Blauen Light

Of late I've been quite ill with myriad complaints and not really up for much. I get ill a lot (in case you hadn't noticed) so I've been spoiling myself with films, books, TV stuff and EVE and generally not being very interesting or creative. But one thing I have been doing is inventing Dwarven thaumatech*

This is probably of no interest to any one but myself and my friend Oleg (for who's game these thaumaturigal mysteries and inventions were created) but since this is my blog, then I can post what ever I want to and thats about the end of that. Heh heh heh heh.

So any way, in this role playing game, I play a group of Dwarves (yes they are seven in number) and these belong to an ethnic group known as Blue Valley Dwarves. As a means of flexing my imagination then I've been dreaming up fantastical machines invented by this ethnic group over the course of their history. This is strictly an exersize in frivolity you understand, a way to solidify random thoughts, so if your not into that sort of thing, then please keep moving, there's nothing to see here....

Oh, random thoughts and idea's are always welcome. Don't stand on ceremony, most of my idea's are stolen any way.

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Blauen Light.

(Some times is also known as Blauen Radiation or the Blauen Chemical Ray) Several centuries ago, an old top secret military project developed Blauen light as a method of attacking Qionst**. Blauen light is known to have been an electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than visible light, very similar to ultraviolet, but ultimately ’not of this world’. Quite where Blauen light came from is unknown, but its effects could be profound. Any one caught in the direct glare of Blauen light become incapacitated by an extreme lethargy which gripped the mind and body to so great an extent that the victim was quickly unable to respond to external stimulation. At the same time the light had an effect on organic matter, causing a darkening of the flesh that could quickly become a serious burn if untreated and even caused deformation over a long term exposure. Blauen light was invisible to the naked eye, but could be seen with ultraviolet filters. Unfortunately the secret of Blauen light has been lost. The Qionst quickly discovered that it could be countered with reflective surfaces such as a polished metal foil suit or umbrella. Highly polished metal armour also provided a high degree of protection. Eventually Blauen light was abandoned. Many years later an experimental thaumaturg working with some old artefacts she’d aquired noted that even reflected Blauen light can also be used to detect demons since these were illuminated, but not harmed, by it. She concluded that Blauen light might be some sort of light from Hell, but was unable to explain why the qionst should not have been aware of such a thing when it was first deployed. All subsequent research with Blauen light has been discontinued since the revolution*** and all known artefects have been destroyed or lost. There is no common knowledge remaining as to how to even generate Blauen light any more and many believe it may be a myth.

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The Cube of Hochwolkersdorf

An intricate cube of densely packed tubes and machinary, measuring roughly fifty inches to a side. The Cube of Hochwolkersdorf is said to be a containment vessel for evil spirits but no one knows for sure if this is so, or how the device works. Maribus Hochwolkersdorf was a mediocre alchemist and thamuaturg who lived in Flemendorff in the tenth century. During his research one day he came across a novel method of capturing spirits in a negative energy thauma-field and set about designing a means of utilising this discovery to make a trap. With some help from local mechanicians he eventually built an artefact that was able to capture and hold wandering spirits (and some even suggest daemons). Hochwolkersdorf activated the machine and discovered it worked perfectly. Pretty soon he had a fine collection of malignent entities trapped within the cube’s internal, negative energy thauma-field but he then realised he had no way of shutting the machine down without releasing these monsters and was thus forced to leave it working. For a long time the machine was kept in a basement store room in the Royal Society of Alchemists, but when that society was accused of treasonous behaviour and disbanded in 1611 the cube was moved to the Schwartzenburg Hall of Science where it still resides to this day and can be viewed by scholars and budding thaumamechanicians for a small fee.
No one is quite sure how the machine works. It appears to be a perpetual energy device since it has been running, without pause for almost ten centuries and yet has no moving parts that any one can perceive. According to one of the several inscriptions on its outer surfaces, the machine feeds upon the energy of the spirits it traps. Another of the inscrptions warns: ’to open the cube is invite the mischance of all evil upon the world’.


Notes
* Thaumatrugy.
** Qionst are underground Goblin people.
***The Blauendallen (Blue Valley) Revolution took place from the over throw of the Royal House of Aachen in 1917 to the foundation of the first Central Commitee in 1922. Since the fall of the House of Aachen, the industrial nobility and most of the Bourgeoisie have been scattered in a disorganized diaspora leaving only the Lumpenproletariat and their militia behind. Since then a Central Committee has ruled Blauendallen with an iron hand.