Quantum Keys

Unlock the power through locks and keys

He let himself go, clearing his mind, and felt the energy that radiated from the the key in his hand. He was afraid, as he should be. He has no way of knowing what would happen. The keymaker warned him to be careful when dealing with these strange devices. He looked at the keyring on the keymakers belt. It was packed with 20 to 30 keys, some of them attached to locks that weighed down his trousers.
There was a sudden flash of green light followed by a deep male voice, distorted and firm.
"Jutyl, poligh ger?
... Protocol: Babel...
Active/...
(English)
Do you hear me?... Good. I am The Valor of Yore... and you are?"

Quantum keys are literal keys that are found in The Cities of Blue. Artificial Keys have been made from materials gathered from the blue cities as well. What makes the keys so important in the world is that they bestow unique abilities on those who can attune to them. Attunement is something anyone can learn fairly easily but the actual process of activation is something that requires more skill. Quantum keys require a Keymaker's hand to activate. Only then can the various abilities they grant be used by the wielder. Following a series of highly detailed and complex steps, a key maker using ether can activate a dormant key.

Quantum keys are uncommon but to call them rare is not quite right. Almost anyone who is somewhat traveled has seen the effects these keys have at least once. Even the most illiterate and uncultured know of their existence and what they can do. Despite this one will likely strike fear and wonder into the hearts of those around them upon use.

Perceptions

Most people see the quantum Keys as a tool, something that can be used for both good and bad. There are some places in the world that directly oppose the use of quantum keys. In the British Empire it is illegal to even possess a Quantum key much less use it. The only exceptions are members of law enforcement military and the aristocracy. In the Far East including Russia, keys are often seen as a sign of wisdom for those who possess it. The powers they grant are seen as a responsibility upon the user, and misuse will be dealt with extreme prejudice.

Impact

Since the keys were first discovered they became a method for those in power to stay in power or for those below to rise up and take it from them. This has led to a Black Market of sorts surrounding the creation and monetization of quantum Keys. People from all over the world travel to The Workshop in hopes of selling their discoveries. Others attempt to smuggle quantum keys to assist in revolutionary efforts against the British Empire in their various places of influence.
In the Americas, The Pauper Kings pay handsomely for any Quantum keys you can give to them as well as the locks that increase the power they bestow. With the creation of lock based engines, even The Sky Barrons of The Twelve Skies have an extreme interest in acquiring these magnificent creations. Many fear the power of the keys and some have even developed a habit of wearing keys in full View as a method of intimidation. Some even consider it necessary to wear ordinary keys as a bluff in hopes that it will protect them from unnecessary fights.

With all this demand weighing down on them, key makers have a distinctive problem in meeting it with their supply. Even artificial Keys take considerable amounts of time to create due to their complexity. They are believed to be in abundance within the blue cities, if you are brave or stupid enough to venture Into the depths where they are kept.

He clutched the key in hand and asked it to grace him with its phenomenal power. The key responded, glowing a vibrant red and manifesting a mote of hot white light before him. He reached out and held the mote. He sought to change it, to shape it into something else, a hammer, a rifle...
"No," the key said in a low and dominant tone. "...a spear."
The mote elongated, sharpening at its tip, and awaiting him to throw it at his target. He did so with ease, the weightless light shot with surprising speed at the airship, teaing a hole in the hull...

by Daniel Ljunggren

Attunement

Attunement is a special moment. It involves a link between the inner working of the key and the mind of the user. The key will "introduce" itself in an exceptionally polite manner. The user must respond with a calm and empty mind. This meditative state connects the two, allow the thought of one to bring action from the other. While it is easy to assume that the keys are sentient, and they could be, but most see it in a different way. To some, the keys run through a list of commands and protocols similar to automatons. They are remarkably convincing, displaying preferences and personality.

Locks and Lock Engines

The Locksmith and The Watchmaker developed the first lock. Through careful craftsmanship, the two found a way to amplify a keys effects and refine them. They can even alter them, randomizing their powers. This lead to the development of a Lock Engine, an engine that runs on either that can activate keys on a massive scale.

Aesthetics

Keys come in all shapes and sizes. Some more modern, others antique. They come in many colors as well, and each is often embellished with designs and additions. Keymakers have turned their craft into fine art with the intricate designs of their artificial keys.

How Do They Work?

