Mines of the Monkin-doo

Summary

The mines of the Monkin-doo serve multiple roles - home, workplace, town are all interconnected through the mine. For a monkin-doo, the mine is intimately connected with their very sense of identity and few will voluntarily quit their mines for a permanent move. Each mine is occupied by what might loosely be termed a clan - a group of related families who trace their ancestry back to a common point, typically, though not always, a female.
The forms of the mine vary; and what follows is a general overview for each mine (and indeed individual part of a mine) has its own evolution of these principles. Sometimes this is a conscious choice, sometimes accident of survey or geology, always taken seriously.

Ancestral Tunnels

some clans, or families within a clan see their tunnels as the very representation of their ancestry hewn from the living rock and the parts of the mine where they live form a veritable family tree spreading out in three dimensions from the ancestral tunnels; the tunnels linking the delvings of each generation and the chambers off each forming the living spaces. As generations pass away their sections become part of the public space of the mine managed by those whose chambers branch out from that point.
This principle is compromised in practice by the cross linking of various parts of the tunnels - sometime through accident of mining or poor surveying; sometimes as a statement of the joining of two families and occasionally as a compromise of practicality when following the "ancestral route" becomes too impractical for routine. In this last case the areas connected are parts of the public spaces, in the first two it is the private workings that are joined.
This is generally believed to the the original form living for the Monkin-doo but is ill suited to many of the areas they work, or their larger settlements. As a result it is sometimes used just for the living areas, and perhaps only by those produest of their ancestry.

Communal Halls

The antithesis of the ancestral tunnels are the great cavernous halls found in areas where the sought minerals are found in large deposits or where the mining is more akin to quarrying. Here may be found great halls for ceremonial or communal use or where buildings have been erected to sub divide a great chamber into individual dwellings or workshops.
In all but the most traditional of mines - most of the Monkin-doo's social life takes place in the mine's communal halls as well as those parts of the mine's industry that need more space or labour than an individual family's chambers can afford.
These halls typically begin as the chambers from which the stone or minerals sought by the Monkin-doo are mined. What happens next depends on the material mined. Where the mining is being carried out for stone (either for building purposes elsewhere in the mine or for trade with those who live above the ground) some of the chambers will become masons' yards where stone is worked, carved or finished; others will be used as the sites for erecting dwellings or other workshops and some decorated for communal use.
The most affluent mines will decorate each chamber as it falls out of use for mining, repurposing them as newer chambers become available - an act of conspicuous consumption which can account for a fifth of the mine's labour chiselling the fine decoration onto the rough walls.
Where the mine engages is heavier industry - the smelting of metals for example, some chambers will be dedicated to this. Often selected to be close to the surface for ventilation and sources of water these halls may be dug specially for the purpose rather than just being the byproducts of extraction.

Depth and Status

Regardless of the above you will generally find the monkin-doo of the highest status living in the loest levels of the mine, emphasising their position as lords of the dark and not needing to venture above ground. Exceptions to this occur where the geology of the lower levels is unstable, flooding an issue or the high status monkin need frequent access to the workshops of the upper levels.

Founding of a Mine

Once founded mines, if successflu, grow organically and may (see below) link up over time. But how does a new mine establish itself. Most mines trace their ancestry back to a single female Monkin-doo, whose name the mine will normally bare, but the actual foundation is another matter that takes us into aspects of Monkin-doo society that are unfamiliar even to many of the Monkin-doo.
Three ways are known for mines to begin and after a couple of generations the differences can be hard to spot, especially in areas where communal hals dominate.

• The Bachelor Mine - one or more (usually male) Monkin-doo begin a new work in what they believe to be a promising area for minerals. The initial mine, if successful is used to attract a mate and so the mine begins it's communal life; the monkin-doo who were present when the initial shaft was sunk have the revered status of "ground-breakers". The archetypal mine begins in this way with a single bachelor - where more than one is involved then a conflicted first couple of generations is the norm. If the mine is unsuccessful, the miners will usually disperse trying other areas or joining another existing mine - but with lower status than they had hoped for.

• The Colony - occasionally a mine's population will become too large, political divisions too extreme or reports of the geology elsewhere just to apealing and a group fill be formed and head off to start a new mine. Except for those prompted by political divisions the colony will be considered part of the parent mine until it has been established long enough to be clearly viable. After that, well it all depends on the mines and their monkin.

• The Elopers - Rarely two monkin will run off from a mine with a view to setting up an independent life. This triumph of romantic hope seldom ends well - but it has been known to succeed and even the dour and practical monkin value hope.