Kelerm take 2

Anyway, back on topic, if Kelerm people go to the Ivokan Savanna for alchemical reagents, then it would make sense that they would take whatever food grows in the savanna, bring them back to Kelerm and grow it locally. The question is, what would you find there that's edible?

Going back to alchemy and warfare, let's not forget that alchemy in Felarya encompasses not just potion, but any form of magic that's pretty much consumable like a scroll. And since they don't have the help of a technologically advanced alien race, who coincidentally are also human, to bolster their military, its safe to see that Kelerm soldiers has much lower tech than Negav's Isolon Fist.

Besides potions, what alchemical tools would soldiers use to give themselves an edge? I'm thinking of some substance that can impart unusual properties to their weapons, like charcoal/gold pine resin in Dark Souls or Fire/Bolt Paper in Bloodborne. Furthermore, since most of Kelerm is surrounded by a sea of quicksand, wouldn't it make sense if they possessed a navy?

Shady wrote:

 Anyway, back on topic, if Kelerm people go to the Ivokan Savanna for alchemical reagents, then it would make sense that they would take whatever food grows in the savanna, bring them back to Kelerm and grow it locally. The question is, what would you find there that's edible?  

Critters mostly I'd think. Cereals, Grains and hardy fruits like Dates I'd think like Fel pointed out.  I'd like to also make a note that there's a forest beside the city. <.< Probably fruit bearing trees, mushrooms and some game there to be had. For domesticated meat you need something goat and chicken based. Something that takes little feed to get maximum yield and milk. I suggest Kura's since they are native to the nearby Akaptor Desert and delicacies for Nekoes. I'm sure this could open up a dialogue and get some Scorching Claws Nekoes to consider joining the Kelerm cause, no? Plus crabs are easy to raise and d e l i c i o u s. I can see several famous crab restaurants in Kelerm's future~

Shady wrote:

Besides potions, what alchemical tools would soldiers use to give themselves an edge? I'm thinking of some substance that can impart unusual properties to their weapons, like charcoal/gold pine resin in Dark Souls or Fire/Bolt Paper in Bloodborne. Furthermore, since most of Kelerm is surrounded by a sea of quicksand, wouldn't it make sense if they possessed a navy?

Hmm Military Might + Alchemy puts me in the mindset of only one story I can think of. Full Metal Alchemist. Alas not many weapons in that story were alchemy based besides the Philosphers Stone and Chimeras. Transmutation allowed them to turn the basic elements into dangerous weapons. My favorite was Roy Mustang's killing Lust using hydrogen extracted from a pool of water and his sparky gloves. Boom. Kelerm has plenty of access to water why not something that can extract combustible gass from water and detonate. Like perhaps a spear that can create a focused directional explosion and need only be powered by water? Also if you're good at alchemy then you have to know about poisons. I'd say poison tipped arrows, javelins and other projectiles are a favorite.

Shady wrote:

Furthermore, since most of Kelerm is surrounded by a sea of quicksand, wouldn't it make sense if they possessed a navy?

Two I'd say. One for Landships and the other for Sea based ones.

I'm going to make an attempt here at a more formal idea. However, first, there are multiple basic functions we need to work out for Kelerm. Its nice to be talking about the particularities of alchemy, but if we focus on that, it'll be very slow going. There are some concepts to cover.

Kelerm:
Population
Protection
-military
-construction (such as towers, walls, bridges, etc)
Food source (based on the population, how many can they feed?)
Resource Acquisition such as mines, quarries, and especially water - unless the Northern Ocean is freshwater.
Education and Trade (jobs)
-how children are educated, are there schools
-apprenticeships for everything?
Cultural Mindset (what kind of people are they? reclusive? peaceful? violent? etc)
-How does this effect their entertainment industries?
Religion

---so those are some of the ideas I believe we need to tackle regarding Kelerm. ---

Kelerm

Kelerm is for the most part, the only real settlement in the Akaptor Desert, which lies thousands of Kilometers away from Negav. Due to the extreme conditions of Felarya, both cities are largely unaware of each other, and trade is impossible. This has influenced Kelerm's ability to become self sufficient, and invent different ways of surviving. The surrounding desert is harsh and unforgiving, blanketing the entire region south, east, and west of its position, with a giant ocean to the north, with the city itself residing on an extreme cliff-face that meets it. The presence of the Akaptor Desert has given rise to powerful identity within the City, which focuses primarily around geomancers. The geography and geology of Felarya remains a central idea to all of Kelerm. It influences their art, their customs and sayings, their religion and sciences, and even in their military and security forces. Through the earthen culture that Kelerm uses to represent itself, it boasts to be just as much an obstinate and sturdy force just as the land is. Despite that, and their isolation, they are a rather open people who highly enjoy seeing visitors arrive from other places, and the geographical wonders are a sight to behold.


