[GAME] Collaborative World Building Dwarven city as a start

[(E)]

Answer 9, partial
Knurlkyth is part of what is known as the Kingdom of Craft. This is a group of three Dwarven cities, Knurlkyth, Ascûdnein and Mernakyth as well as the independent and multiracial Duchy of Drochaidùir. These places have never had a king so the term kingdom is misleading, it stems from a saying common to independent dwarves "We serve no king but our craft". All the dwarven cities have some form of democratic government while the Duchy's laws of succession require their council of druids to select an heir from the last Duke's children.
The three cities are scattered widely throughout the Ornthrond mountains while Drochaidùir occupies a broad valley in the center of the region.
While not a unified group they trade frequently and have long standing agreements to support one another in wartime.

Question 20
What nation shares Knurlkyth’s heavily forested southern border?

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by (E)

Question 19
What else can be said about these or other historic events, why are they important or memorable?

The living corruption

I'm going to claim dibs on 19a- Living Corruption, if I may.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Question 15
Are there any other communities living on or around the mountain, or are there non-dwarven communities living in the city?

Non-dwarves are not an uncommon sight in the city. Of particular note are the twilight elves, whose presence is enshrined in tradition and law. Twilight elves live in the depths of the city, but are also commonly found on the lower slopes of the mountain. The area around the city is part of Knurlkyth, and there is an intermediate area between the true domain of twilight elves and the fields of Knurlkyth is only occasionally inhabited.


Other non-dwarves are much less common, and generally present only in the city itself and common trade routes.


Question 21
What are current Twilight-Elf and Dwarf relations like? What are their friction points? How do they avoid pogroms and discrimination? How similar are their cultures?

Question 22
Can Dwarves interbreed with other races?

[TGLS]

Question 13
How are things transported within the city and mines of Knurlkyth?

Answer 13
There are a large number of mountain roads that are intended to facilitate trade have also been used for interlevel transportation. Complaints about being forced to travel outside have been more or less continuous since the founding of the city. About a hundred years ago, a bright inventor came up with a complicated system of hydraulic elevators for use with interlevel transportation. After smaller scale tests in mines proved promising, the process was extended to the urban areas. This proved a costly mistake. About ten years ago, the Committee approved a large spiral highway within the mountain. Work on the highway tunnel is continuing despite cost overruns and delays.

Question 10A
What's the 12th guild? Are there unrecognized guilds?

Answer 10A
12) The Guild of the Glassworkers - Confusingly, this guild does not do any work with glass (that's the smelters business). Instead, it refers to the fact that these workers are the secondary workers at the greenhouses. They represent a motley crew of entertainers, bartenders, window washers, attendants, prostitutes and the like that primarily operate out of the glass houses. They also represent those below. Recently, they have adopted the lawyers, insurance agents and stock brokers that often are found cutting deals in trendy ale & tea houses up above. They are often not seen engaging in politics or insults, as those who live in glass house should not throw stones. They were added to avoid ties on The Workers' Bench.

U1) The Unseen Guild - This guild takes great pains to conceal evidence of its existence. It is unclear whether or not they are simply a pack of thieves and other scum, or sophisticated spy ring, probably operating for the government, or perhaps an enemy power. It is possible that it could be a spy ring that supports itself through criminal enterprise. Lately it has been involved in exporting a narcotic extracted from a rare variety of mushrooms. It is unclear where these mushrooms are found, it is possible they are grown below the lake.

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Question 3 (Continued)
There is a superstition against things that come third. How would one notice this in daily life in the city?

Question 9 (Continued)
Please provide names for:
- the mountain
- the encompassing mountain range
- maybe the nearby lakes and waterways, particularly the mountaintop heated lake and the lowland lake which limits the city's lower boundary
- any other notable features

Question 10B
Are there more unrecognized guilds?

Question 12
Money. What is it, and who mints it?

Question 17
How do the five families fit into the city's power structure? What status do they have, how do they relate to the guilds, and how are they tied to the city's history?

Question 18
What goods is it necessary for the city to import? And are there any foreign luxuries that are particularly in demand?

Question 19
What else can be said about these or other historic events, why are they important or memorable?

The living corruption (Dibbed by Daigoro)
The halfblood dominion
The quickening princess
The rise of the first empire of man
The fall of the high elves

Question 20
What nation shares Knurlkyth’s heavily forested southern border?

