Editing Dolsia (section)

== Geography ==
Dolsia is a sprawling, but hidden country. Most of the entrances are concealed from outsiders: many caves are left natural and raw up until a certain depth, when they come alive with signs of the countless caelians within. Dolsia has connected many of the natural cave systems that exist within the Coronus mountains, although new caverns are still occasionally discovered by excavation and exploration teams. All manner of geological formations can be found within, from massive crystals, to ore veins, to stone, to lava flows and geothermal hotspots.

Being underground, Dolsia is completely protected from weather. Outside of select places, there is no sun, wind, or rain, nor is there day or night. Most commonly, a particular strain of bioluminescent algae is cultivated and used all over Dolsia to light their world: it's used to fill lamps, grows on damp stone walls, and coats fountain basins. It's extremely hardy, and over time has been bred into a myriad of colors, most commonly green and most rarely yellow.

Very broadly, it is warmer in the south than the north, but overall, Dolsia tends to have a moderate chill year-round. The earth insulates it from any freezing temperatures, but also from the warmth of the sun. 

=== Architecture ===
Dolsian architecture is incredibly lavish, featuring vaulted ceilings, ornate parapets, striking towers, and massive stained glass murals to bring beauty and color to this dark world. Frequently, significant names and figures are carved into the very walls to act as both memorial and sentinel.  As buildings accrue this history, they become even more ornate, meaning new cities tend to be more simplistic by comparison. (This decorative recordkeeping exists inside too: tapestries keep homes warm and tell tales.)

All of Dolsia's biggest cities are also its oldest. They fill the largest caverns, and they were designed vertically, back when nearly every caelian could fly. This means that--in the modern day--they are labyrinthine to navigate. Now, layers of bridges stretch over inky depths to connect towers carved out of sheer cliffs, and narrow alleys allow passage between the buildings large bases. Poorer districts that haven't been able to construct permanent bridges yet have zipline systems, but these systems are looked down upon as undignified by the rich. (They are, however, extremely popular among the youth.)

There are no single-family homes in Dolsia. Space is a premium in the caverns, so "moving out" is extremely uncommon, unless done for marriage. Generally, families just grow to encompass more of the space around them, leading to the largest families sharing entire buildings, aunts, uncles, cousins and all. Scattered around, there are singles' homes, which are communally shared places for those who do leave their family. 

Every so often, there are expansion efforts where exploration or excavation teams try to found a new village. Artificial caverns are considered riskier to live in, and they have blockier, less ornate buildings carved directly into the rock. The ceiling is shared by homes and the road, and they are always single story, unless a family takes initiative to expand up or down.

One area where new construction is leagues ahead of the old is in accessibility. When the old cities were first built, they were designed for caelians with a wide, nearly fully 360 field of vision. As caelian vision, collectively, has worsened, much has been lost. Obvious signage has become obscure as peripherals narrowed; side paths are narrow and unmarked; and magnificent art pieces have lost their effect as people are no longer able to take them in in their entirety at once. The old cities have installed railings on precarious bridges and algal lamps in dark, dank corridors, but there's been little else done to modernize. The bickering over how much these historical buildings ought to be changed is an evergreen debate. 

New towns in artificial caverns, however, are built with access in mind. Contrast tiles--sometimes with glowing algal inlays--are installed in the floor to help delineate paths. Textural lines in walls help people who navigate by touch. Different sectors of the city will use different colors and temperatures of light. Artistic carvings are much smaller in scale, and tend to be limited to doorways and important buildings. This is but a few examples of adaptations made.

=== Notable Locations ===
There are a wide variety of landmarks within Dolsia, from its tunnels covered in painted hands to the forges lining lava flows. A selection of some of its most well known ones are as follows.

==== Apsthal ====
The capital city of Dolsia. Apsthal is the first city of Dolsia and remains its capital. It is located in the south of the cave network, a half day's journey from the Skymouth. Apsthal is located within the second-largest cavern in Dolsia: it is enormous, and standing at its bottom, you cannot see its ceiling, even with caelian light. It's extremely densely populated, and this is where most of the old, powerful families began and still reside. Few natural structures still exist: the entirety of the cave has been developed, and architecture is layered upon layered for the generations its been since the city was founded. It is still very vertically oriented, designed for flight, so bridges and stairs are commonplace. A large lake pools at the bottom, where soft green algal glow lights the city from below. Apsthal is the central hub for scholarly and preservation work. 

===== Onyx Repository =====
Of all the museums and archives in Dolsia, the Onyx Repository is the largest and most well known. It has a front-facing museum wing and a library wing, both of which are open to the public. It also offers services to help verify familial connections, record stories, and update or repair genealogies. It's a bustling hub of activity within Apsthal, and it is run and maintained by Talmai's family. 

==== Salted Sea ====
The Salted Sea is located in a very low, very wide cavern. Standing on its sandy shores, one can only see water fading into the darkness. It is impossibly deep, and remains not fully explored by caelians, but it's theorized to connect--somehow--to the actual oceans. Unlike water everywhere else in Dolsia, it's salty and does have mild tidal action; however, it's far inland, only slightly west of center of the country. The Sea is an important source of food for caelians, as there's a strong fishing community here that catches every manner of fish, crustacean, and jellyfish. It's also a very popular vacation spot, in spite of its very cold water. The ceiling has long ago been painted with stars that glow in the dark.

==== Cumula Taiga ====
The Cumula Taiga is the cornucopia of Dolsia. It is located in the biggest cavern in Dolsia, far to the north, and cracks in its ceilings let enough threads of sunlight in to allow plants to grow. Over the millennia, a lush and massive rainforest has sprouted up, and the cave's size combined with its humidity has resulted in its own self-contained weather system. The canopy is constantly shrouded in clouds, and rain is frequent. In the misty dark below the canopy, a wealth of fungi grow alongside mycoheterotrophs--plants adapted to life without light that don't produce chlorophyll. Caelians that live here are largely farmers, foragers, and naturalists.  

==== Beknighted Corridors ====
The Corridors are the main path that connects the cities of eastern Dolsia. They consist of large, open tunnels pierced by thick spears of shining crystal. Local superstition holds that the Corridors are the remains of an ancient battlefield, where the stars used the spears to protect them from some sort of horrible calamity, but there is no evidence of this beyond the presence of the spears themselves. Nevertheless, walking the Corridors is considered a holy pilgrimage by those that believe, and the crystals remain--mostly--untouched by mining tool or travel paint. 

==== Skymouth ====
This is the largest and most well-known entrance to Dolsia. It faces south to [[Sayil]] and is an absolutely massive cavern entrance, easily hundreds of feet wide. A regularly used trail off the [[Theriad Caravans|Heartstone Road]] leads directly to it. A small city exists at the Skymouth: it used to be a temporary settlement for merchants, scouts, and guards, but as caelians have grown more bold in recent years, it's blossomed into a thriving economic center. Anyone who has a vested interest in trading with the outside world does their business at the Skymouth,