I noticed something weird. The Dark Lens is very specifically made of obsidian, and it enhances psionics and magic. Yet it seems to be “part of” the Pristine Tower … which was made in the Blue Age, when neither psi or magic existed, and is made of life-shaped weird porous rock. Why isn’t the Dark Lens made of jet or some other bio-derived mineral?
It would make far more sense if the Dark Lens was a Time of Magic era creation. Obsidian orbs are used both in Green Age psionics (the Mind Lord/Guardian orbs) and dragon magic … But they’re not used in life-shaping, at least not in the limited form of life-shaping we see described in Windriders.
But the Dark Lens seems to “fit” with the Steeple of Crystals in the Pristine Tower. Could it be a later retrofit?
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Also, was the Dragon’s Levy only required to maintain Rajaat’s prison because the Dark Lens had been stolen? Sadira re-seals Rajaat’s prison in Cerulean Storm, and there’s no hint that continual maintenance will be needed … But then she throws away the Dark Lens… It’s very weird.
Or maybe since Sadira draws her power from the sun, her seal on Rajaat’s prison will automatically be renewed every day from sun-energy rather than life-energy like the Dragon used? But then what happens when Sadira dies … she’s not immortal. (Or is she? I’d expect her to age normally at least at night… But that would at best double her lifespan.)
I don’t think the Lens in the lava is still synced-up with Sadira and feeding power to Rajaat’s prison, because she says she needs to set wards to tell her if anyone messes with it … If she was constantly flowing magical energy from the sun to her to the Lens to Rajaat’s prison, she’d notice anyone messing with the Lens, right?
Umm, yeah that (the Dark Lens being from the Blue Age) isn’t my understanding - text from pg 346 of the v8 3.5e Rules:
“The Dark Lens is an ancient artifact thought to have been created by Rajaat as the Time of Magic was coming to an end. The evil sorcerer fashioned the Dark Lens as a focus for his power, amplifying his magical and psionic energies to unheard of levels. Using the Dark Lens, Rajaat created other powerful artifacts - such as the Silencer, the Scorcher, and the Scourge. Rajaat also used the Dark Lens to give his 15 champions their incredible powers.”
Huh, yeah, Psionic Artifacts of Athas also says that. That makes way more sense … But I had thought that the Dark Lens + Steeple of Crystals + Pristine Tower were originally one ‘assembly’ and went together. I’d thought the implication was that all three were used together to change the sun.
But maybe I just read it wrong originally and was going off in a weird direction.
Hmm, if the Dark Lens is much later, does that imply the Steeple of Crystals was “retrofitted” too?
IDK that it necessarily implies anything, as I suspect Rajaat was more than capable of either making the Dark Lens to be compatible with the Steeple when he made it.
Absolutely he could… I’m wondering about what the Steeple was designed for beforehand, if the Lens is vastly later. The description in Amber Enchantress sounds to me like it’s designed to focus on … an empty space where the Lens should be.
But maybe the Pristine Tower had something else there originally that Rajaat got rid of and replaced with the Lens?
Wasn’t it the Pristine Tower that changed the sun the first time? Wouldn’t it be reasonable for the Steeple to be involved in that change, and the Dark Lens to have then changed how it did that (and thus changed the sun again)?
It was definitely the Pristine Tower the first time, yeah.
What I’m wondering is … If the Steeple of Crystals is designed to focus on some central point (and Rajaat added the Dark Lens there), what was it focusing on before?
Did Rajaat create the Dark Lens in order to basically “hot wire” the Pristine Tower for his own purposes, removing whatever central focus thing was there before?
There’s something very odd about the PT, honestly. All the rhulisti stuff seems to be life-shaping … based on manipulating life. How does that give the power to alter the sun? Sure, life gets its energy from the sun, but only from sunlight that’s already arriving … the power to alter biology, and affect how it uses the energy arriving from the sun, doesn’t seem to logically connect to the power to reach out across space and alter the sun itself.
But elemental magic existed at the end of the Blue Age, right? Is the Pristine Tower basically using some weird variant of fire/sun elemental magic?
We know from D&P that Rajaat tempered with the tower: At the Pristine Tower, Rajaat found a small band of halflings who were the descendants of the last nature masters. While unable to shape the basic blocks of life as their ancestors could, these halflings nonetheless possessed the keys to theknowledge Rajaat so desperately sought. He befriended the band, learned from them, then took control of the Tower and altered it to fit his needs.
As for the original weirdness of the tower, @darkinterloper had a few theories iirc
This is what Brian came up with after back and forth discussions between us, when we were working on Dregoth Ascending. The too-many crystals are reflections since the room is cylindrical and polished like a mirror. You can see that the inner metal circle, surrounded by the seven crystals, is empty, as described in the novel. (The pinkish thing above is the Steeple’s crystal cupola, gathering the sun’s rays.)
Did the Lens replace an eight crystal, or even incorporated it in its makeup somehow?
Was there an inner metal circle at all before Rajaat altered the place?
I would say that this is rhulisti engineering because it looks so fucking weird. If Rajaat had built it all he would have made it be purely magical, and this is clearly functional, with identifiable components, which I imagine have functions.
Not everything related to rhulisti needs to be alive, you know; that seems to be the writer of Windriders going somewhat overboard with biological-ness. Some of what they did was supernatural, as in it accessed the Black or Gray, the elements, or something psionic. The things they didn’t have was sorcery (of course), and limited to no access to psionics, the elements, and druidry’s link to the land. They managed. Like it was pointed out, they managed to change the sun without magic per say.
I think that the insistence around the biological-ness of tools used by halflings (according to Windriders) is that it’s the least difficult rhulisti science to master and thus the only rhulisti science the rhul-taun still possess.
Life shaping in its heyday was vaster and more potent than just breeding lifeshaped tools. If Rajaat had mastered all of life shaping he would not have needed sorcery to undo the changes wrought upon the Blue Age.
I agree life-shaping must have originally included much more than breeding lifeshaped tools, but I thought the rhulisti specifically did not have psionics.
Is their use of/knowledge of the Black or Gray mentioned somewhere?
I agree they did have elemental cleric magic … though it may have been rare, it was around.
The Blue Age rhulisti did build the Tower, the Pearl, and some other stuff I’m sure, that can affect or that draw upon what Brown Age scholars would classify as the supernatural, so that’s psionics, the elements, the land’s lifeforce, the Grey and Black.
It didn’t mean they were mindbenders or elemental priests.
They understood light and shadow well enough that the Tower manipulated those, so it must mean a theoretical understanding of the Black. Science.
Hmm, but if Rajaat made the Dark Lens and altered the Pristine Tower, did the tower do light/shadow/Black stuff before that alteration?
I agree that the rhulisti had some “magic” aspects in their artifacts, but this might be elemental magic … at least thematically elemental, even if it’s a wizard spell in game mechanics terms (like the Last Tree’s chain lightning).
Psionic Artifacts of Athas specifically says that the Centennial Brain and Green Rhul gained psionic powers after the fact.
IDK that it necessarily implies anything, as I suspect Rajaat was more than capable of either making the Dark Lens to be compatible with the Steeple when he made it.