Index
The Keys to the WayPoints
Indices are the keys to the WayHall. Each aligns with a WayHall and can be found on the world that the WayPoint is in the L3 LaGrange Point of. They are relatively small, only a quarter of a meter in diameter, considering the fact that the Rifts they lurk in are detectable only to the naked eye.
Dunno where they come from. Dunno how they work. Dunno what they're made of. They're basically the most important thing in Ethnis.
Enigmas
Unknown
Once-in-a-lifetime
Impossible
Unknown
Keys
0.25m Diameter
A Mesmerizing Enigma
Indices are glassy, dense orbs 0.25m in diameter. They are perfect, unblemished spheres with shifting, colorful interiors. They are said to be quite mesmerizing to hold and look into.
Once I had it I couldn't put it down. I'd leave it somewhere so I could focus, and would just find myself holding it a few minutes later. I'm glad I've sold it, even if it haunts my dreams sometimes.
They are visible to the naked eye but void to many other types of sensor and to Divination. This can make them extremely hard to find to the unwitting, but extremely easy to find for those who know what to look for.
An Intragalactic Key
It wanted to be used. I didn't have a choice in the matter. The moment I found it it began to speak to me in a language beyond words. It filled me with a yearning to wander, to find my way to its WayPoint.
It wanted to be taken home.
Indices are found on the planet of the world their WayPoint is aligned with. Some systems have multiple Indices and Waypoints, the record is four Indices.
These Indices are hidden in dimensional portals called Rifts. According to the survivors, these lead to pocket realms where you are tested by a higher power, and the realm within each has different rules and appearances. Some have spent weeks in there only to find no time had passed upon exiting, some go in and never return at all. If a rift is failed, it will usually teleport to a new location.
Finding a rift is the dream of any fortune-hunter with a ship. Banners will pay bounties large enough to terraform, settle, and govern a moon.
Finding an Index can set someone for life, or make it very short.
What? Oh, yes, the Rift. I don't want talk about what was in there. Plenty of people have said what it's like, and all I can say is that everyone is right, and everyone is wrong. Mine was awful. I lost my whole crew.
Anyway. It was nice talking but I'm busy destroying my moon's economy because I have no idea what I'm doing.
The artwork and layout on this page is as mesmerising as the enigma itself. Solid article in a digestible length, always nice with the intro quote from a different perspective (I should add more of these in my own work!)
You should! They really add pop imho!
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