Geography and Infrastructure
____________________________

Since Kelerm is surrounded to the south by vast seas of quicksand, and shielded at the northern face by an ocean, it remains rather isolated to begin with. However, water from the Ocean has a large inlet that narrows into smaller rivers that flow downstream shielded on both sides by massive cliff faces that shoot upward hundreds of feet. The inlet itself has a single massive floating rock, accompanied by smaller ones around it. Each rock has heavy amounts of Eidoron at the bottom, the immovable floating substance that keeps these "mountains" in place. Beyond the inlet lay small mountains that extend out of the water, making it hard to navigate for anyone who's not a native to the area. Up on the surface, the area Kelerm's city inhabits is in itself an area that is more arid than a sea full of sand. There is a giant hillside against the shore's cliff that extends south toward the desert, and the slope of the hill drops into a dramatic angle not too far from the vast sea of quicksand.

The Wall

Kelerm's walls are built far differently than people might otherwise think. Instead of digging large quarries and shipping stone to erect a vertical barrier, the geomancers of Kelerm have proposed and built a structure that flows with the earth itself, using Felarya's hillside as the base for their city. The city grounds itself lie atop the hill, with the walls of the City built along with the slope of the hillside. Giant stones are placed along the hillside to capture this. The idea for this construction has several reasons. The first is that, ideologically speaking they are all people of the earth, and so should never work against it, but with it. The tactical advantages, however, mean that the city overlooks the plains of sand below, giving a good long distance view of the surrounding area. Furthermore, they will never be subject to seeing their walls destroyed in the manner that Negav's was, since to destroy the walls would require destruction of the hill that the city itself sits atop, and makes their home much easier to defend. Over the years geomancers are constantly adding to the wall itself, and often times using their traditional art to carve designs onto the wall itself. The wall has two main exterior gatehouses with one end toward a massive lake and the Ivokan Savannah, and the other one going south east to a cluster of Oasis. The gatehouses themselves consist of a ramp that runs sideways along the wall and then reaches a landing, where the ramp makes an angle and heads up through the gatehouse proper.

The City

Many temples, shops, taverns, and entertainment facilities line the streets of Kelerm. The city itself on the surface plays home to sturdy towers, buildings, and homes, the designs of which are inspired from the organic curving nature of the world itself. Many temples lay throughout the city all honoring the various gods of the earth that they believe has blessed them with such a unique location. Contrary to what people may think, Kelerm is a city of artists. Geomancy art is quite popular and is used on nearly every structure, giving them an interesting design. A lot of them have bas-reliefs across the tops, often adorned with glass, telling the story of the origin of the building itself, and why it was placed there. The main streets house shops and taverns, influenced by the ideas of those who create them. Glasswork in Kelerm is the best in Felarya, and are a main themes in numerous stalls and shops. Housing districts are located among the smaller streets off of the main ones, most of which lay behind the commercial buildings. Schools and trade centers are placed further up the hill closer to the cliff, which runs beside the Noble district. The nobles district runs along most of the length of the cliff face in front of the water.

However, despite what is seen on the surface, the majority of the city actually lives in caves that have been modified into underground highways and homes. The ravines that separate the city have massive bridges extending from one side to the other with staircases on the faces of the cliff walls that go up and down connecting all the bridge points. Balconies are commonly seen along this point, and through it one can make their way down to the port which lays at the bottom, on the water's edge. The ports are very well protected by the natural barrier of the large buttes in the water that guard the inlet. The floating rocks, though stationary, have massive chains connecting them, and bridges and towers which cross and extend upward to meet it. Food is often grown on them, with the exception of the main palace which is situated on one by itself.

-----

I imagine there are several tiers like Negav: West Tier, Center Tier, and East Tier. Then there is the Kelerm "network" tier where everything is connected underground and can access the other tiers and the port from. The floating rocks with the farmland and the one with the palace would have its own tier as well.

