Natrosmar Clan

The Natrosmar are a clan of dwarves specializing in the extraction of minerals and salts from water via reverse osmosis.

Natrosmar villages and enclaves can be found in deltas, like the Araquar, but are not found in the muddier deltas, preferring instead the rocky, cold areas of brine.

Mining
The Natrosmar are part of the Natriar Nations, a group of the Natriaraequ, the Natrimar, and the Natrosmar. All of these group mine from the sea, each collecting in a different way. The Natrosmar use reverse osmosis to collect all the minerals they can from salt and springwater.

The minerals are then collected into unified ingots known as solvpig, short for dissolved pig iron. Much of the ingots are of iron, and solvpig is used in farm tools and implements.

The watermills turn turbines that are laid with copper wire. This wire transfers electricity into large jars, known to humans as Leyden jars, but to the dwarves as Thilmeg jars.

Thilmeg jars are used to power a form of automatic crossbow used only by the elite bodyguard of the Emperor of the Dwarven Domain. These crossbows light the oil-covered bolts on fire, terrifying enemies and burning what must be burned.

Leadership
The Natrosmar are led by a Deg, also known specifically as a Milldeg. The Milldeg will control a network of ten to fifteen water mills and filtration facilities, and control the region around them. A Milldeg is paid five percent from every profit of every mill, along with all of the profit from his personal filtration facility.

The Degs all unite in the House of Lords, which decides on the laws of the land and what their representative to the Natriar Nations' triumvirate will do. Most of the time, the Lords are called by the High Deg, who is the executive power and representative to the Triumvirate of the Natrosmar.

Housing
The Natrosmar live in atomic family units in their water mills. The housing is typically at the top floor, and getting there involves climbing numerous ladders through the cogs and axles of the mechanism. The mechanical floor has two different systems, but they each intertwine with the other, and the third system, the osmar system on the lower levels, is almost fully independent.

The water mills turns a series of cogs and axles that turn a large turbine, with copper wire around it. The charge is then driven into the Thilmeg jars by a cog with wire sticking out, and the jars moved through the charging station by a conveyor belt, turned by a separate branch of the water mill system.

Meanwhile, the osmar system is connected to a slow-moving cog system connected to the mill. The osmosis tubes are connected to the large cog, and slowly turn, collecting as much sediments and dissolved minerals as possible, then being turned into the mill for collection by the current puller. The puller is a position, replaced at the end of each four-hour shift, whose job is to remove the filled osmosis tubes and replace them with a clean one. Next to the puller is a blower, whose job is to use a long tube to blow the sediments out of osmosis tubes and into a large metal bowl, placed above the fire. The sediments are melted, and at the end of each day poured into molds for ingots.

Fish are redirected through a side channel, which is sometimes set up with a net during the migration season. The rest of the water goes through to the osmar and electric systems.

Natrosmar sleep in rather basic bedding, with the luckier ones sleeping in actual beds, usually ornately carved for a Milldeg or High Deg. Others sleep in large troughs of hay on the upper floor or hammocks hanging down from the rafters in the mechanical levels. Sleep is seen as a necessary evil in the highly productive culture of the Natrosmar.

On the top floor, between the oversized troughs of hay, is the kitchen and living area. It consists of benches, typically covered with furs or reed mats, surrounding the large pot and chimney where the jultoush.