Solar Anchors
Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away.
Invention Under Duress
Bickering. All those three ever did was bicker, and argue, and complain. 'No, actually, the formula is...' and 'Wrong, idiot, the real sigil is...'—beyond tiring. Essik cradled the small, iron box containing something more valuable than every life in that room, even the three High Elves, despite what they would have one believe. Explosions rocked the laboratory and made the tiles clack against each other, most likely the landmines outside finding their prey in the shambling Silhouettes. Time was running thin, but it was almost complete—their salvation from the darkness.
“Are you three done? Are the runes in place, the Tapestry cells locked? Can I do my fucking job?” Essik grumbled beneath his massive beard, which had seen better days.
The tallest among them scoffed and waved a hand, flashing a sneer towards him so sharp it could cut diamond. Each of them took two steps back, lingering around the adamantine cube in the center of the floor. Wires, power cells, gauges and dials were scattered around its surface, each reading what had been calculated months in advance. Perfect. Essik shuffled forward, opening the iron box in hand. Blinding, golden light spilled forth, causing everyone in the room—including the two Scaleborn guards by the door—to shield their eyes.
Screams echoed down the hallway, followed closely but the crunching of bone and flesh under something heavy. It was now or never. Reaching in, Essik palmed the small shard and brought it out, his flesh burning all the way. Scorched flesh and burning fabric filled the room with a nauseating stench as he dropped the item into a slot in the top of the cube. Essik was hardly able to keep his pain swallowed as the item disappeared, taking the light with it. THUD! CRACK! The glass door behind the guards shot splinters of shrapnel as the titan of a Silhouette slammed against it, multiple bodies having been fused into one.
Both Scaleborn—one red, the other blue—stumbled away from the entrance, leveling their spears towards the monstrosity. They would buy Essik precious moments in these final seconds before a secret once jealously held by the gods was in the palm of his hand. He flipped one lever, then a switch; turned four knobs in alternating directions and the machine began to hum. Breaking through, the Silhouette fell forward onto the spear point of the red Scaleborn, black ichor spilling from the other end as it pierced through.
Then, the room was all white with a burst of energy. Essik could feel his skin begin to burn, his eyes watered and leaked like a central fountain in a city square; his hair caught fire and his teeth began to melt. Screeching, writhing, the Silhouette combust in a mass of undulating flesh before stilling somewhere out of his vision, for all he could see was the star before him. A rush of super-heated air burst through the room, extinguishing the stellar creation; darkness consuming them once more. Essik fell to his knees, the sounds of sizzling flesh and flopping bodies the only sensory cues that greeted him in that moment. It had stolen his sight and disfigured him—mutilated him—but it was over. Unbeknownst to him, a cure to the Gloom was born.
Utility
Each Anchor is positioned within the very heart of every Bastion after its exterior is engraved with levitation and protection runes. A cable—usually about two miles in length—is attached at the bottom of the Anchor that feeds arcane energy upwards to the Dawnshard. This energy fuels the reactions necessary for the Anchor to produce an artificial sun roughly one mile in diameter, which provides light for entire Bastions. While this light is bright—visible from up to forty miles away—it gets progressively dimmer the further* one moves from the epicenter.
*It is common for streets in the outer rings of Bastions to be so dimly lit that street lights are required.Manufacturing
Fabrication of a Solar Anchor is the result of several mundane processes: the machining of an adamantine cube, production of circuits and rune boards, and both containment and amplification enchantments. However, there is one component which remains difficult to manufacture. As heretical as it sounds, each piece of the Dawnshard used in the construction of an Anchor must be exposed to the Gloom to be corrupted. This corruption dims the light cast by the resultant star, preventing the people that will eventually live under them from being blinded or melted beneath its unwavering vigil. The side effects of the presence of the Gloom on the pieces of Dawnshard had never truly been studied, and have been largely handwaved in the pursuit of creating a (literal) brighter tomorrow.
Access & Availability
There have only been seven produced since they were initially invented, four of which have since burned out or collapsed. The three remaining Solar Anchors are suspended above the capitals of The Wissan Dominion, Jaddregos, and The Luminforge Syndicate where they continuously burn and provide light for the people living with them.
Complexity
Each Anchor is incredibly complex, using advanced techniques, theorems, and enchantments from multiple disciplines. They are so complex, in fact, that once the star that burned above them goes out, there is no known way to reignite the spark of divinity that fueled it. This is why the burned out Elysian Bastions littered about the wastes have long been abandoned by all but the most stubborn and stout inhabitants.
Discovery
Experimentation with fragments of divine weapons—specifically the Dawnshard—yielded a result none had thought possible before: the Gloom could be destroyed. Arcanists, mathematicians, priests from all Architects, engineers and artificers gathered where possible to devise a way to harness that energy. Thus, the concept of a Solar Anchor was invented, a machine capable of creating a star that produced True Sunlight. While unknown to those at the time, True Sunlight was the only way to destroy the Gloom, and would go on to be the salvation of those that remained on Vasara.
Oooh I love the much darker implication behind this! That these divine fragments have a time limit, that these three remaining suns are but clocks awaiting the darkness to consume them again. Wonderfully done, yet again!