Kalkoraen devices

Much is known about Kalkoraen magical devices, though none of the surviving artifacts is functional. Unlike Mar wizards, who manipulate the myst directly with their tor, the Kalkorae used devices to control magic. Kalkoraen devices consisted of at least two parts — harvester and focus. Most Kalkoraen devices also included a conduit, and some devices also made use of a relay.

The harvester gathered ambient energy and used it to produce magical energy. Whether it did this by calling the myst the way Mar wizards do or whether harvesters were able to transmute natural energy into supernatural energy, no Kalkoraen device could function in the absence of a steady supply of energy. Virtually all harvesters depended on turning a wheel, though this wheel could be small or large and could be powered by wind, water, steam, clockwork, or even simple muscle. While not all harvesters were fixed structures like windfans and water wheels, such large harvesters could produce a supply of energy orders of magnitude greater than that provided by small, portable harvesters.

The focus was the most difficult and expensive part of a device to produce, for its shape and the materials of which it was constructed defined precisely what magic effect it produced when fueled by a harvester providing adequate power. While a focus could make use of the energy provided by any harvester, no focus was capable of more than one magical effect. Certainly, it was possible to modify the effect's potency or target by means of a few fairly simple adjustments to the focus, but a focus that produced a telekinetic pulling force, for example, could not also produce a pushing force. The shape and even the materials required for each of these foci would likely be completely different.

By the time they arrived in Marrishland, the Kalkorae designed most foci and harvesters with standardized connectors such that any focus could connect to any harvester. This allowed them to use the same harvester to power several foci without requiring several times the energy the harvester could normally provide. It also allowed them to move a focus from one harvester to another, providing the benefits of that focus in several places without needing multiple copies of the same focus.

Conduits transported magical energy from a harvester to a focus along an unbroken bar or cable of metal. The Kalkorae favored copper for this purpose because it was readily available and relatively easy to work without being especially prone to breaking under stress, but they also used lead, iron, and tin quite often. Even gold, silver, and sealed tubes of mercury occasionally served as conduits.

Often the Kalkorae wished to place a focus in an area where there was not enough energy or space available for a harvester. Also, anyone familiar with Kalkoraen devices would recognize the strategic value of targeting large, visible harvesters instead of the smaller individual foci. While a focus required a significant amount of time to craft, most Kalkoraen outposts in dangerous regions kept spare foci at hand so that, in the event that a focus was damaged beyond use, it could be replaced in a matter of minutes. A disabled or destroyed harvester, however inexpensive to build, could not be replaced with any speed unless it was especially small, in which case it likely did not produce much power. Conduits allowed the Kalkorae to protect their harvesters while placing foci farther afield. Of course, while permanent conduits were often reinforced or buried to preserve them from damage, they still posed a very attractive target for any enemy who could find them. The need to protect these critical conduits limited the Kalkorae's growth and hampered their ability to explore on land.

The most advanced Kalkoraen devices employed relays, which connected three or more conduits. One of the problems the Kalkorae faced was that their harvesters could only be connected to one focus (or conduit) at a time. If the magical output of a harvester was greater than that required by the focus, the excess energy was wasted. If the output was insufficient, the focus remained inert. Second, a focus immediately lost power if the harvester stopped moving, so something as simple as a lull in the wind could shut down a magical weapon even in the heat of battle. Third, a focus could not operate except when in direct physical contact with a Kalkoraen operator. Finally, while disconnecting a focus from a harvester or conduit and connecting a new focus required an effort of mere minutes, sometimes even this seemed like an eternity.

Relays greatly alleviated these problems. First, a relay allowed several foci to draw power from a single harvester, so it became reasonable for the Kalkorae to build a few large harvesters rather than needing to choose between many harvesters of varying sizes to power many foci or a few large harvesters to power those foci most needed at a particular moment. Further, it allowed several harvesters to power a single focus, which made more powerful foci viable even in the immediate absence of incredible natural forces. Together, this ability to split and merge flows of magic allowed for conduit redundancy, making a sufficiently elaborate Kalkoraen infrastructure far less vulnerable to sabotage and sudden lulls in wind or other forces.

Second, relays could store energy in excess of that which it needed to power foci connected to it. This storage was not especially efficient, as even a relay with no focus connected to it would lose most of the energy that flowed into it. It also was not a closed system, as power invariably leaked out over a period of hours, days, or — in the case of the largest relays — weeks. Relays also had a very limited capacity for energy storage — largely determined by the physical volume of the relay and the complexity of the matrix generated within it — and any energy beyond the relay's capacity was lost. Despite their flaws, however, relays' ability to store energy drastically reduced the waste caused by power spikes and the sudden loss of focus functionality caused by power lulls.

Third, relays could activate connected relays and foci so long as the relay was in direct physical contact with a Kalkoraen mede. This allowed a single Kalkorae to operate many foci simultaneously. It also allowed the Kalkorae to produce relay-building relays that could produce new relays in a matter of moments even if the operator was not familiar with the process. This represented the height of Kalkoraen magical advancement, however, so only a few such relay-building relays are known to have existed.

Finally, relays could control the flow of energy to connected foci. On simple relays, this was simply a switch or dial that selected which focus was active at a given moment. More complex relays allowed a mede to power up a focus without powering down another focus. The most advanced relays could be set to switch on one connected focus only if one or more other connected foci already had sufficient power. This allowed relay creators to ensure that, in the event of a power lull, foci with the highest priority would remain powered even if there was not enough energy to supply all connected foci. A few major relays even allowed a mede to change the priorities of connected foci with as much ease as powering up and powering down foci with a less complicated relay.

Unlike harvesters, foci, and conduits, relays could not be built by mundane means. All relays consisted of a hollow, air-tight container, but this was not the essence of the relay. Building a relay required the use of several specialized foci used simultaneously and in sequence by Kalkoraen artificers who knew exactly what they were doing. These foci produced a magical effect (called a matrix) within the container that controlled the way the relay operated. While this matrix lasted, the relay behaved as designed. While matrices were often complex, it generally required very little energy to maintain their integrity. Cut off from a supply of energy and left unpowered until its energy was completely expended, however, the matrix would eventually cease to exist.

It is said that the most elaborate device ever built was the Kalkoraen library at Domus Palus. The library had no books, as we understand them. Instead, the Kalkorae stored all their knowledge on matrices contained within a trio of huge relays. Any Kalkorae could access this information via an elaborate relay and focus array connected to the library relays by hundreds of conduits. The technical explanation of how the library's matrices might have functioned is the subject for an entire library, in itself, but the net result was that the foci displayed images and text in three dimensions in response to the operator's queries, acquiring its information from the library matrix. When the last Kalkoraen mede in Marrishland died, no one could retrieve information from the great library matrix. For centuries, Mar scholars maintained the harvesters that supplied the library — perhaps in hopes that another mede expedition would come from the West. By the time the Gien Empire captured Domus Palus thousands of years later, however, nothing remained of the great library's matrices. It is believed the relays connecting the harvesters to the library deteriorated until they could no longer maintain their matrices, and this led to the gradual failure of all the connected matrices. The loss of the Kalkoraen library could not have been more total if it had burned to ashes.

(Contributed by Weard Oda Kalidus)

Copyright 2005-2007 Eric Zawadzki and Matthew Schick. All Rights Reserved.
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