AETHERCRYSTS OF DRAKHARIS

Arcane Data Storage Crystals

Overview:

Aethercrysts are slender, magically resonant crystals (typically clear or colored quartz) used to store and transmit encoded information throughout the Iron Pact-controlled territories. These crystalline data caches serve as everything from public records to soul-bound confessions, military orders, and suppressed regime secrets.

They glow faintly when activated and display their contents via projected illusion, sound, or psychic imprint. While many are simple tools for bureaucracy, others are heavily encrypted, classified, or corrupted beyond recognition.

Aethercryst Categories

1. Civic Crysts

Color: Pale Blue

Use: Birth records, census data, identity logs, permits

Access: Open to citizens with proper identification or registry writ

Example:
“Scan your registry sigil and place your request. The Civic Cryst will display your lineage.”

2. Edict Crysts

Color: Dull Gold

Use: Published laws, tax codes, decrees, announcements

Access: Public terminals or civic hall readers

Example:
“By order of the Grand Executor, all bell-forges shall pay double tithe. See Edict Cryst 77-C.”

3. Logistical Crysts

Color: Emerald Green

Use: Trade manifests, resource movement, military supply lines

Access: Requires guild stamp or Pact officer clearance

Example:
“Shipment 19-B diverted to Ashclaw per Logistical Cryst entry dated 6th Dustwane.”

4. Judicial Crysts

Color: Blood Red

Use: Trial outcomes, confessions, execution records, pardons

Access: Restricted to Inner Rectitude clerks or investigators

Example:
“Her confession was sealed in a Judicial Cryst. Class-2 lock, no copies.”

5. Memory Crysts

Color: Amber

Use: Stored thoughts, testimonies, or magical surveillance echoes

Access: Requires psychic link or ritual stabilization

Example:
“The victim’s final vision is stored in this Amber Cryst. Viewing may cause instability.”

6. Corrupted Crysts

Color: Flickering, cracked multicolor

Use: Damaged or overwritten records, sometimes holding broken illusions or ghosts

Access: Dangerous without preparation; some are volatile

Example:
“That one hums too loud. Best not touch a cracked cryst unless you like waking up someone else.”

Classified Crysts

7. Umbracrysts (formerly “Veilcrysts”)

Color: Smoky Gray, sometimes with violet or black veins

Use: Classified regime data — censored tower logs, redacted trials, erased identities

Access: Only with veilkeys, soulprint match, or advanced arcana

Used By: Obsidian Archive, Office of Inner Rectitude, select military operatives

Traps: Memory drain, illusion backlash, false memory implants

Example:
“What’s in there?”
“An Umbracryst. Whatever it was, it’s not what it used to be.”