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houseofstrangeA line of thinking to explain how a common trope dwarven city iconography could work.
So this is thoughts on the idea of of how the Arélenimbë's thermal heating works when there is a dwarven city practically underneath it.
The thing that comes to mind is the common visual trope of lava features in dwarven cities, but the laughable thing about that is that lava is so bloody hot that random pools and falls of lava would roast the dwarves around them... unless there is some sort of magic shielding that keeps most of the heat from affecting the people, and probably also keeping the lava from splattering outside it's designated places.
(Even Dragon has this - Orzammar has improbable lava features, and even strips of the Deep Roads have lava channels.)
So my first solution to the geothermal question is that Khazâd-Azhâr - and by extension several of the Nightlands dwarven cities - keep volcanic features restrained by enchantments embedded in the city's very stonework, even to the point where it is powered by the Living Stone directly, and is so old it dates back to the earliest stages of Dwarven/Curwaquendár cooperation.
But there is another part of it that came to mind - part of the way the volcanic pressure under the city is dealt with is directly through a specifically Quendár magi-technology, portals.
See one of the big factors in how the Quendár society functions is by using portals for in-situ functions. For instance, the biggest use of portals is the Nightlands transit system - a system whose early stages was created during the Sunset War - but it's not the only use, with other uses including plumbing purposes and even recycling, with portals that can separate substances and divulge them through multiple exit portals.
The important factor involved in the volcanic question is that portals were put in place in ancient times (even in Westerlands terms) that vent volcanic activity to alleviate pressure that might otherwise cause disaster to the city.
Now the interesting mental turn I took is that the portals don't vent into anywhere in the mundane world, but vents in some odd Fae realms that predate most of the Fae realms and also partially intersect with the Living Stone.
These realms are very barren, rocky, volcanic hell-scape, since they are dominated by volcanic venting.
However one thing that holds true of any Fae realm is the Fae dragons - the sentient manifestations of Fae realms occur as dragons with stone and gemstone characteristics - and the dragons of the Basalt Realms are - as the name implies - basalt dragons.
However the Basalt Realms are strange in Fae terms because of that intersection with the Living Stone. The Living Stone is the Arcane Realm that is the most dominated by Order, while most of the Fae Realms have distinctly Chaotic characteristics, making the Basalt Realms different from most Fae Realms and often viewed as rather hostile to most Fae. The Basalt Dragons are also far larger and more intelligent than any of their realms should allow for, considering that Fae dragons' size and intelligence is usually dictated by how large their realm is and how many people live within it. The Basalt Realms at best only have a very small number of hardy souls, if any people at all. At best it theorised that the size and intelligence of the dragons is affected by the link to the Living Stone.
But going back to geothermal heating, it occurs to after this line of thought that the Arélenimbë lake's heating is likely not a natural thing, but also one of those ancient constructions from early in the Dwarven/Curwaquendár alliance, in fact given the purpose of it, it was probably one of their earliest collaborations, establishing how to make the Vales more hospitable for people to live in, not to mention allowing for crop opportunities beyond the valley's natural ability.
This would have worked in conjunction with an arcane shield over the top of the Vales, that acted to help hold in the warmth, basically producing a mild greenhouse effect in the valleys. That same arcane shield would later be augmented to shield the Elenimbë both from the Greater Moon and also from Fae invasions after the first Fae War involved Unseelie trying to open up Fae Gates in the Vales.
And this is not just the Arélenimbë, but variations of the same scheme was set up across multiple Elenimbë up and down the Khazad Mountains. The Basalt Realms may match in numbers, perhaps even more since the numbers of Elenimbë does not match the numbers of Dwarven settlements.
So this is thoughts on the idea of of how the Arélenimbë's thermal heating works when there is a dwarven city practically underneath it.
The thing that comes to mind is the common visual trope of lava features in dwarven cities, but the laughable thing about that is that lava is so bloody hot that random pools and falls of lava would roast the dwarves around them... unless there is some sort of magic shielding that keeps most of the heat from affecting the people, and probably also keeping the lava from splattering outside it's designated places.
(Even Dragon has this - Orzammar has improbable lava features, and even strips of the Deep Roads have lava channels.)
So my first solution to the geothermal question is that Khazâd-Azhâr - and by extension several of the Nightlands dwarven cities - keep volcanic features restrained by enchantments embedded in the city's very stonework, even to the point where it is powered by the Living Stone directly, and is so old it dates back to the earliest stages of Dwarven/Curwaquendár cooperation.
But there is another part of it that came to mind - part of the way the volcanic pressure under the city is dealt with is directly through a specifically Quendár magi-technology, portals.
See one of the big factors in how the Quendár society functions is by using portals for in-situ functions. For instance, the biggest use of portals is the Nightlands transit system - a system whose early stages was created during the Sunset War - but it's not the only use, with other uses including plumbing purposes and even recycling, with portals that can separate substances and divulge them through multiple exit portals.
The important factor involved in the volcanic question is that portals were put in place in ancient times (even in Westerlands terms) that vent volcanic activity to alleviate pressure that might otherwise cause disaster to the city.
Now the interesting mental turn I took is that the portals don't vent into anywhere in the mundane world, but vents in some odd Fae realms that predate most of the Fae realms and also partially intersect with the Living Stone.
These realms are very barren, rocky, volcanic hell-scape, since they are dominated by volcanic venting.
However one thing that holds true of any Fae realm is the Fae dragons - the sentient manifestations of Fae realms occur as dragons with stone and gemstone characteristics - and the dragons of the Basalt Realms are - as the name implies - basalt dragons.
However the Basalt Realms are strange in Fae terms because of that intersection with the Living Stone. The Living Stone is the Arcane Realm that is the most dominated by Order, while most of the Fae Realms have distinctly Chaotic characteristics, making the Basalt Realms different from most Fae Realms and often viewed as rather hostile to most Fae. The Basalt Dragons are also far larger and more intelligent than any of their realms should allow for, considering that Fae dragons' size and intelligence is usually dictated by how large their realm is and how many people live within it. The Basalt Realms at best only have a very small number of hardy souls, if any people at all. At best it theorised that the size and intelligence of the dragons is affected by the link to the Living Stone.
But going back to geothermal heating, it occurs to after this line of thought that the Arélenimbë lake's heating is likely not a natural thing, but also one of those ancient constructions from early in the Dwarven/Curwaquendár alliance, in fact given the purpose of it, it was probably one of their earliest collaborations, establishing how to make the Vales more hospitable for people to live in, not to mention allowing for crop opportunities beyond the valley's natural ability.
This would have worked in conjunction with an arcane shield over the top of the Vales, that acted to help hold in the warmth, basically producing a mild greenhouse effect in the valleys. That same arcane shield would later be augmented to shield the Elenimbë both from the Greater Moon and also from Fae invasions after the first Fae War involved Unseelie trying to open up Fae Gates in the Vales.
And this is not just the Arélenimbë, but variations of the same scheme was set up across multiple Elenimbë up and down the Khazad Mountains. The Basalt Realms may match in numbers, perhaps even more since the numbers of Elenimbë does not match the numbers of Dwarven settlements.
