Truminium

Administrator Posts : 458 Join date : 2012-02-04

Truminium

An Analysis

As the mortal races of Aeria continue their forward march through the realm of industry, of mass production, machinery and increasingly complex technology, much effort has focused on discovering and exploiting more efficient sources of energy, in order to power this World Revolution. In this regard, beginning in the late 940s and early 950s, the illusive material known as Truminium, previously only an academic curiosity and of little importance to the world at large, quickly became the focus of targeted study and, eventually, mass exploitation. But Truminium is far more than a simple fuel.

On a metaphysical level, all matter and energy is understood to be composed of the same, baseline unit of force - the ‘Will’. The Will is the ‘indivisible’ unit, incapable of being separated into yet smaller divisions. Each Will is also ‘directional’ - each Will embodies an extremely simple metaphysical component, and nothing else - it is incapable of expressing any other information than it’s assigned ‘direction’. Alone, an individual Will is almost entirely unworthy of consideration - but when united together, these Wills and their associated directions form the base for every material, every substance - even the confines of the Soul. The directions, when taken together, provide the necessary information to create everything that exists.

Truminium is unique among existing materials for the fact that the vast majority of its constituent Wills remain entirely unassociated - non-directional, ready to be shaped. It shares this feature with three other materials, all of which are related to Truminium - Ethereal, ‘Obsidian’, and Dorifium. In essence, these four materials form the baseline material - the raw essence of all other materials. Free flowing Ethereal fills the universe, known more commonly as ‘Magic’. It is the most immediately accessible of the materials, easy to marshal and exploit through a variety of methods. Obsidian, by contrast, is far more difficult to exploit. A solid material, it is exceedingly energy rich - far more so than Truminium - but remains stable, unchanging for thousands of years. Dorifium, the final state, is even more stable - enough so that it actually forms the body of an ancient creature, the Dorifium ‘worm’, which inhabits the World Storm.

Truminium, alongside its brethren, is formed under extremely volatile conditions involving large concentrations of energy and mystical pressure. As a result, Truminium most naturally forms within the World Storm at Aeria’s heart, where it eventually comes to rest, forming vast underground deposits and flowing rivers beneath the surface. Here, it plays an invaluable role in Aeria’s continuing development, acting as the fuel by which nearly all substances known to mortals are created. With the help of the World Tree, Kielm, it forms the earth, the air, the seas, all naturally occurring metals and, eventually, even mortal’s own bodies.

Truminium has value as a fuel because of one simple fact - it is unstable. Contrary to the higher forms, Truminium is constantly decaying, a portion of its mass consistently shifting into its lower density brother, Ethereal. This makes it a prime candidate to fuel machinery and technology that relies on magical energy. Through either natural or artificial means, the decay of Truminium can be accelerated so that the entire bounty of energy - on average more than a thousand times richer than the average density of Ethereal - can be converted into Ethereal.

When compared to its brothers, Truminium is the natural candidate as a fuel source. Ethereal can be collected from the environment, but this is time-consuming. Ethereal is also difficult to transport - it can be contained, but comparable volumes of Ethereal and Truminium differ vastly in energy density. Obsidian and Dorifium are several orders of magnitude richer than Truminium, but are prohibitively rare and require an excessive amount of energy to diffuse into exploitable Ethereal.

Unfortunately, the same factors that make Truminium useful as a fuel make it one of the most dangerous and toxic substances in the universe. Its instability means that it can easily form directional associations - as a result, exposure to Truminium in mortals can cause crippling mutations and cancerous growths. It has the properties of an acid against many substances - including flesh - burning through all but a few stable materials. When released into the environment, Truminium can fatally poison an entire ecosystem, leaving nothing but a lifeless wasteland behind. Even exposure to the byproduct of Truminium - Ethereal - can cause unintended consequences. Study has shown than those born in cities where Truminium is used as a power source have a greater chance of being exposed to Ethereal in the womb, causing side effects such as a weakness of the Sacred Field, inviting chronic illness throughout life. It has also been shown to alter the rate of magical potency in an affected populace - the urban poor have a far greater chance of gifted levels of magical potency than the surrounding rural peoples.

Regardless of the dangers, Truminium has become widely adopted by the modern world. The current ‘Truminium Generator’ is not without it’s risks. In a two-step conversion process, Truminium is siphoned through a special array of Navium crystals, shifting rapidly into Ethereal. This pressurized Ethereal is then used to power a magnetic dynamo, forced into motion by carefully tailored enchantments. In the end, magical energy is converted into usable electric energy. The system is not perfected. The Navium crystals must be aligned perfectly - otherwise, the Generator runs the risk of cavitation within the Truminium pipes. The resulting overpressure can - and has been known - to cause tremendous magical explosions, sending Truminium spewing across a landscape and - in at least one case - inducing an Arcane Tempest. The same risk is possible during transport. Kept under sealed, pressurized conditions, the natural rate of Truminium decay causes a steady growth in pressure that must be accounted for. If improperly sealed, ambient magical energy can also cause a rapid diffusion.

Once merely a fringe curiosity - known to mages, scholars, adventurers and certain esoteric sects - Truminium has, by the year 997 MP, become the most important material in the world. As the fuel of industry and progress, nations have and will go to war for control over it. It moves not just industry, but people and nations.

Administrator Posts : 458 Join date : 2012-02-04

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