Dwarven Reinforced Earth Foundations

The most dangerous being on NImenra is not Humans, Dwarves or Demons but the earth and nature itself, especially earthquakes such as the ones that caused massive destruction during The Great Quakes. Dwarves who live in the mountains have devised ways to manage some effects. Though even their knowledge could not save the millions of lives lost, it prevented many, many more from being lost.

— Everam, Teller of Nimenra

Life in Nimenra is harsh at times but during natural events such as The Great Quakes, few stand a chance to counteract such forces even with magic. When even the very ground you stand upon reduces large, greatly built buildings, what can one do? In The Dwarven Kingdom engineers and architects had to battle large-scale quakes, especially in Kasta'eim Irrend and the now lost Eima Scryrern. Thus they devised techniques to lessen the damage, most notably being the DREF, Dwarven Reinforced Earth Foundations.

Inovation and application

Dwarves have had ways to prevent damage from quakes since their ancestors walked the earth they stand upon today. Wide structures and foundations that allowed for a small amount of movement prevented devastation but were never truly enough to prevent catastrophes such as The Front Fall 1200 V.D. when several buildings toppled over the main street in front of the king's fortress. The king and factions issued a commission for The Miner's Guild and The Guilds to find a way to toughen up the protection against such events again.

No real breakthrough happened until the 1750s V.D. The architects and engineers in Kasta'eim and Eima Scryrern found a way to create an even better foundation than had been used before by the builders of the great capital's fortress. By creating a blend of coal, iron, tin and mikven, a previously mostly forgettable ore for its uselessness for anything other than arts and small crafts, they could make more pliable and vibration-resistant plates that could be built into new building foundations. The process was also not as expensive as the pure steel or iron plates used before. However, the plates are complex to create with the correct blend over a long time, taking three months to complete on average for a wide foundation.

With a good foundation a building standing on the DREF could stand against much stronger quakes that nature threw onto the cities of dwarvenkind. They also started to share the designs with humans from the Kingdom of Ravero and the foundation spread across Telamirein. Some other buildings, such as Valdenwhik, were discovered to have similar foundations to the DREF district having been built close to 700 years earlier. These foundations, however, did not prevent them to also failing during the times that the The Great Quakes shook Nimenra. While many buildings still resisted and stood for long, the repeated, strong quakes took their toll on all buildings regardless of preventive measures.