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blorbologist · 4 months

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Feeding a Flying City

[Aeor, by Pretty Useful Co.]

This started as a little exercise in my worldbuilding thoughts for some off-hand stuff mentioned in my current fic, but I uh. Got Into It. So enjoy, if you're into two thousand words of nerding out about fantasy economics and agriculture and spells. For the sake of context, this is specifically looking at Exandria's flying cities in the Age of Arcanum, working off D&D 5E's rules as written (so I'm avoiding inventing spells).

When tackling the Age of Arcanum in my fanfic, I knew going in that I wanted to use this space to stretch my worldbuilding muscles and fill in some of the space left by Matthew Mercer and Brennan Lee Mulligan with reasonably plausible meat and bones.

One thing I was excited to squint at was the issue of how the hell flying cites feed their populations.

The ‘lonely city’ is a common fantasy trope, especially in visual media. Your towering bastion of civilization (or spire of evil) on the open plains, or beside a river, or deep in the mountains certainly makes for a great symbol. A flying city is really the ultimate version of this, completely disconnected from the petty ground below… and the farmland that usually would surround any metropolis.

See, in medieval times, you only had so much time to transport good until they spoiled. Some could be more forgiving than others - however, given a city often aggregates political and financial elite, there is an expectation that they can get their fresh fruits, and decadent game. Even beyond freshness, if you have a lot of people in one place who are not actively growing their own crops, a lot of more-or-less processed food needs to get into the city daily. And though you could station your acres of farmland just over the hill so they don’t ruin the ~scenic approach~, that will cost more to transport. The fact is, having a lot of people - poor and rich - in one place requires a lot of food, every day, to feed them. And it has to come from somewhere.

(Off-topic note, medieval castles (not necessarily cities) were also there to, y’know, defend the populace. So they had to be both near enough to their peasants to respond to aggression, and near enough for the people to get to the castle for shelter when needed. Which is not relevant to this point.)

Magic, like refrigeration, greenhouses and GMO crops, allows a society to sidestep some of these issues. Which is great! But how the flying cities could use the resources they have to feed their population is half the fun in theorizing.

To quickly recap what we know to be common to flying cities of the time:

Limited to the city only, usually a location with ground dense with brumestone (i.e., no farmland).

Their limited ‘undergrounds’ are often fairly dense with more structures (Aeor’s many levels; the labyrinth and tons of administrative locations inside Avalir).

They are nomadic and engage in trade (both with eachother and grounded cities, like Vasselheim).

… but they all likely came from landed roots, and potentially were once perfectly normal cities.

So. How do you feed your people while flying a path that might take years to travel (ex: Avalir’s 7-year trek), especially between trade stops?

The last surviving flying city is Draconia, which is really fragments of a larger nomadic city that decided to remain fairly sedentary compared to its predecessors. Its answer was probably pretty simple: given that Draconia hovered within Dreemoth Ravine, the tailed dragonborn could just… collect a tithe of crops from the enslaved ravenites. It’s already canon that they were put to work in the mines, so working the land also unfortunately makes sense. It’s unclear how the food then got up to the city (skyships, given they have ready brumestone access?), but given Draconia seems to be an exception to the rules I can (mostly) confidently rule out ‘the Age of Arcanum was built on abusing the grounded cities and towns, potentially requiring an age of magically-enhanced farming to provide for the people above and/or risking the farmers going hungry in favor of the mageocracies’.

Here’s where magic offers numerous solutions, and just as many weird problems!

First of all, the stupidly isolated nature of flying cities means that any method of bringing food in has to be extremely structured. Mom and pop can’t just bring the donkey to the farmer’s market to sell their goods in Avalir; to get there you need to fly (more scheduled) or teleport (requires a mage, and limited quantities of goods). So from the getgo a lot of financial control is likely in the cities’ hands. Which… is not all too dissimilar from history, but the lack of flexibility is probably more striking here. Shit, I was hoping to get away from Draconia’s grim worldbuilding.

It also places flying cities in a role very similar to an advancing army, requiring food as they march to be drawn from the surrounding lands. While soldiers can break off and loot towns they pass through, a flying city probably can’t just dock in the middle of farmland, grab all the corn and bolt. So the need for a more organized food transport likely helps protect towns from that exploitation. (Though, with the military posturing of Avalir and Aeor, I could see flying cities strong-arming support from grounded ones in exchange for promised protection/aid if they needed it.)

