Taldor
| Continent: | The Cradle |
| Government: | Five-member Gnomish Council of Engineers |
| Ruler Authority: | Merrit Copperwick, Bramble Cogwell, Elska Brassbloom, Orrin Glasswhistle and Tamsin Rivetfern |
| Capitol: | Copperhollow |
| Major Families: | [Information Missing] |
| Prominent Clans: | [Information Missing] |
| Core Magic: | Technomancy integrated with steam and clockwork |
| Primary Exports: | Precision mechanisms, compact engines, instruments, pumps and clockwork household goods |
Taldor is a gnomish country whose streets, homes and machinery are built for shorter people. Low doorways, shallow steps, reachable controls and compact public transport make its cities comfortable at gnome scale. Steam pipes, clockwork street lamps and little trams weave through lively neighborhoods of stone, timber and warm brick.
The country is ruled by five gnome engineers, collectively the Gnomish Council of Engineers of Taldor. It is country 2 on the map of The Cradle. Its capital is Copperhollow.
A country at gnome scale
Taldor's buildings are designed around their residents rather than around the proportions of taller visitors. Ceilings are lower, floors closer together, counters and windows set within easy reach, and stairways divided into short, comfortable rises. Handrails, workshop benches and tram doors follow the same practical logic.
A human visitor may have to stoop beneath a lintel or book a room in a taller guesthouse. Larger reception rooms, freight passages and marked visitor routes accommodate trade without forcing the rest of the city to abandon its own dimensions. Hospitality means explaining these arrangements clearly, not treating the gnomes' ordinary homes as curiosities.
Street layouts favor short walking distances, sheltered lanes and compact neighborhood squares. Goods travel by canal carts, lifts and narrow-gauge steam trams, keeping heavy deliveries out of the busiest pedestrian passages.
The Council of Five Engineers
The five councilors are all gnomes. Each oversees a practical portfolio and votes on common law, budgets and national projects. A decision requires three votes. The title First Engineer coordinates meetings and represents the council abroad; it does not confer a monarch's authority or an additional vote.
Councilors serve staggered terms following professional review and confirmation by the charter towns. Makers, operators and neighborhood representatives can submit evidence at hearings. A celebrated invention is not sufficient qualification if its designer cannot maintain a public system or answer those affected by it.
| Name | Portfolio | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Merrit Copperwick | First Engineer / Civic Design | An elder copper-haired woman who tests public designs by walking the route herself. |
| Bramble Cogwell | Steam and Transport | A dark-curled, bearded engineer who favors reliable service over record-breaking speed. |
| Elska Brassbloom | Waterworks and Public Health | A pale-blond, braided engineer whose careful planning keeps clean water separate from workshop runoff. |
| Orrin Glasswhistle | Instruments and Standards | A gray-haired elder with round spectacles who insists that every official gauge can be independently checked. |
| Tamsin Rivetfern | Workshops and Trade | A brown-skinned, dark-haired engineer who represents small makers and repair shops as vigorously as the great guilds. |
The council meets in the Hall of Five Works in Copperhollow. Its five equal chairs surround a low drafting table. An adjacent public room displays models and drawings of proposed works, with copies available at a scale readable without specialized instruments.
Cities and places
Copperhollow — the capital
Copperhollow occupies a sheltered basin of terraced streets and green-roofed workshops. Copper pipes and covered bridges connect its districts, while compact trams climb between the market levels. The Hall of Five Works stands beside the Common Measure Square, where public demonstrations share space with food stalls and neighborhood meetings.
The Visitor's Reach is a district of taller inns, warehouses and diplomatic rooms near the main freight station. Its generous doorways accommodate foreign visitors without imposing taller construction throughout the capital.
Cogmere
Cogmere is a canal city of locks, pumps and low bridges. Water-powered workshops share the banks with steam facilities, and small cargo lifts carry deliveries from the quays to upper streets. Elska's waterworks office maintains a teaching yard where apprentices can inspect working models.
Brassfen
Brassfen lies beside productive marshland and managed drainage fields. It is known for pump makers, market gardens and the careful maintenance of waterways. Its prosperity depends as much on growers and ditch keepers as on inventors.
Wicketspindle
Wicketspindle specializes in clocks, optical instruments and miniature control mechanisms. Covered repair arcades connect narrow shopping streets. Makers compete over durability and clarity of use as well as the elegance of a movement.
Rivetgrove
Rivetgrove stands among wooded hills, supplying worked timber, carriage frames and workshop fittings. Its guild yards maintain planting agreements with nearby communities. A new machine's timber requirements must be accounted for alongside its metal and fuel.
Steam, clockwork and technomancy
Steam provides power for transport, pumps and larger workshops. Clockwork regulates instruments and smaller devices, while technomancy supplements machinery where its properties are understood. Magic does not remove the need for inspections, accessible controls or replacement parts.
Taldoran engineering is especially valued for compactness. Household mechanisms are designed to be opened and repaired at an ordinary bench. Standard fittings allow a component made in one town to be serviced in another.
The country has its share of impractical inventions. Exhibition judges ask who will operate a device, how it will be maintained and whether its supposed convenience merely transfers work to someone else.
Society and daily life
Neighborhood workshops often share a courtyard with homes, gardens and a common kitchen. Markets sell food beside tools and spare parts. Apprentices learn through supervised work, public demonstrations and the careful study of failures.
Dress favors practical layers, waistcoats, sturdy shoes and aprons adapted to the trade. Goggles and protective clothing are worn for appropriate tasks, not as substitutes for making a workshop safer. Festivals bring music, illustrated storytelling and competitions for useful repairs.
Taldor welcomes people of other origins, but remains a country shaped by gnomish life. A visiting engineer is expected to ask how a space serves its residents before offering to make it larger.
History
The small workshops
Taldor's early settlements grew around craft households and sheltered trade routes. Gnomes working in buildings borrowed from taller neighbors found themselves relying on stools, ladders and adapted handles merely to perform ordinary tasks. Purpose-built streets and homes became a source of shared civic pride.
The Five Works Agreement
Five charter towns joined their efforts after incompatible pumps and poorly coordinated waterways caused repeated disruption. Their agreement established common measures and shared responsibility for transport, water and workshop standards. The five engineering portfolios grew from these practical needs.
Copperhollow became the seat of the common government. Its council hall preserved the original agreement beside drawings of the first jointly maintained works.
The compact steam age
Steam transport and improved mechanisms linked the towns while preserving their short-scale streets. Freight stations and visitor districts grew at the edges of older settlements. Debates over access led to adjustable facilities in shared places rather than the wholesale replacement of gnome-sized architecture.
Today the council inherits the obligation at the heart of the founding agreement: a country should fit the people who live in it. Its most familiar public question remains, "Can the person who uses it reach it?"
Original artwork
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Taldor country overview. -
The Council of Five Engineers.