Thoughts?

Wait we can change the main article?! Nobody said that to me! 

Sounds really unique and well expanded upon! I like the idea of towers and a network of tunnels, possibly lined with running strips of frescos and mosaics. Also the worship of multiple Earth based deities! More like a Roman house god system than a pantheon. Could we make the main shipping port have a natural earthy floor plan like that with multiple tunnels leading bellow perhaps to an aquarium-like place since they have plenty of access sand. In fact since they are artists why not some grand glass works in general?


Also it seems we might have a cast system with you talking about a Noble Section seperate from the rest of the city and a Palace. Does that mean you have an idea of what the Kelerm head honcho/oes look like? I'm thinking cause sandy and bright colors are fairly common perhaps they wear dark Earthy colors as being closer to the affinity of Earthern a tribute is considered a good thing. Maybe the higher uo you are the more earth tones you wear accented with onyx or emeralds? Also..

Akatesh

Akatesh is a name of one the gods of Kelermian worship. She is the god of jewely, inspiration and artistry. She is represented a tall dark skinned woman whose hair is strung with thousands of gemstones and who holds a chisel in one hand and several paint brushes in the other. Her worshipers must carve their own shrine using a chisel ahammer to prove their devotion and as such she is less popular in the main temples.


She is worshiped by painters, sculptors and even writers, especially poets for it is said she adores flattering verses. It is also said she is a very fickle and judges her worshipers based on their skill level. If a worshiper were to draw a gorgeous portrait of her she would bless him with fortune but if he were to try just a character of her or a doodle he would earn her wrath and appeasing her requires scattering polished gems around her house shrine

Silfurna

The Kelerm goddess of fishing, sailors, lust for treasure and water. She I'd one of the three main deities and the only water deity afforded a temple and for good reason. She is as loved as she is feared. She is represented by a beautiful, voluptuous blue woman with a mischeviousness smile clad in nets strewn with treasure and human captives wrapped around a mermaid tail. This leads some adventurers from Negav and the East to mistake Kelermian as some kind of Anko worshiping kooks! But Silfurna is not the protector of Judong Lake instead  the daughter of the God Sand and the Goddess of Air and as such she is incredibly powerful and is the undisputed master of the sea.


All who sail the Shimmering Sea must make an offering to her or risk becoming her catch caught in her massive nets said to stretch the length of the Shimmering Sea. Ofcourse Silfurna is a michevious goddess who may just wrap your ship in her nets because she's hungry or bored. She is a man eater but just as easily she is impressed by those who can escape her great net and get away much the sane way a fisherman must tip his hat to the fish that got away. Every native Kelermian Sailor wears a pendent with a cross hatching symbol of her vast nets and usually they keep a cabinet with a idol of her inside unlocked during pirate raids, storms and predator attacks.

Drat, thanks for the reminder. I wanted to put in some tidbits about the glass making culture. I'll have to go back and edit that, as soon as I can!

Maybe change the name from Aketesh to Akesh. That way you sound less like the Elder Scrolls god "Akatosh".

Fel wrote:

She is represented by a beautiful, voluptuous blue woman with a mischeviousness smile clad in nets strewn with treasure and human captives wrapped around a mermaid tail. This leads some adventurers from Negav and the East to mistake Kelermian as some kind of Anko worshiping kooks!

HA HA HA HA HA HA!! I love the joke that Anko could be mistook for a goddess. Just so adorable.

Bael wrote:

Drat, thanks for the reminder. I wanted to put in some tidbits about the glass making culture. I'll have to go back and edit that, as soon as I can!

Maybe change the name from Aketesh to Akesh. That way you sound less like the Elder Scrolls god "Akatosh".

Twould be a good idea. Akatosh is awesome if you follow the path of the Dovhvokiin but not as many benefits otherwise.  Now on to the CRAZY idea to make glass out of Akaptor Sand. Are you two nuts?! Just touching that stuff will send you through time.Then again....Maybe tempering into glass can alter the affect with a Alchemy. After all Alchemy is meant to be used to change the nature of something is it not? Alright maybe this isn't Doct Brown Crazy after all.....but i'm still standing away from you two till we see! =P

Also listing things missing the port/harbor and shipyards should get a fair shake since Kelerm does allot of fishing and likely sea trading as well as the harbor being a good place for sea farers fleeing from the many dangers of the Shimmering Sea.

