Constructing Souls II (Solo)
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 9:40 pm
Constructing Souls II
Somehow Lyra found herself sitting at a bench, a small dragonshard in hand that she was steadily carving using a set of instruments under Phoma's keen gaze. The process was, fundamentally, very similar to other works she had done in the past with both necromancy and Scrivening.
"The Core," Phoma said, leaning over Lyra shoulder, "Is the mind of the construct. It is what gives the construct its ability to function, to work with the pieces you have made a part of its body. Should the core become damaged the construct will no longer function."
Lyra tiled her head, noting that the pictographs she used were variations of 'mind' and 'command'. These pictographs were not of her own design but were something Phoma herself had shown her and demonstrated. Apparently, these were used to give the Core, or this dragonshard, the properties required to hold onto the commands that they would be presenting to it shortly. As she worked Lyra found her mind drifting, thinking on the implications of what it was she was actually doing. In her time magic such as this had not existed, and in fact, it likely would have been seen as corrupt or unethical. But in reality, Artificing was the magic of creation, of functionality. No different from the Scripts, if Lyra truly thought of it.
With the scripts, Lyra could create what was collectively known as a ritual. In essence, this was a series of interlaced glyphs that worked together toward a larger goal. Line after line of glyphs could be created, and when read in sequence by the magic at play it caused a very specific set of actions to occur. With Artificing, however, rituals in and of themselves seemed so... limiting. Phoma had described the works of master artificers and their creations, and what she spoke of seemed so amazing that Lyra found herself disbelieving that such a thing could even be possible. With a Ritual she could cause rippling effects of large magnitude based on specific instructions, but with artificing one could give generalized instructions, and have the construct act based on rudimentary controls placed within them.
What that amounted to was something which could, in theory, decide on its own what the best outcome was based on a situation, and adjust itself to achieve that outcome so long as it was within its range or scope of ability.
Rediculous. Lyra thought, not for the first time, If such a thing were possible then... then...
Then what was even the purpose of her learning all that she had? Lyra, one who mastered the art of the scripts and could command aether in ways that would boggle the mind. This magic made what she could currently do seem like a parlor trick, limited by what could be written down.
A part of Lyra wanted to reject Artificing in its entirety. It felt like an insult that something like this would come about as if from thin air and invalidate all she had thought was possible. This was worse than learning of Negation, harder to accept than the thinning of aether in the world, and more profound than the existence of the cardinal runes of magic themselves. The part of her that felt these things however was greatly overshadowed by another part of her, one which felt its soul tremble at the possibilities. This was not just magic that could create constructs, this was the ability to create souls... or imitations of them at the very least.
"A construct, or golem as some call them, is composed of a Core, a body and an Aether Well." Phoma continued, "The body is fairly straight forward to understand. If you look at this room the 'body' of the construct would be considered the room itself, and the Aether Wells are scattered throughout this space. The Wells are what give the golem the illusion of life, letting it absorb ambient aether from the environment to help power its functions."
"The Aether Well... is it similar to the vortex designs utilized within the scripts?"
"In part, yes, but the trick of Aether Wells is in the pictographs which present 'life' or 'organic'." Phoma said with a smile, "Though I admit I am not as knowledgeable on the why of it all, I do know that the two types of wells, the Lure and the Shroud, are utilized based on what you need them to do. A Shroud uses items that inherently possess the ability to absorb aether, and thus the pictographs required are not as intricate. The Lure, however, can be anything so long as you use blood in the pictography, nad specific pictographs to imply 'life'."
That statement made Lyra frown, and she looked up at Phoma who motioned for Lyra to ask her question.
"Aether, through the use of pictography, can be drawn in and stored using schema designed to capture and redirect aether into storage containers. That Aether, however, is considered only marginally useful depending on its source. Why then does Artificing require such specifics when creating their Wells? Why must they be given the illusion of life?" Phoma seemed about to speak, but Lyra was already continuing, her eyes distant as she began to process, "Unless the issue is not in capturing and storing aether for use... With the scripts one typically captures ambient aether expelled from another source or reaction, to contain radiant aether so has not to harm the environment or to reduce net loss... In the case of constructs, however, these pictographs..."
