John Smith's Exploration and Cataloguing DiaryThe Light Makers' Age This age (of which we can, as yet, find no mention of its name) is one created by the Guild of Writers for the Guild of Chemists. It is stable and habitable although the environment, whilst seemingly benign, is actually not all that pleasant in which to live in certain areas. There are cracks in the crust which have led to Geo-thermal vents, natural gas eruptions, heavy metals present in the soils and rocks, a high salt content too, treacherous bogs, acid lakes and relatively hot temperatures in the summer months. There are more favourable areas of the age, and it is one of these which you will land on linking in.
The general processes at work here are due to an adaptation by both plants and insects to deal with the natural environment at hand. The area in to which we have linked is part of a large peninsula. However due to faulting there have been some severe movements in the past which have left this whole section much lower than the rest of the area, as can be seen by the tall cliffs which seperate this section from the rest of the peninsula. Several waterfalls flow over these large cliffs and into this lower region. Further activity has left this immediate area below the cliffs quite broken up. There are a number of pools which contain various strengths of Nitrohydrochloricacid (
Aqua Regia). The rocks at the base of this valley appear to have a high concentration of rock salt, and there are hot geothermal vents and natural gas sources below the area which have been breached and can be seen bubbling through the surface. The acidic nature of the liquid combined with the soft saline rocks have created some very pretty shapes leading to a variety of wavy pools forming subsequently lower tiers down the valley. The rocks to the north, on the main plateau, have a high concentration of metals particularly Platinum. The rock face is constantly eroded by the falling water which exposes the metals to the
Nydrocor pools, which breaks down the metals. One of the resultant metals is Ruthenium. The pools become more diluted as they progress downwards, and the metals are carried with this into a series of shallow pools further on down, near to the coast.
The large trees, which grow abundantly around the area of shallow pools below the valley are related to the Alder, with the extra peculiarity of an affinity for a certain metal, namely Ruthenium, which has led us to classify the tree as
Alnus Ruthenia. The tree draws up this particular metal leading to a vivid red veining in the leaves. Other examples of this tree, when not near the metallic source, have blue veins leading us to believe that the metal is by no means a requirement for growth, but that the tree will process it when it appears in the ecosystem. The leaves on the red-veined trees seem to be produced and lost at a much faster rate than those trees without. We can only assume that the metal affects the growth in some way, producing more leaves, or perhaps speeding up the natural cycle. It also seems to negate the acidic properties of the water from killing the trees, perhaps in a similar way to which some plants can resist salinity. Further studies will be required. The area around the red veined trees looks quite autumnal even in spring. These falling leaves end up in the shallow pools and rot down in the soft mud releasing the metals in concentrated form into the water and soil (note: don't attempt to drink any water from this area, clean as it looks).
There are large areas of quartz (outlined in yellow) which have broken down nearer to the coast into quartz sand giving a good natural source of high grade, near-white silica sand. This seems to have been quarried for other uses back at the main workshop area, of which we will mention later. A rather odd native plant, related to the Aloes (and which we have named
Aloe Silica) seems to thrive in these sandy areas drawing moisture from nearby shallow pools of water. These pools are tainted with acids and metals, particularly Ruthenium, and also break down the silica into a form which the plants draw up into their cellular structure, along with the Ruthenium. This affinity to this particular metal seems peculiar to the plants of this age.
The Aloe plants create a yellowish gel within their leaves which fluoresces at night: a pleasant golden glow. This is fed on by an odd type of local firefly, which seems to have adapted to tap this gel from the plant and draw it within itself further promulgating the characteristic gold glow about the night environs. Further processes within the insect convert the liquid to a sticky syrup which maintains its fluorescence and is deposited, somewhat akin to bees, in a lattice-like construction (although with a less formal hexagonal structure), often found in shallow clefts and indentations within rock formations on the peninsula. This was then collected on a regular basis by workers who would then reduce the syrup further and set it into gel. This gel would fluoresce when a mild electrical current was passed through it, and seems to have formed the basis of some alternative means to light in the cavern.