Keyword: touching. As long as you don't use your hands you should be fine - hence why adventurers are seen walking on stilts. My guess is that's because the sand is basically super-mega-overcharged version of Felaryan soil. All the same effects except with the added dimensional instability caused by the correctors made the sand react that way. Considering they LIVE out in the desert in the first place, I'm guessing its difficult to avoid touching the sand at any point throughout your whole life.

There must be a secret they've found, honestly. Otherwise they'd never be able to live out there.

Archmage_Bael wrote:

Drat, thanks for the reminder. I wanted to put in some tidbits about the glass making culture. I'll have to go back and edit that, as soon as I can!

Maybe change the name from Aketesh to Akesh. That way you sound less like the Elder Scrolls god "Akatosh".

No problem at all! It just seemed logical that glass works would be a part of the economy.  As for altering the name I suppose I could. Akesh is just as goo as Akatesh. Though it is more fun to say! 

Revised bios of the two goddesses and added some more flavour text and infromation. Mostly flourishes.

Spoiler:

Wow it's really nice to see all those ideas flowing !
I really like the idea of a geomancer gods, it makes sense  and you can clerly use the different property of stones to find some traits to them ^^ I just feel sorry for Kythis. She kind of really got the short end of the stick here ^^;

Bael :  Oh nice rewrite ! It's much more structured this way, I like it

I'll update the entry with it ^^

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Wow it's really nice to see all those ideas flowing !  
I really like the idea of a geomancer gods, it makes sense  and you can clerly use the different property of stones to find some traits to them ^^ I just feel sorry for Kythis. She kind of really got the short end of the stick here ^^;

Thank you very much, Sir Karbo! I am estastic you found them to be good! Well she did but it's the part of any of the tail end of "The Big Three". She's Hades in this pantheon but with less song and dance sadly.  

I intend to write more entries fairly soon-ish. There are more aspects to Kelerm that are waiting, and I will make an attempt to get those right as well!

Kelerm Continued!

Here I will attempt some more possible entries to see if I can get more ideas flowing using what we have already discussed, and more potential ideas as well.

Economy
________________

Agriculture and Food Sources

Due to Kelerm's position in the desert, they have had to utilize every strategy and resource they can think of in order to maintain a steady food supply for the people of their city. The problem of feeding the population is one of the biggest challenges because of that. Unlike Negav, they cannot rely on a dimensional gate linking to a world to ship food to them. Despite this handicap, they have managed to find food in many sources.

The first basic food source is utilizing the desert lands itself.  The arid landscape around Kelerm is still quite wide. Below the base of the city on the there are a swaths of land varying in sizes not covered in Akaptor's famous sands. This lies between the walls and the sea of sinking sand. People who live out here grow large, vertical crops. These crops do not take up a lot of width, and therefore can be grown in large amounts within small areas. This has spurred development of advanced irrigation techniques to make sure the plants are cared for correctly. The most popular plant is something that resembles the perennial version of an eggplant - enormous stalks that grow incredibly tall and produce massive bulbous similar to an eggplant fruit. Other crops are also widely used, all uniquely suited for the desert, warm drought tolerable plants. Many crops are also grown on the large floating islands around the capitol building.

Fishing and other kinds of hunting are also popular. With the rocky embrace around the port, the citizens have a fishing Navy, and people who captain these vessels are trained well with nimble ships to adequately dodge the barrier around their port. They do not travel far, however, as it is very easy for aquatic life to take advantage of sailing ships in the open waters. Luckily a tropical series of islands just beyond the natural port-barrier has become an interesting destination for harvesting birds for meat, and the fruit that grows there. The use of these ships has spurred a very aggressive and competitive ship design industry.

The other method that is quite popular is utilizing the cave networks below the city and on the outskirts of the underground buildings and homes. Many plants enjoy the dark, and among those plants some even grow vegetables. The caves are sometimes expanded and built to support large amounts of crops wherever is safe and advisable. There is also considerably more amounts of water as well, with underground streams constantly feeding into the nearby crop areas before being fed off into a waterfall face in the actual underground city district.


