Join Nostr
2026-01-24 20:27:56 UTC

nytpu on Nostr: Thinking about how in *The Lord of the Rings*, the dwarves would probably actually ...

Thinking about how in *The Lord of the Rings*, the dwarves would probably actually have the *least* environmental impact out of all the species, including the elves. Because pre-industrial metalworking needed fucktons, absolutely huge amounts of wood to make charcoal for every step of the process (https://acoup.blog/2020/09/25/collections-iron-how-did-they-make-it-part-ii-trees-for-blooms/).

But the dwarves have much more advanced metalworking so—with some synthesis from *Dwarf Fortress* lore—it's likely they knew how to coke mined coal so they wouldn't need to rely on charcoal anymore; plus if they had early modern metalworking technology (advanced casting, high-temperature/blast furnaces, etc.) they could halve their fuel requirements on top of using mined coal as fuel.