What Quantum Keys truly do is matter of much debate like anything concerning the cities of blue. The only thing that is truly known about them is there dependence on quantum physics and randomness. Key makers have absolutely no idea what powers and effects their keys will have when they make them, and keys found in the blue cities are just as random often giving different abilities to different users over the course of fair use. No two keys are alike and no two users of these keys are alike. While this randomness is somewhat limited, it's a big enough difference that many keymakers pass on warnings to those who commission a key.


For example, The Key of Shards, a key made famous by The Delerium , had three distinctive effects reported by it's three recorded users. The first user found that it granted them the use of an ethereal blade that could cut through almost any substance. When the captain of the delirium used it, it manifested four thin shards of ethereal glass in the air that could be thrown with the power of thought at a target. The Locksmith and The Watchmaker currently possess the key and found that it creates a pit of significantly smaller glass shards on a targeted area. The only key factors are that these shards can cut through any substance and that it always involves a Shard of some kind weather in the form of a sword or the form of broken glass.

by Thomas Gianni

Limits

The keys do have limits.

• All keys require Aether to function. Some keys require raw aether whereas others require refined aether. The user will charge the key by bathing it for various amounts of time depending on the key. The more one charges the key a longer it lasts and the more times It can be used.
• All keys must be tuned and activated before they can be used. This necessitates the keymakers as no one else can activate these keys.
• Some keys have certain negative elements to them or a price that must be paid. Some keys are more nefarious, they require years of life as an exchange, if not from someone else, then their users.will suffice

A fine Line

As previously stated, the hardest part about getting a key is that they are so scarce outside of the cities of blue. One of the major reasons for this is because the cities are incredibly dangerous, and even touching a key much less removing it from wherever it was is a pretty quick way to make the city an even more hostile environment. Many keys are attached to traps and power those traps, others are held by statues that animate when you remove the key, and more still are hidden away in vaults that are almost impossible to reach.
This doesn't stop Intrepid explorers from delving into the cities in hopes of finding these rare items. The abilities they grant can often mean the difference between life and death, even if one is not entirely sure what abilities individual key has until they activate it. As a general rule, the keys will never manifest the abilities within themselves making them more convenient to wear on a keychain if one happens to have an extensive collection. Why they do this is not entirely known. It likely has to do with the molecular structure of the key and the fact that altering it could change that structure in a way that makes the key cease to function. All abilities given to the user will be external.
If a key grants the user the ability to use some kind of ethereal weapon, the key can ever transform into that weapon and instead must manifest that weapon in space, causing the weapon to form and shape itself either in the users hand or in front of the user, who must then grab it.

It is difficult to truly pin down a general overview of the abilities that these keys can grant simply because they are so varied. Not only are there numerous types of abilities a key can give, there are also just as many ways that that ability can manifest itself in reality. Does this key give you the use of a single ethereal blade, or does it conjure many blades that surround you in are completely controlled by your thoughts, alone? Does this key give you the ability to control fire or create it from thin air as well as manipulate it? Does it give you the ability to reach into someone's mind to pull out thoughts they suppress or to take a walk through their memories, or does it simply give you the ability to read the thoughts that they have at that single moment?
Many keys do come with little limitations to their abilities and these limitations usually have to be worked around. If all you can do is manipulate fire then you have to have a way of creating fire before you can hope to use the key, on the flip side what happens if you get a key that can only create fire but cannot manipulate it? How do you keep things from getting out of control and burning down the entire building one is standing in? This is one of the many reasons why people try to obtain as many keys as possible. There is likely a key that grants the ability that can support another, the finding it will always prove the most difficult task to perform.

Famous Keys

The Valor of Yore This key is famous for its wealth of information. The key itself looks like any standard key but once attuned, it acts as an encyclopedia. This key is one of the few that displays a truely complex personality, with a wide range of emotion and preferences. It's voice is easy to listen to has a way of pulling the listener in to ensure no knowledge is wasted or forgotten.
The Key Of Many Gates this key is particularly long reaching about 10 and a quarter inches. The key grants the wielder the ability to open the number of portals that connect to any particular place the user has been. Anything can travel through these portals safely and will end up on the other side. The key is colored in the same as brass and has a charming and feminine voice. This is yet another key that has become famous due to its use by the captain of The Delerium
Sunspear sunspear is a key with what appears to be a sun on its handle that moves inflows like the boiling gas of stars. It shines but not nearly as blindingly as our sun. It's voice is loud and imposing, the Deep booming tone ringing in your mind as it introduces itself. Possessing Sunspear grants one a blinding mote of light that can be held in the palm of one's hand. This light can be shaped into any form the user wishes and is usually crafted into a weapon. The key is particularly fond of spears

Faraduil Faraduil is a curious key. Those who can successfully attune to it will have a strange voice speaking an even stranger language. It is unclear what language speaks or why it does so but many consider the key to be a mild irritant due to the fact that the key is quite talkative. Stranger still is the power it grants to those who wield it. This key grants its user the ability to understand any language spoken to them, except that of the key. The key is green and translucent often giving off a faint glow once attuned.







