06. Terminal

"Doctor Vith" Oshren didn't turn around to greet his new customer, he never liked the man   "Do you take custom orders?" young man placed his cane on the counter   "Depends" orc turned around and looked at him "I am certain my services pale in comparison to government issues"   For a second the orc couldve sworn the other man smiled briefly. He blinked and refocused. Must have been just a light play.   "I need to enhance a terminal. Arcana University issue. Need tracking crystal removed" Vith slode his finger across the counter, checking the dust and refocused on the orc   Oshren chuckled "Why shouldn't I report you for just saying that?"   Vith actually smiled this time. It was crooked smile, like he was doing some mischief "I need help with kicking out the Arcanists. And you seem to be a person who could help me. As for the crystal... I think I can handle it myself"

Technology and Magic

Arcana Empire found a way to enclose multiple Brei crystals into the magical casing, facilitating electronic and tear connections through the set. This allowed for the creation of ordered tears connecting the crystals into one network. Chaotic nature was tamed when Shawn introduced the Theory of Pipes and explained the auto-regrowing of crystals within the network. This was the beginning of Arcana Gates and terminals.   First terminal was a hobby project of one of Shawn students, Sur Cato. It consisted of several dozens of lamps to visualize the message sent by her colleague. The message was encoded into a series of numbers by the intricate design of the Arcana Gates circuit. The Arcana load was much smaller than the current industry standard. Cato's work was never patented, and the design for the Arcana Gates circuit was deemed public domain by her.   Modern terminals have much more sophisticated displays.

Distribution and availability

Terminals are not as free as Cato would want. They are issued by academic centers after approval from the state. Each terminal has included a recording crystal, which secures the information sent and received in the central archives of Arcana Empire.   There's a reason behind this difficulty, the terminals are much more powerful nowadays, thanks to Arcanist's rites enhancing the Arcana Gates flow. Before the arcana imbuing was done by low-level witches, now it's done by a member of the Arcanist Council. The recordings and tracking is supervised by dedicated reconfigurable Arcana Gates and telepathic scrying. Using terminals is fine, as long as you're a lawful citizen of the Empire.

Terminals outside of the Arcana Empire

There are instances of this technology being used in Provinces. There's no trade with Kori, so probably the only available sets are stolen or acquired otherwise illegally.