Solar Forge

Standing like needles against the Unmoving Sun, these thin minarets are the heart of industry on Burning Sands. Created to take advantage of the Curse of Day, Solar Forges dot the Shade Mountains and fill Ibzzar'Yashen. These minarets capture and redirect the light of the Unmoving Sun into a usable form, driving industry and making Burning Sands the premier source of quality metal in all the Spheres.

Function

The Solar Forges capture sunlight from the Unmoving Sun, collect it, and focus it to do work. Typically they are used to smelt and sinter ore into usable metal. But there are other uses such as purifying water and lighting the Undercity. This makes Ibzzar'Yashen the center of industry on Burning Sands taking in raw ore from the Fireshield Mountains and imported Orc Iron from Val'Dorath then refining it into usable metal. The Solar Forges haven't been able to be replicated outside of Burning Sands due to its reliance on the Curse of Day.

Construction

The minaret section of the Solar Forge is an Adamantium pipe polished to a mirror shine, clad in stone supports, with a long thin slit along one side. The pipe is specially crafted to capture sunlight without letting it reflect back out. The light is then directed into polished Adamantium pipes to direct it to the forge's crucible where multiple beams of condensed sunlight intersect, raising the temperature of the crucible to massive temperatures. Condensation can be powerful enough to smelt ore, or weak enough to just illuminate a room. A single minaret can serve a solar forge, as septic distiller, or provide light through a network of thin pipes leading to Light Taps that can bleed off light to illuminate a space.

Derived Technology

To develop the Solar Forges the Faithful had to push forward their understandings of mathematics, light physics, and metallurgy far beyond the other cultures of the Spheres. This has made them masters of optics creating the finest telescopes and microscopes within the Spheres. The Solar Forges are required to smelt Adamantium at scale as there are virtually no other power sources available on the Spheres that can produce enough heat outside of volcanic fissures. Of course their advanced mathematics can push forward an individual's understanding of Wizardry and as such, tutors from Burning Sands are highly valued across the Spheres.

History

Originally developed as part of the water purification mechanism of Sietches in the Bright Basin by the Hazir Primalshapers. Early Solar Forges were used to boil water to be distilled and purify nightsoil to make safe fertilizer and relied on polished glass lenses or polished metal reflectors. Beyond these simple usages, the technology had little effect on the society.

That changed in the Colonial Era when the Duranti explorers discovered Adamantium ore in the Fireshield Mountains. From then the race was on to industrialize Adamantium smelting outside of the Fireshield Mountains' volcanic fissures. It was a Faithful engineer who discovered the ability of polished Adamantium to precisely reflect light. Within the decade the first Solar Forge was created in Ibzzar'Yashen. For years after, more than half of all smelted Adamantium was used to create more Solar Forges. The smelting industry became the heart of Ibzzar'Yashen and turned it from an interesting backwater to a prize of the Second Nexus Wars.