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Posts tagged Eradu

Pocalo Infrastructure: Plumbing

Pocalo Infrastructure: Plumbing published on

Valley of the Silk Sky - plumbing

I know what you’re wondering: how the heck does plumbing work in this weird world?

While there are a few different means of collecting and distributing water in the Valley, let’s focus on the one most relevant to the main comic: the plumbing of the Cashel Waystation. which is located in the interior of the province of Muru.

The Cashel Waystation receives most of its water via a large pipe from the provinces above (who get their water mostly from rainfall and snowmelt), and holds it in a reservoir.

“So, wait, they’re drinking and bathing in the runoff from the upper provinces?”

Technically yes, BUT. At the bottom of the reservoir is a filtration system, accessed via the topmost room of the main building, where those two little slit windows are. One of the many duties of the waystation attendant is maintaining that filtration system so the water stays clean.

“So, wait, the waystation is basically a giant Brita filter?”

Ahem. Kinda sorta yeah.

The bath is left running all the time to provide some humidity to the air, and to keep the water flow going to the provinces below. Gravity provides the water pressure.

Drinking water is filtered more thoroughly and piped separately from bathing water or toilet water. The Cashel Waystation has pit toilets that use only a tiny amount of water to flush waste down a pipe leading to Eradu, the province directly below. Eradu is nicknamed The Swamp for various reasons, of which this is one. It tends to be the last stop for a lot of the waste from the provinces above.

“Surely the residents of Eradu don’t care for living in what is basically a giant sewer.”

Correct! They do not. Which is why most people who live in Eradu actually live on the hillsides around the edges of the Valley, and not inside the web structure of Pocalo itself. Humans mostly try to avoid venturing into The Swamp itself if they can.

Geography: The Rift

Geography: The Rift published on

Valley of the Silk Sky -The Rift

There’s a decent amount of seismic activity in the Valley. Pocalo is generally highly resistant to earthquakes, as the construction-grade cloud spider silk is slightly flexible and highly shock-absorbent. But a particularly severe quake with just the right combination of vibration and shear forces got the better of Pocalo, and the next day people had to wonder, “Where did that giant rift come from?”

The Rift stretches for several miles across the Muru interior, and plunges several hundred feet down into Eradu, the province immediately below Muru.

This major geographic change also altered the course of the Red Silt River, forming a lake known as The Flood, which drains into Eradu in the form of a huge waterfall. During dry times this can cause the river to stop flowing further south from The Flood, causing water management problems for folks downstream.

Both The Rift and The Flood have made any form of travel across Muru a bit of a challenge. Boats can no longer ply the course of the Red Silt River. And the one crossing point, the Cashel Bridge, is in the process of sloughing off into the Rift.

Because The Rift appeared overnight, the Cashel Bridge was put up in extreme haste, with the idea that a better, more permanent solution would be implemented later. After only a few years it has begun to fall apart, but there’s little incentive to build a more permanent crossing. Most people have opted for more reliable alternatives, and have abandoned the pre-Rift routes that took them past this region.

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