city stuff

[marycatelli]

So what's the city built of?

Stone?  Brick?  Wood?  What sort of stone?  And what color, so I can tell whether the stonework is black, or gray, or pink, or gold?

A question implicating all sorts of things.  Where are the woodlands?  Are there clay pits near by?  How about quarries?  How far can you transport materials, and would you bother?

Implicates history, too, since the building material can easily change over the years as woodlands are depleted, and quarries exhausted.

And all I want to do is describe what the city looks like to someone who's a bit attentative to visual detail but not strong on either architecture or its history. . . .

Comments

[marycatelli]

Especially if it's dragonfire. . . .

Whoops. Does building in stone or brick make a difference when it's dragonfire? Hmmm. . . .

[whitefangedwolf.livejournal.com]

If the temperature of dragonfire is high enough or has special magical properties, then brick and stone could melted by it. I'm not sure if it's even possible to ignite a brick without ridiculous temperatures being used. Depending on the composition of the stones, it might be possible to ignite them with high temperatures.

If brick and stone are meltable by dragonfire, the building materials will be selected based on how common dragon attacks are and whether there's an efficient way to break up and remove large amounts of melted brick and stone.

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

Most "stones" and "clays" are comprised of various Silicon oxides. The key word there being "oxides". That means that they are fundamentally ash materials in a fully oxidized state. That means, in turn, that there are relatively few stones that can "burn". Marble, which is primarily calcium oxides, has a melting/decomposition point around 850 degrees C, or near the melting point of steel. However, if you were to attempt to bring marble to that temperature, you wouldn't get melted marble, you'd get marble chips, because several of the impurities have lower kindling/decomposition temperatures, and would create pressures that would detonate the marble before it came to the melting point. Try it in a crucible from a safe distance :) Bricks are even worse, with melting points in excess of 2000C. however, this does tend to depend on binder materials and aggregate composition.

More to the point, stone, brick, etcetera, are brittle materials, they do not support tension. So any practical structure other than a simple keystone arch bridge *must* contain wood. Which burns quite easily. Stone structures are quite shockingly vulnerable to fire. They may however work to contain the spread of fire between separate structures.

All of which boils down to, towers attacked by dragon-fire will not likely appear "melted", but instead, "shattered". the heat from the dragonfire will superheat the water in the construction materials, and cause a large series of micro-explosions that basically turn the tower back into gravel, followed by a conventional fire of the wooden backbone of the structure.

[marycatelli]

"there are relatively few stones that can "burn"."

Barring the right incentive. This may amuse:
http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time.php

Though dragonfire is not quite that bad.

[whitefangedwolf.livejournal.com]

Dragon slaying would be quite impressive if dragonfire behaved like chlorine trifluoride. The slayer would need to be clever, cunning, and lucky to succeed.

[marycatelli]

And probably need a gas mask as well!

[izuko.livejournal.com]

You could have fun with having a non-traditional dragon-slayer... like a down-on-his-luck ifrit who, through a curse or industrial accident, can no longer ignite, but ends up just catalysing gasses into harmless compounds.

[marycatelli]

Probably would have to make it funny.

[whitefangedwolf.livejournal.com]

Good point on the wood supports. Either I forgot they were needed or I was subconsciously using metal support beams which would imply more advanced technology.

The information you shared about the shattering of brick and stone by dragon-fire is interesting. I wonder whether it would be more hazardous to be surrounded by stone structures or wooden structures during a dragon attack. I guess it partially depends on whether dragon-fire is a burning liquid or a burning gas.

[marycatelli]

I think for this story I will motivate the heroine to avert the attack.

[whitefangedwolf.livejournal.com]

That's reasonable. Dragons are often the sort of being you don't want dropping into town, angry or otherwise.

[marycatelli]

Everyone thinks it a Good Thing that the king persuaded them not to except for the wizards who get stuck with the job of keeping them happy.

[izuko.livejournal.com]

Even without melting, there will be a significant amount of spalling and shattering.

[marycatelli]

Yeah, that could get really ugly.

[marycatelli]

There is the added incentive that you sometimes see the smoke rising from the mountain. . . .