Question 21
What are current Twilight-Elf and Dwarf relations like? What are their friction points? How do they avoid pogroms and discrimination? How similar are their cultures?

Question 22
Can Dwarves interbreed with other races?

Question 23
Why is the spiral tunnel overbudget and delayed?

[Daigoro]

Putting cultures and hysterical points aside for a moment, let's consider some of the crunchy bits of the project. I think it'd be useful to know some of these. Sorry for the huge question dump.

Technical Question G: Mountain's dimensions
How big is the mountain?
How tall is its free-standing peak?
Feel free to google up a real mountain we can adapt. Also if you can find a temperature gradient map like this (previously posted p9) it would be fantastic, but I failed miserably when I looked.

Technical Question H: City's dimensions
How big is it?
What is its volume and floor area?
How large are Low Town, Mid Town and High Town, with what elevation between them?
How many levels do they each have, of what height?
What is the mountain's nominal diameter at those elevations?
Basically, what percentage of a mountain is it possible to hollow out horizontally and vertically before structural integrity is compromised?

Technical Question I: Demographics
What's the population then?
How does it compare to a medieval or pre-Renaissance city?
How does that work for the agricultural calculations?
What's the population density?
How many people do what jobs?
This site (Medieval Demographics) has some gaming related calculations.

Technical Question J: Dwarf Physiology
What's the life expectancy and reproductive rate of our dwarves?
How does that feed into Question I?

[(E)]

Factors relating to the technical questions G-J
If the mountain that houses Knurlkyth stands alone and relatively unconnected from the Ornthrond mountain range it will need a height of at least 6000m to accommodate the glaciers that supply the city.

The middle gate farm system was left with an undefined size to allow flexibility, with the consensus seeming to be excellent farming technology and resources for Knurlkyth it is technically possible to abandon it all together.

For demographics the increased farming efficiency means dwarven farmers are better than twice as efficient as TL 3 human farmers.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by (E)

Factors relating to the technical questions G-J
If the mountain that houses Knurlkyth stands alone and relatively unconnected from the Ornthrond mountain range it will need a height of at least 6000m to accommodate the glaciers that supply the city.

Does that depend on climatic assumptions? The Wet Andres seems to have a lower snowline than the Dry Andes, for example. But anyway, I wasn't thinking that it had to be very isolated- being deep in a mountain range makes it more isolated in terms of accessibility.

The middle gate farm system was left with an undefined size to allow flexibility, with the consensus seeming to be excellent farming technology and resources for Knurlkyth it is technically possible to abandon it all together.

This would suggest a shift toward growing surplus grain for trade and beer production, as well as a shift toward cash crops.

For demographics the increased farming efficiency means dwarven farmers are better than twice as efficient as TL 3 human farmers.

In terms of tons/acre, I presume. What about labour efficiency- can fewer farmers get the same output?

[(E)]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Does that depend on climatic assumptions? The Wet Andres seems to have a lower snowline than the Dry Andes, for example. But anyway, I wasn't thinking that it had to be very isolated- being deep in a mountain range makes it more isolated in terms of accessibility.

Yes, it does depend on some climate assumptions. There are other geographic features as well that might influence the local climate. Perhaps it is best to say "the city requires a considerable amount of water, this should be taken into account"

Originally Posted by Daigoro

This would suggest a shift toward growing surplus grain for trade and beer production, as well as a shift toward cash crops.

Basically, but the city may choose to convert the grain or grain growing regions into other forms of production. A highly efficient middle gate system means there is little point to having the higher altitude farming. But it's simple enough to say there are other limiting factors that constrain the middlegate system. Unstable soils, pests, poor microclimate and so forth

Originally Posted by Daigoro

In terms of tons/acre, I presume. What about labour efficiency- can fewer farmers get the same output?

Yes and yes, 2.5(ish) times the base production of TL 3 by area for maybe (too many variables to be more specific) 1.7 times the labour. This is helped by the dwarves use of waste plant material as as a food source (via fungi) where humans use this resource for building materials etc. Smaller area, developed infrastructure and good roads means more efficient transport and processing.
The numbers look similar to the industrial revolution in some ways.

[(E)]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Question 17
How do the five families fit into the city's power structure? What status do they have, how do they relate to the guilds, and how are they tied to the city's history?

