KHAR-THUL-KHAR-GRYM

The Forge Depths  ·  The Eastern Workshops  ·  Where the Instruments Are Made  ·  Karneth-Khar-Thul

“I was not taken to the forge depths at Karneth. I understood, by the eighth day of my visit, that the eleven days were structured to show me specific things in a specific order for specific reasons, and that asking for access to what was not being offered was a category of request whose consequences I preferred to leave untested on a first extended visit. I could hear the forge depths from the common levels above. In eleven days, I developed an understanding of what the sound is, which is not a description of a sound but a description of what a civilisation sounds like when it is at work.”

— G.C.P.S.A., Descriptio Aethermarchae, 1197 A.P.

The forge depths at Karneth produce the hold's manufactured output in the specific register that eight centuries of scholarly commercial contact has developed: instruments of exceptional precision, calculation devices, architectural components built to the tolerances that Academy commissions require and Roman production cannot supply. The forges are not the volume operation of Durak-Mazad or the defensive-manufacturing focus of Varakh -- they are the workshop of a hold that finds Roman intellectual requirements interesting and has spent eight centuries learning how to meet them at the quality level the requirements deserve.

Demographics

The forge caste at Karneth is the most academically aware of any equivalent population in the seven holds -- the instrument-making specialisation has produced a caste whose members understand what the instruments they make are used for, have opinions about those uses, and express those opinions in the commission intake process in ways that Roman Academy buyers describe as the most demanding professional engagement they have encountered in any commercial relationship. Accepting a Karneth instrument commission requires explaining your intended application in sufficient detail that the forge caste is satisfied you will use the instrument correctly. Two Academy commissions have been declined in the past century on the grounds of insufficient clarity about intended application. The Academy found this simultaneously offensive and, on reflection, correct.

Industry & Trade

Primary output: precision instruments, calculation devices, and calibration standards. Secondary output: architectural components for the specific category of Roman construction that requires tolerances beyond Roman engineering capability, a small but significant market that has been growing as Roman public works projects become more ambitious. The forge depths' Kolgrim-Vel platform -- the rail station from which Varro departed at the end of his eleven-day visit -- is part of the forge level infrastructure, the platform built into the Duum-Vel-Khar junction at the forge level's connection point. Varro boarded the rail here. Bera walked him to the platform. The forge sound was audible from the platform. He looked back at the platform as the train moved. He saw Bera still standing there, watching the carriage depart.

Points of interest

The Kolgrim-Vel platform at Karneth is the most used rail platform in the network after Thalgrimm's junction -- the eastern terminus station handling both the standard hold traffic and the commercial freight that constitutes the bulk of the Duum-Vel-Khar's eastern volume. The platform is built to the vaulted stone standard of the junction halls, its carved columns and rune-wall platform barriers the same quality as the rest of the hold's public infrastructure. It is, Varro notes, where he began to understand what the Khazadum mean when they say something is built to last.

DM ONLY

The forge depths at Karneth contain, in the most secured section of the instrument-making workshop district, the components Bera accepted from Durak-Mazad under the Thanus Magnus's instruction. The components are in a locked storage bay whose existence Bera has not disclosed to the Forge-Master Council. The forge master who manages the workshop district, Darak Vel-Grym-Skar, 167, knows the bay exists because Bera asked him to cut it. He does not know what is in it. He has not asked. He accepted the commission from his Thane with the same professional respect he would give any instruction, and he has filed the bay's existence in the hold's infrastructure record under the designation 'reserved storage -- Thane's authority.' Three months after cutting the bay, he found himself thinking about the weight of the delivery that filled it. He has thought about it periodically since. He has not said anything to anyone.

Architecture

The forge corridors are heat-darkened in the manner common to all holds' deep workshops, but with a distinctive detail absent elsewhere: the walls of the instrument-making section at level minus-nine carry not just the standard rune-wall genealogical record but an interspersed technical record -- instrument specifications, calibration standards, commission logs, and the accumulated refinement notes of eight centuries of precision manufacture. The boundary between genealogical record and technical documentation does not exist in the Karneth forge's wall inscription. A person's record includes what they made, how they made it, and what it was for.

Geography

The forge levels run from level minus-eight to level minus-twelve, following the ore body in the eastern range's geology. The ore here has the characteristics of the eastern massif -- slightly different mineral content from the central holds, producing a refined output with properties that the Karneth forge masters have spent eight centuries exploiting for the precision instrument market. The mining corridors extend further east into the range than the hold's publicly disclosed footprint, following the ore body toward the eastern approaches.

Type

District

Population

~39,000 forge caste residents working rotating shifts.

Owner/Ruler

BERA KHAR-THUL