Of course, when docked at another city (Avalir stayed at Vasselheim for ten days in the weeks before the Calamity), they can fairly easily trade with the surrounding towns there… who are also providing for the existing city. Hosting a flying city must be a huge logistics nightmare, but economically worth the headache.

(Vasselheim likely has a leg up in that it has both a sitting population of mages, such as Vespin pre-fuckup, and the likes of Clerics, who I’ll get to soonish.)

In EXU: Calamity, skyships (and an offhand mention of something called an ornithopter) already exist, which could facilitate the bulk transport of goods. Based on the speed of the Silver Sun in Campaign 3 (4-5 days to cover ~700 miles translates to a speed of ~5-6.5 knots; for context that seems to be about the middling range for a medieval tradeship), this seems like an excellent way of transporting goods that do not spoil easily. Or use arcane equivalents to the canon Bag of Colding to help keep things fresh longer. However, as noted above, this would require a lot of community organization to get crops together when the skyship shows up for harvest.

The tricky thing is that Avalir, at least, follows leylines as it travels. So if there was intent to line up its passes over farmland with their harvest season - to minimize transport distance - it might be difficult to coordinate. Moreover, with an implied many flying cities, and no clear territorial delimitations between their routes (especially if they’re all following leylines; but Avalir at least made stops in Issylra, Gwessar/Tal’Dorei, and Dorumas/the Shattered Teeth at least), I wonder if there would be economic conflict over which cities could be highest bidder for the freshest crops. Which could be Interesting.

(I wonder if sky piracy, or sky privateering, was a thing in the Age of Arcanum. Nydas is said to have been a pirate on the actual seas, so aquatic trade is still going strong, but given the flying cities are so reliant on limited methods to get food… you could put a lot of pressure on a rival city by capturing a few key skyships full of the last harvests before winter.)

Another option is teleportation. Avalir, after all, has an entire guild devoted to teleporting people around, so critical to its functioning that part of the Betrayers’ plan was to leave them without leadership when they struck. However, teleportation is very much a creature-oriented form of transportation; perhaps you could bring up a herd of cattle for slaughter, but that’s a pretty damn high spell slot for beef.

Avalir is in a fortuitous situation, in that it has a longstanding relationship with the Gau Drashari; druids, well-known masters of plant and animal life. In theory, this could mean Plant Growth casts to increase harvests… but at this time the Gau Drashari specifically only live in Caithmoira, guarding this holy site. So hopping from one druid-boosted farmland to another is unlikely.

Well, if transporting food to the cities is such an issue, why not produce food in the cities?

While magical greenhouses must account for some luxury fresh goods for sure, I really don’t think the cities as illustrated have enough real estate to actually support their whole populations like this. Like I noted above, of the two cities we know really well, their insides are already full of labs and labyrinths and all sorts of things probably best kept away from your food supply.

D&D 5E spells offer another answer, and another piece of potentially complicated worldbuilding: Create Food and Water. Per the spell description, it creates enough food to feed 15 people for 24 hours, which seems to neatly solve all our problems! Until you realize the food is explicitly bland (bet you the mages turn up their noses at it), vanishes if not consumed after 24 hours (so that’s a daily 3rd level spell slot from some poor schmuck), and is mostly limited to Paladins and Clerics. You know, godly people, who are so fondly looked upon by the mageocracies. Artificers, at least, are more in line with the Age of Arcanum attitude - but we don’t see any in Calamity, so it’s unclear if the class ‘exists’ per say in the time period. Reducing powerful Paladins and Clerics to food dispensaries - and not even good food, probably for the lower class - would fit in neatly with how the powers of the divine are seen as lesser. Goodberry falls into a similar role: useful, but probably something mages would avoid.

Speaking of spells, let’s get a little fucked up, hm? Who is to say a mage couldn’t just. Summon some pigs to be served up as bacon tomorrow? Well. Conjure Animals specifically says the animals are actually fey, and vanish when their HP reaches 0. Summon Beasts? Same thing. Find Steed? You guessed it. So magic can help us grow food, and transport it, and preserve it, but not actually make it out of nothing. (If there’s a spell I’m missing that completely solves this, please let me know, but I can’t really find one.)

