Research

 Research and writing process for chapter 18-19 - The Goron Mines

The second dungeon of Twilight Princess is finally reached, and of course there is bound to be a lot of lava, excrutiating heat, Goron elders and a fiery battle with Darbus to top it all. In this article I'm going to tell you a little more about my thoughts and theories I've come up with before, while and after I wrote this chapter concerning not only the mines proper, but Goron culture and history in general as well as some minor goodies here and there.



The Goron Mines

Now, I've written a somewhat different journey through the mines than the one the game is guiding us through, principally because I've always found it rather cumbersome and even a little annoying to have to fight my way over the magnetic walls and ceilings all the time (so slooowly), shoot crystals and beamos or switch between cranes that drop me in the middle of a horde of bulblins. Instead, I've focused more on the actual term ''mine'' and, after a little research on the layout of existing mines as well as the Goron mines from the game, I created a design that follows the realistic build-up of an active volcano all while incorporating a mining site big enough to be called the most important one in all of Hyrule.

So here is the map from chapter 18:

(DR)

This could be Death Mountain from the top!

It is a simple and somewhat crude map (I'm still a rookie with Photoshop and have never been good in drawing maps in the first place), but it does its job in showing where the different important rooms are as well as giving a glimpse into the daily mining activity of Gorons in my version of the story.

This is the topmost floor of the Goron Mines, mind you. The black dots on the left and right side named ''shaft'' are exactly what they invoke, shafts with built-in, manual elevators to get to the lower floors of the mine. There are four floors in total, the bottom-most being the widest in diametre set deeply into the mountain range around Death Mountain, with resources including raw materials not only from igneous rock, but also from sedimentary rock (copper, chalk, gold, tin, flint, glass sand to name a few) and metamorphic rock (rubies, moonstones, sapphires, jade, onyx, lapis lazuli...).

Concerning the middle lava vent, I've designed it after having taken a look at the inside of a volcano. As you can see here, the main vent goes straight up towards the crater, and the mines where chapter 19 is taking place is situated just beneath the crater, with the main vent still and inactive to form a lake of lava. Daylight is shining through the crater and falls into the main hall, and when it rains, the lava steams and hisses. Side vents, or secondary vents, create the lava rivers that flow through the volcano's crust and eventually out onto the surface.

Lava for Death Mountain

Lava, as you all know, is incredibly hot. Temperatures range from 700 to 1,200 °C (1,292 to 2,192 °F) and some lava types can even reach 1,600 °C (2,910 °F). This particular lava type is known as the mafic or ultramafic lava. I've chosen to fill Death Mountain with this lava type because of its high content of magnesium oxide, which lets this lava become very liquid and mobile, almost to the point of being watery. The secondary vents forming lava rivers then flow at a greater speed, just like in the game.

The Well of Life and a Goron's meaning of Life and Death

This theory came to me while cutting metal for an iron fence. I was thinking on how a Goron was conceived and born but could not remember Nintendo ever enlighting us on that matter. In Majora's Mask, we have an unhappy Goron baby wailing and screaming the heads off of the other inhabitants of Snowhead, and Twilight Princess has several Goron children roaming the outskirts of Death Mountain, Kakariko as well as Castle Town. So Gorons do indeed have children, but how?

What is also worth mentioning is that the Goron race has never had the honour of counting a ''female'' Goron among their number, at least not that I can think of. They are all referred to as ''he'', they have beards and male names and mostly look very masculine in general. So the first and foremost method of creating offspring, which needs a female and a male part, is therefore discarded.

Darbus (non-cursed form)

What has always intrigued me was the notion of patriarch. The word comes from the greek patriarchēs, meaning "chief or father of a family", and Dictionary.com defines him as ''the male head of a family or tribal line'' or ''a person regarded as the father or founder of an order, class, etc''. In the Goron tribe of Twilight Princess, the patriarch is indeed a leader and a defender, the strongest of them all who protects them and has a major impact on decisions. And Darbus certainly looks like he's a patriarch! 

So a patriarch is a chief, but can he also be an actual father? The rooster in the flock of chickens? The one responsible for the race's continued existence? Pater is latin and means father, and I have always believed that patriarch derivated from that. However, because of a man's very obvious lack of the body parts needed to conceive a child, and because of the (until proven wrong) lack of women in the Goron race, I had to find a way to make Darbus a father without a female counterpart. And I found my answer while looking a little more closely at a Goron.

They are made of rock, more precisely of two different rock types: the yellow-ish skin almost looks like ochre sand, whereas the grey rock on their back and arms could be of a different kind of rock. Two different minerals, fusioned together to form a live being? Hmm.

This is how the idea with the Well of Life came to be. It states that a Goron is made of two different, magical kinds of lava that flow deep within Death Mountain. Lava is plastic, like clay that forms pots, and since Gorons are made of rock, touching lava should not affect them that much, so it should be pretty easy for a strong Goron like Darbus to form a body out of lava with his hands which then becomes solid. It is still a very delicate procedure, and not every Goron should be capable of doing it. Giving this task to the ''patriarch'' then truly makes the most sense. He is, in other words, the one to shape a new being of life, and one immediately thinks of God shaping Adam - and later Eve - out of dust in the creation myths of Abrahamic religions, and in the Norse myths, Norsemen believed that the God of Gods, Odin (who was also named Allfather), and his two brothers Vili and Ve, created the first man and woman, Ask and Embla, out of two fallen trees, one an ash, the other an elm.

Gor Ebizo

The notion of death among the Goron tribe also plays around the Well of Life. Gor Ebizo seems like the oldest still living elder (for, you know, he truly looks like he is) and it will not be too long before he bades the world farewell. In our world, the common Christian burial rite reads ''[...] earth to earth; ashes to ashes, dust to dust.'' and refers to those believing in it being born from dust, and returned to dust after we pass away. So it is only plausible that when a Goron dies, his body is returned to the lava that he was shaped of, to nourish the Well and have parts of his body be reborn in a new child. For I argue that there is only a limited amount of Lava of Life in Death Mountain, so there can't be a too great amount of Gorons in the world anyway. But as long as the Lava of Life exists, and as long as there is one Goron capable of forming a being out of it, then the race will endure. 

Din's creation of the Gorons; a try at a myth

Having two or more gods interact with each other is interesting, funny and dramatic. One doesn't have to look further than the Norse gods and all the nonsense they've done because of beliefs, challenges or quarrels with each other. So I decided to try and create a short myth in my own story as well.

The Well of Life, as explained in chapter 19, was put there by Din after the world had been created.
The Goddess longed for a race of her own that was stronger than the animals and humans that Farore, Goddess of Courage, had put into their world to live in. And so she asked Farore to teach her how to create life. Farore wasn't really keen on having the Goddess of Power create a race, by fear that those people might endanger the others. So she agreed, but allowed Din to create just one single being that would, in her belief, be unable to have descendants because of the lack of a counterpart. Din agreed, and with her aquired knowledge thus created the first Goron, gave it a lot of muscles as well as a bulky and heavy shape to look - and be - strong and intimidating. And to trick Farore, Din gave her life-giving powers a material form, here lava, and placed it inside the volcano Death Mountain where it would look just like any other seam of lava, before teaching her first Goron how to make other Gorons from it.

The dwarves collecting Kvasir's blood

As a little side-note: giving a material shape to knowledge or any other intangible thing is pretty common in myths. In Norse myths, for example (and here I should finally tell you that I read Kevin Crossley-Holland's Penguin Book of Norse Myths very recently, thus all the references), there is one particular myth called ''The Mead of Poetry''. It tells of a god named Kvasir who is basically the ''psychiatrist'' of gods and men. He listens to their problems, tries to find answers for or with them, and is all in all very wise and eager to help with good advice. Kvasir, however, is killed by two dwarves who collect his blood and add honey (gross) to make the mead of poetry out of it. And whoever drinks the mead is said to become as wise and poetical as Kvasir.

I found this notion of ''materialized wisdom'' very appealing, which is why I included ''materialized knowledge of Life'' in the Gorons' creation myth as well.

One more thought concerning the Well of Life placed inside Death Mountain is the ambiguity of both names. The first obviously invokes flowing life and creation, whereas the volcano named ''Death Mountain'' clearly states the exact contrary. Since the Well of Life is non-canon, but the fruit of my own imagination, I was rather unsure at first about the whole concept, but I decided to leave it like this. It is actually rather interesting to think about why the Gorons could have named their birth site ''Death Mountain''. Could it be that they intended to scare away curious outsiders who were looking for this mythical well?


The Goron elders

Gor Coron

Gor Liggs

I've already said so in the author's note of chapter 19 that I care a lot about Gor Liggs. But there is a thought process behind his wisdom and him being the cleverest and wittiest among the other elders.

Gor Liggs tells Link of their creation myth, but also states a very important fact: Gorons are rather dim-witted, and this would have led to the extintion of their race. Fair Nayru, Goddess of Wisdom, intervened by gifting Gorons the ability to become wiser the older they got. And since Goron elders grow even older than the ''common'' Gorons because of their former activity as a patriarch, they tend to be the wisest of the entire race, hence their status as leaders.

Gor Amoto

But why is Gor Liggs the brainy and not the others? If we take them in the order of oldest to youngest, we have Gor Ebizo as the oldest, then Gor Amoto, Gor Liggs, and finally Gor Coron, with Darbus being the Patriarch who will one day take the position of leader among the elders.

Gor Coron is a rather young elder and still has to ''collect'' his wisdom, which is shown on several occasions throughout chapter 19. Gor Amoto is older but still has enough wits to make clever comments, whereas Gor Ebizo is so old that his senility has mostly clouded his mind. Him and Gor Amoto often reply to Link's comments with confused looks, displaying thus their slowed process of comprehending, whereas Gor Liggs almost always answers quickly and wisely. That being said, it is only logical that Gor Liggs is the one who's in perfect mental shape, having already collected a good amount of wisdom but senile stupidity still being a long way ahead.

And as a last note concerning the elders: among themselves, they use their common names like Coron and Amoto, discarding the prefixe ''Gor'' which almost certainly means ''elder''. Link either refers to them as ''Elder'' or uses the prefixe when naming them, and I as the writer am and will always use their full title when writing prose. It is a certain respect I feel I owe them that I as the writer should not shorten their title for the sake of repetition, even when reading Gor here, Gor there might be a little unnerving at times.

A Goron's only physical weakness: cold

This short theory is not only supported by real facts, but by Nintendo itself. Majora's Mask has Gorons who live on a mountain called Snowhead, and when spring should be blooming, everything is frozen and beneath a thick layer of snow instead. The Gorons are not looking and feeling very well, and their chief Darmani has set out on a desperate quest to slay the monster keeping the village in this eternal winter, the Masked Mechanical Monster Goht. But he died trying, and before long the Gorons will succumb to the cold.

In science, the term ''frost weathering'' comes to mind. This process is inducted by water seeping in very small quantities into the pore spaces of rock and then freezing, taking in more space than before. Ice inevitably attracts more water from surrounding pores, making it grow and accumulate further. Eventually, the ice weakens the rock and breaks it. Sandstone is the most vulnerable to this process, as it is very loose in the first place and tends to act almost like a sponge for the water to seep into it freely.

You can see this process especially on roads after a long winter. The asphalt or concrete has broken up here and there to form nasty potholes, and a particular road I know leading from my home village to the next bigger town has construction works in spring every year to repair the cracks and holes the ice has caused.

So let's imagine we are a Goron made purely out of rock, and we have ice seep into our limbs and our sandstone chest that cracks it when it gets too cold. Personally, I would be totally freaked out!

And now some minor goodies like sketches, theories and deleted scenes

• Sketch for chapter 18 entitled ''Outwitting the Gorons!''

(DR)

I made this sketch during lunch break at work, on a piece of Teamwoerker advertising paper because I had obviously forgotten my sketchbook at home. I had worked out - while drilling holes into anchor plates - how Link would prove his strengh to the Gorons without the use of iron boots, and wanted to make a quick sketch to see it it was plausible and realistic.

The sketch shows the big round stone door the Gorons placed in front of the entrance to their mines to seal it, with the two tree trunks acting as extra supports. On the left there are two darts, one zig-zagging upwards because I had imagined Link jumping up onto the door, but I used one of the trunks instead to use as makeshift ladder.

•  Link's initial plan to beat the **** out of Darbus and retrieve the Fused Shadow

Too often do I find myself in a situation where I have a clear idea about where the chapter is heading, and then while writing I find myself adding scenes here and there or even change the entire plot by improvising. This is what happened in the Goron Mines:

Having laid out the first descriptions of my initial plan to trap a corrupted Patriarch with the use of all bombs I created as well as the use of Link's bow, a chain and the Gorons doing, well... what they do best, I've just arrived at the iron bridge and let Link stop to wait for Darbus to cross the other river. My mind is still feeling proud of the prank I've pulled on the Gorons earlier on, letting them all step on their toes miserably while feeling the imaginary cold seep into their rocky bones, when suddenly I find myself thinking ''Wait, Link does indeed have a cloak, but his boots are not protected, and iron is veeery hot when lava is flowing beneath it, common sense speaking.'' So I make him jump up, and suddenly all Gorons jump as well because they think they have to mimick Link's every move. One thing leads to another, Dangoro can't keep his balance with the heavy load he's holding, tumbles down into the river, I laugh out imagining it, then I remember the two powder barrels and have to make them explode, there's a huge noise, and Darbus is on their toes.

Cripes, that was quick. But I'm happy with how this turned out, so I leave it and insert it into the chapter. But my initial plan that I had started to describe in the armoury earlier is therefore discarded, and somehow I feel as if you deserve to know it, maybe to fill in the gap with which I might have left you unsatisfied, maybe to reveal the plan so that those of you who have been trying to think into Link's brain know what he had in mind when he said: ''Dangoro, we need two barrels of black powder, and someone take four bomb sacks as well.''

I actually have several more ideas now while writing this article. You just pick the one you like most :D

1. The black powder forms a nice heap near the back of the hall, and the four sacks are placed on either side of the heap. As soon as Darbus has tripped, he falls head-first into the black powder, and seconds later a lit arrow shot by Link lands in one of the bomb sacks. I let you imagine the rest.
2. The chain may not be enough to make Darbus trip and fall, so the Gorons place one bomb sack on either side of the area they think Darbus will step through, placing a trail of black powder from the barrels towards the sacks to light them from a distance. Once the patriarch is entangled in the chain, they light the powder with torches OR throw their torches at the bomb sacks, making them explode. Darbus loses his balance and falls onto his belly, where the Gorons attack him from all sides. 
3. Instead of attacking him, they throw the two remaining bomb sacks at his face, and if they don't detonate from the flames of Darbus himself, Link shoots a lit arrow to do the trick.
4. Instead of throwing the two bomb sacks, they throw the barrels at him, and with a burning arrow cause their poor patriarch some extra headache. 

Any more suggestions or mean ideas on how this could have been done? Why don't you tell me in the comments?

• The new Hero's bow

Handle of a wooden compound bow

My dear friend RavenOverlord, who is my editor as well as critical eye and mouth concerning realism, pointed out to me that the arrow Link equips with the package bomb would either not fly at all, or just sway from its trajectory and make for a very bad ending for this chapter. Upon my confused request to precise, he explained to me that the problem lies with the bow itself. It is made out of one piece with the handle in the middle so that, when an arrow is notched, it tends to lean slightly to the side. A wooden arrow is usually very flexible, even if it doesn't look like it at first, and will wind around the handle with the force of the shot and oscillate during its flight. Skilled archers know how to shoot the arrow to hit their target precisely despite this wobbling, but when something is attached to the arrow, like a package bomb in chapter 19, things get more complicated. The arrow will bend to wind around the handle, but will likely not spring back because of the weight attached to it, and the arrow will land Din knows where.

Remodeled handle for the Hero's bow (DR)

This is why I decided to remodel the Hero's bow - or at least its handle - to that of a compound bow. These modern bows have bent handles that allow the arrow to sit exactly where the bowstring is without it having to bypass the handle. This prevents almost any kind of wobbling, and the projectile's trajectory will be a lot more precise even if there is something attached to it.

I made this drawing to show how the handle is bent, with the cross on the right marking the spot where the arrow will sit supported by the archer's thumb. I left the design of the bow very bare and simple, the laughable blades being only a placeholder for far better and cooler ones, so that everyone may imagine their own Hero's compound bow as they please.

• The use of crimsonine

Crimsonine

I had planned a long time ahead of this chapter that I would give Link something to protect him against the crushing heat of the Goron Mines. It does not really make sense that he has to wear a tunic to enter the Fire Temple in Ocarina of Time, but can enter a volcano without any kind of fire protection in Twilight Princess.

For all those who haven't played Phantom Hourglass ''yet'' and have no idea what crimsonine is: it is one of three rare metals given to three different tribes in the game as the ultimate treasure that Link has to collect for the smith Zauz so that he can make the legendary Phantom Sword, the only weapon said to be able to slay the end monster Bellum. The two other metals, aquanine and azurine, will also appear in the novel, eventually.

I've really tried to find any kind of information on the spinning of metal threads, I have searched everywhere on the net, but I haven't found anything on the process of making super thin threads purely out of metal. And I'm not talking about silk or linen lace with metal threads woven into it, for this would never work if the finished cloak has to withstand extreme heat. The fabric of the metallic threads would simply burn away, and the cloak would rip and fall apart.

So we'll have to imagine a red ingot of crimsonine being heated in a smelter and then spun somehow into a thin thread that is then woven into cloth. I know it is possible, for my mother has just bought pure gold thread for her tablet weaving, but how? I really wish I knew.

Link wearing the Goron Tunic

This red cloth is, according to me, also the very same fabric that the Goron Tunic from Ocarina of Time is made of. Gor Liggs stated that they indeed had these tunics a long time ago, but that they ''[...] discarded them in favour of these cloaks because of money and, well… fashion issues.'' I needed a reason to give Link a cloak and not a tunic. Money issues are explained because of the amount of cloth scraps the making of a tunic would leave, since it has to be cut into shape, with the re-smelting of the cloth remains costing extra time and money. And fashion issues... well I guess that some smiths and smelters might have had a problem with wearing such a ''kitchy'' garb and would have preferred something more universal. 

Crimsonine can be found in little quantities inside Death Mountain, so the cloaks and other garments such as gloves and aprons are actually pretty expensive. And while they can shield extreme heat from the wearer, they are still ineffective against lava which is so hot that it easily melts through the crimsonine. This is also supported by the fact that when Link from OoT walks in a pit of lava, he still gets burned.



I'm not quite done with the Gorons yet, there is still a lot to discover from them, but this is pretty much all I've got for these two chapters. I'd be very happy to hear your opinion on this article, what you liked, didn't like, if you have more theories and ideas for me that I could use in the chapters to come etc.

And as a last funny reference, look at what my dad brought to a family party a few weeks back:

(DR)

This is a wine bottle from France. I just had to take a picture of it xD


Disclaimer: all pictures are from Google except for those marked (DR), which are mine.


Research for chapter 15 - The power of Sun and Heat

We're in the Eldin Province now, and things are bound to change from the idyllic forest landscape of Ordona and Faron. Not only is the climate different, but the people living there, the resources found as well as traditions and culture that build all around them. I've passed a lot of time doing research for the Province, taking bits and pieces from countries found in our world and creating my own, living and breathing Eldin Province. Here a brief list of points that are mentioned in chapter 15, and how I came to them.

The sun

In a country where the Goddess Din is worshipped, the sun is bound to play an important role in the landscape as well as the culture of people living there.
The first aspect is the skin colour of the inhabitants. Have you noticed that in the game, and later it is confirmed in Hyrule Historia, Kakariko could be a town sprung out of a western movie? The rock is red, the sun is hot, and a dark-skinned shaman is striding through the streets clad in leather and an earth-coloured dress. That, of course, immediately let me think of Native Americans. This is why I took Native American words to name all new characters:

• ''Old'' Abequa => stays at home

• Chitto => brave
• Etu => the sun
• Helaku => full of sun
• Len => lion
• Kele => sparrow
• Kay (the builder, briefly mentioned) => glory

I didn't put many names to females, but that will be rightened in future chapters. As for Luana, it is not a Native American name, but a name I invented in my other story, The Dolor Mortis Curse, and I decided to take it over for the novel as well.

The sun has, obviously, a great influence on the climate. Farmers of Kakariko are based on the southern types of farmers found in our world, growing crop like corn, olives, tomatoes, wine grapes and lavender. The cattle is also different, but I'll develop agriculture while visiting other Eldinian towns. Stay in tune for more references to the south of France, Spain, Italy, the State of Mexico and many more!

Sundial on the wall

In a cultural aspect, the sun also appears in the daily life of our Kakarikans. This is how the idea of the sundial came to be. While other towns with frequent rainfall and cloudy skies have to rely on mechanical clocks, the Eldinians use a technique that is as old as the world. A sundial uses the sun and a pole to cast a shadow on a pre-established clock face. While the sun moves slowly from east to west, the shadow moves too, and a different time is showed.

Peasant's Ring, www.hornschnitzer.eu

But sundials do not have to be stationary or attached on walls. Little portable sundials were pretty common in medieval times. I myself own a nice silver sundial composed of a turnable clock face atop which sits a dragon (yeah, I like dragons). The dragon's tail casts a shadow on the clock face, and by subtracting the summertime hour, I get time results that are accurate by half an hour. Other sundials existed, like the ''Peasant's ring'' that uses a hole through which the sun shines. This one is even more accurate.


Under the influence of Twilight, the sun has been shut out of the Province, and this has set multiple problems into motion. Without the sun, crop is not growing, and without crop, people cannot eat. While this seems pretty obvious, there is another very important fact that appears with the lack of sun, which is felt within the people themselves.

Cod liver, yuck!

When sunlight falls onto human skin, it encourages us to produce vitamin D, an essential substance for us to live. When we are either deliberately evading sunlight, or sunlight is taken from us by natural causes, for example during winter, or when we live in the northern hemisphere where the sun shines less, this vitamin lacks, and multiple troubles arise.
First of all, we are more vulnerable to illnesses. Ever heard of ''Lebertran'', or cod liver? Ever wondered why Northmen swear by this awfully tasting stuff? (believe me, I've been through it in my youth) Well, it is a natural vitamin D supply, and helps building up the immune system and prevent illnesses.

vi.sualize.us

But another very important aftermath of sunlight deprivation is a reduced supply of melatonin and serotonin hormones, which are responsible for our mood. Their absence causes a disruption in our internal clock, which controls our natural waking and sleeping pattern. Renado and all the other Kakarikans feel this by entering a state of permanent gloom, depression even. And I can confirm this: when I am working outside in sunlight, I'm way happier as when I'm working on a cloudy day. This is also the reason why Africans tend to be happier and wear the biggest smile on their face.

