Volcanic

The Volcanic Species of Person, often only “Volcanic”, are a classification of several species that live apart from the rest of civilisation, but still participate with some role in it (hence personhood).

In general, volcanic people are unable to participate in normal society due to their unique biology which necessitates their bodies ‘burn’ at high temperatures at least 400 degrees Celsius. Volcanic folk form their own communities near places where magma is easily accesible. This is usually active volcanoes. on Barogate, Ichmenre. Due to the abundance of Volcanic people and the importance of magma, volcanic people’s towns have an ambient temperature of at least 400 degrees Celsius.

Volcanic people are practically incapable of leaving their towns without some form of cohort. Their metabolisms can’t support their body temperatures in temperatures of around 30 degrees, so banding together is necessary to create ‘pockets’ of extreme temperatures where the cohort goes, so that its members may survive. Certain Volcanic subspecies can leave hot areas on their own for short periods of time. Similarly, regular people will struggle to enter Volcanic society because of the ambient temperature. Even insulative clothing isn’t suitable.

Also included under the ‘volcanic’ umbrella are the volcano lords. These beings are unique powerful creatures which each ‘lord’ over a certain volcano, carving their territory and often setting up faux feudal systems with ‘kings’, ‘lords’, and ‘barons’. These lords often command their own armies and rule over Volcanic communities in their territory. This rule is mostly symbolic, but individual lords will extract whatever resources they please from volcanic people. Although it is rare, volcanic people can join the lord’s soldiery.

Ironically, the volcano lords often have the lowest temperatures of the Volcanic species of person. This varies between individual volcano lords, as they have wild variations between individuals. There are 14 fridnyrm individuals on Barogate and none on Anula. There are likely some on Oranax and Raixzer and there are definitely some in Mothdao. Overall, it is likely that there are less than 50 fridnyrm in total. The mapping between fridnyrm individual and active volcanoes is not 1:1, the vast majority of active volcanoes do not have volcano lords ‘lording’ over them, instead it is often only the most prominent volcanoes that have volcano lords.

Here is a list of volcanic species and their healthy temperature ranges:

Volcanic Communities

Volcanic communities are generally all the same. The Volcanic people have achieved a utopian society built on volcanic hot spots and anywhere with relatively easy access to the mantle or magma.

The majority of these towns have buildings built out of granite and other deep igneous rock. The residents of the communities themselves can reach over 2000 degrees, and only certain rock types remain hard at these temperatures. Construction of granite structures is a job specific to craftspeople, who either directly shape the granite by heating it up further or mine the granite normally from a quarry. Pumice is another temperature-resistant rock used as a building material.

Steel is a common material to the volcanic communities, but it is quite soft in the hands of high-temperature people. They use harder and more temperature-resistant materials for harder applications, like tungsten, tantalum, molybdenum, and chromium.

In their utopian society, they have a leisure economy. Artisans focus on creating inspired works of art, while critical jobs are done at will and free of payment, such as mining, construction, or mantle diving. These activities are generally only done by people who find them enjoyable, and this labour is enough to uphold the economy of their society.

Mantle-diving is a unique task that forms a cornerstone of the communities’ resource management. High-temperature creatures such as the Bartodd, Volltodd, and Llethlklysag, dive directly into magma pools often going quite deep through the crust (although rarely actually into the mantle). They make use of unique processes to collect minerals, resources, and gasses by hand. These materials are then processed in artisan-run factories on the surface into useable material.

A cornerstone of these communities’ social lives are “burn baths”, places of gathering that are either procured magma pools or specifically constructed hot pools in which the volcanic people relax and recharge. They get the energy they need to sustain themselves directly from these burn baths, making a visit to the social institution necessary for volcanic life.

One of the only interactions the volcanic people and volcanic communities have with the rest of person society is in trade. The volcanic communities produce vast amounts of goods for leisure, such as pots or carvings or weapons. Many volcanic people will keep their works as a sign of having done them, but many will also give them away or trade them for trinkets with the rest of person society.

In certain areas, the volcanic communities’ roles in trade in person society has lead to the establishment of certain trade routes, where caravans will journey to volcanic communities with the intention to trade any type of trinket or resource for the incredibly high-quality produce of the volcanic peoples. On Barogate, the trade routes coming from Ichmenre to Cronar, Kusao, Nasarch, or Domuz Wastes colonies are called “obsidian road” individually, despite no physical infrastructure.

Trade is essentially the only insight normal society has on the volcanic communities, giving normal society a good understanding of volcanic society and their unique languages. Direct communication is possible, but must happen from uncomfortably far away and from outside of towns.