Industry

Industry in Kelerm helps to provide efficient support for all commercial and residential needs, including, for example, people who build Kelerm's buildings. Many of the people here are learned geomancers - though not trained to use it to fight, they are trained for it in another function. For these circumstances, erecting buildings is much much easier than normal methods of construction. However, they are still subject to physics. Adequate support for buildings must still be used. The ship trade has also boomed, relevant to the number of people who try their hand at navigating to one of the nearby areas for fishing, hunting, and gathering. These ships are always trying to utilize revolutionary new designs such as exterior hull "shells", often coated in extremely slick substances, with gyros and layering that make it incredibly difficult for sea creatures to properly grab hold of the vessel. This design just causes the exterior "shell" to rotate back and forth as they try to grab it while the interior hull and gyros keep the ship stable. Other innovative techniques have also been employed.

From wall building to commercial buildings, tools, armor and weapons, and many more, the industrial faction of Kelerm is able to rapidly build or slowly temper, usually doing whatever they can to adorn their constructs with artistic designs. One can sometimes tell what kind of person the maker is just by looking at the art adorned and carved into the objects.

Magic and Trade

Trades are very popular, often similar ones such as plumbers, silver smiths, and even stylists for hair, clothes, and apothecaries and alchemists all use an apprentice based system for their trades. Older master tradesman will often take multiple apprentices at once, however, to encourage competition for who can be the best. Who will inherit the shop, and who will strike out on their own. This has encouraged artists to keep the ideas flowing, and the creations, bas-reliefs, and other pieces lively. The biggest trade job of all though, has to be a rivalry between potions, and glass. Kelerm potion makers are among the best in Felarya, their level of alchemy rivaling the capabilities of fairy magic - or so the public likes to believe. Glass blowing and decoration is a fierce rival for the number one trade. Glass makers are so skilled they are almost seen as magicians in their own right. The excessive amounts of potions and glass has made it widespread merchandise, and even the poorer folk of Kelerm can be seen with glass, potions, and bas reliefs in and on their houses.

[I'll put more about potions here, probably]

=================
Pausing here, there's a lot to write, but below are some things I also intend to write up. Any comments are appreciated, of course. I believe I made a bit of a tangent on agriculture, talking about a specific plant as an example, but I do want people to know there ARE indeed plants that can survive in desert environments. Eggplants really enjoy hot weather, for example, and that's why I used that as a base for a plant.
=================



Demographics
_______________

Population



Religion




Culture
_____________

Architecture



Art




Government
___________

Politics




Law Enforcement




Security

Okay so I love what you did with agriculture and the gyroscopic hulls on boats to frustrate sea going predators and monsters was just genius. XD I'm chuckling here. Buuuut I think you could have done a little more with glass, maybe added something about how Kelerm glass has a unique visual property and added that glass can be jewelry in Kelerm. Other than that I'll have to wait till you finish the article I think.

Really nice job here
Both on the idea and how you described them. I just have trouble visualizing the rotating hull of the ships. would it be something that completely envelop the ship ?

For this week end I'll try to have a new draft done with what you brought here ^^

Thanks! I couldn't write more the last couple days because RL reasons. Still kinda busy, too.

Honestly the gyro hulls were an example I thought of. However, to make it actually work, there'd probably have to be reinforced axles, and the gyro-hull would probably be its own compartment under the accessible areas of the ship. Maybe the other areas of the ship would be above it, like a multiple layered ship. The bottom layer would be the gyro section, the middle layer would be at about water level, and the upper section would be the actual deck of the ship. The gyro section might be inaccessible during an attack because it'll be constantly rotating as a creature tries to grip it, and just turns it into a hamster wheel from the outside. XD

I'm imagining this as I'm typing. As I said, it was initially an idea. I'm not sure about actual construction techniques - but if they're to have boats to use, then they'll need some inventive and odd ways to defend themselves, otherwise they wouldn't be able to have a navy even if its for basic fishing.

For Glass, I was intending on putting that somewhere in with the culture section maybe?

I believe some of the fleet should have these 'gyro-hulls' buy won't the 'spiky-cagged' ones Sir Karbo made be a good idea too? If not for variety then for the sake of making the gyro hulls more unique and able to stand out as Kelerm made ships. In fact if know the sizes we can use different sizes in military formations like in the real.world with a main fishing ship and two or three Frigates to support her while she does her job.    