Not all resources required by a dwarf hold are available within the area protected by its soldiers. In ancient times the dwarves responsible for gathering these distant resources were granted the rights to maintain soldiers to protect themselves. To pay for these soldiers these early nobles were granted further rights related to the resources they mined. With these rights came the responsibilities of both providing the dwarf hold they serve with soldiers in times of war and specific resources in times of peace. Overall there are many similarities to the human fuedal systems where nobles are granted land in exchange for military support.
In these more modern times there have been some unique cases, Up until two generations ago the noble house Brithnurl maintained their warrant of nobility by trading for Knurlkyth’s sulphur requirements from the Halfling cities before several disasters saw them lose their position. The dwarves who operate mines are analogous to lords in human society, the dwarves who gather other mineral resources without mining are similar in position to human knights.

Technically the division between the nobility and the guilds lies at the city's gates. However due to the nature of the government of Knurlkyth there are causes of tension between the two groups. The Guild of the Auger is responsible for assaying the resources each noble house provides and adjudicating unclear matters of succession in favour of the most skilled miner. The Guild of the Smelter however sees the Nobility as competition who have the right to sell "surplus" arms, armour and metal goods. The Guilds of the Bushel and Horn can have a complicated relationship with the nobility as the Guild of the Bushel may require the specific resources the nobility provide while the nobility are usually reliant on the food the Guild of the Horn is responsible for.

The Five Families of Knurlkyth
The families Kuzrada and Gromgorm respectively have control over Tin and Copper mining. They are the oldest of Knurlkyth’s noble houses and were founded before the city itself as some Elves have a mild allergy to Iron and required weapons made of other materials. These houses have the strongest links to the Twilight Elves that live with the city.

The Merins are the wealthiest of the families as their salt mines produce a lot more than the city requires. The surplus red salt is taken by lama to Drochaidùir where it is loaded onto river boats for sale in many of the nations north of the Ornthrond mountains. The soldiers who operate under the Merin banner are seasoned and well equipped caravan guards.

The Razik family controls the flow of silver into Knurlkyth. Their current mines are starting to play out however and they are striving to find new source so they can maintain their warrant of nobility. They have gone so far as to begin prospecting in the deep shadowed valleys along the eastern edge of Ornthrond range. They were once a family that had the wealth and influence to play politics with the halfling cities, as a result they have both friends and enemies in that region.

Lead is controlled by the Doragyth family -- I'll leave this open for anyone else to expand on --

Minor families
The widely respected family Knurlar are the direct decedents of Knurl the Firstsmith and they hold the rights to harvest a rare clay that Knurl discovered. This clay is a key ingredient in the production of the highest quality steel. The family holds Knurl's personal arms and armour in trust for the people of the city. They are also being placed under considerable financial pressure from an unknown source. The current head of the family fears that this may be to force them to sell their most precious family heirloom the two "prizes" of Lornegei and Knurl's wager on the outcome of their argument. He also fears the financial pressure might force his family to surrender it's warrant of nobility and the secret of the clay along with it.

The newest of the families is Knardum who hold the rights to jade, they seem driven to make their house greater. They are on very poor terms with Guild of the Auger who argue that jade is a gemstone and part of their guild's remit.

Question 24
What does Knurlkyth do without a royal family to adopt Weirdwrights to directly serve the city?

Question 25
What was wagered on the outcome of knurl and Lornegei's bet?

[(E)]

Technical answer G
Defenses at an altitude of 4km were mentioned earlier so let's use that as the base for the free standing peak that holds the higher sections of Knurlkyth. The area used for the High gate terraced farms means a 6km(?) tall peak that is roughly circular and 20km across at the point it separates from the mountain range. One side of the mountain extends lower accommodate the Low gate. Maybe 150 cubic kilometers of space for the top two sections of the city. Say 1% usable at a guess

The mountain containing Knurlkyth has a peak some 6km above sea level. The top of the mountain is not a distinct peak but instead a large area of glacier covered terrain featuring a handful of small alpine plateaus. About 2km below the peak a large ridge attaches the peak to the Ornthrond mountain range, along this ridge runs an aqueduct and a trail leading to the other dwarven settlements in the region. The southern face of the mountain leads down into a wide and deep valley that is thickly forested.

[Edit] I'll crunch some numbers and come up with a population that the High Gate Terraces will support given the switches that have been selected. I'll leave the Middle Gate system for now.