7th of Frost, 120 AS
Lyra had been curious about Artificing ever since she first learned of the practice from Phoma a few weeks previous. The simple idea that she could, with some effort, create an artificial construct without requiring a soul was so mind-boggling to Lyra that she had taken some time to adjust mentally to the concept. Today, however, she decided to dedicate the time to study the process in greater detail.
She had already purchased the items she required. A set of gemstones of various sizes and cuts, none of them dragonshards for the time being. She cleared off the desk in the back corner of her lab that she normally used for her notes, and she made a mental list of things she would need to purchase in the future depending on what she gleaned from this process. Today, however, was a simple test. She wanted to determine if what she imagined was actually possible. Thus she took a large scroll from her supplies from the shop and carried it down the steps with her, laying it out fully on her wooden desk and weighing down the edges with small stones. From a shelf on the other side of the Lab Lyra procured a vial of spellwrights ink, the simplest version with no additional properties, and a long straight quill made for detailed work.
The first step in artificing was a simple one. She wanted to produce a circle of minding, but one slightly modified. She did not wish for the circle to be so large that she had to stand in its center to have the desired effect. Instead, she thought it must be possible to shrink its size to something more manageable. That was why she chose the most basic of spellwrights ink, a stable medium to produce the desired result. She started with the central circle, the one in which the golem's core would be placed. It was larger, taking up most of the top portion of the parchment. She used braided bands to form the outer circle, signifying encapsulation or containment so that when she started what was placed inside the circle would not escape. She then began to steadily draw a series of pictographs from the outer edge of the circle inward. These were depictions of stylized eyes and hands which reached and grasped at the center of the circle. The core that was placed in the circle would be aether rich, and the circle of minding needed to be able to harness and manipulate that energy in meaningful ways. The eyes were infused with the idea of watching and inspecting, to activate when certain fluctuations occurred. For the time being it was unlikely something like that would happen, however, one could never tell. At the very center of the circle, Lyra drew a square from which she extended a series of twisting lines that she wove between the grasping fingers of the hands and to the outer circle. These would be the pathways that linked the core to the circle of minding itself.
Sitting back Lyra examined her work, nodding slowly as she looked at it from different angles. It was simple, yet it would do the job she suspected. Next, she started on the area of the glyph where she would interact with the circle of minding herself. She drew two more, smaller circles, on the page nearest to herself. Using a similar version of the glyphs from the larger circle Lyra made the hands grasp the outer edges of the circle instead of reaching inward. Where the hands touched she created simple lines that wove together into one larger path that connected back to the greater circle of minding. That seemed to be all that was required, oddly enough, and Lyra sat back and double-checked her work to be sure.
"Too simplistic." Lyra muttered to herself, rubbing her chin in thought, "The design is meant to simply convey instructions to a vessel, which will be carried out when placed inside a body and certain conditions are met. For that, the circle of minding in its current state is sufficient, however..."
This was where Lyra's thoughts began to drift to the possibilities. Artificers, as she understood them, used this glyph to interact and convey rules to their cores. Once that was done the circle of minding itself was all but meaningless. Yet as she looked at it, Lyra saw other possibilities. With this simple design, there was a way to interact with external aether trapped within a vessel. True the cores had to begin formless and malleable, but the implication was that one could use this design to work with constructs of greater complexity. Could one change a core that was already made? Or did it need to be wiped clean and started over? If one COULD break what was there and reshape it, could the process be done on other things besides simple golem cores?
Lyra felt her mind drifting too far into the realm of speculation, and with a shake of her head, she refocused herself on the desk. A thought did occur to her, and after a brief moment of hesitation, she began work on the larger circle once more. Off to the side, Lyra drew another pictograph, this one a spinning vortex made of 3 layered circles, at each layer she reversed the vortex design until the final layer where she drew a series of lines expanding out and collecting to another point farther away. At that point, she drew a square and a series of cortexes moving toward its center. She then connected the first pictograph back to the larger circle of minding, where it connected she drew a small stylized eye which she then linked back down to the smaller circles where she would interact with the glyph. If she had done this correctly, when she trigged this function of the glyph the aether stored in the center of the circle of minding, in the core, would be drawn out and through the pathways drawn out. At the first glyph the aether would be filtered out, filtered, and cleansed before being transferred to the last glyph which would have the aether left over-collect once more, preferably into a waiting gem or another container. The idea was that with this method Lyra could easily purge a core and all its contents, and salvage some of the aether after all of the internal commands had been stripped away.
