The Nus
Resembling a dilapidated neon-green phone booth, the Nus (Νοῦς) is made to aid in Dimensional travel, and will soon be the primary form of transport used by the Council.
Utility
The Prototype was simpler than the Nus' current form and required a greater amount of energy. A sustainable power source was theorized by the Food Golem Sugardrop of Dimension XIX.
His idea was simple: a cat from Dimension XIII always lands on their feet, and a slice of buttered bread from Dimension XIX always lands butter-side down. So a slice of Dimension XIX bread and butter fastened to the back of a Dimension XIII cat would result in the cat indefinitely rotating mid-air to land on their feet when dropped, which will be countered by the bread being compelled to rotate and land on its buttered side. Thus the cat and bread will spin in the air ad infinitum, and if the cat's tail is affixed to a wind turbine this creates infinite energy.
This ridiculous concept, surprisingly, worked for a while: the only problem was the bread would either become stale or the cat would get dizzy or sick, so a better solution had to be found.
Eventually the Council made a deal with the Six Gods of the Elements: Mag the Water-bear, Anth the Wind-man, Terrarius the Rock-beast, Ishkoodah the Fire-wolf, Talonncal the Thunder-falcon and Murrka the Slug of Darkness, rulers of the abstract Dimension known as Rades (World Three) who provided building materials. In collaboration with descendants of the Howians the current form of the machine was made.
These modern Howians are sometimes called Yelidim by the Nine Eyes, singular Yalid, to distinguish them from their ancestors, the Nefilim ('Descended Ones', singular Nafil), who came from an older faction called the Giborim ('Heroes', singular Gibor) who split from the oldest stratum of their kind, called the Irin ('Watchers', singular Ir).
Social Impact
Torakku-kun
The Nus, although useful, has had its downsides, one being its unusual and yet-to-be-explained ability to animate inorganic matter. On a rainy day in Dimension XVIII, April 14, 3240 CE, Captain Richard accidentally landed the Nus on a white truck on the planet Zoster. It had been a few hundred years since Earth in this realm was destroyed, but there were still humans scattered across the star systems. To his surprise the truck came to life and, for some reason, assumed the personality of a psychopathic samurai from the Edo period. Torakku-kun now roams Zoster in search of people, as whoever he "kisses" will be born into another Dimension. He considers it a service, giving his "friends" a second chance at life.
Access & Availability
The current Nus model can hold up to six people and requires a burst of 34,000,000,000,000 watts of VUV radiation for two trips, which Kyle provides. Kyle can only produce such an energy blast once every three days, so the Nus is used sparingly. This is still a faster process than Camelopard-assisted travel which would usually take a couple of weeks.
Complexity
The Nus is a marriage of magic and technology, requiring energy like any other machine but putting out a greater amount than what is put in via some form of nuclear fusion.
It can travel to any location in any Dimension with almost perfect accuracy, prompted via a keyboard connected to it with long wires. You just turn on the machine, connect the keyboard, walk in, enter the password, get your friends to flip some switches and input where and when you want to go and let it do its work. Reconnection is necessary when the booth returns.
It seems the Nus has a mind of its own, letting its owners know how long it wants to stay in a particular place depending on its mood. It could stay for a few hours or a few days, but tends to avoid locations with snow or ice.
Its mood is determined by the sound it makes when coordinates are entered:
Low grunt: 6-7 days.
Light sigh: 3 days.
Long groan: 2 hours maximum.
Discovery
Until recently Dimensional travel for the Council was achieved through Camelopard magic, a tedious and exhausting process that demanded a replacement.
A suggestion was offered by Kanig Roshan Busush, the Great Goddess With Six Hundred and Forty Million Priests, who provided the blueprints for the Nus' Prototype in a dream to Captain Richard.
Related Species
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments