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. ;)

Vulcanic 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!

www.rossway.net

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 accound 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!

New Cover for Dolor Mortis Curse

I used some time off work to make a new cover for my second story, the Dolor Mortis Curse. It can be found on the page dedicated to the DMC. IT was actually a try of me to draw medieval-like, but I don't know if it really turned out like that. Check it out, and tell me what you think.

By the way, it is not Link that I drew, but the illustration in the leather book depicting a man holding his head tightly with blood everywhere and so forth ...

New Picture Upload

The internet problems solved, my homework is now finally making it to the net. Not in form of a chapter this time, but in form of a picture. Link from my story in my second true Photoshop artwork tries to seduce the watcher with his lovable knowing sideglance ... I can say, it's not perfect, but I'm quite proud of the result!

The picture made it's home in the Sketchbook. Look for it!

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

For chapter 9, I made some research mostly for surviving in the wild. Three aspects are shown:

• Building a debris hut
• Treating minor cuts
• Making a fire

Look for the research on the Research Page.

New Sketchbook Upload

The Hero's Tunic and Undergarments:

Hero's Tunic from Hyrule Historia

Okay, you surely know what Link's clothes look like, and what the Hero's tunic is composed of, therefore I only made two sketches of what I think his undergarments might look like, which you don't really see while looking at his clothes. It is a new version of a sketchbook page I'm currently trying out, with the drawn images a little refined and the text written with Photoshop. So here the Hero's Tunic front, side and back from Hyrule Historia, and my version, the Hero's Undergarments!

Hero's Undergarments (lol)

Arison Nakaru

I added a new page to my blog, called 'Arison Nakaru'. She is also a FanFictionist at her beginnings and at the same time a passionate artist. Her drawings for her own story 'Shadowed Mask' are awesome, yet she never has had the opportunity to show the world what she can do due to a lack of computers and scanners at home. Check out her art here at her very own page!