This is also the reason why Luana makes Helaku a Saint John's wort tea. This phenomenous plant is widely known as a natural antidepressant. I've looked it up on wikipedia, and this is what I got:

pilladvised.com

"St. John's wort (SJW), similarly to other herbs, contains a whole host of different chemical constituents that may be pertinent to its therapeutic effects. Hyperforin and adhyperforin, two phloroglucinol constituents of SJW, are TRPC6 receptor agonist and, consequently, they induce noncompetitive reuptake inhibition of monoamines (specifically, dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin), GABA, and glutamate when they activate this receptor. It inhibits reuptake of these neurotransmitters by increasing intracellular sodium ion concentrations. Moreover, SJW is known to downregulate the β₁ adrenoceptor and upregulate postsynaptic 5-HT_1A and 5-HT_2A receptors, both of which are a type of serotonin receptor. Other compounds may also play a role in SJW's antidepressant effects such compounds include: oligomeric procyanidines, flavonoids (quercetin), hypericin, and pseudohypericin."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypericum_perforatum#Medical_uses

Blah blah blah ... As clear as springwater, no? Basically, it helps with depressions. I didn't understand how or why, but it helps. xD

All in all, sunlight is a major factor in the Eldin Province. Knowing this, I'll make sure to spur Link in collecting Eldin's tears of Light so that this disaster has a swift end. ;)

Volcanic activity

www.deviantart.com

Death Mountain is a volcano, as you probably know from previous Zelda games as well as this one. But a volcano isn't just filled with lava and erupts from time to time when you're unlucky. Around a volcano, an entire microcosm of activities are induced by the constant heat supply. Here a few of them that have been used in chapter 15:

www.eduweb.com

Geysers: those columns of boiling water shooting out of the earth at a given time are a rare, natural phenomenon occurring only at a few locations on Earth. The diagram shows how a pocket of magma underneath the pool of water heats this one up. Hot water takes up more space than cool water, and the pressure arising in the groundwater pool causes a powerful jet of water and steam to shoot out a hole in the ground. This is what causes a geyser.

Due to the fact that geysers are present everywhere on Death Mountain when Link travels there, I decided to include them in my novel as well, even if under slightly more realistic conditions. And by doing so, I got the hot spring in Kakariko as bonus in my volcanic all inclusive pack! Yay!

Fumaroles: a fumarole is an opening in the ground, much like the vent shown in the geyser diagram, that emits steam - from heated water - and gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), hydrogen chloride (HCl) and hydrogen sulphide (H2S, very poisonous!).

Sulphur deposit. Source: wikipedia

It is in those fumaroles that sulphur (or sulfur) can be found. It has a characteristic yellow colour and smells of rotten eggs. This putrid smell, by the way, comes from bacteria that break down the organic matter in eggs, swamps and sewers, and thus create a small quantity of hydrogen sulphide in them that carries this smell. I've been forced to smell it for days on end on my hands when I opened a rotten egg while making cookies for Christmas, and believe me, it was an awful experience...

This was it for this chapter, folks! Till next time! Oh, and once the battery of my granddad's camera is full, I'll take a picture of my dragon sundial and post it here.


Climate and soils of Hyrule - A literally "basic" way to world build

It's time for some geography! Yay!
 
Thinking about the landscape around Kakariko for the next chapter (we're getting to Eldin Province, finally!), I noticed how in the game, the rocks and mountains are of a prominent yellow and orange. Ochre, if I'm correct. But why is it ochre, and why is it the only part of Hyrule having ochre in the game?

I realized that creating a realistic and functioning world implies far more thought than just creating cities and trading systems. Looking at the map I drew while taking TP's world map as model, I saw just how the actual climate of the world affected the landscape and soils. Did you notice that in the middle of the map (from West to East) we have the Desert, Hyrule as well as Kakariko with its ochre? To the south we have Faron Woods (a very densely grown forest) as well as Ordona's plains and mountain, and to the north we have the plains of Northern Lanayru, Eldin and the mountains of Snow Peak and Zora's Domain.

www.dreamstime.com

And now let's take a look at our own world, and how the movement of the sun affects different parts of the world.

The red colour shows where the sun is at its nearest to our planet, namely in the middle of Africa (Sahara), the northern part of South America (Amazon Basin) as well as the Isles of Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and North Australia (Sandy Desert, Great Victoria Desert). This invisible line is called the equator. As a result, it is very hot there (obviously). If we move north and south, we see how the colours gradually get colder, moving from yellow to green and to blue.

I decided to try out the same on the map of Hyrule. This is what came out. The red shows the warmer climate, the green the temperate climate, and the blue the colder climate.
Now I'm not entirely sure if this could work, since the planet on which Hyrule is situated would be much smaller than our world, but it gives me a good idea about the temperatures found in the different provinces, and how those can affect both the landscapes as well as how the people live in general.
Just to have said it once: this map does not take into account the altitudes but merely at which distance the sun is to the surface. Taking the mountains and altitudes into account, I may be able to change the climate of certain regions, but only to a limited span. I could say for example that Hyrule is a plateau situated higher than Kakariko, which would result in it to be cooler than the Eldin Province. The Desert would be lower than Hyrule, and thus much warmer.

But details are for another time. There is still the question about the ochre left unanswered, so let's have a look at the different soils found in Hyrule.

Soil distribution: Eldin Province

Ochre in the Provence

Ochre, which I came across in the Provence while on vacation, is a highly ferruginous sandy earth that gets its orange, reddish colour from weathered limonite, which next to hematite is the principal iron ore. Limonite is commonly known as iron oxide (FeO), or rust, hence the reddish colour. This is a very important bit of information, because if limonite is found around Kakariko, then it is only logical that limonite can be mined on Death Mountain. The first source of iron.





This leads to the soil found in the Eldin Province. While surfing through Wikipedia, I found a very interesting page with the different soil types found in our world. If you didn't already know this, let me tell you that no soil is like the other. Soils found in northern Russia are very different to soils found around the Mediterranean Sea. This is not only because of the climate differences, but because of a ton of other facts like erosion, water occurance, altitude, weather etc. Taking the climate (Mediterranean, see map) and nature of the soil (high limonite occurance) into account, I found the perfect soil for the Eldin Province.

Malvasia vines in Terra Rossa soil, source: Wikipedia

Terra rossa*, Italian for "red soil", is a type of red clay soil produced by the weathering of limestone. When limestone weathers, the clay contained in the rocks is left behind, along with any other non-soluble rock material. Under oxidizing conditions, when the soils are above the water table, iron oxide (rust) forms in the clay. This gives it a characteristic red to orange colour. Terra rossa is typically found in regions with a Mediterranean climate. 

