Pool of Revelation

Description

A Pool of Revelation is a First Age magitech artifact designed to display text and images stored on a Crystal of Flowering Knowledge, developed based on the crystal codices of the Dragon Kings, The term ‘Pool of Revelation’ itself was more poetic than common during their heyday, with many (particularly those affiliated with theDevonian School that dominated matters magitech in the First Age) calling the devices ‘Crystal Viewers’, but with the loss of knowledge and exposure in the Age of Sorrows it has become the more common way of referring to them.

A Pool of Revelation is a large, thin pane of flat crystal, clouded blue-black when inert and slightly transparent. This pane sits atop a stalk of green jade alloyed with the slightest hint of moonsilver, which ends in turn in short roots. When placed upon a flat surface such as a desk or wall, the roots stiffen and grip to keep the Pool in place, while the stalk continues to be flexible, allowing the user to orient the plane flat, straight on, or at an angle somewhere in between. From the stalk stretch two short branches, one to either side: one awaiting the placement of a Crystal of Flowering Knowledge, the other for activating and controlling the Pool (though the crystal pane itself will also react to the user’s touch for paging through information). Behind the screen and within the stalk can be found a complex magitechnological system, combining an Essence Circuit and another Exotic Component once shaped from the raw Wyld by the Solar Exalted. For some library archives, branches of Magical Materials would be grown between several Crystals, coming together to connect them all to a single central Pool of Revelation , the whole almost tree-like in appearance.

History

At the height of their popularity, Pools of Revelation saw use amongst a number of public libraries and research cabals, and served themselves as components in artifice and geomancy, most commonly paired with Crystal Instrument Panels in various artifact vehicle designs (they serve as 1-dot Artifacts for this purpose).

Though some libraries retained their Pools after the emergence of alternative data storage and transfer systems, by and large they vanished far more completely than did the crystals they were built to read… when I AM was spread across Creation, the vast majority of Pools were converted from their original function into screens which could interface with that system, a process that rendered them unable to either recognize Crystals or to function at all in absence of I AM’s Creation-spanning infrastructure.

Examples

In the present day, Pools are extremely rare. The Heptagram possesses one of the devices, as does the Imperial Library. Lookshy holds at least a pair of them. The libraries at the Palace of Vines hold one, but damage limits its use.