Hm. Unstructured musing. The Hogwarts Express -- which is the only train on the Hogsmeade/Hogwarts rail system, actually, but it's called that even when it's not doing the commuter run -- looks (and steams) like a traditional steam train, but operates just fine in vacuum. And is airtight even though it doesn't look it -- some kind of field effect extends a meter or so out on all sides, holding in air and heat, allowing passengers to open windows and stick various body parts out without losing them to decompression or freezing. How does it do this? Magic, of course.
Neighbourhoods need notes on residential districts, a non-touristy business zone, and maybe even an industrial/warehouse area -- all of which, of course, have at least facades built in typical wizarding "Dickens on LSD" fashion.
Economy needs a mention of Gringotts -- but I don't recall at this time how they dovetail into the greater Fenspace economy (if they do at all -- they may be a completely local bank). Wizarding currency is per the books, which infuriates everyone but the Wizards. Also, galleons are not pure gold; while sufficient gold is available in the Belt to supply a bullion currency, the disparity in buying power between real gold and the fictional galleons made solid-gold coins effectively unusable. (Plus there was the anticipated problem with visitors just taking off with them, causing money supply problems in the long run that Wizard economists didn't want to deal with.) Thus galleons are much smaller than as described in the books and actually something like a 5-karat alloy -- enough gold to be "gold", but not enough to make it worth walking off with them. Hmm. Gringotts is probably the mint as well as the bank -- that would fit.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Neighbourhoods need notes on residential districts, a non-touristy business zone, and maybe even an industrial/warehouse area -- all of which, of course, have at least facades built in typical wizarding "Dickens on LSD" fashion.
Economy needs a mention of Gringotts -- but I don't recall at this time how they dovetail into the greater Fenspace economy (if they do at all -- they may be a completely local bank). Wizarding currency is per the books, which infuriates everyone but the Wizards. Also, galleons are not pure gold; while sufficient gold is available in the Belt to supply a bullion currency, the disparity in buying power between real gold and the fictional galleons made solid-gold coins effectively unusable. (Plus there was the anticipated problem with visitors just taking off with them, causing money supply problems in the long run that Wizard economists didn't want to deal with.) Thus galleons are much smaller than as described in the books and actually something like a 5-karat alloy -- enough gold to be "gold", but not enough to make it worth walking off with them. Hmm. Gringotts is probably the mint as well as the bank -- that would fit.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.