and twice as long as the head. The irises are dark brown and the legs and feet are a dark red-pink. The wings are long and slim and have eleven primary flight feathers, with the tenth being the longest. In flight, the wings are mostly black when seen from above, but have a white trailing edge from the tips of the inner primaries. From underneath, the wings are predominantly white with dark tips. White feathers on the head and neck have pale grey bases, which are normally hidden. Non-breeding plumage is similar, but the chest band is less distinct and often diluted to an ashy brown or mottled with white. The legs are a paler- or orange-pink. There is no difference in plumage between the sexes, nor has any geographic variation been recorded.  Juvenile birds resemble adults but have a greyish forehead and lores, duller black wings, and lack the characteristic breast band. Adult plumage is attained in the second year. Their legs and feet are grey, becoming more blotched with pink until adulthood. Nestling banded stilts are covered in white down.  A distinctive bird, the banded stilt is hard to confuse with any other species; the white-headed stilt lacks the breast band, and the red-necked avocet has a chestnut head and neck, and a distinctly upcurved bill.  Adults make a barking call that has been written as "cow" or "chowk", sometimes with two syllables as "chowk-uk" or "chuk-uk". Birds also chatter softly and tunefully while nesting.

Distribution and habitat.

The banded stilt is generally found in southern Australia. In Western Australia, it is found predominantly in the southwestern corner, though can be as far north as the saltworks in Port Hedland. Breeding took place at Lake Ballard in the Goldfields-Esperance after heavy rainfall from Cyclone Bobby in 1995, and then again after flooding in 2014. In 1933 a large colony had been recorded at Lake Grace, but had succumbed to attack presumably by foxes. The banded stilt has been recorded in southeastern South Australia, as well as the drainage of the Lake Eyre system, and in Victoria west of Port Phillip and the Wimmera. In July 2010 Lake Torrens filled with water, resulting in the influx of around 150,000 banded stilts. The Natimuk-Douglas Wetlands in western Victoria are an important nesting ground for the species, though lower numbers come here if there is flooding elsewhere in southeastern Australia. In New South Wales, it is most commonly found in the Riverina and western parts of the state, and has reached southern Queensland and the Northern Territory, where it has been found at the sewage ponds at Alice Springs and Erldunda. It has been recorded as a vagrant to Tasmania, with significant numbers recorded in 1981.  The preferred habitats are large, shallow saline or hypersaline lakes, either inland or near the coast, including ephemeral salt lakes, salt works, lagoons, salt- or claypans and intertidal flats. The species is occasionally found in brackish or fresh water, including farm dams and sewage ponds.  The banded stilt is highly nomadic, having adapted to the unpredictable climate of Australia's arid interior. Sudden rainfall results in the influx of water to and filling of dry inland salt lakes. The stilts respond by travelling to these areas and breeding, dispersing and returning to the coast once the lakes begin to dry up. How banded stilts on the coast become aware of inland rainfall is unknown. The distances travelled can be large; two birds have been tracked travelling from a drying Lake Eyre in South Australia to a newly filled lake system in Western Australia over away. One of these birds veered northwest over the Gibson Desert, travelling a minimum of in 55.9 hours.

Behaviour.

The banded stilt is gregarious; birds are almost always encountered in groups, from small troops of tens of birds, to huge flocks numbering in the tens of thousands.

Breeding.

The breeding habits of the banded stilt were unknown until 1930, when a colony was discovered at Lake Grace. Even then they remained poorly known until 2012, when researcher Reece Pedler and colleagues attached tracking devices to 21 birds to gain an insight into the species' movements. They discovered that the birds travel large distances inland and gather at the recently filled bodies of water.  The majority of observed breeding events have occurred at inland salt lakes in South Australia and Western Australia immediately following freshwater inflows. An exception to this exists where some breeding was attempted at The Coorong during a time in which salinity in the Lower Lakes was significantly elevated due to reduced environmental flows down the Murray River. Breeding events are initiated by the filling of shallow inland lakes after rainfall and resultant explosion in numbers of food animals such as "Parartemia" brine shrimp. This can happen at any time of year. Breeding sites are generally on low islands, of 1–1.5 m (3–5 ft) elevation, or spits on or alongside large lakes, on clay or gravel and generally with sparse or no vegetation. The nests themselves are scrapes in the soil, up to across and deep, with or without some dead vegetation as lining. Birds on stony soils generally gather vegetation instead of digging scrapes.  Egg clutches number three to four (or rarely five) oval eggs, which vary from fawn to white marked with brown to black splotches. They can be long and wide. Incubation takes 19 to 21 days, with both sexes sharing duties, although the male takes over as sole incubator as the eggs hatch and immediately afterwards. This is thought to allow the females to lay and incubate a second brood if the water and food in the lake persists. Parent birds incubate for one to six days before swapping with the other parent. These intervals are much longer than other waders, and thought to be due to the remoteness of food—either the prey are blown to remote corners of the lakes by the wind or the lakes themselves have receded as they have dried. Parents almost always changeover incubating at night, generally within two hours of nightfall, presumably to avoid predators. On hot days with temperatures over, incubating birds may leave briefly to wet their brood patches to presumably cool the eggs or young. Birds on nests always face into the wind.  The nestlings are born covered in white down—unlike any other waders—and mobile with open eyes (precocial) and leave the nest soon after hatching (nidifugous). Adults lead the young birds to the water by the time they are two days old. Once in the water, they begin to feed on tiny crustaceans.

Nest predators and hazards.

Banded stilt colonies suffer greatly from predation by silver gulls ("Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae"), while wedge-tailed eagles ("Aquila audax"), white-bellied sea eagles ("Haliaeetus leucogaster"), spot-bellied eagle-owls ("Bubo nipalensis") and black falcons ("Falco subniger") also take stilts and young. Premature drying of the lakes leads to parents abandoning their eggs or nestlings, resulting in the deaths of many thousands of young.

Feeding.

The banded stilt forages by walking or swimming in shallow water, pecking, probing or scything into the water or mud. The bulk of its diet is made up of tiny crustaceans, including branchiopods, ostracods (seed shrimp), anostraca (fairy shrimp) such as "Artemia salina" and members of the genus "Parartemia", both genera of notostraca (tadpole shrimp), and isopods such as the genera "Deto" and "Haloniscus". They also eat molluscs, including both gastropods such as the land snail "Salinator fragilis" and members of the genus "Coxiella", and bivalves of the genus "Sphaericum", insects (such as bugs, beetles, flies and flying ants, which they glean from the water surface), and plants such as "Ruppia". Small fish such as hardyheads ("Craterocephalus" spp.) have also been reportedly eaten.

Status and conservation.

In 2016, the banded stilt was rated as least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered species. This was on the basis of its large range—greater than 20,000 km (7700 mi)—and fluctuating rather than declining population. However, it is listed as Vulnerable under the South Australian "National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972". The listing was made after breeding attempts observed at Lake Eyre revealed heavy predation from silver gulls. The Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources has developed a strategy for managing silver gull predation at chosen banded stilt breeding sites by applying site-specific culling measures. Breeding events observed at ephemeral lakes in Western Australia have proven to be more successful without the need for intervention due to their remoteness.

The banded stilt ("Cladorhynchus leucocephalus") is a nomadic wader of the stilt and avocet family, Recurvirostridae, native to Australia. It belongs to the monotypic genus Cladorhynchus. It gets its name from the red-brown breast band found on breeding adults, though this is mottled or entirely absent in non-breeding adults and juveniles. Its remaining plumage is pied and the eyes are dark brown. Nestling banded stilts have white down, unlike any other species of wader.