Nodding to herself Lyra set her quill down, standing and stretching her hands over her head. Now then, she needed something to experiment with. On the shelf next to her desk there sat a basic of small gems of various types and cuts. Lyra selected two of them, both cheap emeralds about the size of her thumb. They were not exceptionally valuable, but they COULD hold aether if properly infused. One of the emeralds Lyra simply set in the output of her core purging system, the other she carried with her through a doorway into the white-walled area of her necromancy lab. Here she had a specific area designed to help her work with dragonshards, and while this gem wasn't a dragonshard, she could use the tools here to work on the soon to be core.
Walking to the series of pedistals on the back wall Lyra approached the one made for dragonshards. From the shelf above Lyra took down a small tool, carved with pictographs to improve sharpness and aid in etching, and set her gem on the pedestal before her. The glyphs glowed faintly, but as there was no aether to work with they quickly dimmed. Lyra smiled ruefully but used the small metal tool to begin carving small and simple designs on the surface of the gem. The first two pictrographs were simple. The first she placed was a spirling design that lead to an inner diamond shape. This was the path of infusion, which she would use when she took the gem upstairs to infuse it with aether. The second she placed on the flattest side of the gem, a square with a stylized hand at its center. This was where the gem would connect with the circle of minding, and allow her to manipulate the aether contained within. The next few pictographs she kept as simple as she could. These were focused on giving the gem the ability to hold information, to let it listen to commands, and to accept her instructions. This would, in a way, make it so that the aether stored inside of it was more malleable like that found in a living person. With some amusement Lyra realized that the glyphs used were very similar to those used to create a soul gem, a fact that she was sure would play an important role in her future plans.
When she finished Lyra held the small gem up, inspecting it with a smile before heading out of the lab and up the stairs for the infusing step.
Lyra had been curious about Artificing ever since she first learned of the practice from Phoma a few weeks previous. The simple idea that she could, with some effort, create an artificial construct without requiring a soul was so mind-boggling to Lyra that she had taken some time to adjust mentally to the concept. Today, however, she decided to dedicate the time to study the process in greater detail.
She had already purchased the items she required. A set of gemstones of various sizes and cuts, none of them dragonshards for the time being. She cleared off the desk in the back corner of her lab that she normally used for her notes, and she made a mental list of things she would need to purchase in the future depending on what she gleaned from this process. Today, however, was a simple test. She wanted to determine if what she imagined was actually possible. Thus she took a large scroll from her supplies from the shop and carried it down the steps with her, laying it out fully on her wooden desk and weighing down the edges with small stones. From a shelf on the other side of the Lab Lyra procured a vial of spellwrights ink, the simplest version with no additional properties, and a long straight quill made for detailed work.
The first step in artificing was a simple one. She wanted to produce a circle of minding, but one slightly modified. She did not wish for the circle to be so large that she had to stand in its center to have the desired effect. Instead, she thought it must be possible to shrink its size to something more manageable. That was why she chose the most basic of spellwrights ink, a stable medium to produce the desired result. She started with the central circle, the one in which the golem's core would be placed. It was larger, taking up most of the top portion of the parchment. She used braided bands to form the outer circle, signifying encapsulation or containment so that when she started what was placed inside the circle would not escape. She then began to steadily draw a series of pictographs from the outer edge of the circle inward. These were depictions of stylized eyes and hands which reached and grasped at the center of the circle. The core that was placed in the circle would be aether rich, and the circle of minding needed to be able to harness and manipulate that energy in meaningful ways. The eyes were infused with the idea of watching and inspecting, to activate when certain fluctuations occurred. For the time being it was unlikely something like that would happen, however, one could never tell. At the very center of the circle, Lyra drew a square from which she extended a series of twisting lines that she wove between the grasping fingers of the hands and to the outer circle. These would be the pathways that linked the core to the circle of minding itself.
