Editing Dolsia (section)

=== 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.