The Breguine Drill

How did the Breguine dig their massive tunnel system?

The High Rust, with its killing rampage targeting high altitudes, claimed the city-state of Bregos quickly and brutally.
Only a couple dozen Breguines survived the rust and those somehow kept coming and going from their high-above-the-mountains city to the newly risen Kingdom of Thaur too fast and easily for them to be hiking.
The dangerous curiosity of the Thaurian led to the discovery of cave routes connecting the mountaintops with the rest of the island through intrincately manicured tunnels, complete with signs, travellers' posts, ventilation and light systems.
But while the question about the Breguine travelling methods was solved, another mystery arose. How did they do it?

The Haan Archipelago

Open full size

Danae by Naelin

The cartographer Danae from the City of Birdland in Thaur was commissioned to draw a map of the Haan Archipelago for the second edition of The Book of the Habits and Beasts, published in the 3rd of Birthing, 3 E.Ru.
Danae took advantage of the enclyclopaedia's team of researchers to gather precise information and went himself into research expeditions to survey remote areas. His work resulted in what is considered the most accurate and widespread map of the Archipelago to this day, which details even most of the coasts of the Savage Isles.

A lost technology

Warcaya

9 years have passed since the fall of Bregos, and even the too-inquisitive Knowledgeholders have mostly resigned themselves to the idea that they will never know how did such a small population with limited resources managed such a massive engineering feat.
Lots of survivors were consulted on the topic and all denied having ever worked on the construction of the tunnels or knowing about the methods. Several of them took offense with the questioning, as the Thaurine knew beforehand that the cave routes were a state secret for the already secretive Breguine.
With all that considered, some people still think that the technology commonly known as "the Breguine drill" is not lost, but documented somewhere in the ruins of the city state, kept in secret by the survivours of the rusted city.

By Bradley Dunn