SHARDSTONES #1: The Hyper-Dimesional & Beyond
Here begins a blog series where we will discuss the nature of shardstones, and the various facets of shardscience, shardcraft, mysticism, and power. Treat this series as a useful guide not only for roleplaying or thinking about shardstones and shardscience, but also as a generator for ideas you can draw upon for your Scavenger stories.
First, we must define the term hyper-dimensional. The term itself is older than shardstones or the Monolith. It begins in Kanuma, with the Stargazers of the Starfall Mysteries. The belief was, when under the effects of liquid starlight — the drug cocktail taken by those mystics in order to see cosmic phenomena unwitnessable by the human eye — their vision became hyper-dimensional, as in, they were seeing past time and space into a beyond where all secrets and all knowledge could be accessed.
When the Monolith opened and Akarans first entered a new world, the terms hyper-dimensional and beyond expanded in definition. The beyond, though now referenced as the Beyond, became a reference not only to the World Torn Apart but to the possible worlds hidden behind the inert Monoliths littering Torn. As for hyper-dimensional, when the first peoples saw the absolutely unquantifiable phenomenon rampaging throughout Torn, phenomena that to their eyes warped time and space, the Akarans believed what they were witnessing were the hyper-dimensional effects native to what they then called the Beyond. In this way, hyper-dimensional is to them what the term supernatural or magical would be to us. It represents a power that defies our perceptions of base reality. It is the sublime.
The effects that shardstones produce — be it from shardsciences (spells), shardwork (magical items), or even those wholly unexplainable powers derived from shardlight — are all considered to be hyper-dimensional effects. In this way, shardstones themselves are hyper-dimensional. For Akarans then, these powers allow them to achieve one of the oldest aims in their greater culture: to reach beyond the limitations of their reality so that any and all threats to their survival can, without exception, be overcome.
Thus, shardstones are life, and if they are life, in Akaran mysticism, they too are virtuous. But how did Akarans figure out how to access this great power? Find out in our next post, where we discuss attunement, invocation, and mysticism, as well as how you can bring this flavor into your Scavenger games.
SHARDSCIENCE GLOSSARY
This glossary will expand with each blog post!
Beyond — The realm of the stars perceived through liquid starlight, outside of time and space, where all knowledge gathers; the World Torn Apart and the various universes contained within the inert Monoliths littering Torn.
Hyper-Dimensional — A power, effect, or quality that is outside of time and space, and thus native to the beyond; the supernatural, magical, or sublime; the powers of shardstones or other Torn-native phenomena.
