Liquid Gemstone
The powers of gemstones in Thaumaturgy and artifice have been known since the Primordial Era. Birthed as they are from the meeting of Dragon Lines, gemstones have been polished, cut, carved, alloyed, ground into pigment, and worked in all manner of other ways to create objects that are aesthetically pleasing and which carry magical resonance.
However, the advanced infrastructure of the First Age opened new ways of using gemstones, and one of the most important was as a liquid.
Liquefying gemstones is not an easy process, requiring the specialized smelters and refineries found in Factory Cathedrals to both change the gem from solid to liquid and purify it so that its essential nature emerges. A gem that is liquid is one thing, true Liquid gemstone quite another, each single gem resulting in a mere droplet of liquid.
Liquid gemstone was employed in a number of ways by First Age artificers, most commonly to coat other components in a layer of gemstone (a process known as gem-glazing), or in various magitech systems to ensure works of artifice were self-maintaining: these systems often included complex devices and coils of adamant tubing containing significant quantities of liquid gemstone, circulating between bolstering the artifact and regenerating their own potence through ambient essence accumulation. Each such Perpetual Restoration Engine was a complex artifact in of itself, demanding many tonnes of gemstones be melted down to liquid and purified even further... at such a massive scale, Liquid Gemstone filled the role of an Exotic Component.
Following the Usurpation, the Dragonblooded of the Shogunate Era did not find it easy to maintain the infrastructure which allowed production of liquid gemstone on such a massive scale, but were able to keep up some production… the loss of self-maintaining artifice came instead from inability to provide other components needed for the Restoration Engines and similar technologies of permanence. In place of those technologies, Dragonblooded artificers developed lesser maintenance systems which could still properly power artifacts such as Dragon Armour, replacing the massive amounts of liquid gemstone and ambient essence gathering with a system of Plug Diodes assembled in arrays set within Plug Circuits. Each such diode contained only a small amount of liquid gemstone, that from a single gem, suspended in tubes of Adamant or Omphalic Glass, or in Quartz Vials. Essence from the artifact would be channeled through the tube and the gem to change its course and nature, though being such a small quantity and with no way to replenish itself the plugs could last only a short time before the liquid hardened and crumbled into sand.
Though liquid gemstone production on a large scale demanded the advanced systems of a Manufactory Cathedral, the Dragonblooded of the Shogunate maintained many such facilities, able to supply the demand of their magitechnological systems. The exact effect of a plug diode related directly to the liquefied gem it contained, with the Five Tears of the Dragons being the most commonly employed, though the nature of some artifacts required more specialized gem diodes.
Liquid Sapphire is employed as coolant, to prevent overheating in Magitech, particularly in motor engines or when operating in hot environments.
Liquid Ruby is employed for heating and to prevent freezing in Magitech, particularly in or when operating in cold environments.
Liquid Diamond is employed for preservation, to counter rusting and warping in Magitech, particularly in systems stabilizing Wyld energies or operating underwater.
Liquid Onyx is employed to repel dirt and prevent clogging of joints and gears, particularly in limbed vehicles and powered armours or operating in muddy environments.
Liquid Emerald is employed to harmonize essence sources which are very different in nature, particularly mortal willpower fueling Magitech, such as in Gunzosha Armour and Ashigaru Armour.
Liquid Azurite was sometimes employed in systems designed for physical or spiritual cleansing. More commonly, an azurite plug diode might be used by a magitechnisian during maintenance or when clearing a magitech device after testing, running its essence through the plug to cleanse it of remnant correspoondences and contaminants.
Liquid Garnet plug diodes were found in some Dragon Armour systems recovered from the ruins of Shogunate Era Chiaroscuro, but their exact purpose has not been determined by the sages of the modern era.
Liquid Quartz is known to be an inert substance, of no use within a Plug Diode.
