*Technology*
Technology is the apex and centerpiece of the city. Nothing would be done without technology and artificing in Dagrun’s world. Metal, robotic golems programmed to do certain tasks whizz throughout Dagrun and are not only a common sight but a defining one of this city underground. Some golems deliver goods, others sweep streets, some open doors to certain establishments, basically any menial task you can think of may be done by a golem in this city.
That being said, robotic golems are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Dagrun. Electricity is generated by coal, steam, and gears. Loudly humming, dim lights create ambiance in the city where the fungus on the ceiling gives no light. Wires run embedded into the ground as well as in the air from home to home. A tram system runs from the entrance of Mount Lorscha to the Dyn. Elevators take people to higher levels of the cavern. Self-revolving doors are commonplace to many establishments. The architecture and city structure are built around the technology which thrives here, even the gnomes themselves all have parts that are mechanical.
If the gnomes are known for anything it’s their bionic limbs. Augmenting the body is no stranger to people in Dagrun and often important for completing day to day tasks, someone without strong legs and arms won’t be able to do the manual labor needed to do heavy lifting. As well, someone appraising a gem found in the mines won’t be able to be efficient enough without the use of their bionic eye. There are laws in place about what limbs and replaced parts can and cannot do. Parts are supposed to meet a criteria in which a certain level of mastery needs done before one can get an artificial limb. The thought here being that low quality parts will need to be replaced more often, which wastes resources and time. It can be nigh impossible to get quality parts for someone who wasn’t born in Dagrun or isn’t a gnome. Still, if someone needs a quick fix there are backyard, back alley dealers who will affix bionics to your body for a price.
Wisdam is the name of the once-living statues seen around the heart of the Dyn. They are ten to twenty foot tall mechanical suits with the well known fact being that once these suits were piloted by gnomes in the Age of Ashes. All traces of how to use them are gone but the rumor is that within the dunes schematics may reside there to awaken these wisdam again. There are other things, testaments to time, from the Age of Ashes set up as statues around the city. This can be jarring for newcomers as the Empire's Army was seen mostly as an evil blight upon the world. Those who may confront a gnome about this opinion will be told that it’s history and art, not to be venerated but to be remembered.
*Society & Culture*
Despite the overwhelming amount of golems and tech the gnomes are not lazy. Infact, lazy bums are shunned in their society. It’s seen as your purpose and obligation to work in order to live in Dagrun. Even with the amenities that the robots afford there is still much to do. The resounding mindset for the people of Dagrun being that without work they are nothing, it has been Age upon Age that their society created and built as a lifestyle. Even academics, heroes, artists, beer maids, things in the wider world that are seen as frivolous jobs are important in the eyes of the Dagrunian. With so much being automated it’s true that most labor jobs are gone, you would quicker find golems working any sort of heavy lifting but social jobs are still done by Dagrunian people. As well, academic jobs are in surplus looking for bodies to fill seats in order to broaden their horizons. There is a saying in Dagrun “grease your elbows or become the elbow grease in the wheels”. Meaning if you don’t work you will end up a beggar.
Academic life is massively important in Dagrun’s society. This isn’t all about studying books and dusty tomes. A generous portion of people who live here exist as archeologists unearthing the past within the dunecrags left behind by the gnomes of a bygone age. What’s unearthed must be picked apart, noted, and categorized in the Artificer’s Academy. There is a niche to fill for anyone looking to get their hands dirty with magic or clockwork items. People come from far and wide to behold the dunecrags and any willing to work will be accepted into the Dunemaids, the Dunemaids being those who go into dunecrags and harvest long forgotten items. Essentially treasure hunters, these people delve into the dungeons left behind from the Ages long past for clues to the history of their people, the secrets to technology, and to gain riches indeed.
With so many interested in the time capsule that Dagrun is, there are many different languages to be heard around the city. In fact swaths of streets may be inhabited by similar cultures of people, some of these streets even taking on the flavor of their cultural settlers. These areas are known well and obvious with the entire street being like a hybrid scene between Dagrun and their mother culture. It’s for this reason that Dagrun is seen as a cultural melting pot where cosmopolitan ideas flow freely. The native gnomes are dubious of their new inhabitants but welcome the freshness that comes from different perspectives.
The last thing that should be said is there is no hierarchy among the people of Dagrun. Everyone who is a citizen is afforded a living wage and whatever they make from their job is just seen as extra. There are none who are destitute and poor in Dagrun as beggars are either uplifted and offered services to liberate or in some extreme cases pushed out of the city by force if they refuse to work and pay to live here. Becoming a citizen is becoming more difficult as word gets through to the broader world about the fair society of Dagrun. In order to become a citizen you must be a paid worker for a calendar year in Dagrun.
