Landshaping

Landshaping is the process of molding earth and rock and other natural objects into new forms, particularly the forms of structures suitable for human habitation. Achieved through the power of landworking, landshaping is one of the most visible products of landworkers. Many cities in Grower nations are composed entirely, or almost entirely, of landshaped edifices, and some such buildings may be found even in the midst of Crafter communities.

Rituals

There is a ritual of landshaping that is the principal ritual involved in the process. Through this ritual, any natural substance can be reshaped into any form. The ritual also provides some limited protection and reinforcement to the molded structures, reducing the effects of erosion and dissolution and other destructive processes, and even allowing structures to stand in one piece that would otherwise collapse of their own weight. The shapes produced by the ritual of landshaping can be as elaborate as the landworker's skill in sculpture allows; fine detailwork is very difficult, but complex buildings with multiple doors and windows are easily produceable.

However, while some consider work done through the ritual of landshaping to make up the only true landshaping, there are other rituals that can be employed for similar ends, and the use of which is also sometimes considered to be a form of landshaping. The ritual of construction differs from the ritual of landshaping in that it is not limited to using a single substance as it comes, but can tease out trace materials from the earth, allowing the use of metals and gems and other natural materials that may not be readily available close by. Furthermore, the ritual of construction allows subtle and intricate detailing far more readily than the ritual of landworking. Another ritual commonly associated with landshaping is the ritual of excavation. If the ritual of construction allows more minute work than the ritual of landworking, the ritual of excavation is just the opposite; the effects it is capable of producing are cruder and less exact. It merely allows the gross movement of earth or similar granular substances. This, however, is enough to dig tunnels and somewhat coarsely fashioned subterranean structures, and the ritual of excavation is generally easier to perform than the more precise rituals. It's not uncommon for two or more rituals to be used in combination. The ritual of excavation can be used to dig out the broad outlines of an earthen structure, for instance, and then the ritual of landshaping to give it better definition; or the ritual of landshaping can be used to create a structure and the ritual of construction to add ornamentation in different materials.

Tools

Talismans exist that allow landshaping to be done not just by landworkers and dedicants, but by anyone in possession of the tool—or at least, anyone with sufficient favor with the land, since like most landworking talismans they will not function for those with whom Vlastach is too displeased. The most common such talisman is the landshaping trowel, which appears like a simple spade but which allows the wielder to cause drastic reformation of the land just as if he were using the ritual of landshaping.

Media

Perhaps thought of as the most "typical" landshaped structures, especially by those from Crafter nations with little direct experience with landshaping, are the hollow earthen hills, and perhaps great trees with habitable interior cavities. These do exist, but are only a few of the many forms that landshaping can take. Landshaping can be effected with any natural material, which gives landshapers a choice of many possible media.

Earth

While not, as some assume, the only material that can be used for landshaping, overall earth does remain the most common—probably not least because of its abundance. Earthen buildings need not necessarily take the shape of hollow mounds, however; landshaping can form earth into elaborate houses and castles very complicated structures. Although the power of the landshaping enchantment does help the earth to hold its shape far better than it would otherwise, however, there are still limits, and an earthen structure can never reach quite the size or complexity possible for one of solid stone. Still, very elaborate earthen structures are possible, the more so since they can reach far down underground in addition to the part on the surface. Indeed, and earthen structure that on the surface looks quite modest could be just the top of a huge network of many layers of subterranean tunnels and chambers.

Some landshapers enjoy growing plants on top of their earthen structures. While often this only serves a decorative purpose, or an ecological one, sometimes it can be done as camouflage; foliage can hide doors and other apertures, and as long as its shape isn't too blocky and clearly unnatural, a landshaped building overgrown with grasses and bushes may be completely indistinguisable from the surrounding landscape unless one knows exactly where the entrance is.

Stone

Solid stone provides a more sturdy medium than earth, though one not quite as easily come by. Like earthen structures, stone structures may extend considerable distances underground, if created in an area with a substrate of solid rock. Any stone or combination of stones is possible for landshaping, and some landshapers enjoy taking advantage of all the possibilities in their palettes. Sometimes very creative and artistic use is made of the different shades of colored minerals; other landshapers prefer to go out of their way to incorporate more exotic stones such as marble and fine granite. There have been rumors of landshaped buildings constructed entirely of precious gemstones, though these are unconfirmed, and certainly no such building seems to exist now. Some landshapers create edifices mostly of rock, but then cover them with a thin layer of earth, giving them the structural integrity of stone but still allowing plants to grow over them.

Plants

Plant life generally qualifies as natural for landworking purposes, and in forested areas, the trees themselves are often reshaped by landworking powers into livable edifices. A single large tree may be enough for an entire building, though it's quite possible to merge multiple trees together into a single structure if desired. Generally, only the bases of the trunks of the trees are reshaped, and even those minimally, adding doors and windows and perhaps ramps and bridges but otherwise leaving them outwardly more or less the same; the treetops, meanwhile, are left entirely as they were. Sometimes the outward changes to the trees can be subtle enough to not even be noticeable at a casual glance. Forests may contain whole cities that unobservant travelers could pass through unaware. This doesn't have to be the case, however, and trees can readily be shaped into drastically different forms, though if there aren't enough leaves left exposed to sunlight they won't survive long. For that matter, however, dead trees, too, can be landshaped as easily as living ones, the landshaping enchantments forestalling the usual processes of decay.

