“There were always tunnels to be found if one only bothered to search for them properly.” - Old dwarven saying.
“They actually made good use of the land for having so little of it, don’t they?” queried Rhys as the group happened to pass a field of rye ripening on the stalks. There weren't much fertile land in Knallzog’s territory, but the dwarves made very good use of what bits they had, and the growing harvest was an abundant one, rivaling ones the group had seen often in the Lichdom.
“I thought harvests this abundant don't exist outside of home,” commented Eilonwy, and when she said that, she likely compared it with the other nations of Ur-Teros, where she had traveled to in the past. The Lichdom’s harvests were known to be particularly abundant like none other, partly because of their heavy use of necromantic constructs to increase their efficiency. “These folks don’t have constructs like what we use at home, no?”
Contrary to what outsiders might have expected, the Lichdom of Ptolodecca was actually the breadbasket of the southern continent. They produced food in so much excess that they sold more of what they grew to other countries than used for themselves, especially once relations thawed with their neighbors and trading agreements were made.
As Eilonwy mentioned, one of the major reasons for that status was because of the Lichdom’s heavy use of necromantic constructs to farm more efficiently and effectively, something none of the other nations could replicate due to the lack of skilled necromancers. It took more than just a skilled necromancer to be able to replicate what Ptolodecca had been doing.
After all the construction of the necromantic constructs themselves required necromancers that specialized their skills towards that direction, whilst maintenance work was done by other, typically younger apprentices. The Lichdom had an already existing crop of skilled necromancers to tap from, but no other nation had that leeway, which made it impossible for them to replicate what the Lichdom did in larger scales.
“They don’t, but they have their own tools and tricks to make up for it,” replied Aideen with a smile. THe dwarves were ingenious people themselves, and as skilled craftsmen, had created various tools that allowed them to make their work more efficient and effective. Unlike in the Lichdom, these tools were typically made to be operated manually, typically powered by beasts of burden that dragged them, but they improved the efficiency all the same.
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It was not to the heights that the Lichdom had managed, but it was already a significant improvement over others. That said, the tools made by the dwarves were not commonplace in Alcidea, because one key to their efficiency was the usage of multiple oxen or rhinos to drag the tools. As a result, other nations who had fewer beasts of burden could not make full use of their inventions, as without enough force the dwarven tools were pretty much dead weight.
Some might say that it was a problem that could be solved if the dwarves created lighter, smaller versions to sell to other nations, but the dwarves in question had their pride as craftsmen and viewed it as an insult to create a hobbled version of their own inventions. Meanwhile, craftsmen in other nations often couldn’t even replicate the tools created by the dwarves, much less to modify them.
That said, it was generally a moot point anyway if their country didn’t even have enough beasts of burden to spare to handle the needs of the dwarven tools.
Compared to Ur-Teros, the nations in Alcidea generally had a greater degree of self-sufficiency, partly because the areas with the harsh living conditions were heavily concentrated on a single band to the west side of the continent. It was where the northern marshlands, the Forest of Despair, and the southern wastelands lay.
The dwarves of Knallzog were already making some headway in claiming and making use of the southern wastelands, their preference for underground dwellings allowing them to eke out a decent living in the harsh land. Of course, they still relied on supplies from the more fertile parts of the nation to survive, but the bounty hidden beneath the wasteland’s soil made the endeavor worthwhile.
Aideen herself already had similar plans with the Forest of Despair, one that took advantage of the unique qualities of the Unliving to pioneer and found a city in the midst of the infamously inhospitable region. Given those facts, it wouldn’t surprise her if in the future a nearby nation or people would eventually conquer the northern marshlands as well.
Ur-Teros on the other hand had dense jungles all over the place in the west where the Elmaiya Empire was situated, with the settlements mostly built in places where the jungles and rainforests weren’t dominating the landscape. Meanwhile, the northern end of the southern continent bordered the desert at its center, and the arid climate made many parts of the region unsuitable for large scale agriculture.
The less said about the frozen tundras of the east, the better. The people that lived in the harsh lands of the Jarldoms had always relied more on hunting and gathering for their sustenance, as only some of the westernmost reaches of the Jarldom had a climate suitable for agriculture. The situation there had improved tremendously since they opened trade avenues with the Lichdom a couple centuries ago, though, as large amounts of imported grains and other foodstuffs supplemented their needs affordably.
As things went, however, the people that lived on the land always found their own ways to deal with their difficulties, even if the nature of the problems they faced differed greatly. In the end, ingenuity was what separated people from the animals around them, and Aideen could see how eventually, more and more of the wilderness would be claimed by the people of the future generations.
After all, the population was on a steady increase year after year, so there would always be a need for more living space to accommodate all the people.