Godstones

or (singular) are enigmatic artifacts found at all  sites. They are monolithic blocks, some 5 ft wide and 3 ft thick at the base, tapering slightly over a height of 10 ft. They are made of an impervious, dark gray, stone-like material that is otherwise unknown on. They are also possessed of powerful s and are strongly associated with weird, often fatal, events. The godstones are in fact teleportal gates. The Earthmasters used them to travel between any two gates and even between worlds. Most godstones are still operational and are used by a select group of s with appropriate physic abilities.

Introduction
Godstones are artifacts of the, an enigmatic race who appeared on some 20,000 years ago then vanished five millennia later. Their power was godlike and their nature unknown. All that remains of them are their deserted sites and a precious few of their amazing artifacts, the greatest of which are the Godstones.

“Godstone” is a misleading term. While most people respect and fear Godstones, few actually worship them. Their name is rich in the tradition of times when they were attributed to the gods and, therefore, deemed proper objects of veneration. Nowadays, with church doctrine agreed that the Earthmasters were not divine, Godstones are regarded more as “natural” wonders, manifestations of great power perhaps, but not the work of the. Contemporary scholars typically refer to them as “Esoteric Portals,” “Gates of Transition,” “Wells of Change,” and a thousand other titles varying in descriptive and poetic value. But among the common folk, “Godstone” remains the most popular name.

Earthmaster sites
Many scholars define an site as one possessing a Godstone. Most Earthmaster sites have been built with a combination of and local materials specifically to house Godstones. In some cases, the structures include what seem to be accommodations for transient Godstone users.

Ordinary people have an overwhelming tendency to avoid Godstones and Earthmaster sites. Rarely do they have direct knowledge of Godstones, even those close to where they live. Local legends often mention shadowy gates to dark places, through which evil, otherworldly monsters sometimes come to carry off children and terrorize villages.

Hârnic Godstones
The on  have one of the largest concentrations of Godstones in the  of worlds. Eleven Godstones are known to the mages of, and there are legends of another, greater than the rest, the or Master Stone, supposedly located in the fabled city of , said to be a fully functional Earthmaster city located deep within some Hârnic mountain.



Physical Appearance
The typical Godstone is a, 10 ft 5 ft high, 5 ft feet by 3 ft at the base and four feet by three at the top. The monoliths project from a base, 6 ft feet square and 3 ft feet thick. The upper surface of the base is usually set flush with ground/floor level, leaving only the monolith itself visible.



Godstones are made of a grayish, featureless stone- like material called, a material commonly used in Earthmaster construction. Pseudostone is impervious to physical harm and seems to be at body temperature or to have no temperature at all. If the Godstone is active (turned on), its front side frames an utterly black, 8 ft high regular trapezoid (4 ft wide at the base, 3 ft at the top) that is the actual portal. The other side retains its pseudo-grey hue regardless. If the stone is passive, the front is indistinguishable from the back.

Godstones are immobile. Even if the ground is dug away from beneath its base, a Godstone remains in place, floating in midair if necessary. Most Godstones are, however, set in pseudostone floors making this kind of experiment difficult. Godstones are also set into walls, and sometimes disguised with, , or other facings. They can be hidden by spells of illusion.

Close examination reveals a Godstone’s “grayness” to be a pattern of tiny black and white areas the proportions of which match an active gate. The black absorbs light totally; the white diffuses it equally in all directions. The effect is blurred and disquieting and has been known to cause eye strain and disorientation and, in some cases, a mild nausea.

Detecting Godstones
A Godstone emits radiant, a powerful field that, to the sensitive, makes it “stand out like a beacon.” Detection range is 5× feet, or 3×  feet. Even those with low Aura are able to sense powerful forces when they come in range, although they are less able to identify the source or nature of the phenomenon. The field does not have the attributes of a living aura, which tends to fluctuate in size and “hue”; the aura of a Godstone is static, non-changing, cold, and impersonal. Many find it intimidating. The field emitted by a passive Godstone is only a tenth as powerful.

Function of the Godstones
Assuming everything is in working order, a person who steps into the gate of a Godstone vanishes utterly. His physical body is destroyed and (if he has reasonable luck) he will appear at another place with a reconstituted body. It takes no skill or talent to walk into an active Godstone, just courage.

The physical bodies of living things are manifestations of their personal s (or souls). Godstones act upon the auras of their users; it is the aura that is actually teleported to a new location. Normally, only an item that has an aura of some kind will appear at the destination with the traveler. All living things have auras and will make the journey, although not always in the same form. objects can rarely be transported.