Althought poor in humus (soils rich in humus are considered very fertile, poor in humus less fertile), this soil can be quite fertile if watered enough.

Compared to most clay soils, terra rossa has surprisingly good drainage characteristics. This makes it a popular soil type for wine production.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_rossa_%28soil%29



Okay, Eldin Province done. Now that I know which soil is found there, everything like agriculture, mining and production as well as culture of the people can be built up from there. But this is a topic for another day.

Terra fusca, source: www.bildarchiv-boden.de

Soil distribution: Hyrule and Lanayru

This was quite easy. I wanted a soil that is not too different from the terra rossa, and which can be found both in cooler as well as hotter regions. There is a second soil which is "related" to terra rossa because it is found in the same category, the Terrae calcis: terra fusca.

Terra fusca, (from the Latin terra, soil, and fuscus, brown) is a soil that developed on limestone, much like the terra rossa, but which is much more fertile because it is rich in humus, and does not have the characteristic red colour of the terra rossa. It is, actually, the very soil which is found in my hometown in Switzerland, in the Swiss Jura.

Okay, it is not New Zealand, but it is still beautiful! As you can see, the limestone found in the soil is used for almost every building, and the landscape is composed of hills and not mountains. Conifers as well as broadleaves grow on this soil. In summer it is very hot, in winter very cold.

Soil distribution: Ordona Province

When standing on a higher mountain in the Ordona Province, this is how I imagine it would look like:

 
 


Faron Woods, large and dense, with the Faron River in the background, conifers and mountains behind me.

The perfect soil for conifers and boreal forests is the podzol. Podzols are able to occur on almost any parent material, but are poor soils for agriculture due to the sandy portion, resulting in a low level of moisture and nurtients. In Ordon, I'd say the soil is better for agriculture because of Faron Woods' influence on it, and their soil:

Soil distribution: Faron Woods

Gley. Source: Wikipedia

First I thought the soil found in the tropical rainforest would be a good one for Faron Woods, but I soon noticed that that one is in fact a very poor soil with almost no nutritiousness to be found. The reason to that is a little complicated to explain, so I'll let you discover that on your own whenever you like.

Instead, I thought that a groundwater soil would be good. In German and French it's called gley, a rich soil with lots of humus and humidity for a dense growth of vegetation. Almost no rocks, as opposed to the terra fusca, are found in this one, but an accumulation of water once you dig deep enough. This soil should be the best one for such a large forest as Faron Woods.

Soil distribution: Great Desert

The soil composing deserts is a soil named regosol. Found mostly in semi-arid and arid areas as well as mountain regions, it can be farmed if sufficiently irrigated, but stays mostly bare.

What most people think of a desert is this:












But this is not the only form a desert can take on. The term desert basically denominates a place that is very arid, very dry, with little to no growth of vegetation. It doesn't need to be hot. A desert, like this one, can also be extremely cold.








So, with the question of the different soils in Hyrule answered, it's time to build up the culture, agriculture, vegetation and animal life. This will be fun!


Resin Balm:

Harzbalsam from: http://www.lisetta-loretz.ch/shop.htm

I went to a Medieval pageant in Bremgarten last October and found something rather interesting for my story. A middle-aged lady sold herbal medicine at her stand, and also a strange yellow substance called Harzbalsam, or resin balm if you translate this from German into English. It has outstanding healing powers and helps in all sorts of situations: 

• minor wounds
• burns
• dry lips
• eczema
• psoriasis
• spots (pimples)
• cracks
• warts
• cold sore (fever blisters)
• cough
• inflammation
• joint pain 
• ...

From: http://www.lisetta-loretz.ch/kraeuterkurse.htm

As you can see, this is a fairly heroic stuff! Working in a job where little cuts or bruises happen frequently, I immediately bought myself a bottle. My curiosity not yet quenched, I asked her how she made it. Surprisingly it was not a secret to her, so she told me it was made of collected fir resin that she filled into a bigger bottle with ethanol and olive oil. The oil stays on top while the resin and the alcohol sink to the bottom. Shake it a lot so that the ethanol - which absorbed the healing agents of the resin - can give its content to the oil that, on its turn, conceils those agents. With beeswax it is then made into an ointment that takes on the resinous yellow colour.

And I have to say, it truly works. I used it on numerous cuts I received from sharp metal in the workshop, and they healed fabulously with resin balm smeared onto them. That test passed, this miracle ointment truly deserved its place in my novel as well as in my Reserach section. 

Go to Lisetta Loretz Crameri's web page to learn more about this interesting woman who sold me the resin balm (it's all in German I'm afraid XD), and maybe you can try it out yourself if you're a Nature lover. I will certainly try to make my own resin balm, and if I do I'll keep you informed with a Picture Diary that I'll upload here.

*sigh* I love you :D

Well, I'm certainly happy to have my heroic ointment for my numerous war wounds while battling against my biggest foe: 
my own clumsiness XD XD XD

PS: that's me, if you ever wondered what I look like














Chapter 9 Research: Of survival, healing cuts and fire making

I'm a huge fan of outdoor camping and living in the forest, even though I highly prefer my warm bed in comparison to a branch mattress and a bunch of leaves over my head. But I'd love to try it out, if ever I got the chance and time to build my very own debris hut and pass a safe night in it. 

Debris hut from the book 'Survival'

Let's see a little what this looks like. 

The Debris Hut

It is ingenuous, but effective; the debris hut. A basic wood frame, then a large amount of debris on top, about 1 metre from every corner out to give the best insulation possible. It is best built when you have naught but your bare hands to work instead of a large equipment with string, knives or even a tarp. This hut is not necessarily there to be used for a long period; it can bring you safely through one night by preserving your body heat and allowing you to be shielded from extreme weather conditions and wild animals. You can make it more watertight by laying sheets of bark over it, as well as keep the wind from blowing away the leaves simply by adding branches to its top. 

