Sodden thought....

So, I'm scouring the internet for maps of the Caribbean, Central America, and the northern reaches of South America for my embryonic Pathfinder RPG setting. Of course, all the good modern maps, even the plan topographic ones, include the Panama Canal. Bit of a bother.

But then it hit me. My image for the Elvish and Dwarf empires that existed here before falling in the magical equivalent of a nuclear exchange is that they were more advanced, technologically and magically, than their European cousins. So why not have the dwarves dig a canal? Can you imagine it? Summoned earth elementals, golems, slave gangs of lizardmen from the deep jungles carrying out debris, steam engines fired by captive fire spirits, all overseen by the Builder-Priest caste. There would, of course, been fortifications and guardhouses at each lock. And even after several centuries, those golems might still be patiently working, dredging the canal, hauling out rockfalls. I can even see a society of gnomes that worship the locks, and maintain them and defend them against all invaders.

Oh, yeah.. I'm starting to like this idea...