Sitting back Lyra examined her work, nodding slowly as she looked at it from different angles. It was simple, yet it would do the job she suspected. Next, she started on the area of the glyph where she would interact with the circle of minding herself. She drew two more, smaller circles, on the page nearest to herself. Using a similar version of the glyphs from the larger circle Lyra made the hands grasp the outer edges of the circle instead of reaching inward. Where the hands touched she created simple lines that wove together into one larger path that connected back to the greater circle of minding. That seemed to be all that was required, oddly enough, and Lyra sat back and double-checked her work to be sure.
"Too simplistic." Lyra muttered to herself, rubbing her chin in thought, "The design is meant to simply convey instructions to a vessel, which will be carried out when placed inside a body and certain conditions are met. For that, the circle of minding in its current state is sufficient, however..."
This was where Lyra's thoughts began to drift to the possibilities. Artificers, as she understood them, used this glyph to interact and convey rules to their cores. Once that was done the circle of minding itself was all but meaningless. Yet as she looked at it, Lyra saw other possibilities. With this simple design, there was a way to interact with external aether trapped within a vessel. True the cores had to begin formless and malleable, but the implication was that one could use this design to work with constructs of greater complexity. Could one change a core that was already made? Or did it need to be wiped clean and started over? If one COULD break what was there and reshape it, could the process be done on other things besides simple golem cores?
Lyra felt her mind drifting too far into the realm of speculation, and with a shake of her head, she refocused herself on the desk. A thought did occur to her, and after a brief moment of hesitation, she began work on the larger circle once more. Off to the side, Lyra drew another pictograph, this one a spinning vortex made of 3 layered circles, at each layer she reversed the vortex design until the final layer where she drew a series of lines expanding out and collecting to another point farther away. At that point, she drew a square and a series of cortexes moving toward its center. She then connected the first pictograph back to the larger circle of minding, where it connected she drew a small stylized eye which she then linked back down to the smaller circles where she would interact with the glyph. If she had done this correctly, when she trigged this function of the glyph the aether stored in the center of the circle of minding, in the core, would be drawn out and through the pathways drawn out. At the first glyph the aether would be filtered out, filtered, and cleansed before being transferred to the last glyph which would have the aether left over-collect once more, preferably into a waiting gem or another container. The idea was that with this method Lyra could easily purge a core and all its contents, and salvage some of the aether after all of the internal commands had been stripped away.
Nodding to herself Lyra set her quill down, standing and stretching her hands over her head. Now then, she needed something to experiment with. On the shelf next to her desk there sat a basic of small gems of various types and cuts. Lyra selected two of them, both cheap emeralds about the size of her thumb. They were not exceptionally valuable, but they COULD hold aether if properly infused. One of the emeralds Lyra simply set in the output of her core purging system, the other she carried with her through a doorway into the white-walled area of her necromancy lab. Here she had a specific area designed to help her work with dragonshards, and while this gem wasn't a dragonshard, she could use the tools here to work on the soon to be core.
Walking to the series of pedistals on the back wall Lyra approached the one made for dragonshards. From the shelf above Lyra took down a small tool, carved with pictographs to improve sharpness and aid in etching, and set her gem on the pedestal before her. The glyphs glowed faintly, but as there was no aether to work with they quickly dimmed. Lyra smiled ruefully but used the small metal tool to begin carving small and simple designs on the surface of the gem. The first two pictrographs were simple. The first she placed was a spirling design that lead to an inner diamond shape. This was the path of infusion, which she would use when she took the gem upstairs to infuse it with aether. The second she placed on the flattest side of the gem, a square with a stylized hand at its center. This was where the gem would connect with the circle of minding, and allow her to manipulate the aether contained within. The next few pictographs she kept as simple as she could. These were focused on giving the gem the ability to hold information, to let it listen to commands, and to accept her instructions. This would, in a way, make it so that the aether stored inside of it was more malleable like that found in a living person. With some amusement Lyra realized that the glyphs used were very similar to those used to create a soul gem, a fact that she was sure would play an important role in her future plans.
When she finished Lyra held the small gem up, inspecting it with a smile before heading out of the lab and up the stairs for the infusing step.
