Keeping someone warm in a freezing location with medieval technology

Question

A quest line in my game features the kidnapping of someone from The Hotlands to an area known as The Ice Hills.

The people from The Hotlands require a hot body temperature to function correctly, and mostly live in volcanic areas where temperatures can easily reach boiling point (100 °C [212° F]). They can function, although badly, down to around 15 °C(59° F).

The people from The Ice Hills are the very opposite where they require an extreme cold body temperature to function and survive. They mostly live in areas of around -2 °C(28.4° F) but, they can function, badly, at up to 20 °C(68° F).

There are also Middle-Worlders who are like normal people. The other two people find it difficult to trust the Middle-Worlders. (Even though they run the forges and smith items for the people of The Ice Hills.)

Using technology from the dark ages how can they keep him above 15 °C(59° F) so he doesn't die but, below 20 °C(68° F) so the people of The Ice Hills can speak with him.

I want to refrain from using magic if possible.

So far I can only think of lighting fires in some sort of greenhouse.

Answer 1

If the Hotlanders are warm-blooded, then given enough animal skins, food, and fire, they should be able to endure the cold. We humans like to live around 21C, but routinely endure -17C with proper attire and shelter.

The Ice Hill people have a house. In the house, they've built two rooms. The first room has a fireplace with a raging fire. The second room has no fire. When they want to converse with the Hotlander, he exits his comfortable room, dons animal skins, and walks through the door in to the colder section of the house. The colder section would be warmer than the Ice Hill people like, cooler than the Hotlander likes but it would be survivable for both.

Answer 2

Assuming both people thermoregulate, no problem

Mammals and birds are endothermic, meaning that they create the heat they need to maintain their body temperatures inside them. Since they require a specific body temperature to live, these animals must also be able to cool themselves.

For the Hot-heads, heating themselves should be no problem. If their body maintains its own body temperature, then all they have to do is wear a polar bear-worth of skins and they should be fine. Their body will generate heat as needed until it is at the correct temperature.

The Ice-queens will have a bit more trouble, depending on how cold they need their internal body temperature to be. Human body temperature is around 37 C, which is generally hotter than the daily average temperature anywhere on Earth. Humans are almost always able to shed heat to the environment because the environment is colder than their body. Humans also sweat to drop the extra heat.

The Ice-folk probably won't be able to sweat; since their typical environment is below freezing sweating wouldn't do much good. I would assume that applying ice/snow to themselves would be their preferred method of cooling down and maintaining their preferred body temp.

Therefore, in order to meet each other, the people should interact in a cool enviornment more suitable to the Ice-kins, and the Hot-ites need to bundle up.

Answer 3

1. Igloos
2. Caves

I should have noted that I assumed the hotlanders were cold-blooded due to their major struggles with the cold. This may not necessarily they're as cold-blooded as earth reptiles, but colder than earth's warm-blooded animals.

Of course, you'll need a fire of some sort, but if you can vent the smoke and can keep the opening protected, you can make it comfortably warm in a number of different settings even with medieval tech because we've been keeping ourselves warm in cold settings for millennia.

Answer 4

As already mentioned, igloos are good. But not just any igloo will do. Most cartoon and "common man" igloos are just domes with a side opening. It should look like a dome without an opening. The entrance should be designed like a hole dug under a fence. It should go under the side of the dome's wall. In other words the only way to the igloo should be from below the floor level. Why, you ask? Because thermodynamics.

Secondly, one should stay as near as possible to the top of the dome to keep warm. Warm air goes up and cold air down, so there should be an elevated stand where to sleep and/or stay.

In temperate environments staying cool requires a supply of cool fluid. Water conducts heat well. But how to get cool air? Solution: a hut with a cone-shaped roof and a long chimney in the middle. It allows for the warm air to rise up and not gather in the hut itself. In this case you actually want to enter the hut from above the floor level to trap cool air in.

Answer 5

There is one more possibility,hot springs,cracks in the surface exposing a dormant volcano,he could (stand inside a cave ) talk across a crevasse and the ice people could stand outside and talk all they like,they could also toss in food/offerings depending on how that person is set up

Answer 6

The Ancestors knew how to keep warm with neolithic technology during the ice age over 20,000 years ago, so devising insulating clothing, insulating shelters (both temporary and permanent) and high calorie foods like Pemmican or eating blubber will help fuel the metabolic engines.

Insulation is generally done by having still air pockets, so insulating clothing can be made from sheets of grass woven together at a minimum, although gathering down and trapping it between two layers of fabric or wearing fur is far superior. Since down coats become useless when wet, while fur sheds water and snow, fur is by far the preferred option.

Otzi the iceman went out onto a glacier dressed like this

This goes for other things as well. Temporary show shelters can be created by digging into fresh snow so the fluffy texture acts as insulation. Layers of branches or grass between you and the ground reduce heat loss as well. More permanent shelters will be or resemble igloos, and a National Film Board documentary on how to build a real igloo is here

So the main issue in your scenario is the people from the hot zone will require more insulation, and will need to be fed more food or more often in order to remain warm in the arctic. Since this sort of environment has been lived in by our own human Ancestors for 20,000+ years, this really shouldn't be much of an issue, unless the cold people decide not to expend the extra resources to do so.