My final little thought came watching geese migrate some time ago. The passenger pigeon has been extinct for… a hundred and ten years, now. But in its hayday, flocks of the birds would literally cloud the sky. Exandria is home to far more stunning beasts than pigeons, and hunting flying game is likely a lot easier when you yourself are flying too.

Sure, you can apply this to actual fishing when the cities are over the seas, but! Imagine fishing boats but for birds and all manner of winged beasts in great flocks, netting and catching them to haul in. Maybe the magical equivalent of those helicopter boar hunts to deal with invasive populations, but landing at all introduces a whole lot more hassle. Big net and flying device = fresh meat, with an arcane twist.

So: how do you feed a flying city? Especially one with a lavish lifestyle as seen in Avalir, or a hard research focus as in Aeor?

Have an extremely regimented relationship with the towns on your path (likely in competition with other flying cities using these leylines when you are) or that otherwise have food you need. Make sure skyships arrive in time for the harvests. Miss that and things get dicey.

Supplement this with trade, both with other flying cities and grounded ones when docked. However, docked time has to be limited to not risk starving out the countryside surrounding the city hosting you.

Small deliveries, especially of fresh livestock, can be accomplished through Porter’s Guild or equivalent.

Magically preserve food thus obtained to survive until your schedule and harvests of X Y z goods next align.

City-based organizations can ‘fish’ for birds as the city flies (or potentially even actually fish as they fly over the ocean) for fresh meat.

Hope to gods (but without hoping to the gods because they’re schmucks) that you time your pick-ups right, that there are no famines, or early frosts, that no one steals your fucking skyships our outbids you on a key agricultural contract, or casts Dispel Magic and makes your food all spoil.

When the carefully-scheduled management of the city’s resources fails, turn to your diviners or healers and have them feed the masses with bland crackers while the Somnovem or Ring of Gold continue eating honeyed lamb and figs.

If you read this far, I'm super flattered you shifted through my rambles! I'll gladly discuss any glaring mistakes or things I've overlooked; this is only what I considered in worldbuilding for a fic, and I don't pretend to be an expert on medieval agriculture or economic practices.

This was still very fun to (over)think about <3

(Water, of course, would be a similar limiting factor, but is easy enough to magically purify, and would not be too bland when made by Create Food and Water, so I didn’t bring it up.)

#critical role #cr meta #i guess?#avalir #aeor #age of arcanum

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oleander-neruim · 6 months

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I'm not sure about you, but having a crown pressured into your possession by a God making you fight its war just seems like a rather heavy burden.

Inktober Day 16: Angel

Extra thingies under cut, yk how it is

I could go on a very long tirade on my thoughts on Aeor, Exor, & the debilitating affects religion had on Rivendell & its descendents but maybe that's the religious trauma talking idk <3

Totes don't have a parallel post for tomorrow nope notta chance

Coin Flip

#scott smajor #smajor1995 #empires scott #scott major #dangthatsalongname #empires smp #empires season 1 #aeor #champion of aeor #religious trauma coded scott anyone?#whod guess #look i finished scotts s1 pov and haven't been the same since #inktober #inktober 2023 #inktober day 16 #inktober day 16 angel #ollie's art #❄️

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song-of-baldy-ron · 7 days

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right brain: emotional over Sam's sacrifice and final monologue

left brain: GODDAMMIT ALL THAT AEOR LORE IS LOST NOW

#critical role #critical role spoilers #bells hells #fresh cut grass #fcg #aeor

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gorgynei · 1 year

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The Somnovem and Predathos Theory

Can we talk about Predathos and the Somnovem? I've been dying to talk about Predathos and the Somnovem. There's something here, I smell it.

Theory under the cut, its a doozy.

First of all, "Factorum Malleus" (translates to Creator Hammer) and "Malleus Keys" (translates to Hammer Keys). Aeor and Predathos have a concrete, canonical connection. Ludinus went deep into the Genesis Ward, found the Factorum Malleus project, and developed it further into the Keys to release Predathos. It's unclear whether Aeor also wanted to release Predathos, or if they were just trying to use part of its power to create god-killing weapons, but regardless, Aeor knew about Predathos. Thats a big deal and it explains why the entire pantheon held a ceasefire during the Calamity to completely wipe them out.