Also while adding a defensive measure is good we need some offense to help keep greedy giant hands detuned as well as mindless fishies. Canons come to mind but gun powder is limited. What about a Geomancer who can hurl rocks through the air? Or even just mages who can summon terrifying illusions of bigger sea creatures and even Hydromancers who can turn the sea against their would be antagonists. In addition to magic Kelerm sailors need something more than a Cutlass to deal with all the threats they'll face so maybe some Viking styled weapons like the hooked long spear? Just some suggestions.

Also after reading this Anti Pirate Stuff Used Today I realized Kelerm may not have lasers but it does have glass and we can use this to make mirrors! Using those a set of non-gyro hulled ships could distract and blind a threat with ease allowing the large ships to scatter for safer coves and shallower waters till it passed. It. Also supports the local glass industry.

Alright, here is a new version, much more structured and with what you came up with Bael ^^
I didn't include yet the parts about potions, alchemy, glass, culture etc



Past the great rocky field and the dangerous, scorching hot sands of Akaptor desert stands Kelerm, the jewel of the West.

Kelerm is the second biggest human settlement in Felarya and the only city in the Akaptor Desert. Because it lies thousands of Kilometers away from Negav and due to the extreme conditions of Felarya, both cities remain barely aware of each other. The surrounding desert is harsh and unforgiving, spanning its endless expanse south, east, and west of Kelerm. In the north is the Shimmering sea, and Kelerm stands back to a sharp cliff-face that meets it. The overwhelming presence of the Akaptor Desert has given rise to a powerful identity within Kelerm, which focuses primarily around the arts of geomancy. The geography and geology of Felarya remains a central idea to all Kelermites. It influences everything from their culture and customs to their art, religion, sciences, and even their military and security forces. Through that unique geology-based culture they boast, they claim to be just as much an obstinate and sturdy force as the land is. Despite those principles and their isolation, they are a rather open people who welcome visitors coming from other places.

Location:

Being surrounded to the south by a vast sea of quicksand, and shielded at the northern face by an ocean, Kelerm looks naturally very isolated. The sea side is a collection of small bays, twisted, rocky inlets and narrow gorges forming a treacherous maze, shielded on both sides by massive cliffs that shoot upward hundreds of feet. The cliffs are riddled with narrow tunnels leading to countless small rooms carved in the rock itself from where defenders can safely shot arrows through loopholes at any unwanted creature. Heavy chains may be raised at various points in the gorges, in order to bar the passage to the city by sea entirely. The cliff that cut Kelerm from the sea acts like a natural wall, save from a small and easily defendable gateway. An attack from an aquatic predator such as a giant mermaid would not only be very unlikely but also very ineffectual.

Above the sea and west of the city float three huge flying islands. They are accompanied by smaller rocks drifting around them, each of them containing varying amount of Eidoron, a substance that allows them to levitate. For the islands themselves, that amount is formidable and unheard of anywhere else in Felarya. Even the flying islands of the Toluwo cloud are smaller.
Those islands and some of the largest rocks of the formation are anchored to the ground or between them by huge chains in order to maintain them in place and prevent them from drifting directly above the city. Some of them are linked between themselves by chain bridges. On top of the largest of the three island stands the capitol palace, serving both as a place of leisure for the high Kelermites society, and as a fantastic observation site, from which any potential threat can be spotted from very far away in the desert.

On land, the large, deep, changing field of quicksands surrounding the city cut it almost completely from the desert, providing a formidable natural defense. The inhabitants of Kelerm have mastered the art of navigating that treacherous sea of sand through the use of special ships or domesticated sand-faring creatures and consider it part of their territory. For most Kelermites, falling in the quicksands is not that much of a big deal. They are used at a young age to not panic and either get hold of safety strings hanging from the docks or use slow movements preventing them to get sucked in until someone rescue them. With regular patrols from geomancers guards scouring the area, it doesn’t take long.

Avian predators are rare in this part of the desert. There are very few giant harpies around, and fairies never venture this far in the west, finding the intense heat unbearable. This allowed the city to thrive over the years by focusing on land defenses alone and establish itself as a solid safe-haven for travelers.

