God-Ear

God-Ear devices are used to bypass issues of translation by utilizing magic similar to that used by the Gods, making the speaker understood regardless of language barriers, volume, background noise, or disability. While the devices offer significant boons in communication compared to not having a translator at all, they have become well known for a variety of issues, mistranslation, and high cost compared to their real world practicality.   Due to the devices utilizing mind control magic in order to function, they have largely been banned globally, with their usage only allowed in particular circumstances. EMS, politicians, and special case circumstances generally allow the devices with permit, however some countries remain where the devices are still fully legal or are exempt from mind control magic laws.  

Controversy

The most notable controversy regarding the technology was the claims it would make the need of learning other languages or using skilled translation specialists a thing of the past. The devices were well known for still causing common translation issues found in machine or direct translations, and resulting in inaccuracies. God-ear devices also heavily struggled with slang, context dependent languages, any language relying on body-language in its context, and mishearing the speaker or confusing similar words with different meanings.   One notable controversy surrounding the devices was that it was found God-ears could be manipulated and have their technology reprogrammed to work outside of their intended conditions for a variety of uses. Hacked and jailbroken god-ears had been demonstrated as being capable of listening in to others' conversations from substantial distances with or without translation, allowing spying and misconduct. Some jailbroken models also showed signs of tampering to alter their translation outputs, either forcing another language to be used or to change the meanings of what was said, with no visible alterations.   Many more smaller controversies surrounded the price and design of God-ear devices, as well as warranty. God-ears commonly were easily lost due to poor fitting in a one-size-fits-all approach that did not work well for many humanoids, especially the larger races such as centauri, werewolves, and naga. Vampires and mages in particular oftentimes found the devices to be too large and painful to keep in the ear for extended periods, if through an entire conversation, instead using them outside of the ear and with modified units that broke the warranty. Any alteration of the unit, even for comfort and safety, resulted in the god-ear no longer being able to be repaired by the company, and in some cases, confiscating the unit to be replaced with a standard issue one. This especially became a prevalent issue with 18,471 models, that were prone to causing minor electrical shock or burns when units became wet due to faults in battery casings.

The sizes of the devices depends on whether it is manufactured for humanoids or for dragons, with the latter being by far more popular. Original model God-ears are produced to fit within the ear or be attached to an existing hearing device, such as an implant or hearing aid, outputting translation directly into the ear of the user. Black market, knock off, and reproduction fashion models are oftentimes designed to be fitted to or as piercings themselves.   Original model God-ears were developed utilizing Dragonsglass batteries, highly contributing to their luxury status and extremely high cost. Current models that exist, regardless of their origin, commonly use ordinary battery power commonly used in hearing aids, watches, or other small scale electronics that are commercially available at large scale.

The devices when first created in 17,008 became quite widespread for use in business, commerce, politics, and day to day conversation. While at first considered a luxury good and marketed as making the need of translation a thing of the past, the devices were known to be extremely buggy, slow, and prone to similar issues as machine translations including but not limited to inaccuracies, improper grammar, and wearing out from repeated use.