L'Échasse à tête blanche ("Cladorhynchus leucocephalus") est une espèce d'oiseaux de la famille des Recurvirostridae, la seule du genre Cladorhynchus.


Gameplay.

While much of the gameplay remains the same as it was in "Mandate of Heaven", a few improvements and changes were made to a number of prominent parts of the game. Character creation in "Blood and Honor" received an update from its predecessor by now allowing players to choose a race for each character out of the following four - Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Goblins - while also adding in three new classes to choose from alongside the pre-existing ones - Thief, Monk and Ranger. The skill system also received a major change, with the inclusion of new skills and a new level of expertise - Grandmaster - but also becoming more restrictive than that of the previous title; a character's class not only determines what skills they can learn but now also puts a cap on the level of expertise it can be trained to, meaning that while a Thief could become a Master of the Sword Skill, a Knight can train the skill up to Grandmaster. The change to the skill system, also affects the Magic system of the game, in that while some spells have been removed and new ones included, a character's level of expertise in a school of magic determines what spells can be learned, with weaker spells gaining more bonuses upon training to higher levels of expertise; an example of this new system comes with the "Fly" spell, which only Masters of Air magic can learn, but who can gain the benefit of not draining magic points upon attaining Grandmaster of Air. Along with these changes, the game includes an update to the graphical appearances of enemy sprites, character models and items.  Beside the changes, the game features new additions. The first is the inclusion of making two notable choices, in regards to the political conflict between the elves and humans within the story. While one choice encountered is entirely optional but can determine the fate of their party's realm if completed within a set time limit, the other has a more profound impact on the story and is mandatory; the player has to make a decision on this choice in order to progress in the game's story. This ultimate choice, in regards to finding a successor to Harmondale's Arbiter (the game's version of the Seer from the previous title), defines which path - Light or Dark - the party takes for the rest of the game, affecting certain aspects. Along with a minor but permanent change of colour on the game display (white for Light, black for Dark), a number of additional quests become available for their chosen alignment, while the city of that respective path is friendly to the party and their rival is not; if Light is chosen, guards in all Darkness-aligned towns become hostile towards the player and vice versa. One major noticeable effect of this choice comes down to the Promotion quest system; while characters can earn a promotion to a more advanced tier of their chosen class without taking a path, proceeding to the second and final tier does requires such a choice, effectively leaving such promotions unavailable until later in the game, while determining what sort of quest they get in order to earn it and the title they receive as a result. For example, a Paladin who becomes a Crusader can later become either a Hero if they choose the Light path or a Villain if they chose the Dark path.  The other major addition to the game is the minigame of Arcomage, which is tied into two side-quests, in which players have to obtain a set of Arcomage cards and then play the game in all of the taverns in Antagarich. When playing the minigame, both sides having their towers pre-set to a certain height, are given a wall, and then achieve one of two specific victory conditions set out by each tavern: either get a tower to a certain height, or destroy your opponent's tower. Players take turns to either play a card, or discard it, until one side achieves victory via one of the conditions set out.

Story.

Setting.

The game takes place in the world of Enroth, across the continent of Antagarich. The continent is divided up into several regions, including the elven lands of Avlee and Tularean Forest, the barrens of Deyja which house the necromancer stronghold of The Pit, the swamps and snow-capped mountains of Tatalia, the Bracada desert and the cloud city of Celeste, Mount Nighon, the islands of Emerald Isle and Evernmorn, the dwarven lands of the Barrow Downs, the human kingdom of Erathia, and the realm of Harmondale. By the time the game starts, the aftermath of the war in Heroes of Might and Magic III has led the elves of Avlee and the humans of Erathia in a political dispute on the boundaries of Harmondale, with tensions slowly increasing.

Plot.

Following the events of, the eight heroes of Terra - Sir Caneghem, Crag Hack, Maximus, Resurrectra, Dark Shade, Kastore, Robert the Wise and Tolberti - attempted to pilot a seedship known as the "Lincoln" in pursuit of the Guardians, Corak and Sheltem, who were en route for the world of Xeen. However, an unknown problem occurred that caused the Terrans to drift off-course and eventually crash-land in the seas near Antagarich, on Enroth. At around the same time, two war parties, one of elves and the other of goblins, break off fighting each other when the eight heroes emerge from the sea in strange outfits. Both sides witness the heroes arguing over their mission before eventually splitting up into two separate parties and departing. While elves report what they saw to their leader, Gavin Magnus, the Immortal King of Celeste, the goblins report the same thing to Archibald Ironfist, the brother of King Roland and leader of the Necromancers of Deyja after forging an alliance with them shortly after fleeing from Enroth, when the adventurers of, taking residence in Antagarich to plan his next move. Intrigued with what they hear, the pair order a search for the strange beings.  Meanwhile, on the Emerald Isles, the wealthy Lord Markham organises a scavenger hunt, with first prize being the deeds to the Castle of Harmondale and its surrounding lands. A new party of four player characters takes up the challenge and wins the competition, becoming the new Lords of Harmondale, only to discover upon arriving to their new home that the castle fell into a dreadful state of dilapidation. After clearing out some unwelcome guests, and getting help from Hothfarr IX, king of the dwarves of Stone City, to repair their castle, the new Lords soon return to their restored castle only to find diplomats waiting for them, each representing either the human kingdom of Erathia or the elven kingdom of Avlee and asking the party to meet each kingdom's leader: King Eldrich Parson, leader of the elves of Avlee, and Queen Catherine Ironfist, leader of the humans of Erathia. Through them, the party learn why Markham was offering Harmondale as a prize; unbeknown to them, their new home lay in disputed territory that both Avlee and Erathia had laid a claim on, and has now resulted in both battles between both kingdoms, despite the efforts of an Arbiter in the matter, Judge Grey.  Having noticed that Castle Harmondale had been restored by the party, both Catherine and Eldrich each asks them to help in their dispute against the other by performing a feat of espionage that can gain them an advantage. The party find themselves either doing so within a period of a month, or letting their rival know of what they were asked to do. Eventually a major fight between the two kingdoms erupts in the Tularen Forest over who gets to take an important artifact - Gryphonheart's Trumpet. In managing to get it before the conflict ends (if the player arrives in time to learn of the battle), the party face the decision of handing it over to one of the leaders, granting that kingdom victory in the conflict, or pass it on to Grey, thus granting Harmondale independence from both kingdoms. A few months after the war began, Judge Grey passes away from natural causes, leaving the party to find a suitable candidate. Faced to decide between either Judge Fairweather, a representative of the wizards of Bracada, or Judge Sleen, a representative of the necromancers of Deyja, the party's choice eventually decides on the outcome of the war. If Judge Sleen is chosen, the war worsens and the necromancers use the corpses of the fallen to make an undead army, but if Judge Fairweather is chosen, the humans and elves come to a peaceful agreement and thus end their war over Harmondale. Following this, the party go the city of their chosen "path" and meet with that city's leader, finding themselves undertaking a trial before meeting with their four advisers. Upon completing the trial, they soon find themselves working on a series of tasks for the advisers, who eventually reveal themselves as off-worlders and the Terrans that arrived on Enroth.  What was witnessed by the war parties of elves and goblins was not the full story - when the Terrans emerged from the sea, they soon fell into disagreement over their mission. While Resurrectra, Robert the Wise, Crag Hack and Sir Caneghem, wanted to build a forgotten Gate created by the Ancients, capable of allowing them to reach the two warring Guardians and perhaps even the enigmatic Ancients themselves, the others, Kastore, Tolberti, Dark Shade and Maximus, wanted to revive the Ancients' broken Heavenly Forge, capable of creating futuristic weaponry beyond compare, and use it to conquer Enroth. Eventually, the two groups separated into two parties - one "good" and one "evil" - and began exploring Antagarich, but not before each party set up a trap on the "Lincoln" to prevent the other side from gaining control over it. While Kastore led the "evil" party and eventually secured places in Deyja beside Archibald in order to continue to research a way to revive the Forge, Resurrectra led the "good" party and formed an alliance with Gavin in order to complete the Gate, with both finding that needed champions to get control of the seedship and recover an important device known as Oscillation Overthruster, to complete their instrument of victory.  Before the party can retrieve the device needed by Resurrectra/Kastore, they first find themselves having do battle against the diabolical Kreegans (the devil-like race that featured in ) and eliminate their monarch, Xenofex. Travelling the Land of the Giants, the party soon receive a message from Archibald upon arrival, informing them that (regardless of their alignment) Kastore deposed him and took control of the Necromancers. Having become weary and guilt-ridden for his past crimes, he asks the players to enter the Kreegan's fortress and rescue Roland, in the hopes it will lift a death sentence put on him by Catherine. Rescuing Roland and defeating Xenofex, the party watch as the Ironfists reunite, before Archibald renounces his claim to Enroth's throne and departs in peace (which leads on into ).  With the Kreegan dealt a blow, the party soon receive wetsuits from Resurrectra/Kastore, and venture into the "Lincoln" battling droids and finally retrieving the Osciliation Overthruster. The story ends depending on the party's chosen alignment. If Light, Resurrectra's party uses the Overthruster to complete the Gate, thus being transported to a neighbouring space station where the party meets Corak (that is, a second C.O.R.A.K. module Guardian - another appeared throughout Might and Magic -) who reveals the nature of the Ancients' war. If dark, Kastore's party uses it to revive the Heavenly Forge, thus producing an endless supply of futuristic weaponry capable of dominating the world. This ending was planned to be canonical, leading into the events of.

