Does it melt? Magically vanish?
Enquiring minds want to know. :D
(Because, you know, places where the snow doesn't melt have a name - "Glaciers". And most of Irrisen isn't glaciated.)
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Wind blows it to the borders, where it melts, to be replaced by new snow......I guess.
What Samasboy1 said. It either stays where it falls, melts from humanoid or other causes, or otherwise leaves the nation and melts there. But there is always snow. All of the time.
I don't think the phrase 'The snow never melts' means magical snow that doesn't have a melting point or that no individual snowflake in Irrisen ever reaches that melting point. Rather, what it evokes to me as a land that is always covered in snow.
So it might melt back for a couple days, but before it is gone, the next snow storms rolls through depositing a new layer. Basically, Baba Yaga is employing magic to keep the land snow-covered, not glacier covered. Doing so, means that the snow melts (or sublimes, blows away etc.) at the same rate that it falls, maintaining equilibrium.
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Keep in mind that snow, even if it doesn't melt, still sublimates (transitions from a solid state directly to a gaseous state, without going through a liquid state first), kind of like evaporation. It's a slow process, but any time the sun shines on Irrisen, it's going to lose some if its snow cover - which is them replaced by fresh snow.
And of course, depending on how big the population is, they may harvest the snow and ice for water....with a big enough population it could never melt naturally, but enough is used for consumption that it never really gets to those glacial levels.
Why are there no lumberjacks in the city?
Keep in mind that snow, even if it doesn't melt, still sublimates (transitions from a solid state directly to a gaseous state, without going through a liquid state first), kind of like evaporation. It's a slow process, but any time the sun shines on Irrisen, it's going to lose some if its snow cover - which is them replaced by fresh snow.
I guess magically enhanced sublimation could maintain a balance?
Edit: This always bugged me about Narnia under the White Witch, too. :)
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Keep in mind that snow, even if it doesn't melt, still sublimates (transitions from a solid state directly to a gaseous state, without going through a liquid state first), kind of like evaporation. It's a slow process, but any time the sun shines on Irrisen, it's going to lose some if its snow cover - which is them replaced by fresh snow.I guess magically enhanced sublimation could maintain a balance?
Edit: This always bugged me about Narnia under the White Witch, too. :)
Does that mean its never Yule in Irrisen?
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Does that mean its never Yule in Irrisen?Keep in mind that snow, even if it doesn't melt, still sublimates (transitions from a solid state directly to a gaseous state, without going through a liquid state first), kind of like evaporation. It's a slow process, but any time the sun shines on Irrisen, it's going to lose some if its snow cover - which is them replaced by fresh snow.I guess magically enhanced sublimation could maintain a balance?
Edit: This always bugged me about Narnia under the White Witch, too. :)
It's always winter, but never Christmas :-(
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1400 years of winter with no temperatures above freezing and no break in the cloud cover to admit sunlight could lead to Irrisen being crushed under several miles of accumulated snow and ice (sublimation or no sublimation).
But perhaps it's not '1400 years of winter' but '*that* single winter has never ended, 1400 years later.' Spring never came. The snow that was falling then, is still falling now, paradoxically never accumulating and yet also never going away. Every snowflake falling now, has been falling every night for the last 1400 years, and will fall on us again every night to come, until this curse is broken.
An even more magical and cursed interpretation might have the magic affect the people, as well, so that the answer to the question of 'what do the people eat' is that 'they don't, because their bodies are reliving the same horrible night over and over, and some of them are many centuries old, but aged not a day, and if they 'escape' past the borders, the years they've missed catch up with them and they age to death within days.'
In Baba Yaga's timeless fey and cruel realm, you'll always be hungry, but never starve, you'll always be old and weary at heart, but hale and strong of back (the better to serve her), and just walking away is not an option...
Some really COOL *ahem* stuff! ;p
Now that is an awesome interpretation! And it goes so well with the almost "fairy-tale" vibe (of a Grimm nature) of that particular setting.
Carry on!
--C.
Great stuff, Set! :) Yup that goes a very long way to make sense of the fairytale-nonsensical setting (would also help explain Narnia under the White Witch).
Keep in mind that snow, even if it doesn't melt, still sublimates (transitions from a solid state directly to a gaseous state, without going through a liquid state first), kind of like evaporation. It's a slow process, but any time the sun shines on Irrisen, it's going to lose some if its snow cover - which is them replaced by fresh snow.I guess magically enhanced sublimation could maintain a balance?
Edit: This always bugged me about Narnia under the White Witch, too. :)
Fun fact, high winds dramatically increase the rate of snow sublimation.
Freezing gales: good for more than just tormenting the serfs!
Along similar lines, what happens to water in the Darklands? Why aren't they flooded? You'd expect the seas to drain into Orv, which implies that the Vault Builders must have put a whacking great bilge pump somewhere.
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Along similar lines, what happens to water in the Darklands? Why aren't they flooded? You'd expect the seas to drain into Orv, which implies that the Vault Builders must have put a whacking great bilge pump somewhere.
Air pressure plays a role, as does magic, as does the fact that the only direct connection between the Darklands and the ocean is magically controlled.
Along similar lines, what happens to water in the Darklands? Why aren't they flooded? You'd expect the seas to drain into Orv, which implies that the Vault Builders must have put a whacking great bilge pump somewhere.
Just because it never completely melts doesn't mean that there is more precipitation in a single year.
The average rain to snow ratio is 1:10. So the underworld doesn't really get more water than before, just *very cold* water.
That and they're very good at fixing leaks.
I just read "Bonedust Dolls" and the same question pops up in that short story.
They point to the large lake/river system and winds as being mostly responsible.
Only when layered deep enough will snow not melt. At that point it's solid ice.
Generally snow melts, only rarely lasting long enough to become ice, in cold periods consistent snow covers an area because it is being constantly replaced.
Along similar lines, what happens to water in the Darklands? Why aren't they flooded? You'd expect the seas to drain into Orv, which implies that the Vault Builders must have put a whacking great bilge pump somewhere.Just because it never completely melts doesn't mean that there is more precipitation in a single year.
The average rain to snow ratio is 1:10. So the underworld doesn't really get more water than before, just *very cold* water.
I wasn't talking specifically about under Irrisen; it's the Darklands everywhere that must get flooded unless someone's taking special measures. Look at most cave systems on Earth; they're very often partially or completely flooded. And as soon as you have a widespread interconnected system going for hundred of miles underground, one of them is going to emerge in a lake or sea.
The dwarves who completed the Quest for Sky were the lucky ones. The unlucky ones completed the Quest for Sea by accident. But you don't hear about them, as they all drowned.
Air pressure plays a role, as does magic, as does the fact that the only direct connection between the Darklands and the ocean is magically controlled.
I'd expect the Aboleths to be controlling that connection, though I've not found any reference to it. The other magical constraints, bilge pumps and whatnot would seem to be of vital strategic significance; if some Duergar want to eliminate some local Drow, they could disable the pump and flood them out with a bit of simple (un)civil engineering.
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Snow one knows...