The Elder Peoples
The have a dislike of Godstones, despite the fact that there is one located within their kingdom at. Many elves have the innate ability to step from one world to another and have no use for the Gates. Furthermore, the Godstones’ artificial field tends to interfere with the particularly sensitive s of the Sindarin and cause them discomfort.

The are less sensitive to the psionic fields of the Godstones, but they keep the stone in Azadmere closed for their own reasons. This may be because the Khúzdul have weak s and consequent difficulty in using Godstones. Those who have “knowledge” of the matter believe that they probably used the Godstones of and  to immigrate to  and do not wish to see them used again by that which they were fleeing. Khuzan interest in the Earthmasters seems to be limited to their building techniques, particularly the creation of. But even these studies were let lapse when they discovered enough of the secret to realize that they could never duplicate Ancient masonry. The s of other races have taken similar interest, but with even less success.

Experimentation with Godstones
No living scholar in the of worlds, of either  or scientific schools, has ever discovered the underlying principles of the Godstones. Many have concluded, by simple observation, that they are manifestations of (aural) phenomena. In other words, they are not physical artifacts at all. But this has not prevented the odd experiment, some of which have had calamitous results.

One celebrated case is that of, a who sought to disprove the notion that Godstones are impervious to physical harm. It is said that he built his home around a Godstone and, after years of trying, managed to damage it. There was an explosion that destroyed everything for half a around and any who ventured near the crater for some years thereafter sickened and died. The story is difficult to verify and may be a rumor fostered by the or i mages to discourage abuse of these powerful artifacts.

People have thrown inanimate objects into a gate with around them. The object and the end of the chain sit there until they are pulled out. If an animate entity is thrown in on a chain, the chain can be pulled out but the entity is gone, no matter how well it was secured to the chain.

There is one fanciful tale of a Godstone being used as a handy place to toss. Some of this refuse had no and, unable to be transported, was presumably stored by the Godstone. This situation continued for some years, but eventually something must have malfunctioned. What appeared to be all the garbage in the world, or so the story says, suddenly exploded out of the Godstone, making the area uninhabitable for some time.

Godstone-Like Artifacts
Godstone-like s and effects sometimes take other forms. Some accomplished s have developed spells to duplicate teleportal operations, but spells, s, and divine intervention seem to work on different principles. The themselves left a number of devices that share attributes with the Godstones. The existence of the has been rumored but never established. These are said to be portable Godstones that cast a cone-shaped field that acts on any object whatsoever, even if it has no aura. The Jeriberi are claimed to be the size and shape of an, made of and operated by. Even if such an object were used in public it would be difficult to distinguish its effect from that of a spell or.

Another artifact that employs the same or similar principles is the. This  is made of translucent or transparent pseudostone. One was secretly possessed by, the king of. It has never been clear how many of these Sli-Hordrh there are, but they are reputed to only act on a part of the of their wielders, allowing their body to remain intact (and possibly conscious) while their point of perception wanders in a unique kind of  state. These devices also allow a kind of telepathy, although it is not certain that this function relies on the same fundamental “Godstone” principle.

, the king of, is said to number among his possessions a , an exquisite that looks like pure white  and grants visions to those who gaze within. This seems to rely on “Godstone-principles,” but the N’Garith’s other function, which has to do with mental health, does not.

The largest known artifact with Godstone-like effects is, located at. This ordinary-looking reflecting pool has water in which anything that cannot swim or tread water will sink, even wood. Although there is a tunnel running beneath it, the well seems bottomless; anything cast in sinks and vanishes. believed that the “bottom” of Gazers’ Well was somewhere in. Lothrim was obsessed with proving his belief and would often have bystanders seized, weighted, and thrown into the well. He would then stand for hours staring into the waters for some vision of his “volunteer ambassador.” In case victims or other users should appear on the surface, traveling in the other direction, he had a permanent guard stationed to seize them for questioning. There are two similar wells at, but one was damaged and drained by a landslide in 707.

Interworld Travel
Travel between alien worlds is never easy, but Godstones are by far the easiest route between the group of worlds known as the. The, wherever they came from, certainly used them for this purpose. Godstones exist on all worlds of the Kèthrîan Family and possibly on worlds of other families as well. Anyone with the courage to step through an active Gate, set to an unknown destination, may easily find himself on another world.

Keléstia
is everything that exists, the sum total of all realities. Keléstia is not governed only by physical laws of space and time. While each universe has its own laws, there is also a set of master laws governing Keléstia as a whole. A may be inaccessible to other worlds in its own universe. but because of the warping of Keléstia, it may be possible to reach worlds in other universes using higher dimensional paths, referred to (somewhat imprecisely) as travel in the “Nth dimension”. Those who travel such routes refer to it as “walking in shadow,” “crossing the void,” and so on.