Reception.

Aaron John Loeb reviewed the PC version of the game for "Next Generation", rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "If you have a burning hunger for a new RPG, "Might and Magic VII" offers a fine quick fix, but you don't get anything more than you'd expect."  "Might and Magic VII" was nominated for "Computer Games Strategy Plus"s and "Computer Gaming World"s 1999 "Role-Playing Game of the Year" awards, both of which ultimately went to "".

Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor is a role-playing game for Windows published in 1999 by 3DO and developed by New World Computing; it was re-released in 2011 on GOG.com. The game follows on from both the events of "Heroes of Might and Magic III" (a prequel to "Blood and Honor"), and those of "". Players form a party of four characters who win a castle in a scavenger hunt and soon become embroiled in political events on the continent of Antagarich, in the world of Enroth, before eventually choosing one of two paths and working alongside a number of characters, whose storyline continues on from the events of "". The game, "" is a sequel to "Blood and Honor".

Might and Magic VII : Pour le sang et l'honneur (titre original : "For Blood and Honor") est un jeu vidéo de type "dungeon crawler" développé par New World Computing et édité par 3DO en 1999. Il est le septième jeu de la série des "Might and Magic".


Biography.

Cherenkov was born in 1904 to Alexey Cherenkov and Mariya Cherenkova in the small village of Novaya Chigla. This town is in present-day Voronezh Oblast, Russia.  In 1928, he graduated from the Department of Physics and Mathematics of Voronezh State University. In 1930, he took a post as a senior researcher in the Lebedev Physical Institute. That same year he married Maria Putintseva, daughter of A.M. Putintsev, a Professor of Russian Literature. They had a son, Alexey, and a daughter, Yelena.  Cherenkov was promoted to section leader, and in 1940 was awarded the degree of Doctor of Physico-Mathematical Sciences. In 1953, he was confirmed as Professor of Experimental Physics. Starting in 1959, he headed the institute's photo-meson processes laboratory. He remained a professor for fourteen years. In 1970, he became an Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.  Cherenkov died in Moscow on January 6, 1990, and was buried in Novodevichy Cemetery.

Discoveries in physics.

In 1934, while working under S. I. Vavilov, Cherenkov observed the emission of blue light from a bottle of water subjected to radioactive bombardment. This phenomenon, associated with charged atomic particles moving at velocities greater than the phase velocity of light, proved to be of great importance in subsequent experimental work in nuclear physics, and for the study of cosmic rays. Eponymously, it was dubbed the Cherenkov effect, as was the Cherenkov detector, which has become a standard piece of equipment in atomic research for observing the existence and velocity of high-speed particles. The device was installed in Sputnik 3.  Pavel Cherenkov also shared in the development and construction of electron accelerators and in the investigation of photo-nuclear and photo-meson reactions.

Awards and honours.

Cherenkov was awarded two Stalin Prizes, the first in 1946, sharing the honor with Vavilov, Frank and Tamm, and another in 1952. He was also awarded the USSR State Prize in 1977. In 1958, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the Cherenkov effect. He was also awarded the Soviet Union's Hero of Socialist Labour title in 1984. Cherenkov was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

In popular culture.

The name of "Star Trek" character Pavel Chekov was chosen as a tongue-in-cheek reference to Pavel Cherenkov.  In "Starship Troopers" spaceships travel faster than light using Cherenkov Drive.

Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov (, July 28, 1904 – January 6, 1990) was a Soviet physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 1958 with Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm for the discovery of Cherenkov radiation, made in 1934.

Pavel Alekseïevitch Tcherenkov (en ), né le à Nijniaïa Tchigla, près de Voronej et décédé le à Moscou, est un physicien soviétique. Il est colauréat avec Ilia Frank et Igor Tamm du prix Nobel de physique de 1958.


Navigation.

Presently only two parts of the river can be navigated: Elsewhere navigation is hampered by various obstacles; waterfalls, rapids, sections with great declivity and various hydroelectric works with no locks. Other factors impeding navigation are the existence of highway and railway bridges, the proximity of roads and railways following the riverbank and the location of several cities on its banks.

Centres of population.

The Paraíba Valley is very fertile and has always been a region of relatively dense population. Cities located on or near the river are

Ecology.

Unlike rivers in northern Brazil where seasonal variations in water temperature generally are relatively limited, those in southern Brazil, such as Paraíba do Sul, exhibit distinct differences between winter and summer. During a survey of the river in Lorena, São Paulo, the water varied from in the summer to in the winter. The pH is neutral and generally fluctuates between 6 and 8.  The Paraíba do Sul basin is home to just above 100 native fish species with most in the families Loricariidae, Characidae and Trichomycteridae. About 40% of the fish species in the river basin are endemic (the genus "Oligobrycon" is entirely restricted to the basin) and new species have been discovered in recent years, including the small catfish "Pareiorhina hyptiorhachis" that only was scientifically described in 2013.  As a consequence of flowing through one of the most densely populated and industrialised parts of Brazil, the Paraíba do Sul suffers from pollution. Studies of the native cichlid "Geophagus brasiliensis" have found that levels of some heavy metals exceed the limits set by the Brazilian Food Legislation. Other threats are dams and the approximately 70 introduced species, including 46 species of non-native fish and the parasitic copepod "Lernaea cyprinacea". Several native species (e.g., "Brycon insignis," "Pogonopoma parahybae" and "Steindachneridion parahybae") are seriously threatened, and a general fall in abundance and species richness has been observed. Some, such as the endemic "Hypostomus auroguttatus", have successfully adapted to the changes. The catfish "Potamarius grandoculis" is only known from the vicinity of the mouth of the Paraíba do Sul and Doce Rivers, but it may already be extinct.  Other threatened species in the Paraíba do Sul basin are the bivalves "Diplodon dunkerianus", "D. expansus" and "D. fontaineanus", and the Hoge's side-necked turtle ("Mesoclemmys hogei").  A national conservation plan with recommendations for the river basin was published in 2010.