Knowing that Aeor has a connection to Predathos makes their fanatical Cognouza ward more suspicious. It's possible that the Somnovem were actually worshiping/serving Predathos but all record of it's existence was wiped with Aeor's falling, so we never knew.

When the Nein first learned about Cognouza, it was due to a psychic wave put out by Vokodo in his final moments, flashing them all into Vokodo's memories. This is similar to the flash that Imogen put out when she gave into Ruidus's power in e33-e34, even down to Bell's Hells being forced into their own memories. While not concrete, the shared usage of emotion-driven psychic waves and memories is notable.

The Somnovem believed in the power of the mortal mind and imagination. In other words, they believed that a brain could manifest psychic power, and they were right: Imogen Temult is living proof of that. They share in the ideas of the power of the mind, even down to the Somnovem communicating telepathically and in dreams.

The Somnovem, or at least members of it, also share many sentiments with the Ruby Vanguard. The Ruby Vanguard wants to release Predathos in order to destroy the pantheon, release mortals from fate, and embrace freedom in that. Ira, upon meeting the Nein, says "Creation is born from destruction, and if all that is worthy of us is destroyed, then so much more can be created or forgotten. All the Gods and the fates that threw us to torment and death, they all will pay" (c2e137) which mirrors that idea extremely closely. Timorei says "You know the terror of the end, mortal ones. The nothing, the acceptance of fate or even oblivion. We-- we cannot end. No, at all costs, oblivion must be destroyed" (c2e137), once again bringing up the idea of disrupting fate and the natural order of things. It's possible that what was originally interpreted as the Somnovem being split on whether to bring Cognouza into the world could have actually been a much larger debate on whether to bring Predathos into the world and destroy pantheon, at least in part.

When Cognouza was transported into the astral sea, it was harassed by a "terrible psychic storm" that drove them mad. Psychic storms haunt all of campaign 3. There's the red storms on the surface of Ruidus and Imogen's dreams, both intimately connected to Predathos and to the power of the mind. Cognouza could have targeted by a powerful psychic wave directly from Predathos, which would explain the strange mind-melded state they end up in and the madness that permeates the entire city and anyone who gets too close.

Additionally, Ruidus flared in 836 PD. Cognouza was also destroyed in 836 PD. It's impossible to know if these are completely connected or pure coincidence, but if Cognouza was a long-running Predathos plot, it's destruction would likely warrant an outburst from the moon.

While delving in Aeor, Lucien discovers a mural depicting "a ring of nine red ovals, with a dazzling starburst in the middle, and that decorated with a single open eye. Enlightenment" (from the Nine eyes of Lucien). Every other symbol of the Somnovem has been just nine red eyes. This "starburst" in the middle could be a subtle nod to Predathos, especially with the way it seems the nine ovals are inferior to this one, greater eye. Lucien seems to believe this represents enlightenment, and he's probably correct. The Aeorians are famously non-religious, so fanatical devotion to a god-killer and it's ideals may have still only looked like extreme belief in a particular school of thought, rather than worship to a particular entity.

There's the obvious too: the nine eyes being red. Red can mean a lot of things. There are plenty of red things in Critical Role that are totally unrelated to Predathos and Ruidus. But when red is the primary colour and representation of unchecked alien energy, and a strange fanatical city with possible connection to that energy is also red? It stops being so chance. Not a big thing on its own, but worth mentioning.

When Cognouza was destroyed, Kingsley felt the "strange black chains that invisibly wove through that city" break and heard an "angry, unknowable, primal, ancient cry". It's widely assumed that this is Tharizdun due to the chain-imagery and general madness that the city is connected to, and I do think that's likely, but if Tharizdun is actually somehow connected to Predathos (both of them are alien beings that got locked away, after all), it could be both of them.

*gestures wildly at all of this* do you see?? do you SEE???? There's something. There's something here.

