The greatest single accomplishment of mankind in the history of Khoras is that of a single spell which was conceived, arranged and executed by the will of a single man. This spell was called the Focusing and that man was Alrem Evarel.
For a detailed look at the historical events leading up to the Focusing, refer to History and specifically, the Age of Dreams.
Alrem Evarel was a genius, visionary thinker and a member of the Alliance (a powerful guild of mages) that held great power in imperial politics. Early in his career, he discovered that the sun of Khoras was outputting a type of raw magical energy along with light, heat and radiation. He also discovered that this raw magical energy was interfering with the flow of normal magic. This magical "static" he called dark essence. He conceived a grand scheme - a cooperative spell combining the magical skills of dozens, if not hundreds, of Alliance Mage Lords. This spell would convert this magical static, this dark essence, into useable energy - an unlimited fuel source for the Alliance to power their spells.
It was decided that the Focusing would be conducted far from the imperial capital and this was not without reason. In the border lands between the empire and Traxx there existed a large valley and region of hills known as Baen. The valley of Baen was dotted with numerous villages and near its center a town called North Aden. The town of North Aden was chosen as the site of the Focusing because of a small methkari mining operation which operated just outside of the town. The area was rich with concentrated deposits of methkari crystal. Alliance mages searched the area and found one particularly large concentration of methkari. The miners were ordered to clear away the rock exposing a single block of methkari weighing over 50 tons. This single massive crystalline block was chiseled and cut and polished down to a perfect semi-sphere. This core crystal, which was simply called the Core, would be the focusing element of the spell and would channel the cosmic energies involved.
Rather than go to the expense and trouble of moving the 50 ton crystal, Alrem decided to hold the Focusing right there in North Aden. He rather liked the beautiful valley and the seclusion away from imperial politics. He thought it would afford the Alliance the privacy they needed to work. A large castle was constructed around the block of methkari. This great hall, called the Assembly Hall, was constructed specifically for the casting of this one spell and it was here that the mages came together for their work. The Hall, the research and the training were all completed in the year 460 TIC.
The actual process of the Focusing involved changing the nature of dark essence... in effect, converting anti-magic to magic by changing its polarity from negative to positive. This was to be accomplished by the following:
Granted, this description is vague and the science involved hazy. Very few Mage Lords were able to grasp the complexities of Alrem's theories and almost all technical writings on the subject were destroyed when the Sundering occurred. All writings, notes and magical research at North Aden was destroyed along with the Assembly Hall. What little is known of the Focusing has been pieced together from writings that were stored elsewhere in the world.
The Assembly Hall was a gargantuan building designed with a circular architecture around the central Core with an open roof design to prevent there being a physical barrier between the Core and the sun. Thus, the great circular building closely resembled the great Coliseum at the capital.
The Assembly Hall was home to about 250 Mage Lords at the time of the Sundering, although the exact number varied from week to week during the years leading up to the Sundering. In addition, a population of almost 600 servants, slaves, laborers, apprentices, craftsmen and nobles served the Mage Lords. Within its walls it housed a great library, several laboratories and magical research chambers, an apothecary, a hospice, a tournament hall, a feasting hall, a dance hall, a market, several gardens, eleven pools, an aviary and more. It was much more than research center - it was a home and self contained city.
Because the Assembly Hall was built on top of a mining operation, the Alliance was able to take advantage of several dozen pre-existing mining shafts. These were built upon and expanded which resulted in a number of large, underground levels to the Assembly Hall. These underground levels were used mostly for storage.
The Assembly hall was home to over 200 Mage Lords, but only about 70-80 were "active" (physically engaged in the spell casting process) at any one time. The Mage Lords worked in teams of five and alternated between on-duty and off. Each team of Mage Lords, when they were on duty, would show up at the great central courtyard with a dozen or so servants in tow, take up their positions in the tiered stadium, and begin casting their portion of the spell. Most of these mages generated mutatetric waves. Others monitored the energies within the Core.
Once each day, when the sun reached its zenith, the Master of the Core (sometimes Alrem, sometimes another high ranking Mage Lord), would conduct the Zenith Ceremony - the releasing the energies stored in the Core and send the mutatetric waves toward the sun. Once all energies were released, the Master of Ceremonies would leave and the Mage Lords would end a "shift". Throughout the rest of the day and the evening, other Mage Lords would fill the Core with energies for the next day's Zenith Ceremony.
Sunder Shards
When the Sundering occured and the shock wave leveled North Aden and the Valley of Baen, the Core was shattered into thousands of pieces. Many of these shards vaporized at ground zero. Others were catapulted into the atmosphere only to land hundreds of kilometers away. Because of the tremendous energies involved, these shards were imbued with the most powerful magic. Those shards that have been uncovered over the years still possess great energy and are called Sunder Shards. Sunder shards are exceptionally rare and powerful. Only eighteen shards have thus far been recovered.
This page last updated Wednesday, December 24, 2008. Copyright 1990-2009 David M. Roomes.