The Paraíba do Sul (), or simply termed Paraíba, is a river in southeast Brazil. It flows west to northeast from its farthest source at the source of the river Paraitinga to the sea near Campos dos Goytacazes. The river receives its name when it meets the river Paraibuna at the Paraibuna dam.

Le Rio Paraíba do Sul est un important fleuve brésilien des États du Minas Gerais, de Rio de Janeiro et de São Paulo qui naît dans l'État de São Paulo et parcourt une petite partie du Sud-Est Minas Gerais Minas Gerais. Il marque la limite naturelle entre Rio de Janeiro et São Paulo, en traversant la mésorégion du Nord Fluminense et se jette dans l'Océan Atlantique.


Systematics.

The vegetarian finch is one of Darwin's finches, a group of closely related birds which evolved on the Galápagos Islands. The group is related to the "Tiaris" grassquits, which are found in South America and the Caribbean. An ancestral relative of those grassquits arrived on the Galápagos Islands some 2–3 million years ago, and the vegetarian finch is an early evolutionary radiation from that ancestor.  When Darwin first collected the species in 1835, he assumed it was a finch. John Gould, who formally described the vegetarian finch in 1837, agreed and assigned it to the genus "Fringilla". By 1841, Gould had changed his mind, and moved the species to the genus "Camarhynchus", lumping it with the ground and cactus finches. Robert Ridgway separated it from the other species in 1896, assigning it to a new genus "Platyspiza". DNA research has now shown that all Darwin's "finches" are actually tanagers.  The vegetarian finch is the sole member of the genus "Platyspiza", which some taxonomists still subsume into the genus "Camarhynchus". The genus name "Platyspiza" comes from the Greek "platus", meaning "broad" and "spiza", meaning "finch". The specific name "crassirostris" comes from the Latin "crassus", meaning "heavy" or "thick" and "rostris", meaning "-billed" ("rostrum" = bill). The "vegetarian" of its common name refers to its primary diet.

Description.

The vegetarian finch is one of the largest Galápagos finches, measuring in length and ranging from in mass. Its upright stance is described as "parrot-like". Its beak is broad and stout, with a strongly curved culmen. The male's upperparts are olive-colored while his underparts are whitish, with smudgy streaking on the lower breast and flanks; some birds show rufous on the underparts. His lower flanks and undertail coverts are buffy. He has a black hood, throat, breast and upper flanks. His iris is dark, and his bill is black in the breeding season and horn-colored during the rest of the year. The female is principally brown above and off-white below, with a buffy rump and flanks. She is streaked with brown on the face, crown, upperparts, throat, breast and flanks, and shows two indistinct buffy wingbars on her brown wings. Her beak is two-toned; the upper mandible ranges in color from dusky brown to black, while the lower mandible is dull orange or dull pink. The immature male is intermediate between the adult male and the adult female. While he shows blackish on his face and throat, he is more streaked below than is the adult male.

Voice.

The song of the vegetarian finch is nasal and drawn out, with each note lasting about two seconds. Transcribed as "ph'wheeeuuuuu-íííúúú", it is accented towards the end. The bird's primary call is high-pitched and squealing, said to resemble the sound of a radio tuner. It also gives a whiny "pheep".

Range and habitat.

Endemic to the Galápagos, the vegetarian finch is found on eight islands: San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz, Floreana, Isabela, Marchena, Santiago, Pinta and Fernandina. Although it was previously found on Pinzón and Santa Fé, the species is now extinct on both islands. It is found from above sea level. Although it is most common in montane evergreen forest, particularly the transition zone, its range also extends up into the humid zone and down into the arid zone.

Behavior.

Breeding.

Little is known about the breeding ecology of this species. It breeds primarily in the wet season, building a grassy domed nest with a side entrance. Courtship feeding is known to occur throughout courtship and incubation, with some pairs passing food items back and forth several times.

Feeding.

As its name suggests, the vegetarian finch is largely a plant-eater. It feeds primarily on buds, leaves, flowers and fruit, and will strip the bark off twigs to get to the cambium and phloem which lies underneath. Although it forages mainly in trees, it will descend to the ground to search for fallen fruits and young plant shoots. It also occasionally eats caterpillars. It feeds primarily at mid-levels, in what has been described as a "rather leisurely" manner. Because its principal food items are soft, the vegetarian finch has a beak morphology unlike those of Darwin's finches which specialize on hard seeds. Described as "parrot-like", the beak is small and stout, with a steep profile and a strong curve in the upper mandible. Its primary function is food manipulation at the tip, rather than seed crushing at the base. The vegetarian finch has a disproportionately large gizzard, as well as a long intestine and a disproportionately small heart. These allow it to process the "relatively indigestible" leaves and buds that make up a large proportion of its diet.

Conservation and threats.

Although the vegetarian finch is uncommon, it is widespread across the Galápagos Islands. Its numbers appear to be stable, though they have not been quantified. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists it as a species of Least Concern, as neither its population size nor its range size approach thresholds for concern. However, like all endemic wildlife on the Galápagos Islands, it is impacted by some human activities. Fires, overgrazing by domestic and feral animals, and the introduction of exotic species are among the most serious threats it faces. It is found in seven of the Important Bird Areas established on the islands.

The vegetarian finch ("Platyspiza crassirostris") is a species of bird in the Darwin's finch group of the tanager family Thraupidae. It is monotypic within the genus Platyspiza. It is endemic to the Galápagos Islands. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Le Géospize crassirostre (Platyspiza crassirostris) est une espèce de passereaux — plus connues sous le nom de Pinsons de Darwin — de la famille des Thraupidae, l'unique représentante du genre Platyspiza.


History.

The abbey's foundation was part of the wider monastic revival of the nineteenth century. The project to establish a community of Benedictine nuns at Maredret was set in motion by, a member of a local family of aristocrats. Land was provided by the Desclée family, and the first stone was put in place on 5 August 1891. Building was completed only in 1936, however. The monastery comprises a compact collection of stone buildings in a neo-gothic style, under a traditional slate roof, and sited on a hill-side, overlooking Maredret and the valley.  The abbey church, completed in 1907, was one of the final projects of the fashionable Gothic revival Gent-based architect. The interior and the windows have been described as remarkable. Later buildings were the work of a succession of local architects. The site of 15 hectares is surrounded by a high wall of rough stone, enhanced with two medieval style towers.

Outbuildings.

The site also incorporated various outbuildings, located within but close to the outer wall. The "Clos Saint-Jean" (previously known as the Villa Saint-Jean/"Saint John villa") and the "Clos Saint-Pierre" previously known as "the gardener's house", and later as the "school house" were both built in 1892, the work of the architect G. Soreil. The "Clos Saint-Pierre" was expanded in 1933 and became, for many years, a Visitor Centre.  On the south side of the site, at the foot of the hill, the "Chapel of Our Lady of Grace" (""Notre-Dame de Grâce"") houses a copy of the image of "Our Lady of Grace": the original, at nearby, has been venerated for its miraculous powers since 1909. The construction of the chapel at Maredret, using stone quarried locally at Denée, was the work of the architect-contractor Lambotte.

