The Heart

The heart is an artefact of numenera origin which offers instantaneus travel between two distant points in the north and the south of the The Frontier Forest. Two villages have grown up around this artefact, River heart in the north exit and Forest heart in the south one.

Description

Exterior

The entrance to both sides of The Heart is through a room inside a tree. This tree is 10m in diameter, taller than every other tree around it. It has a silver trunk which changes to a more reddish colouration, the higher the branches are situated. Over the years, it has been decorated with many ornaments to signal its importance.

Interior

The room walls are the same silver color as the lower branches. The room is filled with diferent structures, metallic in appearance. These structures surround a large mirror, which is the area where the travel happens. When the machine is active, this is when a leader is inside, this area is filled with different kinds of lights, from silver to green. If this is not the case, the room is dark and inert.

Discovery

Because of the nature of knowledge transmission between leaders, facilitated by The Heart, we know the artefact discovered was the south one, and that the discovery was done by a culovas], around 500 years. This culova became the first Heart of the Forest. About 30 years later, the sister settlement was also started, and the first Heart of the River was human.

Access and Utility

Only 2 people have the knowledge to use this artefact, The Heart of the River and The Heart of the Forest. They are choose and gain the knowdlege to operate it, from The Heart itself after the previous one dies, in a ceremony called The Renewal of the Heart. They carry any forest tribe member to the other side on request. So in practice, any forest tribe member can request to use it for any reason. Priority is given to urgent communications, important diplomatic missions and commerce.