Walls and Structure:

Kelerm's walls are built far differently than one might think at first. Instead of digging large quarries and shipping stone to erect a vertical barrier, the geomancers of Kelerm created a structure that flows with the earth itself, using the hillside as the base for their city. The city grounds itself lie atop the hill and the walls built along with the slope of the hillside are actually the hill itself being raised through means of geomancy.

Ideologically speaking it fits well the inhabitants of Kelerm who see themselves as people of the rocks and stones who should always work with them. The tactical advantages are many, as the city overlooks the plains of sand below, giving an excellent long distance view of the surrounding area. Furthermore, the walls of Kelerm are night unbreachable, since to destroy the walls would require the destruction of the hill that the city itself sits atop. Over the years, geomancers continued to add to this marvel of geomancy, using their traditional art to carve designs onto the wall itself. The wall has two main exterior gatehouses with one end leading to a large lake in the west and the Ivokan Savannah beyond it, and the other one going south to a « beach » before the sea of quicksands. The gatehouses themselves consist of a ramp that runs sideways along the wall and then reaches a landing, where the ramp makes an angle and heads up through the gatehouse proper. That impressive use of Geomancy as a mean of construction is a recurring pattern in Kelerm.

Many buildings are made from a mix of red wood coming form the nearby Ivokan Savannah, mud, stone of course, and more remarkably : bones. Bones can be found everywhere in Kelerm in decoration, construction material or the crafting of various objects such as ustensils, vases or musical instruments. It’s found in abundance in the sand sea, from large sandfishes or the skeletons of some ancient behemoths that sunk into the sea ages ago. Many structures of Kelerm are submerged beneath ground level in order to keep the air cool and the most important rooms of a house are usually situated there. The proximity of solid stone is always comforting for Kelermites.

Agriculture and Food Sources

Feeding its population has always be one of the biggest challenges of Kelerm throughout its existence. Due to its position in the desert, its inhabitants have to utilize every strategy and resource they can think of in order to maintain a steady food supply for the city and unlike Negav, it doesn’t have a dimensional gate linking others worlds from where to ship food. Despite that harsh environment, the industrious and creative people of Kelerm discovered and developed several sources of food.

The first one comes from the swath of land surrounding the city, between the walls and the sea of sand. Kelermites farmers managed to grow large, typically vertical crops. These crops don’t take up a lot of width, and therefore can be grown in large amounts within small areas. This has spurred development of advanced irrigation techniques to make sure the plants are cared for correctly. The most popular plant is something that resembles the perennial version of an eggplant - enormous stalks that grow very tall and produce massive bulbous similar to an eggplant fruit. Several other warm drought tolerable plants crops are also used and many more crops are also grown on two of the large floating islands.

Fishing and other kinds of hunting are also popular. With the rocky embrace around the port, Kelermites have built a fishing navy of seasoned seamen, well trained to maneuver small nimble ships that can adequately dodge the barrier around their port. They do not travel far, however, as it is very easy for aquatic predators to take advantage of sailing ships in the open waters. A series of small tropical islands lie just beyond the natural port-barrier. Sometimes small expeditions visit them to hunt birds and gather fruits which are found in abundance there.

The main fishing industry of Kelerm, however, is actually the sand one. Kelermites have mastered the art of navigating the treacherous sea of sand through the use of special ships or domesticated sand-faring creatures. They get most of their sustenance from this sea, and a surprisingly large variety of strange but tasty sandfishes can be found there. Ironically, the land-side port of Kelerm is large and busy, while its sea-side port is small and sees low traffic. Ware are often sold directly in the sand-port, sometimes many ships are bound together to become floating, makeshift extension of the city and serve as impromptu markets.

The last food source of Kelerm comes from the cave networks dug below the city and on the outskirts of the underground buildings and homes. Many plants enjoy the dark, and among those plants some even grow vegetables. The caves are sometimes expanded and built to support large amounts of crops wherever it’s safe and advisable.


felarya_refugee: Ohhh mirrors ! this is a very good idea ! Both potent and that make a lot of sense  There is no shortage of both glass and sun in the area after all ^^

I like it! You utilized most of the good ideas, trimmed the fat and made the article large, but not a wall of boring text. The addition of the sand fishing also adds a unique and exotic flare too. Very classy.