Today.

The abbey has become focused increasingly on crafts. The nuns have an expertise in the art of Illuminated manuscript, which may be applied to documents marking important stages in individual Christian lives: baptism, religious confirmation or conversion, marriage and burial. Religious imagery is an important part of the abbey's on-going life, along with artisanal regional food products.

Maredret Abbey (also known as l’Abbaye des saints Jean et Scolastique) is a monastery of Benedictine nuns, located on the edge of, a very small village in the hilly countryside to the south of Charleroi and Namur. The abbey was inaugurated with the installation of seven nuns in 1893, and the abbey church was constructed between 1898 and 1907.

L'abbaye des saints Jean et Scolastique, plus connue sous le nom abbaye de Maredret, est un monastère de moniales bénédictines, situé à l'écart du village de Maredret, dans l'Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse, en Belgique. Fondé en 1893 par sept moniales, il est affilié à la congrégation de l'Annonciation au sein de la confédération bénédictine.


Breed characteristics.

The Nokota horse has an angular frame with prominent withers, a sloped croup, and a low set tail. Members of the breed are often blue roan, which is a color rare in other breeds, although black and gray are also common. Less common colors include red roan, bay, chestnut, dun, grullo and palomino. Pinto patterns such as overo and sabino occur occasionally.  There are two general types of the Nokota horse. The first is the traditional Nokota, known by the registry as the National Park Traditional. They tend to be smaller, more refined, and closer in type to the Colonial Spanish Horse, and generally stand between high. The second type is known as the ranch-type or National Park Ranch, more closely resemble early "foundation type" Quarter Horses, and generally stand from. Members of the breed often exhibit an ambling gait, once known as the "Indian shuffle." Nokota horses are described as versatile and intelligent. Members of the breed have been used in endurance racing and western riding, and a few have been used in events such as fox hunting, dressage, three-day eventing and show jumping. Sources vary on the etymology of the breed's name, with one source stating that the Nokota derives its name from the Nakota people who inhabited North and South Dakota, while another says that the name was a combination of North Dakota created by the Kuntz brothers.

History.

The Nokota horse developed in the southwestern corner of North Dakota, in the Little Missouri River Badlands. Feral horses were first encountered by ranchers in the 19th century, and horses from domestic herds mingled with the original feral herds. Ranchers often crossbred local Indian ponies, Spanish horses from the southwest, and various draft, harness, Thoroughbred and stock horses to make hardy, useful ranch horses. Theodore Roosevelt, who ranched in the Little Missouri area between 1883 and 1886, wrote: In a great many —indeed in most— localities there are wild horses to be found, which, although invariably of domestic descent, being either themselves runaways from some ranch or Indian outfit, or else claiming such for their sires and dams, yet are quite as wild as the antelope on whose domain they have intruded.  In 1884, the HT Ranch, located near Medora, North Dakota, bought 60 mares from a herd of 250 Native American-bred horses originally confiscated from the Lakota leader Sitting Bull and sold at Fort Buford, North Dakota in 1881. Some of these mares were bred to the Thoroughbred racing stallion Lexington, also owned by the HT Ranch.  By the early 20th century, the feral horse herds became the target of local ranchers looking to limit grazing competition for their livestock. Many horses were rounded up, and either used as ranch horses, sold for slaughter, or shot. From the 1930s through the 1950s, federal and state agencies worked with ranchers to remove horses from western North Dakota. However, when Theodore Roosevelt National Park was established in the 1940s, during construction, a few bands of horses were accidentally enclosed within the Park fence, and by 1960 these bands were the last remaining feral horses in North Dakota. Nonetheless, the park sought to eliminate these horses. The National Park Service was declared exempt from the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 that covered free-roaming horses and burros on other federal lands. This allowed them to view the herds as nuisances and deal with them as such, including sending many to slaughter.  In the late 1970s, growing public opposition to the removal of feral horses prompted management strategy changes, and today the herds within the Theodore Roosevelt National Park are managed for the purposes of historical demonstration. However, in 1986 the park added outside bloodlines with the aim of modifying the appearance of the Nokota. Park management felt that the horses created with the outside bloodlines would sell better at subsequent auctions. The dominant herd stallions were removed and replaced with two feral stallions from Bureau of Land Management Mustang herds, a crossbred Shire stallion, a Quarter Horse stallion and an Arabian stallion. At the same time that the stallion replacements took place, many horses from the park were rounded up and sold. At the 1986 auction, concerned about the welfare of the Nokota horse, Leo and Frank Kuntz purchased 54 horses, including the dominant stallion, a blue roan. This was in addition to smaller numbers of horses purchased in 1981, 1991 and 1997. After researching the history of the breed, the Kuntzs stated that they had found evidence that the horses in the park were probably related to the remaining horses from the band of 250 Sitting Bull horses, who had been range-bred by the Marquis de Mores, who founded the town of Medora. However, the short-lived Nokota Horse Association claimed that there was no evidence for this claim.

1990s to today.

By 1993, the Kuntz brothers had a herd of 150 horses, including those purchased from the park over the course of several auctions and their descendants. They used the horses mainly for ranching and endurance races. In 1993, the Nokota was declared the Honorary State Equine of the state of North Dakota. In 1994, researchers conducted a study of the horses in the park and on the Kuntz's ranch, and discovered that none of the horses in the park, and only about 20 on the ranch, had characteristics consistent with the Colonial Spanish Horse. Since then, the horses on the Kuntz ranch have been bred to maintain and improve their Spanish characteristics. In 1999, the Kuntz brothers founded the Nokota Horse Conservancy to protect and conserve the Nokota horse. The Nokota Horse Conservancy tracks around 1,000 living and dead horses, and Nokota horses can be found throughout the United States. Theodore Roosevelt National Park has continued thinning the herd, with several roundups conducted throughout the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century. In 2000, the last horses to be considered of "traditional" Nokota type was removed from the wild, with some being purchased by supporters of the Nokota Horse Conservancy. The National Park Service currently maintains a herd of 70 to 110 horses. In 2006, the breed was chosen to be the beneficiary of Breyer Animal Creations' annual "Benefit Horse" Campaign for the following year; a Breyer model was created, manufactured, and marketed in 2007, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Nokota Horse Conservancy. As of 2006, the Kuntz family owned approximately 500 Nokota horses, with the Nokota Horse Conservancy owning an additional 40. At that point, there were less than 1,000 living Nokotas in the world.  The Nokota Horse Registry is the breed registry, organized by the Nokota Horse Conservancy. There was briefly a second registry: a Minnesota-based organization called the Nokota Horse Association. In October 2009, the two registries disputed which had the right to the Nokota breed name, with the Association claiming that they own the legal trademark to the name. The Registry sued, contending that they created the name and had a longer history with the breed. A US District Court ordered that the Association cease registering horses until the matter was settled, and the association disappeared from public view soon after. In the fall of 2009, another organization, the North Dakota Badlands Horse Registry, was created. This organization registers horses that have been removed from the park in recent years, stating that these horses are not accepted by the Nokota Horse Registry. As of March 2011, approximately 40 horses had been registered. These horses tend to be of a slightly different phenotype and genotype than the horses registered by the Nokota Horse Registry due to the additional blood from different breeds released into the park.

