Devices & Technology¶
Supplementary to WorldbuildingSynthesis. Detailed information on Devices, weapons, and the technological landscape.
Devices¶
Discrete objects that use Exousia in conjunction with runes. A Device consists of four essential components:
- Germ: The core — a container forged from exousium (refined crystalline material) that holds and channels raw Exousia.
- Source (Spark): A charge of pure Exousia imparted by a Conduit.
- Set: The "brain" — an intricate arrangement of runic symbols that guide the flow of power.
- Form: The physical shell that houses the mystical components.
Touchstone: Danger Beast Items (Akame ga Kill)
On elemental Devices: a Device never contains bound Primal (elemental) magic — Primal is called from what is present and cannot be stored as a working. An elemental Device holds raw Exousia in its Germ (the Source/charge) and shapes it on discharge through its Set (an Investment working). The fuel is elemental substance; the shaping is Innovation-craft — which is why elemental technology belongs to the Runic Builders, not to natural elementalists (the Connected).
Named Devices¶
Weapons: - Asura (Assurance): A blade forged to battle monsters consumed by magic. A thin, black blade shrouded in a veil that distorts the air in a magic-consuming vortex. Darkest at the tip, lightest at the hilt. Forged in an eastern city-state by a madman driven to steal the powers of magicians. The blade is corrupted by his desires. - Abe (Aberration/Ability): (Details TBD) - The Entropic Blade — a runic sword that Cyrus acquires partway through the campaign. Additive equipment, not core to Cyrus's identity or combat archetype — he fights as a Positional Striker with or without it. In the fiction it is a Runic Builder's imbuement weapon: its runic Set lets the wielder shift the elemental signature the blade channels, and it carries its own Exousia charge. Origin and circumstances of Cyrus's acquisition TBD. (Full mechanical entry — charges, imbuement, Device-only Skills, the Tune Momentum: Named_Devices.md.)
Objects: - The Elpidi Ward (working name — TBD): A treasured Device held by the Elpidi / Order of Pious Sun that shields its bearers from the Consumption, the overaccumulation affliction of the Forest. It is the true reason the Order survives in the Swamp; most of them credit their group-travel instead. Likely a hybrid Hope/Innovation working (a soulshard-fused artifact from old Kyanos). Name, form, and exact mechanism are unsettled — see Open Questions — Naming. - Skin of the Chosen: Carved from the hide of a legendary beast, this skin shapes itself to the wearer. - Altesh, The Reaver - Wreth, The Luce - Cruin, The Wave - Ioril, The Silence - Rukar, The Listener - Shannis, The Shooter - Lilsanis, The Ocean - Urithil, The Serpent - Kuth, The Slayer - Cirith, The Kite
(Most of these are names only — descriptions needed.)
Ampoules¶
Exousia batteries. Became necessary after the Disruption because the altered Exousia landscape made traditional Device charging unreliable. First created by Kadmos, who also used them to prolong his own life.
Ampoules are charged by spending time in the Forest, where ambient Exousia is plentiful. They serve as portable power sources for Devices in the post-Disruption world.
Runic Builders¶
A pre-Disruption profession combining elements of programming and mechanical engineering. Runic Builders harnessed Exousia by way of Runes — a system of symbols intrinsic to nature, following a structure of formal logic.
Ergastiri (lit. "Workshop"): The foundries out of which Runic Builders operated, largely privately owned.
In the post-Disruption world, this knowledge has been largely lost. Cyrus is one of the few surviving practitioners.
Technology Tiers¶
The world has a stark technological divide:
Public (Kuklos Anankes): - Primitive metalworked weapons (swords, bows, crossbows) - Pottery, textile production, basic agriculture - Devices stigmatized as demonic (Collective propaganda)
Adventurers/Scouts: - Railguns (powered by ampoules) — carry heavy social stigma - Salvaged Devices — functional but unreliable in terraformed zones
The Collective (secret): - Combustive armaments (gunpowder-based firearms — 300 years of secret development) - Beam weapons (known only to highest echelons, developed by Kadmos) - Augmentation technology (biomechanical enhancement) - Adaptive armor, cloaking tech - Dropship aircraft (Osprey-type)
Black Market: - Bubble shots (trap targets) - Energy cannons - Wresters (drain life force) - Sparktakers (steal energy from other Devices)
The Disruption's Effect on Technology — the Device Problem¶
Pre-Disruption Devices were built for the old Exousia landscape. The Domain overwrite changed the land's Exousia signature beneath them, and a Device's runic Set is still tuned to the old one — so the Devices fall silent or behave unpredictably. The fault has two layers, and conflating them is why the world misunderstands its own broken machines:
- Supply. The inert/overwritten land no longer offers the Exousia a Device expects. Ampoules patch this layer only — a charged ampoule gives the Device something to draw, which is why salvaged Devices run but run unreliably. Supply restored; signature not.
- Signature. Even fed, the runes are calling for a resonance the world no longer speaks. No amount of fuel fixes this — it needs a correction: a re-tuned Set, or a converter-module that re-aligns incoming Exousia to what the runes expect.
Why the Devices died is a genuine in-world mystery (Elantris-style) — the runic knowledge is all but lost, and most simply believe Devices are cursed or demonic (a belief the Collective cultivates). The correction is rediscoverable only by a Runic Builder; Cyrus is the foremost survivor. Finding it re-enables a dormant order of technology at a stroke. Until then, only the Collective has the resources to limp new Devices along at scale. (Full gameplay treatment: Exousia Economy; metaphysics: Cosmology — The Device Problem.)