NPC: Drial

Text may not be 100% complete. Most quest text is not included.
Due to multiple options when speaking, text below may not be in comprehensive order.

You notice an old, but still strong man. Apparently he is lost in his tEL-DB.comhoughts. As he hears your footsteps, he rises his head and greets you:
"Hello, [PLAYER NAME]."

Name

I am Drial, the librarian of Portland.
Nice meeting you.

Librarian

In fact, nowadays I am more of an administrator of the Library of Portland rather than a librarian, but I guess I got used to this 'title'. I've been working here since I was a teenager, and that was long time ago, as you can see. Besides, I still like reading the books, and do some librarian work every once in a while.

Portland

Portland is an important trade point, maybe the most important trade point in the continent, with the exception of Mynadar. This is because of our proximity to Whitestone City and the titanium mine. We also have a library, and a biggest warehouse in Seridia. But the most important thing is that, as opposed to all the other cities and towns

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Portland has a more democratic and independent form of government. We are governed by a Council, and a Chamber of Commerce. So, at least in theory, every citizen can take part in the goverEL-DB.comnment. Of course, in practice only a few people are responsible for the lawmaking process, but this is besides the point since there are no laws against people running for the government.

Library

An important city needs a library, otherwise there is little or no progress.
We have over 1000 books, covering all the posible fields: history, mathematics, physics, magic, religion, chemistry, alchemy, and many others. We even have a few books on QED and QCD, in addition to a holy book about the Grand Unification Theory (including the formula!).

History

Are you interested in finding out more about thEL-DB.come Portland History, or the continent's history?

Portland History

Portland is a relatively new city. 120 years ago it was just a small fishing village. Whitestone City always had a big disadvantage: it didn't have any exit to the ocean, which made both the continental and intercontinental trade rather difficult. That's why a group of traders decided to build a real port in a nearby location. This place (today's Portland) was chosen

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and the construction begun. The initial objective wasn't really building a city, just a proper port, a warehouse, and some roads between the important points. But with a new port, some people moved in that area, to do various dock work. New people needed new houses, so some shops were built there as well. And in only 20 years, Portland grew to about 10 times it's original size.

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Then the citizens wanted more security, so they had to build a wall, to protect them against various monsters that came from the titanium mine, or from the Tahraji Desert. Now that they had their wall, and a large population, with pretty much all the facilities they really needed, they decided to separate from Whitestone City. Fortunately, it was a peaceful schism

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which was really amazing. Perhaps everyone realised that such a schism was inevitable, so they decided to just stay friends, which is really good for both cities. One of the conditions Whitestone City imposed to the Portland 'government', in order to allow a 'clean break' with no retaliation, military or economic, was that

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there will be no taxes for imports and exports between Portland and Whitestone City. Since this was a good idea in the first place, the Portland Council accepted it, and now, 90 years later, they are sister cities, having mutual defense treaties, sharing resources, and generally helping each other.

Continent History

Seridia, which is the name of the continent we are on, was formed a long time ago (obviously). We don't know the exact process, some claim it's the hand of the gods, others claim it's the byproduct of a big, huge explosion. Regardless, this is unimportant, since no one knows exactly. But what's important is that we have records of people coming here about 1300 years ago.

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The first major city built was Whitestone City. In fact, Naralik was built before, but it was destroyed by an earthquake, just like Tirnym. The Naralik residents moved to the neighbouring GrahmEL-DB.com's village and Morcraven Marsh. But then Morcraven Marsh was partially engulfed by the swamp, so they had to move again. Anyway, I am not the best historian around, try asking Nyeald about it.

Administrator

Yes, I am the administrator of the library. Not a really great job, a lot of bureaucracy is involved, but at least I know I can help the people by giving my best. Basically, my attributions are keeping track of the books, buy new books with the money allocated by the Council, and every once in a while assisting others in finding various information.

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Other times I have to visit other places such as the Whitestone City library, to exchange or copy books. Then, of course, there are some public seminars, where we teach the people about various techniques related to their trade.

Seminaries

Yes, we have many seminars, some of them are held in the Whitestone City Public Hall, and others are held in various other places, such as small villages. The last seminar took place in Lakeside, and it was about agriculture and irigation.

Agriculture

We teach all kind of useful techniques on how to get better results in growing cereals and industrial plants. There are entire tomes of knowledge dedicated to this very subject, because at least half of the industry in Seridia needs various plants as raw materials or even end products.

Irrigation

This is an entire science by itself. There are quite a few ways to irrigate the land, depending on what resources you have available. The most simple way is to draw water from a river or lake, and pump it into the land via a network of pipes, and a pump operated by animals, steam, or other more advanced engines, such as internal combustion, electrical or nuclear.

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If you don't have access to a lake or river, you can use sea or ocean water, but an additional step is required: you need to desalinize the water. This is a very painful and expensive process, and it's really not recommended unless ABSOLUTELY necessary. You can use the sun's power, preferably focused by some [parabolic] mirrors to heat a black painted barrel filled with sea water.

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Then you need to run all the water vapours through a pipe that is cooled by some coolant (such as water), and then you just put the resulting clean water in a separate contaiEL-DB.comner, and pump it into your field[s]. However, as I was saying, this method is very inefficient. A widely used method where no river or lake is available is a digging a well.

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Extracting water from a well is simple enough if you have a pump. It can even be done manually, but with less than optimal results. However, this method won't work near the sea or ocean, since the water will be salty. It won't work in deserts either, unless, of course, you are willing to have a 700-1500 meters deep well, which is anything but easy.

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Finally, there is an experimental method which is relatively tricky, but can yield really good results. This technique is called 'cloud seeding'. It involves firing a rocket (or some other missile) at the clouds, and by the time it goes above them detonating a charge of silver iodide. This will form a condensation nucleus and the rain drops will form.

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Nevertheless, this technique might or might not work, and a great deal of synchronisation is needed.

Nyeald

He is our mayor, and world history is one of his hobbies. I don't know where you can find him, he is a busy person and travels a lot.

Bye

Nice chatting to you. It's always good to see people coming to our library.