Ley Coral Tuning
Utility
When done correctly, Ley Coral Tuning allows a message of any size and complexity to be sent across any distance nearly instantaneously. The incredible value of that is amply demonstrated by the expenses undertaken and the mere willingness to perform such a hellishly difficult task.
Access & Availability
Though the tuning itself is not a particularly complex task and could even be initiated using entirely mundane efforts, interpreting the results requires both the use of magic and an extremely keen and analytical mind to sift through the data, even before accounting for the necessary codes and ciphers. As such, only mages, and overwhelmingly only wizards among them, use the technique. The rarity and expense of the corals themselves see to it that only the most powerful and influential of wizards are true users, apart from the few governments and great nobles who employ lesser wizards to do so for them.
Complexity
Theoretically anyone could send a message, and in fact any interaction with a Ley Coral does send a message, it would simply be meaningless. Developing a system for mapping meaning to the tuning, extracting a message from the rest of the noise, and deciphering that message once received is incredibly complex, akin to creating a new language and interpreting coded messages in that language while a thousand other conversations and random gibberish occur in the same and hundreds of other languages all at the same time. Ironically, it is not a technique for the layperson.
Discovery
It's believed that both the feasibility of accomplishing the task, as well as the generally accepted best practices for performing Ley Coral Tuning were discovered and utilized by the Wizards of Wahlann in secret for many years before independent mages caught on to the practice and adapted it for their own use. As with everything originating from Khthon's most secretive arcanists, it's difficult to be sure and next to impossible to find details, but it seems a likely explanation, particularly since no one came forward to take credit once it had proliferated.
Related Species
Comments