Karbo wrote:

felarya_refugee: Ohhh mirrors ! this is a very good idea ! Both potent and that make a lot of sense   There is no shortage of both glass and sun in the area after all ^^

Thanks you, Sir Karbo! It just made sense and doesn't require much magic or tech to use. Also they provide tactical option in offense and deffense.

Not bad. Definitely a nice little exotic place worth visiting. I like the wordplay you put into use.

A thought. Just because Kelerm doesn't likely use the Elven Calendar system it doesn't mean they are immune to the Day When Mirror Lurkers Walk does it? A city with allot of glass and mirrors would mean they likely have it even harder than Negav no? Likely a good place for me to unload my "Anti-Mirror Lurker Cloaks" =D I'll make more than Guther! Wha ha ha ha!

I think it just means the season is more dreaded by Kelerm. Either that or maybe they have developed a Alchemical means to prevent Mirror Lurkers from emerging?

Okay I think this thread has been dormant long enough. Time to posit more stuff for Kelerm! Starting with the ruling body or Government.

I think it should not be another Totalitarian thing like Negav. The only reason it works for Negav is the Magiocrats control the Isolon Eye and are the only ones who know how to keep it running. Kelerm's deffenses are more varied being a pair of walls and Geomamcer gaurds. But who pays those gaurds? Who had the idea to build here in the first place?

Well there Negav has massive advantage that had helped it as an article: the Chronology article. I tells us when Negav was founded, all the disasters it survived that shaped it and even the prosperous discoveries that solidified it's place on the map.

In short: we need to figure out when Kelerm was founded according to the Chronology and see what events would have influenced and shaped iy as well as posit a profile for it's founder.

Lifecheck!

Now that we're back to talking about stuff, lets get this ball rolling again.

I was excited to hear Karbo was gonna do some art work based on how he thinks it looks, and I think it can be visually stunning. I can come up with more ideas for it myself, but that would take away from possible ideas and slots other people would use - I want others to feel like they can be included and I'm not the only one spitting ideas out for Kelerm, and I also want a bit of a reference before I continue again.

I need to get back on the brainstorming train again and get back to churning these ideas out. There's just too many places in Felarya that need development. :B

*practice necromancy on the thread even though we're in Felarya*

Here are some more thoughts on Kelerm ^^
-On Sand mermaids :

I can imagine Kelermites and Sand mermaids to have a relatively friendly relationship.
They are dangerous for each others and an encounter between them could easily end up in stalemate
Sand mermaids can eat Kelermites of course and, as any giant predators, would represent formidable foes. However Kelermites geomancers could also trap the sand mermaids into solidifed sand or prepare others nasty surprises. So I imagine it's not really worth it for them to go after each others and as I see it, with time the two races came to an understanding.
Kelerrmites could use a special reconnaissance code  transmitted by their step when they start to walk, so Sand mermaids know they are of-limit, even when burrowing deep underground.


- On Geomancers :

Geomancers represent the dominant class of Kelerm as they wield a tremendous power in a region with such a large amount of sands and rocks. They live in special quarters in Kelerm dug in the stone, with no doors or windows. Since only geomancers are authorized in, you have to be able to create your own doors in the rock to enter.

Kelerm rule :

I imagine it's likely not a benevolent one. When you rule literally above the people ( in this case from the floating islands ), it marks a clear separation from them which is a pre-disposition for an authoritarian rule.
I imagine the rule to not be an hereditary one though and more one based on merit, in this case : the ability of the ruler as a geomancer.  The ruler would be the best geomancer in town. It could be decided by a contest every few years and the current ruler would have to participate in it and put their title into question. That tradition could of course reveal surprising rulers as a result.

-On Kelerm culture :

As mentioned before there are a couple of elements that could easily characterize the culture of Kelerm:

Glass, glass blowers and stained glass crafting. Those domains of craft are almost like a given in such an environnement of sand. And It would lead to bottle manufacturing, potion making and alchemy.Pottery and vase-making would be preponderant as well.
I would imagine Kelermites to wear hats for protection and perhaps masks if they are light and in a material that keep the skin fresh.
They could be a way too recognize Geomancers for example. ( I admit I love masks purely on a designer point of view ^^  ) And of course there could be some kind of mask festivals

I see Kelermites very welcoming to foreigners, essentially because they are rare and kelermites always try to make the best of any given situation. In this case they would try to learn the most they can from them, being very curious and pressing them with questions.

What do you think ? :3