Debris hut from 'survivalscoop.blogspot.com'

On this picture, you see that the support of the middle bough is a tree trunk. But if you don't find as such in the place you have to build your shelter, then two Y-sticks pressed into the earth and entwined together can work perfectly as well. 

Of course, this shelter is not very stable and thus should not be used as a long-time shelter. But to pass one night, it is more than enough.

Juniper tree from 'All talk about Trees'

The Juniper Tree: a coniferous plant found throughout the northern hemisphere down to tropical Africa, this tree is widely spread everywhere in the world. Its berries have antiseptic properties, which make the Juniper a good treatment for minor cuts to prevent inflammation. 

Juniper berries from 'All talk about Trees'

 

In Faron Woods, there are a few found in small clearings where the sun can reach them easily. Link found the Juniper closest to him near the Spirit Spring, where the water rich in minerals provides the slightly acid soil the conifer needs.

Flint from 'sensiblesurvivals.org'

 Flint, or Silex in Latin Languages:

As you probably know, flint stones are commonly used to make fire, especially with the aid of a special device made of iron, a fire steel.
There was a time where flint stones were just lying around everywhere, like in the Stone Age, but today it is not as easy to find them. I came across three of them in the south of France, in Provence, simply because I have an affinity for beautiful stones and looking for them on the ground, like in riverbeds or old quarries. I saw this grey, normally quite ugly stone lying there, and just took it with me out of curiosity. I knew it was flint the moment I banged it against my fire steel, immediately producing a rain of sizzling sparks. How happy I was, you can't imagine!
  
Making a fire with the flint & steel:

My flint & steel

I've already made fires only with my flint & steel and tinder, and I can guarantee you that it is not easy even when knowing how to do it. Fire is like a small child where you have to play the subordinate slave and offer them the best food you can find so that it is doing what you ask. But the basics are simple: 

• you need a spark
• you need tinder to catch the spark
• you need to blow on the glowing tinder to produce a flame
• you need to feed the flame with dry kindling and fuel to maintain it.
• once the kindling has caught, you basically managed to make a fire. The rest is simple, just add wood and keep the flames well aerated and fed. 

You can clank two flints together, of course, which would make a huge amount of splinters and, with a lot of skill and time, a spark that has to be caught on the tinder so that it produces blaze. It is possible, though I would not recommend it for hobby-fire-lighting because it takes an awful lot of time and nerves. Yet when you are in an emergency situation and just found a flint, like Link, chances are greater to produce a fire quicker than with friction, especially when you're tired. 

I called the flint Silex because in french, you call the fire stone like this. I love that word not only because it has an X in it ( though this is an unexplained reason) but because of its exotic sound. In latin, all hard stones were referred to as silex, though in the roman age, it was commonly used to say flint. 

Next time I'm presenting medieval fire making, I'll talk about tinder and what different kinds of tinder there are, how to use them, and maybe even how to produce them.


Chapter 8 Research: The Red Lion

I don't know very much about ships and how they were built when there was neither petrol nor electricity to power them. But what I don't know can still be acquired, by studying a little how differend ships were constructed in the Viking and Medieval Era.

There were different kinds of ships for different purposes. For trade, for war, for mail or for adventure and conquering land, every people had their very own kind of ship as long as there was water around.

Of course you know the King of Red Lions, the famous sailing boat with which Link travels the seven seas in 'The Wind Waker'. The Red Lion from my story is based on this precious partner, of course, from which she owes her name.

From chapter 4 already we know that she is a merchant vessel sailing on Faron River to Bando and then to Lake Hylia in order to deliver goods such as food, raw materials, and everything the hard-working inhabitants of the forest produce for sale. She is the backbone of trade in the south, as carts would take too long to reach Hyrule Castle and would also be much too expensive. So why not use the river and its current?

That being said, there is the major problem with the current, for when the hearts of the sailors are set for home, they have to work their way up the river again, against the current, in order to reach the dock at the bridge where the merchandise is collected from each village before being shipped away. So how does the Red Lion come back home?

Chapter 8 revealed the answer to that, and here you have the research I did in order to come up with this solution.

The Drekar, also simply called the longship. This Viking ship is a legend in history and a wonder of craftsmanship. Due to its narrow hulk and general smallness, it could sail on shallow water often found in riverbeds, and because of its toughness, sail on the sea even in a storm without foundering.
The particularity of this light vessel is the presence of oars, which allowed the sailors to even move up rivers where the current was flowing in opposite direction. It was because of this that the Vikings were feared for their raiding, being able to move up a current where this normally wasn't possible.


So taking the Viking wonders of ships as base, let's see what else they built.

There was one other ship which didn't possess oars, called the Knarr. 

Knarr is the Old Norse term for a type of ship built for long sea voyages. The knarr was a cargo ship, the hull was wider, deeper and shorter than a longship, and could take more cargo and be operated by smaller crews. They were built with a length of about 16m, a beam of 4.5m, and a hull capable of carrying up to 24 tons. It was primarily used to transport trading goods like walrus, ivory, wool, timber, wheat, furs and pelts, armour, honey, and weapons. It was also used to supply food, drink, weapons and armour to warriors and traders along their journeys across the Baltic, the Mediterranean and other seas.


Hauling, or towing a ship with the aid of horses on a so-called towpath, allowed the boats and ships to pass narrow canals, underneath bridges or when the wind was unfavorable. This was mostly used on sailing boats since they were completely helpless once the wind was either gone or blowing in the wrong direction.
I haven't found any notion that towpaths had been used to pull ships over stronger currents. But, common sense speaking, this should be possible.





So, we have all we need to create an effective merchant vessel for a river, which possesses enough space for merchandise and can travel back up the current even with a stronger flow.


