Waystones

"'Hoist that whole crystal, men!' bellowed our captain from the deck, 'We bring it back to port and we'll make our pay threefold!'
'But sir!' said I, 'It's bigger than our whole engine! We won't be able to lift off!'
'We won't have to lift it, idiot!' said he, 'It will lift us!'"
Excerpt from Secrets of the Hidden Islands

Ancient compasses. Helmsman’s rocks. Blue gold. All these are epithets for the same thing: Waystones. The fuel for the modern world, these sky-blue aetherium crystals are invaluable for navigation and can be found almost everywhere. The largest waystones can stand well over 20 feet tall and are often found at the core of ports, while the smallest fragments guide even the smallest sailing vessel. Thanks to a mysterious connection to each other, Waystones allow ships to find their way through the skies to their destination even without any other guiding marks.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

As far as anyone can tell, the main part that makes a waystone a waystone is the geometric network of adamantine that is embedded into its surface. Each line of adamantine ends in a small ring referred to as a sync point, and when a waystone is synced to another, a sync point is filled with a slight glow. And when a filled sync point is chosen, it glows brighter as the waystone emits a point of light in the right direction.

History

Waystones are ancient. No one knows exactly how or when they were originally made, but all of the waystones, big and small, that exist today were once found in ancient ruins or are a fragment of one that once existed in such. The Six Winds Trading Company reportedly claims that its founders were the first people in the world to discover Waystones in a legendary expedition to the third layer, but of course Ponterran legend argues otherwise. But since then they have been the driving force in modern navigation and have often led many an expedition to the unknown, since sometimes a Waystone fragment is found with one point still mysteriously synced to it.

Significance

Because waystones are so important to navigation, they are nigh ubiquitous nowadays in ports and on sailing ships. They are extremely valuable, especially since the only currently known way to get more waystones is to find them in ancient ruins. Because of this, expeditions are often headed and funded to discover new ancient ruins solely for the purpose of retrieving a new waystone. These expeditions pay extremely well, with an individual waystone often being worth over twice its weight in gold, but because of this these expeditions are highly treacherous and prime targets for pirate attacks.

Item type

Magical