Lyra paused, lifting the Core and turning it over in her fingers. It took a moment, but suddenly she noticed something that had been bothering her throughout the process, "These pictographs... They are not specific. They are generalized, focused on the concepts of retaining knowledge or actions which shall come later. Aether which the wells drawn in is, in essence, immutable as it is not coming from another source which would cause it to become unstable or uncertain. Aether which a living creature absorbs, however, must be broken down and made mutable so that it can be used for whatever function the living body requires at that time."
Phoma blinked, and Lyra raised the core up for her to see as well, "In that case, the reason your wells must be constructed to fool the aether into thinking it is being drawn into something living, is in order to force it to become mutable, and thus let it be adaptable to whatever process your construct requires of it. That is... " Lyra's brow furrowed and she put the Core back on the table, "That shouldn't be possible at all."
For a long moment, Phoma did not reply, a look of bemusement on her face. After some time she finally blinked and scratched her chin, shrugging slightly, "Like I said I won't pretend to understand why it works... Though it seems you really know your stuff. You have never worked with artificers before this?"
"No." Lyra said, working on the core once more, "But the principles of pictographs are universal. The Scripts, in a way, have their own soul, and it has been my life's work to understand and manipulate that soul. Understanding how and why something functions is the foundation of the Dinor'afiel."
"The... what?"
Lyra hesitated before continuing to carve, "It is nothing. Their kind cannot be found here."
"I see..." Phoma rested a hand on Lyra's shoulder, making the other woman look up in surprise. The older woman's smile was sincere, and she gave Lyra's shoulder a gentle squeeze before letting go, "You remind me somewhat of my husband."
"How so?"
"Oh, he was a rather intense man. He would spend hours, sometimes days at this very workbench, absorbed in his latest project. He spoke the same way you did, many levels above my own understanding, but I could tell..." She tapped the corner of her eye with one finger, "In his eyes, there was a passion for the work. He loved it, the complexity of it. I see something of that in your way of working as well."
Without meaning to Lyra smiled, and chuckled softly under her breath as she looked back down at the almost completed Core, "He must have been a very frustrating man then. I have been told I give too much of myself to the Scripts."
"Frustrating, yes." the older woman sighed, hands on her hips as she looked around the space, "But he was truer to himself than anyone else I have ever met."
73rd of Ash, 120 AS
"The Core," Phoma said, leaning over Lyra shoulder, "Is the mind of the construct. It is what gives the construct its ability to function, to work with the pieces you have made a part of its body. Should the core become damaged the construct will no longer function."
Lyra tiled her head, noting that the pictographs she used were variations of 'mind' and 'command'. These pictographs were not of her own design but were something Phoma herself had shown her and demonstrated. Apparently, these were used to give the Core, or this dragonshard, the properties required to hold onto the commands that they would be presenting to it shortly. As she worked Lyra found her mind drifting, thinking on the implications of what it was she was actually doing. In her time magic such as this had not existed, and in fact, it likely would have been seen as corrupt or unethical. But in reality, Artificing was the magic of creation, of functionality. No different from the Scripts, if Lyra truly thought of it.
With the scripts, Lyra could create what was collectively known as a ritual. In essence, this was a series of interlaced glyphs that worked together toward a larger goal. Line after line of glyphs could be created, and when read in sequence by the magic at play it caused a very specific set of actions to occur. With Artificing, however, rituals in and of themselves seemed so... limiting. Phoma had described the works of master artificers and their creations, and what she spoke of seemed so amazing that Lyra found herself disbelieving that such a thing could even be possible. With a Ritual she could cause rippling effects of large magnitude based on specific instructions, but with artificing one could give generalized instructions, and have the construct act based on rudimentary controls placed within them.
What that amounted to was something which could, in theory, decide on its own what the best outcome was based on a situation, and adjust itself to achieve that outcome so long as it was within its range or scope of ability.
Rediculous. Lyra thought, not for the first time, If such a thing were possible then... then...
Then what was even the purpose of her learning all that she had? Lyra, one who mastered the art of the scripts and could command aether in ways that would boggle the mind. This magic made what she could currently do seem like a parlor trick, limited by what could be written down.