#btw if you're curious about how i know that malleus keys translates to hammer keys: malleus is a small bone in your ear that's also #known as the hammer (bc its shaped like a hammer) and factotum is a word meaning ''someone who does everything'' so #factorum -> creator and malleus -> hammer #cr spoilers #critical role #cr speculation #cr theory #critical role theory #predathos #somnovem #cognouza #aeor #mighty nein #bells hells #bell's hells

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lynxfang · 1 year

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Aeor and Xeor- an eternal struggle. AKA lynx’s warmup sketch got away from her. I tried to combine Scott’s stag and the statue for Aeor, and Xeor was to look like his vessel and the tendrils and a demonic stag. Lots of fun doing this.

#empires smp spoilers #empires 1 #empires smp season 1 #aeor #aeor and xeor #xeor #scott smajor

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fjorrd · 8 months

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who says the solstice didn't affect the aeorian stasis bubbles? ･ﾟ｡･✧

#shoutout to my tav for being the wizard who got trapped in this bubble #thanks for trying to smite the gods king! rise and shine! good morning!#cr #cr fanart #critical role #aeor #my artworkin

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ludinusdaleth · 1 year

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"There were means of protecting Aeor from the divine destruction that was raining upon and sundering Exandria. One such experiment we assume was considered too dangerous to be allowed, and as such, the city was struck."

Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 44, "Bawdy Basement Belligerence" // Critical Role Campaign 2, Episode 135, "The Genesis Ward"

#critteredit #criticalroleedit #cr spoilers #critical role #campaign 2 #campaign 3 #devexian #planerider ryn #beauregard lionett #fcg #mine #matthew mercer #sam reigel #marisha ray #aeor #*starts biting everyone in sight*#flashing gif #beauregard lionett-nydoorin

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topaz-mutiny · 1 month

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As a reminder: Ruidus is literally older than every current and Age of Arcanum civilization. The civilization of Aeor the Floating Wizard Hubris City looks like a stumbling bumbling toddler in comparison to its age.

However, genuine Aeorian tech being related makes sense considering they had a weapon named the Malleus Factorum which scared the gods so much it made the gods smite Aeor out of the sky, and Ludinus has been plagiarizing their ideas for like 800 years.

#critical role #cr spoilers #critical role spoilers #bells hells #c3e88 #Aeor #Ruidus #Malleus Factorum #Age of Arcanum #Ludinus Da'leth

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fourteenfandomfan · 9 months

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I love dnd because sometimes the creepy angler fish monster with a baby face entrances two lesbians, swallows one of them, and is immediately killed by the large amount of highly dangerous magic drugs that she pours into its stomach, and that’s not even the weirdest thing they see that week

#critical role #the mighty nein #beauregard lionett #yasha nydoorin #critical role spoilers #critical role campaign 2 #aeor

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aspiringsophrosyne · 1 year

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One day I'm going to get more in depth into the incredible thematic consistency and weird coincidences of Campaign 2. One day I am doing that.

But in the mean time, one of the things that I still shake my head at is that every time Caduceus Clay got a successful Divine Intervention....it had something to do with that fucking hell city.

First time? The roll was to figure out whatever they could about Vokodo. The info? He punched his way through the planes because he was fleeing Cognouza's appetite.

Second time? It was so the Nein could find and use the entrance into the Aeoran ruins that the Tomb Takers knew about.

And of course, we all know what the third and final Divine Intervention did.

I just love it so much. I hope they at least keep a nod to that in the series.

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tieflingtea · 2 years

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"How are you still using your hands right now?"

Caleb glanced up at the muffled question, biting back a smile at the sight of a very disgruntled Essek buried in a mound of furs. Only his eyes were visible, and they glared at where Caleb was furiously scrawling down his recollection of the day's events in Aeor. Only a very dim orb hovered above his journal, casting the barest amount of light. They had both agreed that a fire would be too dangerous after the events of the day. The beasts of the fallen city were patient things, and they had already proven keen enough to wait out the dome if they found it.

"I am used to a fair amount of cold, this is bearable for a while longer," Caleb said ruefully, recalling many nights huddled beneath nothing but his shabby coat and the fine layer of snow dusted over him. Essek drew him from his memories with a faint noise of disgust.

"Well good for you then," he sniped. Caleb did smile then, unable to stop it from creasing up his face. "Oh, yes, I suppose you would find it funny."