*Marriage and Childrearing*
Children are born in hospitals and raised communally by Midwives. Marriage exists but is uncommon as the Gnomes also breed communally. Marriage is usually done contractually and is more for any benefit than love reasoning. Children are in schooling by the time they can learn and have a trade picked out by sixteen.
*Intrigue*
Until finding their niche in the workforce people who come here find the gnomes amiable, yet skittish. Gnomish hospitality is commonplace and essentially the gnome way of smiling in someone’s face and doing the exact opposite or coming off very passive aggressive. The “gnomish hospitality” is done with the intention of seeming kind and courteous despite it being a renowned two faced thing. This colloquialism is something that traveling people experience first hand and can be caught off guard having heard about the kindness of the gnomes as a sort of misnomer. They are not unkind as a rule, but passive aggressiveness is a Dagrun trait.
The gnomes are mildly fearful of new-comers. There is talk among the citizens of Dagrun to up the military and police presence, the hubbub being that their open doors to any vagabond is inviting in riff-raff. The Cee-All’s are slow to act on anything and in fact have said they don’t care and that their city is more than protected. For the past 60 years there have been more and more people traveling to Dagrun and for this reason alone crime is on the rise. Lax laws make lax lawmen causing quite the tittering around the city against “lazy police”.
There is a rising faction of essential vigilantes called COG (Creators Of Greatness) who have been constructing their own mech suits, low tech versions of wisdam, and patrolling the streets. Those in COG are isolationist by mindset and regularly target outsiders to the city when looking for crime. This is causing a problem for the Praetorian who need to delegate who is in the wrong and right, as it’s suspected that COG are framing outsiders to the city in an attempt to scare off any more immigrants. COG is still a small faction but is rumored to have some political sway as more crimes are committed in the city.
Lastly, treasure hunters, scholars, body guards, and other worthy people are needed to fill in the ranks of the Dunemaids. If interested, the Academy is always looking for people to join.
*Magic*
Artificing first and foremost is the most commonly seen thing in the city. Magic is seen with a wary but accepted eye. What lies in the lore pages as taboo around Atharen holds true in Dagrun’s city (WIP)
There is no weather inside the mountain. That being said, there are a few things visitors notice when arriving in the city for the first time. Moisture is detrimental to metals, there are machines that soak up moisture and use it to create steam, which powers generators in the city. The excess steam is let off through vents that causes Mount Lorscha to get the nickname “Fog Lung Mountain”, as the top where the vents are always is surrounded in mist. It is very hot inside the mountain and city because of all of the machines.
With the power of the moisture machines the interior of the mountain is dry and musty. People who come experience the city comment on the taste of bitter metal in their mouth and nose immediately upon reaching the Din. The air in here is clear and clean with the other machines used to filter out toxins and particles in their ecosystem, but the smell lingers. Dagrunian’s notice it not and when pressed upon the issue say it is an “acquired taste”.
Water and sewer are done through a system of mechanics, clean water is afforded to every residency and business. Water is collected from deep within a spring in the mountain, this white water is used for drinking and eating. It is then recycled and cleaned through a system of boiling, filtering, and is similar to aquaponics. The water is first filtered through charcoal, then a mesh screen, then it goes into the mycelium of a tiny purple mushroom colony which purifies it, then it is boiled, then afforded back into the general populace. This recycled water is used for bathing and powering steam engines. The proper terms being black water for soiled water, grey water for the recycled water and white water for fresh water collected from outside.
There is a tram that takes people without airships from the entrance of Dagrun to the middle of the city. This tram only travels back and forth between these two points and is the only way to enter or exit the city besides using an airship.
*Agriculture & Cuisine*
Fungus is a main ingredient to most native dishes in Dagrun. There are many different flavors, though most say that the majority of the fungus dishes here taste like seafood with an earthy undertone. A pack animal beetle called the moopie is where the people of Dagrun get their eggs and meat, it looks like a large, black beetle with a horn protruding from the middle of its head. Moopies are docile and friendly, similar to cows in temperament, even known to take a liking to their masters. The last thing worth noting is a certain root called “bedim” can be found in the caverns and in most regional dishes. This spice tastes similar to paprika and is very spicy, giving most dishes its flavor. There are other rare ingredients gathered throughout the cavern wilds and fetch a high price in the market. Mushroom fields as well as moopie farms are found below Dagrun itself as an agricultural area, these realms are dimly lit and kept away from the general populace. These areas are some of the oldest in Dagrun and have been used for agriculture Age after Age.