Will-o-Wisp: This key isn't a key shape at all. It's a sphere that hovers around its wielder and radiates a faint blue light that can be blending if the weielder wishes it. The key is remarkable playful and goggles audibly nut has no personality or voice in the head of the weielder. the power it grants is simply illumination to various degrees.

The Purgatoriate: This key will freeze an area in time, save for the weielder and whomever the weielder wishes not to freeze. This makes taking out opponents easy but it can be overpowered. it does not stop time but makes one feel as if they cannot move. The voice is faint like a whisper, haunting you while gifting its power.

Snowball: Snowball is an artificial key that allows one to cause a sudden burst of cold that collects surrounding particles of water in the air to create a protective dome of piercing ice and snow. The barrier is capable of stopping billets due to its density. Snowball is reminiscent of a child in more than voice. It will actively urge its weielder to have fun with the powers it grants. It's one of the few artificial keys that can grant further abilities when used with a lock. These abilities include manifesting ice and hurling it at enemies and freezing enemies in place.

Guillotine Guillotine is a key that grants the wielder the ability to slice waves in the air that can cut through almost any substance. the weielder can only cast as many waves as there are charges in the key and every 5 feet the wave grows costs an additional charge. the initial width is 15 feet across. One can launch the wave vertically which can do double damage to the target it hits. The key has a voice that is often disturbing is it urges its wielder to cause as much murder and Mayhem as possible.

The Key of Many Gates this key grants the wielder the ability to open up portals from any surrounding location to any other surrounding location. It's one of the most famous keys for its used in the Battle of Hill's folly. In this battle it was placed in a key compatible engine and used. This not only allowed it to open up a portal significantly larger in size but also increase the range of the key itself to Encompass most of the globe. The key is yet another key with a commanding tone and presence.


The Key Of Nullification There are many keys of this type and it's widely considered a failure on the part of the key makers. Instead of bestowing one with immense power it instead cancels out powers of other keys. He also has no voice and is void of any personality


The Key of Moons The Moon Key, as its often called, has a feminine, motherly voice that seeks to calm and soothe whoever worlds it. The power it grants allows one to become invisible, and when used with a lock, the weielder will remain invisible even when making massive ammounts of noise.

Memory This key is more of a utility as opposed to to a gift of active power. The key has an often patronizing personality but grants its weielder photographic memory and even categorizes information for easy access. It's unknown if this process has negative effects on the wielder but keymakers urge those who take this key to never stop using it, as it does alter the way the brain works.

The Pillar of Dawn This key believes it is a king of sorts with a booming voice and condecending tone. The key allows one to world the power of the sun in the form of condenced light that shoots from the wielders hand, scorching and eventually vaporizing anything it touches.

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Artificial vs Genuine

there are two key differences between artificial Quantum keys and genuine Quantum Keys found in the cities of blue:

Firstly artificial Keys tend to be less effective or at the very least, less powerful, and they usually don't have a lot of variance when combined with a Quantum lock. Genuine keys however tend to be significantly more powerful and anyone with a Quantum lock and open up many possibilities to the wielder
Quantum keys that are artificial are significantly easier to attune to. They're more pliant and less resistant to that Attunement as well. Genuine keys almost always resist Attunement, unless the individual happens to be considered remarkably worthy to wield them

The creation of Artificial Keys

While it is unknown exactly how genuine keys are created, the key makers have found a way to create keys that are quite similar.

The first step is having the appropriate materials. These materials include metal and components harvested from mechanisms in the cities of blue.

The next step is to craft the shell that will house the components. This is usually keyshaped to keep with the traditional theme The Cerulean intended but many shells are not key shaped at all.

Placing the components is the next step. One needs a cerulean matter mass, a clump of particles the size of a marble that vibrate and hum. This provides power. The next components is cerulean circuitry. these come in many shapes and sizes but can't be shaped and molded. One must find one that will fit the shell or alter the shell to accomidate the size. the last compontant is called a converter that takes the power and routes it just so, and makes the key active.