Post/Author/DateTime	Post
mosaic 12-02-07, 12:36 AM	Greetings all- So I was looking at the Sharn maps today and asked myself, what is Sharn built on? I'm not referring to the older cities or the manifest zone, but the topography. 1. Is it a dormant volcano? 2. Is it a big meteor crater? 3. Or is it just two plateaus surrounded by an oddly complete and circular ring-shaped ridge? 1a. Who the heck would build a city on top of a volcano? 2a. This might explain the manifest zone; a piece of the sky fell and ever since then there has been a strong connection with Syrania. 3a. I could buy this if the outer ridge wasn't so perfectly complete. If one of the canyons went all the way to the water I could believe that it was just normal erosion by water or wind, but as is, there's nowhere for the water to go ... unless there are caves/tunnels at the bottom of the canyons that lead to the water. Thoughts?
skrap-san 12-02-07, 04:09 AM	well as you say its a manifest zone and a old goblin city, but under all that (if one can be under a manifest zone) there is a lake of lava, which is used for industry. So my guess would be an dormant volcano maybe.
Belabras 12-02-07, 03:01 PM	Halas Tarkanan was raising a volcano on the site of Sharn as he and the rest of the aberrant marks were brought down in the war of the mark. That, and the manifest zone, are most likely the reasons for the lava lake in the depths of Sharn. Of course, you are welcome to add your own reasons.
mosaic 01-19-08, 03:09 AM	A thought occurred to me as I was reading the descriptions of Sharn for the umpteenth time (I'll have that survey of Sharn's towers any time now ...): What if Menthis Plateau and Central Plateau aren’t natural plateaus at all? See, to my eyes, Sharn is clearly built on a crater of some sort - either volcanic or meteroic - but in either case, it's strange to have plateaus rising out of the middle of the crater. As I read the history of the city in S:CoT it describes the hobgoblin city of Duur’shaarat as consisting of “goblin-made mountain monoliths that had been home to the majority of the hobgoblins” (p.28) that were later covered over and sealed by Malleon and then Breggor and then Galifar I. “The early Dhakaani architects carved their city into the stone instead of raising towers above the ground … Later, they raised great monolithic buildings that covered each of the plateaus and would serve as the foundation for the City of Towers.” What if the Dhakaani first carved their city into the rim of the crater and built their 'mountain monoliths' on the crater floor, only they grew so big that they eventually filled the crater floor. These structures didn’t 'cover each of the plateaus,' rather they became the plateaus! Menthis Plateau and Central Plateau are massive, sealed ruins, not just under the surface, but all the way down. If this were true, then you might find a little bit of UnderSharn below Dura and Tavick's Landing (mostly human ruins), but the vast majority of the Depths would be inside Menthis Plateau and Central Plateau. The Cogs would be unaffected as it lies much deeper, although I think I'd reposition Ashblack entirely under Dura, Blackbones entirely under Tavick's Landing, and extend Khyber's Gate under both plateaus. As to what kind of crater it is, I'm leaning toward meteoric. I like the idea that a piece of the sky fell into the hills at the Hilt of the Dagger River. That piece of the sky was a piece of Syrania and it’s still down there, under the city. That’s what causes the manifest zone. Similarly, when the meteor hit the ground, the heat opened a portal into Fernia and that’s where there’s lava and “supernatural heat” down in the Cogs. Anyway, those are my current thoughts.
kelvinaw273 01-19-08, 12:55 PM	Greetings all- So I was looking at the Sharn maps today and asked myself, what is Sharn built on? I'm not referring to the older cities or the manifest zone, but the topography. 1. Is it a dormant volcano? 2. Is it a big meteor crater? 3. Or is it just two plateaus surrounded by an oddly complete and circular ring-shaped ridge? 1a. Who the heck would build a city on top of a volcano? 2a. This might explain the manifest zone; a piece of the sky fell and ever since then there has been a strong connection with Syrania. 3a. I could buy this if the outer ridge wasn't so perfectly complete. If one of the canyons went all the way to the water I could believe that it was just normal erosion by water or wind, but as is, there's nowhere for the water to go ... unless there are caves/tunnels at the bottom of the canyons that lead to the water. Thoughts? Go to Edinburgh. Look at Edinburgh castle. Scale upwards. It's the core (not the cinder cone) of an extinct volcano; the cinder cone wears away quickly on an extinct volcano, but the magma at the heart of the volcano solidifies into a granite mass. Such a mass, scaled up, would suite the huge bluff that Sharn sits on. The tunnels beneath? Old lava tubes ... Canyons do not have to have rivers at the bottom of them - Cheddar Gorge is an example of one that doesn't ... well actually it does, but the river has eroded the limestone such that it has gone underground, carving out the network of caves in the limestone beneath (obviously this will require some creative geology to put limestone next to granite).
Just another user 01-26-08, 08:47 AM	Greetings all- So I was looking at the Sharn maps today and asked myself, what is Sharn built on? I'm not referring to the older cities or the manifest zone, but the topography. 1. Is it a dormant volcano? 2. Is it a big meteor crater? 3. Or is it just two plateaus surrounded by an oddly complete and circular ring-shaped ridge? 1a. Who the heck would build a city on top of a volcano? Thoughts? It is a dungeon & dragons thing, I think. Just look at Waterdeep, they didn't find an active vulcan to build upon so they had to settle for the next most dangerous thing, the top of a dungeon, cocked full of monsters and unstable magic, built by a crazy arch-wizard. :)