The Nokota horse is a feral and semi-feral horse breed located in the badlands of southwestern North Dakota in the United States. The breed developed in the 19th century from foundation bloodstock consisting of ranch-bred horses produced from the horses of local Native Americans mixed with Spanish horses, Thoroughbreds, harness horses and related breeds. The Nokota was almost wiped out during the early 20th century when ranchers, in cooperation with state and federal agencies, worked together to reduce competition for livestock grazing. However, when Theodore Roosevelt National Park was created in the 1940s, a few bands were inadvertently trapped inside, and thus were preserved.

Le Nokota est une race de chevaux de selle qui descend de troupeaux libres des Badlands de la Little Missouri, situé au sud-ouest du Dakota du Nord, aux États-Unis. Re-découverte par des colons à la fin du, la population de chevaux Nokotas diminue fortement au cours du et les derniers d'entre eux sont enfermés dans le Parc national Theodore Roosevelt. Dans les années 1980, certains de ces chevaux sont vendus aux enchères et les frères Kuntz se mobilisent pour sauvegarder et faire reconnaître cette race. Le Nokota est désormais pris en charge par différentes associations.


Governance.

An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward had a population of 2,358 at the 2011 census.

Areas of Romney Marsh.

Romney Marsh is flat and low-lying, with parts below sea-level. It consists of several areas:

River Rother.

The River Rother today flows into the sea below Rye; but until 1287 its mouth lay between Romney and Lydd. It was tidal far upstream, almost to Bodiam. The river mouth was wide with a huge lagoon, making Rye a port at its western end. That lagoon lay behind a large island, which now makes up a large part of the Denge Marsh, on which stood the ports of Lydd and the old Winchelsea. All these ports were affiliated to (as "limbs" of) the Cinque Ports.

Reclamation.

The Romney Marsh has been gradually built up over the centuries.

Rhee Wall.

The most significant feature of the Marsh is the Rhee Wall (Rhee is a word for river), forming a prominent ridge. This feature was extended as a waterway in three stages from Appledore to New Romney in the 13th century. Sluices controlled the flow of water, which was then released to flush silt from the harbour at New Romney. Ultimately, the battle was lost; the harbour silted up and New Romney declined in importance. The Rhee kept part of the old port open until the 15th century.  The wall at Dymchurch was built around the same time; storms had breached the shingle barrier, which had protected it until that time. It is a common misconception that both these structures were built by the Romans.

Shingle.

In 1250 and in the following years, a series of violent storms broke through the coastal shingle banks, flooding significant areas and returning it to marsh, and destroying the harbour at New Romney. In 1287, water destroyed the port town of Old Winchelsea (now located some 2 mi (3 km) out in Rye bay), which had been endangered because of its proximity to the sea since at least 1236. Winchelsea, the third largest port in England and a major importer of wine, was relocated on higher land, with a harbour consisting of 82 wharfs. Those same storms, however, helped to build up more shingle; such beaches now ran along practically the whole seaward side of the marshland.  By the 14th century, much of the Walland and Denge Marshes had been reclaimed by "innings", the process of throwing up an embankment around the sea-marsh and using the low-tide to let it run dry by means of one-way drains set into the new seawall, running off into a network of dykes called locally "sewers". In 1462, the Romney Marsh Corporation was established to install drainage and sea defences for the marsh, which it continued to build into the 16th century. By that time, the course of the Rother had been changed to its channel today; most of the remainder of the area had now been reclaimed from the sea.  Today, shingle continues to be deposited in the harbor. As a result, all the original Cinque Ports of the Marsh are now far from the sea. Dungeness Point is still being added to (especially near Dungeness and Hythe), though a daily operation is in place to counter the reshaping of the shingle banks, using boats to dredge and move the drifting shingle.

Habitation.

The Marsh became the property of the Priory of Canterbury in the 9th century, who granted the first tenancy on the land to a man called Baldwin, sometime between 1152 and 1167, for "as much land as Baldwin himself can enclose and drain against the sea"; "Baldwin's Sewer" (drainage ditch) remains in use. The marsh has since become covered by a dense network of drainage ditches that once supported large farming communities. These watercourses are maintained and managed for sustainable water levels by the Romney Marsh Area Internal Drainage Board

Sustainability.

Romney Marsh is adjacent to the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is less developed than many other areas in Kent and Sussex. The decline in sheep prices meant that even the local stock (sold around the world for breeding for over two centuries) became unsustainable. Turfing had always been a lesser practice due to the grassland kept short by the sheep reared upon it, but farms are increasing in size to compensate for the decline in sustainable livestock farming. Some view this as unsustainable due to the damage to soil ecology of the Marsh. The only other alternative, since 1946, has been for farmers to turn to arable farming, changing the landscape from a patchwork of small family farms to a few extensive arable production units.

Wind farm.

A wind farm is located at Little Cheyne Court, west of Lydd. The proximity of the site to the internationally important RSPB reserve and the land's status as an SSSI were particularly controversial.

Romney Marsh sheep.

The economy and landscape of Romney Marsh in the 19th century were dominated by sheep. Improved methods of pasture management and husbandry meant that the Marsh could sustain a stock density greater than anywhere else in the world. The Romney Marsh sheep became one of the most successful and important breeds of sheep. Their main characteristic is an ability to feed in wet situations; they are considered to be more resistant to foot rot and internal parasites than any other breed. Romney sheep have been exported globally, in particular to Australia, starting in 1872.

Romney Marsh Countryside Partnership (RMCP).

The Romney Marsh Countryside Partnership was set up in June 1996, as a sister project to the White Cliffs Countryside Partnership. With the help of volunteers, it manages and maintains various sites across the Marsh. The non-profit organisation aims to care for the special landscape and wildlife of the Romney Marsh and Dungeness while encouraging people to enjoy and understand the countryside through volunteer work, guided walks, cycle rides, countryside events and children’s activities.

Malaria.

In the past, people who lived in the marsh frequently suffered from malaria, then known as "ague" or "marsh fever", which caused high mortality rates until the 1730s. It remained a major problem until the completion of the Royal Military Canal in 1806, which greatly improved the drainage of the area.  This disease probably arrived here with mosquitoes as soon as the weather became warm enough after the end of the last glacial, around or before the time of the Roman occupation. The strain responsible was most probably "Plasmodium vivax", as records and texts describe agues or fevers at three or four-day intervals. Prior Anselm, of nearby Canterbury, recorded in the 1070s and 1080s a case that had every appearance of malaria.  Although five indigenous mosquito species are capable of being hosts for the malarial parasite, only the "Anopheles atroparvus" species breeds in sufficient numbers here to act as an efficient vector. However, "P. vivax" likes brackish waters and, with the recreation of the old coastal wetlands coming into favour, this could expand the future malarial parasite host reserve. Together with the average temperatures in England increasing due to climate change, English malaria may become re-established in the marshes.

Transport.

Roads.