Though trees are the most common plants used for landshaping, nearly any plant could be so utilized. Of course, other plants are smaller than trees, so a single plant won't be large enough for a building. The most obvious solution is to combine a number of plants, and this is certainly possible; some landshaped structures in prairies, for instance, are made up of large quantities of living grass gathered and woven together through landshaping magics. Another solution, however, is to enlarge the plants, such as by the ritual of amplification or the ritual of vegetation, before applying the landshaping; perhaps there's not enough matter in a single rosebush to make a house out of it, but if the rosebush is first increased a thousandfold in size through the ritual of vegetation, that may be another matter. There is a third possible solution to the problem of the small size of the typical plant: not to enlarge the plant, but to use it as a habitation of a smaller creature. A human may be far too large to live in a house landshaped from a single fern plant, but a tiny chaun may be another matter—as, for that matter, may be a human magically shrunk to minuscule proportions.

Ice

In temperate lands, ice is an impractical building material, even with the effects of landshaping; the enchantments involved may retard the melting of the ice, but will not stop it entirely. In frigid lands where the temperature doesn't rise above freezing, however, ice is an enormously useful material; it is nearly as durable as stone, and much more lightweight, so that structures shaped of ice can reach enormous heights and levels of complexity. Of course, if the landshaper wants the structure to be inconspicuous, it can just as easily be made shaped like a shallow mound, nearly indistinguisable from a simple hillock. Even then, however, the ice's translucency may make its internal cavities noticeable, but not if it's covered with a thin layer of stone or permafrost. In any case, there have been some cases of reclusive landworkers and dedicants shaping enormous ice palaces in the middles of glaciers, and some of these palaces still exist, the most famous being the Castle of Song high in the mountains of eastern Gleva.

Sand

Sand is a relatively difficult material to landshape, but in some desert lands it may be the only medium readily available in quantity. The difficulty lies not in getting the sand to assume different shapes, but getting it to keep them; more so even than for earth, there is a limit to the structural strength with which landshaping enchantments can endow sand, and very large or complex structures are impossible without other materials incorporated to lend their durability. Still, simple buildings can certainly be created with sand, and sometimes that's all that's necessary.

Clay

Some landshapers prefer clay to earth as a medium; it works similarly, but lends itself to smoother surfaces and holds its shape better. Landshapers also enjoy finding clay of different hues and shades and combining it together in swirls and patterns of color. Clay, however, is more susceptible to moisture; the landshaping enchantments provide some protection, but if it stays too wet for too long, a clay structure will collapse into mud. This can be prevented by such means as the ritual of preservation, or (to some degree) by planting grass and other foliage in the surface of the structure to deflect and absorb the water—or simply by constructing the clay edifice in a dry area. Landshaped clay structures usually have angular prismatic forms, often rectangular or hexagonal in cross section, but this is a result of tradition rather than of practicality.

Fungi

Not only plants can be landshaped; fungi also qualify as natural, and have been employed as landshaping material. The giant fungi found all over Vlastach lend themselves to the process almost as well as trees, and some of them are big enough to make entire houses out of their stalks, though, as with plants, it's also possible to combine numerous smaller fungi into a single landshaped structure. Landshapers tend to be more likely with fungi than with plants to mold them into entirely new forms rather than try to preserve the organism's original shape, especially since they're relieved of the necessity to allow sufficient exposed foliage for photosynthesis.

Water

Though it's relatively rare, some landshapers have used the processes of landworking on water itself, drawing it out into great piles and spires or, conversely, excavating into it to create extensive networks of underwater air pockets. By itself, the rituals involved in landshaping will not create stable structures out of water; they can cause the water to form into new shapes, but not long to maintain it. It is, however, quite possible to use the ritual of landworking to create a structure from water, and then quickly use another ritual, such as the ritual of suspension, to sustain it before it collapses—the ritual of expedition is useful here to be able to make the second ritual take effect in time. A number of landshaped structures made of water have been reported in various places in Vlastach's seas, the largest being the Aqueous Tower in the southern part of the Mirror Sea.

Animals

Even animals are subject to landshaping, although they are rarely used for it. When they are, it's mostly dead animal tissue that's used; corpses and offal are shaped together into structures, though, unless only relatively imperishable parts such as bones are used, measures such as the ritual of preservation may be desireable to prevent their rotting. (Landshaped animal tissue decays at about 10% the rate of unenchanted tissue, but the landshaping process alone doesn't arrest the decay entirely.) Since the remains of nearly all creatures qualify as natural once they're dead, even those of creatures that are not considered natural while alive, nearly any dead matter is useable for landshaping—including human bodies. Of course, most people may be appalled by the thought of a building made of corpses, but many landworkers don't particularly care what other people think.

It is possible to landshape living (natural) animals, though this is even more rare than using dead ones. All such cases are legendary, and no examples of structures shaped from living animals are currently known to exist—at least, not on Vlastach proper, though there are stories of them existing in certain fanes.

Other

The above list exhausts the materials that are used for landshaping with any significant frequency, but there are many other materials that have been used on very rare occasions. The Red Labyrinth in the mountains of the southeastern corner of Vlastach is made of liquid lava, formed into the walls of a maze by landshaping and kept from solidifying by other enchantments. In the northwest is Avlasya's Castle, landshaped entirely of the dung of various animals. Maybe the strangest of all, one particular building in a certain city in Aluane is said to be composed entirely of microorganisms, fused together by landshaping into one weird, vaguely glassy-textured structure.