A part of Lyra wanted to reject Artificing in its entirety. It felt like an insult that something like this would come about as if from thin air and invalidate all she had thought was possible. This was worse than learning of Negation, harder to accept than the thinning of aether in the world, and more profound than the existence of the cardinal runes of magic themselves. The part of her that felt these things however was greatly overshadowed by another part of her, one which felt its soul tremble at the possibilities. This was not just magic that could create constructs, this was the ability to create souls... or imitations of them at the very least.
"A construct, or golem as some call them, is composed of a Core, a body and an Aether Well." Phoma continued, "The body is fairly straight forward to understand. If you look at this room the 'body' of the construct would be considered the room itself, and the Aether Wells are scattered throughout this space. The Wells are what give the golem the illusion of life, letting it absorb ambient aether from the environment to help power its functions."
"The Aether Well... is it similar to the vortex designs utilized within the scripts?"
"In part, yes, but the trick of Aether Wells is in the pictographs which present 'life' or 'organic'." Phoma said with a smile, "Though I admit I am not as knowledgeable on the why of it all, I do know that the two types of wells, the Lure and the Shroud, are utilized based on what you need them to do. A Shroud uses items that inherently possess the ability to absorb aether, and thus the pictographs required are not as intricate. The Lure, however, can be anything so long as you use blood in the pictography, nad specific pictographs to imply 'life'."
That statement made Lyra frown, and she looked up at Phoma who motioned for Lyra to ask her question.
"Aether, through the use of pictography, can be drawn in and stored using schema designed to capture and redirect aether into storage containers. That Aether, however, is considered only marginally useful depending on its source. Why then does Artificing require such specifics when creating their Wells? Why must they be given the illusion of life?" Phoma seemed about to speak, but Lyra was already continuing, her eyes distant as she began to process, "Unless the issue is not in capturing and storing aether for use... With the scripts one typically captures ambient aether expelled from another source or reaction, to contain radiant aether so has not to harm the environment or to reduce net loss... In the case of constructs, however, these pictographs..."
Lyra paused, lifting the Core and turning it over in her fingers. It took a moment, but suddenly she noticed something that had been bothering her throughout the process, "These pictographs... They are not specific. They are generalized, focused on the concepts of retaining knowledge or actions which shall come later. Aether which the wells drawn in is, in essence, immutable as it is not coming from another source which would cause it to become unstable or uncertain. Aether which a living creature absorbs, however, must be broken down and made mutable so that it can be used for whatever function the living body requires at that time."
Phoma blinked, and Lyra raised the core up for her to see as well, "In that case, the reason your wells must be constructed to fool the aether into thinking it is being drawn into something living, is in order to force it to become mutable, and thus let it be adaptable to whatever process your construct requires of it. That is... " Lyra's brow furrowed and she put the Core back on the table, "That shouldn't be possible at all."
For a long moment, Phoma did not reply, a look of bemusement on her face. After some time she finally blinked and scratched her chin, shrugging slightly, "Like I said I won't pretend to understand why it works... Though it seems you really know your stuff. You have never worked with artificers before this?"
"No." Lyra said, working on the core once more, "But the principles of pictographs are universal. The Scripts, in a way, have their own soul, and it has been my life's work to understand and manipulate that soul. Understanding how and why something functions is the foundation of the Dinor'afiel."
"The... what?"
Lyra hesitated before continuing to carve, "It is nothing. Their kind cannot be found here."
"I see..." Phoma rested a hand on Lyra's shoulder, making the other woman look up in surprise. The older woman's smile was sincere, and she gave Lyra's shoulder a gentle squeeze before letting go, "You remind me somewhat of my husband."
"How so?"
"Oh, he was a rather intense man. He would spend hours, sometimes days at this very workbench, absorbed in his latest project. He spoke the same way you did, many levels above my own understanding, but I could tell..." She tapped the corner of her eye with one finger, "In his eyes, there was a passion for the work. He loved it, the complexity of it. I see something of that in your way of working as well."
Without meaning to Lyra smiled, and chuckled softly under her breath as she looked back down at the almost completed Core, "He must have been a very frustrating man then. I have been told I give too much of myself to the Scripts."
"Frustrating, yes." the older woman sighed, hands on her hips as she looked around the space, "But he was truer to himself than anyone else I have ever met."
"Lady of Whispers"
