The Hieronhortean Energy Deficit

Perhaps the biggest mystery of the predatory lands of the protectorate of Hieronhorte is the very fact that its broken ecology can sustain so many large predators when the perennial ash clouds and black mist make the existence of plant life and therefore herbivores impossible in the whole area.

This is further evidenced, though far from explained, by the extraordinary amounts of toxins the tissues of most hieronhortean living beings, feeding on other predators accumulate, to the point that their meat is often outright poisonous for common humans. Savages and especially ogres are no exception. Their meat is almost as poisonous as that of many of the monstrosities of the protectorate, though they seem to have developed a partial resistance themselves, just like they adapted to the cold temperatures without having to wear extra layers of clothes.

Just like traditional thermodynamics alone cannot explain this latter adaptation, traditional biology alone cannot explain an ecosystem of predators consuming other predators and still somehow generating enough calories to keep these beings running. This problem is known as the Hieronhortean Energy Deficit. A number of theories and in fact entire camps have emerged over the years trying to explain this mystery.

At one of the extremes stand those that argue, backed by fossil, yet sparse evidence, that the area was once a lush jungle, not unlike that of Malahs Kovoss, that went through a slow but sustained process of  increased volcanic activity that eventually resulted in the Hieronhorte of today. This process, they believe, was slow enough to give the living creatures in it time to evolve and adapt to the new environment, with many migrating underground.

Plentiful schools of fish, plankton and even pods of whales are known to feed most of the maritime creatures near the coast of this protectorate. Some caverns are known to be hosts for sprawling fungal masses and molds feeding on detritus and nutrients in the water, and vast colonies of bacteria are known to sustain the closest thing to grazers, mostly echinoderms and worms deeper around the numerous hydrothermal vents. Even the most generous estimates however couldn't sustain even half the wildlife inhabiting the area, unless the unexplored depths of the protectorate are much bigger than believed and saturated with these things.

At the opposite end of the spectrum of theories stand those that defend a faster hieronhortean cataclysm. They believe the volcanic change that befell the protectorate was quick and wiped out the vast majority of native living beings. They disagree on what caused this cataclysm exactly, with the most popular theories pointing to saurians and sub-saurians as punishment and a strategy to keep their former masters away respectively, but most of them agree that conjuration played a large part in it, propitiating and accelerating the latent volcanic and tectonic threat.

Many of the often unnatural-looking creatures prowling the hieronhortean underground are in fact explained as beings either created or brought into this world through conjuration. Detractors argue that creating or summoning beings from scratch, let alone a whole ecosystem, is well past the capabilities of any human, which at most allow someone to lure and coerce them into service, especially in the absence of hoards of gold or other materials heavy in Arkhe to consume in the process.

Then again, defenders argue, this would actually explain the scarcity of gold in The Steppes and the known world as a whole.

This theory however suffers the same problems as its counterpart. Rough estimates of every known past gold deposit and the maximum total amount possible to have ever existed in the planet is nowhere near enough to justify even half the creatures known to inhabit Hieronhorte.

This leads to a third, perhaps bigger problem, the fact that even both theories combined could not explain the totality of the creatures in the protectorate, so the energy deficit debate rages on unsolved.