CELL Stones
"If this new peace is going to last, we must be more interconnected than we have ever been! To think of others blood as our own, others land as our land, others lives as our lives, is to stop them from being lost wantonly. To that end, I bring you not just a new product, but a new innovation, for a new Edda."The Communication, Exploration, Leisure, and Lifeline Stones are a recent invention taking the world of Edda by storm. As small as a ring box with the capability to send and receive messages the world over as well as track locations, key landmarks, and various other minute yet impressive features, it's a miracle of design and function that's spread like wildfire.
Utility
- Communication - Opening the box activates the CELL core and brings up a hard-light screen to either interact with by touch or by moving your finger along the central sphere. You can use these functions to either dial in a person in your contacts you wish to speak with or to compose a written message instead.
- Exploration - Cell Stones can bring up archived map images of your general area and offer directions along main roads and known passageways. Newer models can even track your position and, in larger cities, display businesses and street directions.
- Leisure - Cell Stones can also be used to record sound, take pictures and store them, keep personal notes and documents, and direct you to well-known landmarks and tourist locations.
- Lifeline - All Cell Stones come with the function to alert local authorities to dangers. This happens as a rapidly sent message to active reception Lacrima in guard garrisons or local castles. While the message might require a bit of time to reach smaller or further-out locations, it'll still be treated with priority, even over incoming messaging spells. Higher-end models can even track the user's vitals, and if magically charged can offer minor restorative care.
Manufacturing
Most of the manufacturing process for Cell Stones is rather simple. The case is typically made from a durable stone and fashioned into a ring box-sized case, with room for a small bit of mechanical casing, the central spherical Lacrima, and of course a hinge and latch to open and close properly. For convenience's sake, a loop for a strap is also included.
The CELL Lacrima itself is the hardest part to construct, requiring finesse and attention to detail usually reserved for the most intricate of magical items. The layering of different features, the spells and functions that are required to get them to fire properly, and the simple pathway for energy to flow within the structure, it all requires specific and exact pathways carved within the Lacrima.
Social Impact
The ease of purchase and convenience of Cell Stones have led to them becoming a hot item all across Edda. This has also led to many people experimenting and testing different applications of the system, wondering if perhaps they could connect the core concept to larger and more intricate systems, ones that could share and host information all over the globe.
Parent Technologies
Access & Availability
A basic model Cell Stone is moderately affordable, and it's durability and magical nature mean that there are very few circumstances where it'd need to be replaced. New models are often on the pricier end, or when the case surrounding it is of a higher quality material, but for such a convenient item, no one is going to need to break the bank.
Complexity
The CELL Core is a complicated piece of Lacrima Etching that took nearly a decade to perfectly develop, and even now updates and refinements are being developed. Luckily, Second Chance Artifice, a subsidiary of the wider De Chance Automotive, has plenty of skilled Artificers on staff.
Discovery
Tools of communication have always been one of the cutting-edge ideas for Edda, especially in times of peace, when words need to cross the globe. However, the essential function that Cell Stones work on was discovered during a time of war. When Baal Diomedes the 3rd performed the Calming of the Masses, he utilized a spell of his own creation that turned the very Leylines of Edda into a mass communication network, tapping into thousands of systems and spreading his words across the entire land.
While the vast magic power used to reach everywhere at once can't be reliably replicated in a hand-held format, using the Leylines as a connective network was the essential inspiration for the technology that went into the Cell Stone network. Its development from 992 EE to 1002 EE passed through many engineering minds and companies' hands, but ultimately was perfected by Second Chance Artifice and its CEO, Marion de Chance.
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