Floor Heating

According to contemporary descriptions, one of the many marvelous bells and whistles of the acadean imperial palace was an advanced floor heating system. To outsiders, the architects of the palace never disclosed how exactly the system actually work, so all that follows is based on guessing, estimation and a few findings made during the early stages of excavation of the imperial palace. That being said, here's what is known, or at least a good estimate.

Due to the many active volcanoes of the region, there were several hot springs in and around the city of Acadea. During Marain's excavations, a complex system of small tunnels and pipes was found in the floors of important rooms of the palace. Most likely, those tunnels and pipes allowed the hot spring water and steam to be distributed underneath the rooms to keep the floors nice and warm. As to how exactly the water was distrubuted, next to nothing is known to date.

The acadean architects and technicians were intellegent folk with the ability to use their environment to their advantage. They were the most brilliant minds from all over the Acadean Empire. They were able to make use of the hot springs in several ways, including inventing floor heating for the palace and also building thermal baths. Unfortunately, their discoveries were destroyed with the city or haven't been recovered yet.

Utility

This method of heating the floors of the imperial palace was quite effective. There are, however, a few accounts that describe a particularly cruel Emperor using the, apparently, readily available boiling hot water to torture information out of non-cooperative prisoners.

Social Impact

Many of those describing a visit to the imperial palace of Acadea were astonished and amazed by the heated marble floors, since those kinds of floors are otherwise notorious for always being cold to the touch. Apparently they were so utterly in awe of this, that most of them deemed it worth mentioning in their accords.

Inventor(s)

The inventor or inventors of this technology are, as far as we know, not recorded and therefore remain unknown.

Access & Availability

From all that's known today it seems like this technology was only used in the imperial palace, though it cannot be ruled out entirely that other rich citizens might have used it as well.

Complexity

This technology mostly required clever use of environmentally given conditions and resources, so the most complex part of it was how to distribute the heat evenly without having to have slanted floors. How this was done is still a mystery to date.