Is there an explanation for the non standard source level potentials?

[Question]

Mainly in Tuarhievel and Sielwode. Elven provinces dont reduce source level potential per the original rules, but the potential in elven provinces are too low. Fhylallien's potential is only 5, which is the same as plains. It's in the middle of the Sielwode, so one could argue that it counts as a "deep forest" with a potential of 9. Even a regular forest has a potential of 7 and all the elven provinces have a potential of 6 at best.

The original rules do say there are "exceptions", is there any explanation for why the potentials are lower than they should be?

[Sorontar]

Mainly in Tuarhievel and Sielwode. Elven provinces dont reduce source level potential per the original rules, but the potential in elven provinces are too low. Fhylallien's potential is only 5, which is the same as plains. It's in the middle of the Sielwode, so one could argue that it counts as a "deep forest" with a potential of 9. Even a regular forest has a potential of 7 and all the elven provinces have a potential of 6 at best.

The original rules do say there are "exceptions", is there any explanation for why the potentials are lower than they should be?

I believe that the normal explanation within the community is that the rules are for making new maps/provinces, not understanding existing ones.

Sorontar

[Fizz]

If you need an explanation for story purposes, you can certainly devise some yourself. A couple off the top of my head...

Maybe the high-level forests have features that up their source level: powerful waterfalls, glorious cave systems full of crystals, etc. And maybe the lower-level forests have a dearth of those.

Or perhaps the low-level forests are not healthy: still covered with trees but little new growth for some reason (disease, depleted soil, whatever).

But as Sorontar implied, they're all guidelines, no hard and fast rules for it. There's not enough space in the books to explain every little deviation from the norm. Heh.

-Fizz

[Question]

I wonder if they did it for balance reasons, because they didnt want the elven forests to be full of level 7-9 sources.

Theres nothing in the old books saying anything about why certain provinces have higher or lower source potential? I think Doom's Peak is mentioned as a volcano so it makes sense to have a potential of 8 though.

[Sorontar]

Personally my hope is that they realised that not all non-humans are alike so why treat all elven realms alike. Just like we can have goblinoid realms that trade with human realms, we can have elven realms that are more "developed" than others, so they may have lower source potential, regardless of the dominant race and culture.

Sorontar