> As Peter Metcalfe noted, there's also bronze in the mountains/hills
> of Dragon Pass. As a major battleground of the Gods War, plenty of
> god bones lie buried here as well.
>
OK, so does anybody have any notes on Heortling mining? Mining in the ancient world was generally incredibly unpleasant and dangerous. Most references I've seen to continuously operated mines involved the use of large numbers of slaves....if not a large number at any given time, a large number overall as the life expectancy often wasn't great. The alternative seems to have been smaller scale mines that were often only exploited sporadically, as one person or groups would get ambitious and work them for a while, then either get rich enough to retire to something more pleasant or else give up in disgust...until next time demand was high enough to convince someone to try it.
Since the Heortlings are no great shakes at civil engineering, I'd expect their mines to be almost as dangerous as the real world equivalents, although both earth and air magic would improve conditions somewhat.
So, do a few clans derive steady revenue from mining, probably trading bronze for thralls on a steady basis, or are the dragon pass area mines essentially volunteer enterprises? Or, on the third hand, have they all been taken over by the lunars and systematically upgraded and reformed?
Sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to get a picture of the subtleties and variations of the heortling economy. More and more I get the impression that when you scratch the surface of the bucolic Heortling self-definition, you find a lot more happening than farming, herding, and cattle raiding.
--Bryan
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