The Kèthrîan Family
The world of, on which is located, is the nexus of a family of seven worlds. Kèthîra is a kind of crossroads. The ease of access between the seven worlds varies, but travel between Kèthîra and other members of the family is generally easiest. Other families of worlds exist, but can only be reached via the respective nexus worlds; such a trip is always hard, almost impossible.

No one in living memory has fully explored the whole Kèthrîan Family, but between them the mages of have visited them all at least once. The secret societies of Mèlderýn are probably not the only interworld travelers but they are the only ones to have made a map of the family. This map is really just a diagram of the routes between the six other worlds known to the s. It shows the interworld accessibility of the Kèthrîan Family.

The Kèthrîan Worlds
The worlds of the have different levels of  and technology. A brief description of the worlds other than is given as an aid to the. Additional information may be found in the article, published in.

Blessed Realm
The realm of the god, this world is thought to be the ultimate destination of the ever-migrating , the elven heaven. It is also known by several other names including, , and. The Sindarin of still occasionally “set sail” from  to the. Siem controls access to this world. Few interworlders can reach it without his permission and it is extremely rare for non-Sindarin to be admitted.

Losenor
Rumored to be the original home of the Earthmasters, is now an uninhabitable fireball of which very little is known. It is often cited as evidence that the lost control of their technology and laid waste their own world. One i by the name  managed to make the journey and returned with hardly credible tales of great heat and crimson, starless skies. Elkal became inexplicably ill after his return and soon died.

Midgaad
Also known as, this magic-strong world is where the originated, and probably the  as well. To reach the, the Sindarin came by way of and many chose to remain there. The Khúzdul, who seem to have fled to escape some terrible curse, have numerous legends recounting sweeping wars between incredible forces of good and evil.

Sherem
Little is known of. In some ways it has more magic than, in some ways less. One i, in a report entitled , described its physical laws as chaotic, and declared it unworthy of another visit.

Terra
The only near-zero-magic world in the group, the peoples of have built their societies with science and technology rather than magic. Numerous i have visited Terra, curious to experience life on a non-magic world. Most describe it as a savage, plagued world, where the mindless pursuit of technology threatens the survival of all Terran species.

Yashain
Often called ’s “half-world,” is a world that runs on. It is the home of many, including and. It is also called the realm of the dead. Most Kèthrîans believe they go to Yashain when they die, there to live immortal lives with some chance of being reborn on Kèthîra. Physical laws on Yashain bear little relation to those of other worlds. Traditional notions of politics, geography, weather, and climate, even eating and sleeping, are invalid. There are dozens of realms, ruled by gods, with s and dead heroes for. Kingdom borders are vague and shifting, and the realms always seem to be at war, an infinite struggle of good against evil, chaos against order. Yashain has been described as “Islands of Insanity upon a Sea of Chaos.”

Interworld Metamorphoses
If a traveler uses a Godstone (or any other method) to move between worlds with radically different environments, there is a good chance that his physical form and/or his personal powers and attributes will have changed when he reaches his destination, bringing them more into line with the norm in the destination world. This also applies to inanimate objects.

s traveling from a magic-strong to a magic-weak world, for example, have their magical powers sharply curtailed or eliminated. Conversely, a traveler able to transport s or from a “high-tech” world like  to a “low-tech” world like  finds that his guns will not fire and his black powder will not ignite. These changes are a feature of the nature of and no one has much hope of finding a way around them.

A feature that distinguishes Godstones from most other forms of interworld travel is that they use a kind of pseudo-intelligence to protect their users. If it is functioning properly, a Godstone will, if necessary, modify a traveler’s physical form so that it is better able to survive in the destination world. Consequently, an interworld traveler may look like a in one world and become a  when he arrives on a “water planet.” Each traveler usually has a particular form for each world he goes to. But, since the body is a manifestation of its, if the traveler’s personality changes markedly between visits, he may look considerably different on his return. Often, however, if the required form change is too extreme, the Godstone will simply “refuse” to make the transfer.

Godstones On Other Worlds
Information on the Godstones of other worlds is scarce. Those who discover a Godstone tend to keep its location a secret. Pymel the Meticulous wrote the following notes in his personal journal, information that was released to his fellow s after his death in 666.

Regarding, he wrote:

Of, Pymel wrote:

There have been reports of Godstones that stood free, that is, with no structure to house them. Pymel, a major source for such “common knowledge,” writes:

Pymel neglects to mention where he encountered this unhappy village. He goes on to say that the villagers referred to the Godstone as a “well of souls forsaken” and made regular sacrifices to it by casting people through the gate, a practice not uncommon among primitive peoples dwelling near Godstones.

Rules for Godstones
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