The area on the southern edge of the peninsula is set in a large pleasant bay with smallish cliffs falling into the sea. There is a set of steps that leads down to an area of salt marshes. (note: care should be taken in this area as one can easily get stuck and sink into the mire. Keep your linking book on you at all times.) These salt marshes are home to vast swathes of
Salsola Soda, commonly known as
Barilla. Above and west of the salt marshes is an area of peat bog, where the salinity is lower, but the acidity higher. The area is criss-crossed with non-potable streams and is relatively dangerous to traverse. There are substantial reserves of Peat here, and much evidence of it being worked. To the north of the salt marshes, atop the cliffs is a compound. To the west and to the left of the pathway in are two compression vices, great presses used for squeezing the water out of the peat, ready to stack it for drying to use as fuel.
The compound sits to the right of the pathway, and has a freshwater (and potable) stream leading into a storage pool, whereupon the overflow then goes back out and rejoins the main part of the stream to flow past the workshop area. This storage pool has pipes leading to 6 lixiviating mixers (
Lixers). The water is also fed to copper tanks affixed to the rear of 3 clay ovens and 3 brick kilns. The heat from the ovens heats the water which is then piped into 6 boilers where the water is further heated by peat fires below the boilers.
The Barilla is harvested from the salt marshes and carried up to the compound. It is dried out in the sunlight and then placed in the clay ovens and burned. The ash is collected and placed in the Lixers where it is mixed with fresh water and agitated. This mixture is then pumped into the boilers where it is boiled dry to leave a fine powder of Soda (
Sodium Oxide). One has to wonder with the resources around this place, why they didn't utilise the LeBlanc or the Solvay process?
Limestone deposits on the south of the peninsula were quarried and carried back to the compound where the limestone was placed in one of 3 brick kilns. Fuel layers consisted of lignite coal where available or peat. This process would convert the limestone to
Calcium Oxide. The two processes produced the necessary additives to mix with the silica to produce a good quality soda-lime glass, which could then be used as a housing for the luminescent gel. Other glass making processes also existed on site, including stained-glass for windows. The glass making process was performed to the east of the compound in a set of workshops which were powered by solar arrays, which also incorporated solar furnaces which could be used to create the molten glass, heat necessary ingredients etc.
The solar arrays would super-heat water into steam which would drive a simple steam engine inside the workshops. Many tools could then be driven from this apparatus. There was also water power in some workshops, utilising the passing stream. It would appear that the various processes, differing technologies etc. were both an attempt on the part of the D'ni to efficiently utilise all the available power and resources at hand, and secondly an example of the progress of technological advance in the glass making processes over the years. One of the workshops has a dynamo array linked to a power-take off from the steam engine which provided electrical power for lighting and to test the fluorescence of the gel. It's a real mix of technology and processes that seems to indicate that if it wasn't broke, they didn't fix it. It also seems that there was not a great deal of investment in this age, and that the processes were kept relatively simple for the workers.
From the relative danger of working in this type of industry, and the conditions in the area, I would imagine that this was not a particularly lucrative business, and that workers were relatively poor. People most likely came and left by linking book each day, and were probably inhabitants from another age, as I can't see the D'ni engaging much in this type of work, save perhaps one or two overseers, in a line management capacity. Using Ahrotahntee as workers would explain the odd mix of simple processes and old technology, and the lack of investment.
Food would have to be brought in from other areas or Ages, as there is little in the way of productive, fertile soil in which to grow food, animals that could be eaten or solid, safe ground on which to build habitation. Despite it's pretty looks I would imagine that constant exposure to the environs here, with its acid pools and metals-riddled ecology would not be conducive to health. (note: take bottled water)
I have sketched a rough map of the area on the next page.
by Lasairfion » Wed Mar 10, 2010 4:51 pm 
