Heat Crystals

Written by Cyborg Starfish

Heat crystals are a type of crystal unique to the Tunnels. They are one of the many sources of light in the Tunnels. True to their name, heat crystals produce this light by generating heat at all times. In their natural state they only give off a mild warmth, combined with a blue light. However, they can be stimulated to give off enough heat to melt iron, at which point the light they emit turns a bright pink. Heat crystals are used by the Lahhei as a substitute for fire. The Lahhei have also found a way to use the colours of the crystals to simulate an artificial day-night cycle in their underground city.

Properties

Material Characteristics

Heat crystals naturally have an egg-like shape. Sometimes they are refined in a more traditional diamond-like shape, but their shape doesn't affect their function unless they are reduced to dust. In their natural state heat crystals are about as tall as an Elphin head, but a lot narrower. They are also about a hundred times more lightweight than an Elphin head.

Compounds

One important compound that gives the heat crystals their unique properties is what is known as an 'Echo conduit'. An Echo conduit is a chemical substance that is extremely sensitive to sound vibrations. Even the smallest of soundwaves can cause the conduit to react. In the case of the heat crystals the conduit would react by turning sound into heat. There are many other ways in which a conduit can react to sound, which depend on the material the conduit is found in. The way the conduit behaves is basically identical to primitive forms of Echo magic, hence the name 'Echo conduit'.

Geology & Geography

Heat crystals are only found in the Tunnels.

Life & Expiration

Heat crystals can last thousands of years before deteriorating. When not continuously stimulated with the right frequency, a heated up crystal will slowly return back to its natural lukewarm state.

History & Usage

Everyday use

First Things First: Buzzer Lanterns

A buzzer lantern is a lantern containing a heat crystal and a simple clockwork device called a Buzzer. A buzzer contains a Sound Crystal, another type of crystal found in the Tunnels, though unlike heat crystals they are not unique to the Tunnels. A sound crystal can produce a loud humming sound when rubbed fast enough. Elphin hands are too slow to get anything but a soft hum out of these crystals, so they have to use a mechanical device to produce a frequency that actually affects the heat crystals. The device is operated through a simple lever that is turned until the desired frequency is reached, after which the sound will slowly peter out. Within a buzzer lantern, the buzzer is positioned in such a way that the sound crystal directly touches the heat crystal. The lantern is also built to be sound-proof for the most part, making sure that the vibration generated stays inside as much as possible. Buzzer lanterns will still make an audible humming sound, but it's heavily muffled. Different types of buzzer lanterns are used for different purposes.

Different Heat Values and their Uses

• Blue: The crystal's natural state. Used for night-time lighting.
• Purple: Used for daytime lighting.
• Light Purple: Used for domestic heating and cooking. At this point the crystals are no longer safe to touch with one's bare hands.
• Pink: Used for specialized cooking and in laboratories. Often used in the creation of medicine, alcoholic drinks, and food recipes containing ingredients that are exremely poisonous when not properly cooked.
• Light Pink: The maximum temperature a heat crystal can reach that is still below its melting point. Used in blacksmith furnaces. Due to the extreme temperatures these crystals are supposed to reach, conventional buzzer lanterns aren't used here. Instead, the entire furnace can be considered a buzzer lantern. With a layer of multiple sound crystals lying underneath the heat crystals, all rubbed at the same time by a specialized device that is located underneath the sound crystals. While the furnace is active everyone in the room is expected to wear earplugs, since the amount of sound needed to generate this much heat can lead to hearing damage even when the furnace itself is designed to keep most of the sound inside of it.

Mimicking Day and Night

When properly charged up, a buzzer lantern can last for an entire day. But first, you have to calculate how long a day actually is.

The cave Lahhei City is in has one hole in the ceiling which the light from The Glasslands gets through. Like any opening in the cave it is sealed off with a Lock Membrane to keep out the poison. Lock membranes are not translucent but they do allow certain amounts of light to get though. The movement of this single beam of light used to be the only way to calculate time before The Indan was capable of actually going above ground to observe the movements of the sun.
With this information, the city was able to calculate how long the buzzer lanterns needed to last before returning to their natural state.

The Daywatchers

Daywatchers are individuals tasked with charging up the public buzzer lanterns each morning. Every district in the city has a team of daywatchers. The bigger the district, the bigger the team. Daywatchers are similar to Council members in a sense that every person living in the city has to work as a daywatcher at least once for a minimum amount of time in their lives. For the Council, it's one Cycle, for the Daywatchers, it's a quarter of a Cycle.

Table of Contents

Type

Mineral

Rarity

Common

Color

Ranging from blue to purple to pink, depending on the amount of heat generated.

Common State

Solid

Related Locations

• Tunnels

by Paramjeet Singh from Pixabay (edited)