Mainlands

Living Above the Mists: A Study of Our Mountain Homes

By Prixton Smerrs Ironcrux Historical Society 189 AT

What We Know For Sure

Let's start with what we can see with our own eyes. Our mountain peaks rise up through the acid mists like islands through water. Each one breaks through at about 2,800 meters above whatever's below - that's where the mist ceiling usually sits. From there, the peaks stretch another thousand meters or more into the clear air above. Most peaks that reach above the mists have some kind of habitable zone. Usually it's a combination of relatively flat areas, terraces, and caves. The truly massive peaks, like the ones that make up the main nations, can span a hundred kilometers or more across their habitable regions.

Now here's the thing nobody can properly explain - how did people end up on different peaks in the first place? We've got settlements scattered across dozens of peaks, each one with their own culture and history going back thousands of years. But nobody can tell you how they got there. Our oldest records, and I mean the really old ones carved in stone, just talk about "the time before" or "when we came to the peaks." Not a word about how people managed it. Some stories talk about climbing up from below, others about coming down from above, but none of them make much sense when you think about it.

Living Conditions

The habitable parts of most peaks start about 200 meters above the mist line. That's not because the air isn't breathable lower down - it is. But nobody wants to build too close to where the mists might reach during one of their surges. Each peak's got its own character. Take our Ferrocrux peaks - they're mostly solid granite and basalt, great for mining and building. Sylarch peaks have all those natural terraces that made them perfect for farming. Solspirian peaks catch the sun just right for their brass collectors. It's like each peak was made for the people who ended up there.

Another thing that doesn't quite add up - every major peak had just enough of what its people needed to get started. Good water sources, building materials, soil for growing food. Almost like they were set up that way. Sure, we've found peaks that didn't have what people needed, but funny thing is, those peaks never had any settlements on them in the first place.

Over the centuries, we've gotten good at making these peaks livable. Every nation's got their own way: - We Ferrocrux folk dig in, making homes in the rock itself - Sylarch builds those amazing terraced gardens - Solspirians cover everything in brass and mirrors - Tempstradium builds up with their fancy towers - Etherwave carves channels for their water systems - Each peak becomes exactly what its people need it to be

The Gaps Between

Before airships, the spaces between peaks might as well have been endless. Nobody could cross the mists. We could see other peaks, sure, but couldn't reach them. Led to every peak developing its own way of doing things. Even now, with airship travel common, you can tell what peak someone's from just by how they talk and act. ## The Deep Question Working in these historical archives, you start to notice patterns. Every peak that's got people on it breaks through the mists at almost exactly the same height. Every inhabited peak has water, good stone, and enough flat space to support life. Every peak with people on it sits within that same 4,000 square kilometer zone. Makes you wonder - did we choose these peaks, or did these peaks choose us?

Asked a Ticker about this once. You know how they usually know everything about anything you ask? Well, this one just looked at me for a long while, gears ticking away, then said something about "optimal placement for survival." Make of that what you will.

We may never know how our ancestors got here or why they ended up on these particular peaks. But we've made them our homes. We've shaped them, built them up, dug them out, and turned them into places where people can live and thrive. Maybe that's enough. Though I can't help but wonder about those perfectly circular tunnels we sometimes find deep in our mines, or why all the habitable peaks seem to have them...

Note: This account combines verified observations with historical records available in the Ironcrux Archives. Some speculation has been included where historical records prove incomplete.