"Only that you remind me of Jester, in the early days," he explained. Essek perked up as much as he could in his current, amorphous state.

"Jester?"

"Yes, she also came from privilege and wasn't used to slumming it with us commoners."

Essek drooped. "I see."

"I did not mean it as an insult, I find it endearing."

There was a long silence after that, Caleb found that his smile was easy to keep on his face and so he let it stay as he worked and Essek stewed on whatever was making his eyes dart back and forth in thought. Eventually the other man shuffled closer to peer at his journal, a muffled noise choking out of the depths of the blanket when he finally caught sight of the detailed drawing Caleb was writing around.

"Mmm, Jester again, I'm afraid. It's remarkable really, I think there might be a dick for each day of notes I've written so far."

"You let her use your journal to draw dicks?"

"Let? No. But now that we are here and she is off terrorising pirates, I am glad that I have these reminders."

More silence, and the slow building pressure of a body leaning itself up against his side. In the part of his mind that wasn't replaying the rooms and artifacts they had come across that day, Caleb remembered a dorm room, two bodies leant up on his instead of one, and the burning pain of his mutilated arms. The cold helped ground him in the present. As did the faint, subtle scent of his companion. A hint of some spiced cologne, a hint of magic. And that crisp, nothing smell of prestidigitation that couldn't quite eliminate the stale sweat it was used on.

"You miss them." Essek said, and it was not a question.

"As much as you likely did when we would run out of your life and towards the next danger."

"It's different."

Caleb paused in his writing, "Is it?"

"I didn't have the right," there was that bitterness again, turned inward and poisonous. Caleb jostled the man a little, as if knocking his body would knock the thoughts from his mind. He counted it as a win that Essek only readjusted his lean rather than pulling away completely. At the beginning of their journey, Caleb had found Essek's careful distance disconcerting, used as he was to the Mighty Nein's casual and frequent touch.

"I think you were allowed to feel any way that you did about us, Essek."

"I did miss you," he confessed, barely a breath, and then a little louder, "I missed you all very much when you would leave, it was concerning at first. I thought I was ill."

Caleb snorted, and mentally filed that away for Beauregard next time they talked. He could imagine her face as he told her Essek thought his emotions were digestion. He could imagine the gentle ribbing she would give their mage, and Yasha's awkward, quiet defense of him.

"And then I figured out what was happening and I wished that I had been ill instead."

"We have that effect on people," Caleb agreed.

"Did you know my brother caught me whistling once after one of Jester's sendings. Whistling." Caleb felt him shake his head, "I am a fool for you all."

"Love is not foolish," he said. Essek stiffened against him for a moment, tensed as if to bolt, but slowly he relaxed again and Caleb let out a relieved sigh.

"And yet the word makes me want to throw myself off one of these readily available cliffsides," Essek eventually replied. Caleb closed his journal.

"It is like with anything, at first it feels clumsy, ungainly. It will not fit because you have yet to grow into it. But love suits you, Essek Thelyss, you will wear it well one day."

"Oh," Essek said faintly, curling up into himself as if he had been physically struck. "Well, fuck me."

Caleb sat in silence with his arm around the pile of furs as the drow inside silently shaked apart, and then silently pieced himself back together again. He knew that feeling, that gnawing pit inside that threatened to swallow, to consume. He knew that the process of self forgiveness happened in quiet moments between the chaos. That it often hurt more than the hatred did. At one point he had begun to stroke where Essek's head ought to be, Zemnian unbidden at the tip of his tongue.

"What does that mean?" Essek finally said, voice scratchy but firm. "That word? Leepling? You have used it before."

"Ah, liebling," he corrected gently, "It means... It means I like you quite a bit to be saying it without realising."

"Leebling," Essek tried again slowly, rolling it around as if to see how it tasted. Caleb felt a blush bloom across his cheeks and huffed a small laugh at himself.

"Hmm, maybe one day I'll tell you the exact translation."

Essek turned his head so that the small portion of his face still visible was buried against Caleb's shoulder, "I look forward to it."

#ficlet #caleb widogast #essek thelyss #shadowgast #cr2 #aeor is for lovers #post campaign 2 #aeor #my writing #this was supposed to be cuddling for warmth but it turned into Essek having feelings instead #oh well next time #critical role

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