Lore: The Steam Cities

 The Steam Cities

The surface cities of the gnomish Norquii are known collectively as the Steam Cities. They represent the highest level of technological sophistication known to contemporary Thindul, and have grown prosperous and influential in recent centuries. None of this could have been accomplished without the discovery of everfire, a dangerous and exotic material, which they jealously guard.

This precious liquid will burn indefinitely so long as it is exposed to air, neither diminishing nor extinguishing. Naturally, its usage and transport can easily become hazardous. When employed by Norquii as a weapon, its fires proved difficult to contain, and parts of the land still burn many years later. Nevertheless, it is as useful as it is dangerous, and it is mined intensively from Gwynnbered by covetous gnomish and dwarven guilds.

For now, the full potential of everfire's limitless power has yet to be tapped; gnomish technomancers presently lack a means to efficiently store or transmit the extracted energy. It is used in some large and stationary steamworks; these include the engines that pump water from deep gnomish cities, as well as in elevators between the surface and the Deepings.

In terms of sheer scale, the greatest of these systems are the steam pipes that carry water directly from the undersea to the desert cities above. This is accomplished by allowing water from the undersea to flow, via canals, into large cisterns. These vessels are then heated by everfire furnaces, and the steam rises through enormous pipes toward the surface. (To maintain heat and pressure, a number of small relay furnaces are also built into the pipes along the way up.) When this steam reaches the surface, some of it is collected in water towers for later distribution, while the excess is allowed to billow from colossal chimneys, raining down and greening the landscape around the city.

Everfire is also employed on a smaller scale in various furnaces, which force steam into elevated reservoirs or holding tanks; this water is then released and its flow is used to turn water wheels, powering elaborate clockworks.

While Thindul is pervaded by extraordinary magic, even the simplest magecraft requires a real degree of skill and focus to employ. Experienced wizards are usually more interested in applying their talents to esoteric experimentation, than in toiling in magic-enhanced manufacture. The clockworks powered by everfire, on the other hand, may be constructed such that nearly anyone can operate them.

As a result of its technological ascendance, and of its practical need to cluster settlements around the deep steam pipes, Norquii has become the most urban and industrial society known to Thindul's history. While elvenkind has shown a persistent aversion to mass production, gnomish goods are of great popularity among the poor throughout human and dwarven lands. Even given the costs of export, a peasant in Periandor can often purchase shoes manufactured in Norquii for less than they would pay to a village cobbler.

The wealth generated by such trade is essential to the long-term feasibility of Norquii as an independent polity. Norquii has long suffered ambitious neighbors, the Steel Empire to the west and Naihurin Etarl in the east. The aeohtar and elves of these nations are rightly vaunted as fearsome warriors; gnomes, meanwhile, are little known for martial prowess. The prosperity of the steam cities enables Norquii to reinforce their domestic armies with large numbers of Rukkar and Thalu mercenaries; their stupendous technology, meanwhile, furnishes Norquii with hitherto unfathomable machines of war.