Chromatic Garden
Chromatic Gardens are agricultural greenhouses that give you a better harvest. In fact, the sky has been tinted and reflects coloured light since the Reign of Cieux. This affects the fauna and especially the flora, as it is not purely white light. Thanks to their coloured stained glass, the light is purified and returned to its original state.
The agony of survival
Under the Reign of the Cieux, the Living don't live, they survive. They know all the evils: famine, disease, cannibalism, domination, slavery, war, betrayal, bestiality and madness. The shadow of evil seeps into people's hearts, carving out furrows of corruption. For when the light dims, the soul crumbles, and the beast lurking within awakens.
And so began the Dark Skies. The Sun continued its course, but its brilliance barely pierced the skies. An unfathomable black shroud draped the world, swallowing hopes and withering the earth. Day followed day, but the Light, though present, was too weak.
Nature lost its colours, the forests turned into gnarled spectres, the rivers stagnated, the cattle collapsed in on themselves, their sides hollowed out by famine. Humans, Chayatiem and animals succumbed in their turn, their emaciated bodies scattered like dead leaves.
In their despair, Adam's descendants turned to the Nausilythe, those bird-like creatures. Their flesh was tender and their eggs fed the hungry. The humans even stooped to eating the ashen roots of the dying earth. And so they survived for centuries, with great difficulty, waiting for a blessing. But then came the time of Rosy Skies. The skies, mottled pink and blue, heralded the return of light. But the blessing was incomplete: the fields remained barren, the seeds rotted in the distorted light. The light, though amplified, was not the true Light. An illusion of renewal, a cruel mockery of destiny.
The fruit of knowledge
Moehric was a curious man among the ignorant, a skilful one among the brutes, a dreamer among the blind. His mind, hungry for knowledge, deciphered what others took for granted. But in the eyes of the world, he was an outcast. It is said that he once had a wife and children. Everyone rejected him, saying he was unpredictable, dangerous perhaps, lost in thoughts too big for one man. Then came the night of his despair. He drank pungent, sour wine, a piquette unworthy even of beggars. He drank so much that his vision blurred. Through the red drink, he saw the light of the flames turning red. An idea came to him, senseless and ridiculous. He wanted to suffocate it, bury it with her shattered hopes, silence it like so many others before.
At dawn, staggering under the weight of a sleepless night, he left his den. He headed for his frail apple tree, twisted by the wind and thin as he was. With a rope in his hand and a last sigh on his lips, he prepared to leave this world of hunger and oblivion. The memory of her drinking her glass of wine came back to him. Then he was touched by the Grace of Divine Transcendence. It struck him like lightning on a mountain, and made his body vibrate like the wind makes the tops of ancient oaks dance. He felt the light of knowledge shine through him from all sides until it touched his flayed soul. A revelation burst forth within him, more searing than any of the visions that had haunted his existence. He knew.
Through a vision of genius, Moehric received the knowledge. With the help of the Church of the Holy Light, he created the Chromatic Gardens, glass sanctuaries with dazzling stained glass windows, where the light was purified, recomposed and restored to its former brilliance. Beneath their domes bathed in gold, azure and emerald, life was reborn. The fruit took on colour and for the first time in ages, humans saw the promise of tomorrow.
When the light was restored, abundance followed. The weak were lifted up, the hungry were fed, and the dying were brought back to life. Moehric's knowledge was no longer limited, it extended to medicine, astrology, biology, fertility and architecture. And when the time came to build, the sovereigns recalled the Behemuthar, enslaved since the era of Ioseph, the Beneath Builder. Under their colossal strength, citadels were built for scholars to learn the laws of the world.
Over the course of five centuries, the wealth of the kingdoms multiplied, people prospered, and history took an unprecedented turn. But where there was abundance, there was also exploitation. Cattle were fattened, the Chayatiem made more robust by better rations, and their servitude reinforced. For nourished flesh endures more toil.
And so, Moehric shared his knowledge.
Operation and construction
With the advent of the Chromatic Garden, the art of stained glass spread and was perfected over thousands of years. The master glassmakers, custodians of this knowledge, shape the light itself, purifying it in tinted glass.
The sand is extracted from the shifting dunes of the Ynopherys Desert or taken from the coasts of Phasyneum, where the black waves devour the shores. Quartz mines are also essential to the manufacture of stained glass. But the colour, the saviour of harvests, comes from the bowels of the mines. In the Berzerkion Ridges, copper lies dormant, giving stained glass its green and red hues. The cliffs of Laiuphos harbour cobalt, impregnating the glass with a spectral blue. To the south, in the mountains of Nuinerim, pyrolusite infuses the glass with violet shadows. In the furnace, the masters bind sand and ore to the flame. They blow into the void, giving birth to stained glass windows, crystallising Moehric's memory.
The Brotherhood of Glassblowers
As the Chromatic Gardens spread throughout the kingdoms, a line of craftsmen arose, carrying the knowledge and secrets of stained glass. The Brotherhood of Glassblowers was formed in the great forges, uniting those who had seen, in the fusion of sand and fire, the reflection of wine. It is said that their first Grand Master, a disciple of Moehric, forged the Pact of Glass under the flickering columns of the Opalescent Crypt. There, beneath a fresco of gold and lead, twelve master blowers took the oath, engraving their names on a stained-glass window that no one has ever seen in its entirety. Since then, the brotherhood has locked away fragments of forbidden truth in its works... Truth about the Sun and the Egg of Wonders. Those who betray the brotherhood disappear, their shadows forever caught in mosaics of doom, where screaming faces can sometimes be made out in the glare of the setting sun.
This is such an amazing “technology” that really helped the society. I really love the idea of it, great read!
Thank you !! :)