Research for Bando: Have you heard of the Pile Dwellers?

www.ljubljanskobarje.si

A few weeks ago, I went to an exhibition about the pile dwellers in Bern to gather informations and inspiration for the small town on the river, Bando. It has always fascinated me how those people lived, what their culture was, and how they managed to build their houses on the water's surface. I feel a deep love for the water, and I wouldn't mind living in one of those pole houses. With the village of Bando, I'm free to create a small community of hard-working, friendly people living my dream on the water, fishing away, and simply leading a solitary, sedentary and primitive life on the edge of a vast forest.

Link is drawn to Bando a few times in the novel, the first one being the long hunt for the shadow insects. When he arrives there, he is surprised to find a big house on the shore engulfed in flames, and immediately throws himself into the inferno trying to save a young woman in distress.
Fire, you must know, is the biggest threat in a pile dweller village, since all the houses are built quite closely and solely out of wood. Even if the river is two steps away, it is very difficult to extinguish a fire once it really started, especially when you have naught but buckets like the villagers to fight the flames.

But before going too much into details, let's talk about what I learned in this very interesting exhibition. Here the most important facts about the pile dwellers.

''Ever since the first remains of pile dwellings from the Late Stone Age and the Bronze Age were discovered in the mid-19th century, the lifestyles of the people that built them have been studied intensively. Finds in unusual quantities and extremely well-preserved timber constructions make the pile dwellings world renowned cultural goods. The finds show that lake-side settlements existed from 4300 to 800 BC throughout the entire Alpine region. Because of the advanced melting of the glaciers, artifacts from the pile-dwelling period are now also being found at higher elevations. This proves that the mountains were neither insurmountable barriers nor inhospitable no-man's-lands for the people of the time, but served as their living environment.
The pile dwellings are remains of prehistoric settlements, situated underwater, on lake shores or along rivers. They give precise and detailed perception of the world of the early farmers in Europe.''
From the flyer I received at the entrance of the Historic Museum Bern

The pile dwellers were a very primitive folk and were not as advanced in farming and building than most of the cities in Hyrule. But since their living place is the forest, ashore a river, it fits quite nicely. 

Let's talk a bit about their livings and culture:

Houses were built so that they could stand even on soft, muddy soil, thus the long piles driven into the earth. Some were built on the shore and some directly onto the water, depending on the location, the steepness of the shoreline and local traditions.
 
Skeleton of a house: the posts were the elements that held up the roof. They were tapered oak piles driven into the soft subsoil. While the posts on the four sides supported the walls, a row of posts in the middle carried the roof ridge. It in turn supported the rafters. 
There are almost no clues as to the height of the ridge. 

There were probably no windows; the entrance was closed by a door. A fireplace was used for cooking and also to provide heat. However, people would have spend much of their time outdoors.

Outdoor work was very important for surviving. Fish was the major source of food, but cattle and smaller animals such as sheep, goats, pigs and dogs were also held. The pile dwellers had basic knowledge of farming, for they harvested wheat, barley, peas, spelt, millet, lentils and beans in small fields encircled by a barrier. However, more elaborate farming devices were not present yet, so they harvested everything by hand with small, clever crafted sickles. They were also gathers and hunters, since sedentary life was just at its very beginning and they still depended on what Nature gave them.


Indoor work was probably done in winter, like in the Medieval Age, when the wind was cold and stormy outside. 

Next to pottery, weaving and colouring of wool, the pile dwellers knew how to preserve their food by drying it and keeping it safely stored in big clay pots, as you can see one in the back of this house.

They were also known to do minor smithy works, like the casting of bronze and metal. It was surely like this that they crafted their bronze swords.








 
Jewelry was of a simple, but ingenious beauty. Stone was the most used material for jewels, but finds include glass, gagat, amber, bronze and even gold.

Bronze amulets in all kinds of shapes were worn as necklaces. They may even have had spiritual meaning.

Pins in different lengths were used to fasten clothes. Their heads varied in shape and were always very ornate.














From many finds of objects for children, such as wooden toy daggers, small boats, animal figurines out of clay, small bows to practise, rattles, and even a clay feeding bottle with a spout in form of a nipple, indicated that the pile dwellers took very good care of their children. 

What is also noteworthy is their knowledge of medicine. A very exciting find was a well-preserved chunk of black birch tar, bearing teeth marks indicating that it had been chewed. Birch tar was used to soothe toothache, for it contains anti-inflammatory agents and narcotic properties. From this find, it was proved that the pile dwellers had a considerable knowledge of medicinal properties of plants.  

Another famous find was the skull of a woman bearing a big hole in the top of the head. If I remember right, she had been either injured by a sword, or had endured a similar wound to the head. Fact is, she had been operated on to heal the injury, and had indeed survived the surgery. Which means that the pile dwellers, even at 4300 to 800 BC, knew how to use medicine and basic surgical treatments. 

And now the most sensational find of the exhibition:

May I present the Oetzi of Switzerland: Schnidi

The archer Schnidi, or more his equipment, has been found in a part of the Alps called Schnide Joch, hence his name. There has never been a body as with Oetzi (who I won't show here because he gives me the creeps!), but his gear is still a very famous find. 

It is composed of a yew wood bow, some arrows out of viburnum wood with a flint point, and a case measuring 1.7 m made with strips of birch cork sewn together with lime bast and reinforced with wooden rods. It also contained the string necessary to span the bow, as well as all the arrows and was, due to the birch cork, waterproof. 

Sensational was also that poor Schnidi left all of his clothes, made of leather mostly, as well as his cape. This one, however, was out of a material which I've never seen for a cloak: willow bast. It had surely served as protection against the rain, as well as a portable, very light mattress for the night. And probably he had wrapped his bow case in it for more protection against the cold weather of the Swiss Alps. 

Now, I really enjoyed this exhibition and learned a huge lot, and thanks to my little note book always present, I could share this wonderful bit of culture with you, dear readers. It has been a great pleasure making you discover, in a short trip, the life of the pile dwellers as they lived over 6000 years before us, and I hope you liked it. I'll be sure to present you more research while I'm writing this book, so if you are as culture interested as I am, feel free to join me next time!

See ya!

(the images come from the exhibition itself)