A
A Thornton
Guest
Hi
I'm doing some research for a fantasy novel I'm writing. I wonder if you'd mind helping me get some of the details right?
The novel is set in a world where the sky is completely blanketed with debris from a comet. The people in the novel have retreated to a cave system high in the mountains until the weather recovers (in about 10 years time).
I'm wondering about things like whether they would get any sunlight for vitamin D? Would one of those skylights do the job, even with the debris cover in the sky?
If I set it in a lava type cave, would they have a dirt-ground area to sleep on? Or would an erosion cave be better? The soluble ones are damp, aren't they, and that wouldn't make a conducive living environment.
What kind of food would they have, given that external animals aren't going to venture there much due to the terrible conditions outside?
I know they'd have cave rats, salamanders, lots of bugs and bats (can you eat bats?) But what about anything with vitamin C in it? Does anyting besides mushrooms grow inside a cave?
I'm thinking that to avoid some of these survival problems for my characters, the caves could be set high up in the mountains which could peek just above the cloud cover, so that the cave skylight could provide real sunlight (just in one tiny area of the cave). They could potentially grow a little food there. Is that realistic?
Any help you could give me would be much appreciated.
Regards
Alinta Thornton
I'm doing some research for a fantasy novel I'm writing. I wonder if you'd mind helping me get some of the details right?
The novel is set in a world where the sky is completely blanketed with debris from a comet. The people in the novel have retreated to a cave system high in the mountains until the weather recovers (in about 10 years time).
I'm wondering about things like whether they would get any sunlight for vitamin D? Would one of those skylights do the job, even with the debris cover in the sky?
If I set it in a lava type cave, would they have a dirt-ground area to sleep on? Or would an erosion cave be better? The soluble ones are damp, aren't they, and that wouldn't make a conducive living environment.
What kind of food would they have, given that external animals aren't going to venture there much due to the terrible conditions outside?
I know they'd have cave rats, salamanders, lots of bugs and bats (can you eat bats?) But what about anything with vitamin C in it? Does anyting besides mushrooms grow inside a cave?
I'm thinking that to avoid some of these survival problems for my characters, the caves could be set high up in the mountains which could peek just above the cloud cover, so that the cave skylight could provide real sunlight (just in one tiny area of the cave). They could potentially grow a little food there. Is that realistic?
Any help you could give me would be much appreciated.
Regards
Alinta Thornton