Island building

The seas of Gadarren are of two kinds, the great deep encircling ocean that separates the two continents, and the numerous smaller shallow seas that divided the landmasses on each continent, these seas are a magnitude shallower than the deep oceans, and in some places only a few metres deep, it is in these places that the Galen constructed artificial islands.

            Islands had strong symbolism to the Galen people they for a start, sort of showed the land as a complete system, a sort of world in miniature set amongst the sea, these islands therefore were thought of as separate microcosms which had there own separate ways of working and magic. Initially the different fauna and flora discovered on the islands further increased this belief that they were sort of isolated worlds, though later ideas about evolution would overrule these ideas.

            The Galen set about trying to construct their own islands hoping that they through the efforts of their construction were able to build a land with a set of unique properties, a sort of new land with in built design properties. Though this may seem strange, Humans have long built structures that were supposed to enhance certain ‘natural’ properties, gardens promoting tranquility, temples of healing etc.

            The first islands were constructed in the shallow seas from piling up rocks and dirt, and even hacking up the Sargassoes for material, and to produce a soil. These new lands were treated as temples, and eventually some of these people split off from the rest of Galen civilization to form the Sea Races who exclusively lived on islands. The already strong mysticism about islands constructed a sort of sub civilization, highly religious compared to most other contemporary cultures. These sub-civilizations far from being insular helped to support the increasing ocean going activity, acting as central exchanges for trade and information. The inhabitants of these islands were also not just pious priests of the Sea, but also excellent tradesmen and navigators and organized a great deal of the goods distribution. In these ways the Sea Races were an important group, who for their help and advice gained favour from the greater Galen civilization.

            However in time the Sea Races began to wane, partially from the decreased ocean trading but also a sort of religious fanaticism, which eventually led to their slow decline, though island out posts were again set up after the age of mysticism, there function was far less active than what had happened before.

            With the onset of the Galen modern age island building was took on with new interest, but rather than for religious reasons the new islands were constructed to satisfy scientific reasons, these islands served as testing grounds for new technologies, as well as being an essential part of a global monitoring and communication system sprouting microwave transmitters and meteorological equipment.

            There were also a number of new construction methods open to them. A common and very successful technique was to inject into boreholes sunk into the limestone beds of the seas, large quantities of chemicals which reacted with the rock to expand and so facilitate the growth of new islands. Another method at that time was to use corals (later genetically engineered) to create the basis for an island, usually being grown off a prefabricated framework, and which allowed very fine control of final shape building islands complete with harbours and jetties. Perhaps the most important use for these technologies were to build land bridges between the larger islands and the continent, which then could serve as roads, also such projects could be used for generating tidal power. At one point consideration was given to crisscrossing the shallow seas between the peninsulas and as a result not only opening up transport networks, but also generating such a substantial amount of electrical power that it would near replace all existing power plants. Though these ideas were suggested only a few of these ‘sea roads’ have been built, the reasons mostly because of the huge amount of construction effort, but also for aesthetic and cultural regions.

            Though some of these technologies have been used to the same effect in other federation civilizations, the Galen could take these ideas to extremes as they were not limited to only a few locations but sizable amounts of their own planet.