So me and the excellent @Perrydotto were talking worldbuilding, and the topic of Fire Flight came out. In my opinion, Fire's not received quite as much lore love as deserved, but as Perrydotto pointed out, they're actually a really interesting Flight--they've got this tension between tradition and progress, so they're sort of between Earth and Lightning while still being totally their own thing.
We started talking architecture. Now, an obvious approach would be metal, chains, and forges, and I think that makes fair sense for, y'know, larger settlements with a metallurgical focus, but what about a bit more variety? Perrydotto pointed out that folks in volcanic areas have to be ready to move and resettle, especially given that Fire's territory is canonically geologically unstable. Now, what's a material that's sturdy, inexpensive, relatively quick to build with? Ask the Romans--concrete! They themselves used volcanic ash in its manufacture.
So push comes to shove and here's my proposal.
Because I don't know any better, I'm calling it Volcanic Protobrutalism. It's supposed to exist somewhere between Brutalism (chosen due to Fire's tradition/progress tension and its association with quick constructs--these are buildings of cheap necessity) and Adobe but more open to the air, as I figure Fire shelters exist largely to keep off, say, ash and windstorms. It's buttressed against seismic activity and intended to survive limited exposure to lava--you can see how the mountain is sort of creeping up on it to the rear.
Perrydotto came up with the additional point that these would be great for letting in plenty of heat from local lava flows, just roll down stormcovers or shutters or something when the ash comes. Fire dragons may well spend pleasant spells heatbasking.
The concrete itself would be pretty reasonable to produce. We've canon got lavawheels for grinding, and the ready availability of ash, slag, volcanic springs, and/or seawater would go a nice long way towards production, including onsite production. It wouldn't even surprise me if there's some additional Fire twist--could they use lava itself in the process? Who knows! Not my specialty by any means.
Anyways, any slumpiness in the art is on me, I really should've sketched this prior to painting or used a ruler or something, I imagine these buildings are actually pretty precise. And while they are featureless on their own, many would be decorated, preferably with removable items like weather-resistant decorative hangings and potted plants. Volcanic ash is great for plants--you might not be able to raise all your food onsite, but I'm sure you could get a few fruit trees and herbs at least.
On a meta level, part of the goal's to make sure this architecture doesn't look like any other Flight's. So like, I think it'd also be reasonable for Fire dragons to directly channel lava to shape homes from, but the resulting houses might look Earth-ish, unless you want to go "slag yurt" (which could be awesome). Nothing wrong with Earth-y, just want some unique non-shanty flavor.
Aight, that's all I've got! I'm not remotely in Fire flight nor do I speak for it in any sense, I just thought Fire is neat and deserves more loreand non-shanty architecture.
Oh, this is very tenuously related, but I'm planning a big lore thing. Might happen, might not. If you like lore and want pinged if it happens, let me know.
EDIT: Please feel free to use the image/ideas in this post! Thanks to all the folks who asked in the meantime, it was a lovely gesture <3
We started talking architecture. Now, an obvious approach would be metal, chains, and forges, and I think that makes fair sense for, y'know, larger settlements with a metallurgical focus, but what about a bit more variety? Perrydotto pointed out that folks in volcanic areas have to be ready to move and resettle, especially given that Fire's territory is canonically geologically unstable. Now, what's a material that's sturdy, inexpensive, relatively quick to build with? Ask the Romans--concrete! They themselves used volcanic ash in its manufacture.
So push comes to shove and here's my proposal.
Because I don't know any better, I'm calling it Volcanic Protobrutalism. It's supposed to exist somewhere between Brutalism (chosen due to Fire's tradition/progress tension and its association with quick constructs--these are buildings of cheap necessity) and Adobe but more open to the air, as I figure Fire shelters exist largely to keep off, say, ash and windstorms. It's buttressed against seismic activity and intended to survive limited exposure to lava--you can see how the mountain is sort of creeping up on it to the rear.
Perrydotto came up with the additional point that these would be great for letting in plenty of heat from local lava flows, just roll down stormcovers or shutters or something when the ash comes. Fire dragons may well spend pleasant spells heatbasking.
The concrete itself would be pretty reasonable to produce. We've canon got lavawheels for grinding, and the ready availability of ash, slag, volcanic springs, and/or seawater would go a nice long way towards production, including onsite production. It wouldn't even surprise me if there's some additional Fire twist--could they use lava itself in the process? Who knows! Not my specialty by any means.
Anyways, any slumpiness in the art is on me, I really should've sketched this prior to painting or used a ruler or something, I imagine these buildings are actually pretty precise. And while they are featureless on their own, many would be decorated, preferably with removable items like weather-resistant decorative hangings and potted plants. Volcanic ash is great for plants--you might not be able to raise all your food onsite, but I'm sure you could get a few fruit trees and herbs at least.
On a meta level, part of the goal's to make sure this architecture doesn't look like any other Flight's. So like, I think it'd also be reasonable for Fire dragons to directly channel lava to shape homes from, but the resulting houses might look Earth-ish, unless you want to go "slag yurt" (which could be awesome). Nothing wrong with Earth-y, just want some unique non-shanty flavor.
Aight, that's all I've got! I'm not remotely in Fire flight nor do I speak for it in any sense, I just thought Fire is neat and deserves more lore
Oh, this is very tenuously related, but I'm planning a big lore thing. Might happen, might not. If you like lore and want pinged if it happens, let me know.
EDIT: Please feel free to use the image/ideas in this post! Thanks to all the folks who asked in the meantime, it was a lovely gesture <3
they/them 
server time 
you are loved
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/61366287/IMG_2779.0.0.0.0.jpeg "IMG_2779.0.0.0.0.jpeg")