Roads across the Marsh have always been narrow and winding. This is partly because of the hundreds of "sewers" and smaller drainage ditches, and because the grazing land is far more important than the roads. The lack of road signs and few villages can make navigating across the marsh very confusing for outsiders. Several minor roads have no finger posts at junctions at all and at others, it is possible to find two or three lanes apparently leading to the same village.  Many of these lanes are built on the remains of enclosures used to "in" the Marsh. There is a dramatic section near Brookland, where a lane linking the Woolpack pub to Lydd is perched 2 or 3 m above the surrounding farmland, on the "Hook" wall. The section of road between Brenzett and Lydd Lane end is built on the Rhee wall, a medieval canal that brought water from higher up the river Rother.  The main road is the A259 from Rye, which is narrow and winding to Brookland and Brenzett, where it splits in two. One arm becomes the A2070 and runs parallel to the railway to link the Marsh to Hamstreet, Ashford and the wider world. The other, still the A259, is good only as far as the junction with Lydd Lane (B2075) and leads to New Romney, Dymchurch, Hythe and eventually, Folkestone.  The local bus routes on the Marsh are operated by Stagecoach in East Kent and link it to Ashford, Canterbury, Dover, Folkestone, Hastings, Northiam and Tenterden.  The best way to see the Marsh is on cycle: the almost flat terrain, the narrow, almost deserted lanes, make it ideal for family jaunts. National Cycle Route 2 passes through the area; the section between Rye and Lydd is mostly off-road. From Lydd to Hythe, it uses quiet lanes; from Hythe it is possible to cycle along the sea wall to Folkestone, and ultimately (off-road) to reach Dover.

Railways.

The main line railway known as the Marsh Link Line is the Ashford to Hastings line, with stations at Hamstreet, Appledore, Rye, and Winchelsea. The one-time branch to New Romney from Appledore (its small offshoot to Dungeness closed in 1937) was closed to passenger traffic in 1967. It was possible to travel directly from Dungeness to London, and the 2-hr journey time was quicker than by road and rail today. The line is still in place about a mile short of Dungeness. In the early 21st century, it is used to transfer spent fuel from the nuclear power plant.  The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, a -gauge miniature railway and the only miniature railway in the British Isles ever to have been incorporated under the Light Railways Act 1896, has been operating along the Romney Marsh coast since 1927. It runs for from Hythe to Dungeness.

Walks.

The Saxon Shore Way starts at Gravesend, Kent. It traces the coast as it was in Roman times as far as Hastings, East Sussex, 163 mi (262 km) in total, crossing the Marsh.

The Marsh in war.

Throughout its history, the proximity of the marsh to the European mainland meant that this area was in the front line whenever invasion threatened. In AD 892, one such invasion was successful. The Danish fleet of 250 ships sailed right into the Rother and took the fortress at Appledore (allegedly built by King Arthur), which they destroyed.

Cinque Ports.

The importance of the Cinque Ports was in their strategic location at the narrowest part of the English Channel. They were important for both trade and defense. Romney and Hythe were two of the ports within the Romney Marsh; Rye and Winchelsea were later added as “Antient Towns”. Rye replaced Romney as one of the main five when Romney's port was silted in.

Royal Military Canal.

The Royal Military Canal stretches for 28 miles hugging the old cliff line that borders the Romney Marsh from Hythe in the north east to Cliff End in the south west. It was conceived by Lt-Col Brown of the Royal Staff Corps of field engineers in 1804, the time of the Napoleonic Wars, as a way to ensure that an invasion by the French could not use the marsh as a bridgehead. John Rennie acted as consultant engineer, and the work was completed in April 1809. A military road was built on the inland side of the canal, which consisted of two parts, joined by sections of the River Rother and the River Brede.

Martello Towers.

Martello towers are fortifications that were built by the British Army for coastal defence during the early nineteenth century and the Napoleonic Wars. Seventy-four towers were built along the south coast; Tower 1 was at Folkestone, overlooking the harbour, and Tower 74 guarded the beach at Seaford in East Sussex. Six were built in pairs in Dymchurch to protect the Romney Marsh sluices from potential invading French forces. One of these, Martello Tower No. 24 is closest to its original condition, and has its cannon. It is open to the public during the summer months. The towers were built between 1805 and 1808, when Napoleon was a threat.

Sound Mirrors.

Prior to World War II, experiments to detect enemy aircraft with huge concrete acoustic mirrors were conducted at Greatstone. The large concrete mirrors were built between 1928-30 as an early warning system in case of approaching German aircraft.  These experiments had variable success but the technology very quickly became obsolete with the invention of radar.

World War II.

Germany's Operation Sea Lion plan included crossing the flat marsh during an invasion across the English Channel. The government planned to flood the area to prevent troops and equipment from crossing the area. Thousands of concrete pillboxes were built in Kent; 6,500 of the crumbling structures remain standing to this day. The ancient Royal Military Canal was well guarded with troops, pillboxes and barbed wire. Training was provided in the area for the secret Auxiliary Units, men who would be deployed in case of an invasion. Four Advanced Landing Ground airstrips were built on Romney Marsh in 1942, for use by fighters and light bombers; these were used for flights in 1944 against the German Flying bombs.  The miniature Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway was used by the government to run armoured trains during construction of Operation Pluto, known as the Pipe Line Under The Ocean. It was to pass under the English Channel, and was intended to supply fuel to the Allied forces that would be involved in Operation Overlord (the 1944 invasion of Normandy).

Military Training.

There are two military establishments on the Marsh: the Hythe and Lydd Ranges. The latter has a large danger area marked on maps south of Lydd towards the sea. The Metropolitan Police also have a substantial facility just outside Lydd, where a mock urban 'townscape' complete with full-size houses, streets, etc., provides an appropriate environment for counter-terrorism and civil disorder training.

"Lost villages" of the Marsh.

Some of the "lost communities" on the Marsh are instances of the modern decline of the rural communities; others occurred over the centuries. In 1348, for example, many villages were decimated by the Black Death. The few survivors moved to other places.  The villages, shown below with the modern Ordnance Survey map information on Sheet 189, were:

Smuggling.

The flat, almost empty landscape and numerous waterways made for a smuggler's paradise from the 1600s into the 1800s. The traffic was two-way, since wool was smuggled from this area to the Continent.  The main gangs on the Marsh were the Hawkhurst Gang, the Mayfield Gang, and the Aldington Gang, known also as "the Blues".  Smugglers on the Marshes were known as "Owlers." The name was rumoured to be derived from the owl-like sounds they used to communicate at night.

Literary associations.

Romney Marsh has been represented in a distinguished literary history. Three authors who specifically used the marsh as settings for their works were E.F. Benson, author of the Mapp and Lucia novels; Russell Thorndike, author of the Doctor Syn novels; and the children's writer Monica Edwards, author of Romney Marsh books. She changed the name of Rye Harbour to "Westling", Rye is renamed "Dunsford", and Winchelsea is known as "Winklesea".  Rosemary Sutcliff's 1955 historical novel "Outcast" depicts Roman efforts to build the Rhee Wall and reclaim land from the sea. A fictitious Romney Marsh estate near Charbury is a key setting in "The Eagle Has Flown" (1991) by Jack Higgins, the quasi-sequel to "The Eagle Has Landed." Both are related to World War II. The latter novel was adapted as a successful motion picture starring Michael Caine.  Modern-day novelist George Chittenden captures smuggling on the Kent coast in his highly praised debut children's novel, "The Boy Who Led Them" (2012). It follows the rise and fall of a smuggling gang leader in Deal, Kent, a notorious smuggling town further down the coast.  Many other well-known writers have been associated with the area: Henry James lived in Rye; Daphne du Maurier lived in Hythe for a few years during World War II; H.G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, Stephen Crane, Radclyffe Hall, Noël Coward, Edith Nesbit, Rumer Godden, Malcolm Saville, and Conrad Aiken also lived in marsh towns. Rudyard Kipling and his poem, "A Smugglers' Song", are also associated with the 18th-century Sussex smugglers.  According to Norman Wright's book "The Famous Five: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know", Rye's history inspired Enid Blyton when she wrote "Five Go to Smuggler's Top."  The 1947 British historical drama film "The Loves of Joanna Godden," based on the novel by Sheila Kaye-Smith and directed by Charles Frend, is set in Romney Marsh.

Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about. The Marsh has been in use for centuries, though its inhabitants commonly suffered from malaria until the 18th century. Due to its location, geography, and isolation, it was a smuggler's paradise between the 1600s and 1800s. The area has long been used for sheep pasture; Romney Marsh sheep are considered one of the most successful and important sheep breeds. Criss-crossed with numerous waterways, and with some areas lying below sea level, the Marsh has over time sustained a gradual level of reclamation, both through natural causes and by human intervention.

Le Romney Marsh est une zone humide du Sud-Est de l'Angleterre, située sur les territoires du Kent et du Sussex de l'Est. Très peu peuplé, ce vaste marais s'étend sur environ.


Background.

Entries.

The field was almost unchanged from the previous race, but Noritake Takahara rented the second Surtees replacing Brett Lunger and Masami Kuwashima replaced Warwick Brown in the second Wolf-Williams. However, Kuwashima was himself replaced by Hans Binder during the meeting, after his money failed to materialize. Maki resurrected its Formula One car for Tony Trimmer while Heros Racing entered an old Tyrrell for Kazuyoshi Hoshino. Kojima Engineering entered a locally built chassis for Masahiro Hasemi (on Dunlop tyres).

Championship standings before the race.

Heading into the final race of the season it was Niki Lauda who led the World Driver's Championship by three points ahead of James Hunt. In the Constructors' Championship it was Ferrari who had an eleven point lead over McLaren. As this was the final race of the season with 9 points available for the win it meant that the Japanese Grand Prix would decide the Driver's championship although Ferrari had confirmed their win the Constructors in the previous round.

Championship permutations.

For Lauda to win the Championship he needed:  For Hunt to win the Championship he needed to finish:

Qualifying.

Mario Andretti took pole position in the Lotus 77, with Hunt alongside him on the front row and Lauda third. Then came John Watson in the Penske, Jody Scheckter, Carlos Pace, Clay Regazzoni and Vittorio Brambilla. The top 10 was completed by Ronnie Peterson and Hasemi. Trimmer failed to qualify the Maki.

Race.

On race day the weather was very wet with fog and running water at several places on the track. There were intense debates as to whether the race should be started; in the end the organisers decided to go ahead and a majority of drivers did not disagree. Some drivers, including Lauda, were not happy with the decision.  Hunt took the lead from the start with Watson and Andretti behind. On the second lap Watson slid down an escape road and Lauda drove into the pits to withdraw, as he believed the weather conditions made the track too dangerous. He later said "my life is worth more than a title". Larry Perkins made a similar decision after one lap, as did Pace and Emerson Fittipaldi later in the race.  Hunt continued to lead, behind him second place passed between Andretti and Brambilla. On lap 22 Brambilla challenged for the lead but spun out of contention before retiring 15 laps later with electrical problems. Jochen Mass moved into second before crashing on the 36th lap just before turn 7, promoting Patrick Depailler into the position with Andretti third.  It seemed Hunt was on for an easy win, but as the track began to dry he started to lose positions. He only needed a fourth place to win the title, because of Lauda's retirement. On lap 62 Hunt fell behind Depailler and Andretti, but two laps later Depailler's left rear tyre started to deflate and he had to pit. Andretti took the lead, but then Hunt had a similar tyre problem. Hunt pitted, dropped to fifth and set off after Depailler, Alan Jones and Regazzoni. Depailler overtook both drivers on lap 70 and on the next lap Hunt did the same and won the World Drivers' Championship, to his surprise. Ferrari won the Constructors' Championship despite Lauda's retirement.  Andretti's victory was his second in Formula One, coming five years, seven months and 18 days after his maiden win at the 1971 South African Grand Prix., this is the longest period between a first and second victory of a driver in the series.

The 1976 Japanese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Fuji Speedway on 24 October 1976. It was the 16th and final race of the 1976 Formula One World Championship

Le Grand Prix automobile du Japon 1976 est une course de Formule 1, dernière manche du championnat du monde 1976, disputée le sur le circuit de Fuji. Au départ de l'épreuve, disputée sous l'averse, Niki Lauda, revenu au volant après son accident du août au Grand Prix d'Allemagne sur le Nürburgring, est en tête du classement des pilotes avec trois points d'avance sur James Hunt. Lauda décide pourtant d'abandonner après seulement deux tours de course. Hunt, en se classant troisième, remporte le titre mondial avec un point d'avance sur Lauda.


Athletic career.

Nordwig won a bronze in the pole vault at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. He was a member of the East German team, the first time East and West Germany had sent separate teams to the Olympics. In the contest, Nordwig, the American Bob Seagren and the West-German Claus Schiprowski all cleared at 5.40 m, Seagren and Schiprowski on their second attempts and Nordwig on his third. All missed at 5.45 m. Seagren was the gold medal winner because he had had fewer misses at lower heights than Schiprowski.  Nordwig was Olympic champion at the pole vault at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Nordwig's keenest rivals for the title the Americans Bob Seagren, Steve Smith and Jan Johnson and the Swede Kjell Isaksson were amongst those vaulters banned by the world governing body the IAAF from competing with the lighter poles they had been using all season. An initial ban in July had been reversed on 27 August, but on the eve of the competition, 30 August, the IAAF reimposed their ban claiming the poles were new equipment and therefore invalid. Seagren, the defending champion, finished second; Johnson third; and Smith and Isaksson did not even qualify for the final. Nordwig had never preferred the new pole so was unaffected.  In the competition itself, Johnson was eliminated at 5.40 m with Nordwig clearing on his second attempt and Seagren on his third. Nordwig then cleared 5.45 m with Seagren unable to match him. Nordwig then underlined his triumph by clearing 5.50 m for a new Olympic record and his personal best.  Nordwig won five European titles: three outdoors (1966, 1969 and 1971) and two indoors (1971 and 1972). Domestically he won the East German title outdoors in 1965-72 and indoors in 1964-66, and 1969-72. During his career he set two world records. The first occasion was on 17 June 1970 in Berlin, Germany when he cleared. The second was on 3 September 1970 in Turin, Italy, when he broke his own world record with a jump of. In 1972 he became East German Sportsman of the Year and retired from competitions.

World rankings.

Nordwig was voted by the experts at "Track and Field News" to be ranked among the best in the world (the best in 1970 and 1971) in the pole vault in the period from 1965 to 1972.

Personal life.

Nordwig had a degree in physics and defended a PhD in economics. He worked for VEB Carl Zeiss Jena eventually becoming a director of research and development. Later, he was managing director of a travel company in Berlin. His brothers Reinhard and Reinhard Hans-Jürgen competed nationally in middle-distance running.

Wolfgang Nordwig (born 27 August 1943) is a former East German pole vaulter. He competed in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics and won a bronze and a gold medal, respectively, clearing 5.50 m in 1972.

Wolfgang Nordwig (né le à Chemnitz) est un athlète allemand ayant concouru pour la République démocratique allemande dans les années 1960 et 1970. Spécialiste du saut à la perche, il remporte le titre olympique en 1972 et s'adjuge par ailleurs trois titres consécutifs de champion d'Europe de 1966 à 1971. En 1970, il améliore à deux reprises le record du monde de la discipline.