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Violescence

Substance • Mined and hoarded by the Eldoran Empire

Overview​

Violescence is a reactive crystal that draws power out of belief, sound and the other planes. It powers race cars, dragon-binding rituals, weapons and whole cities, and the Eldoran Empire is stockpiling it. As of Session 63 the party holds none that is recorded: the four crates it stole in Session 50 went into Luna's body in Session 52. The Empire's caches remain a target of the Twilight Company.

Transcripts spell it several ways. "Biolescence" is a speech-to-text error for the DM's term. The "violin" crystals and explosions of Sessions 58 and 62 were the DM saying violescence. The Session 57 recap calls the capital's power crystals "iridescence", but the transcript has the DM saying "crystals of violescence".

Properties and Uses​

  • Belief into power: Eldoran research (Session 61) says violescence enables a harmonic resonance between the physical, astral and divine planes, letting power be drawn from belief into the material world. It is the mechanism behind the winged knights raised in the barracks, and the Empire's feedback loop between worship and military might.
  • Harmonic engines: Fredo Boggins told Elspeth that the Empire now bundles the crystals into "harmonic engines" that make them ten times more powerful, with talk of fitting them to vehicles (Session 62).
  • Rituals: the dwarven rebinding of Raingoth needs "four perfect spheres of pure violescent" over seven circles of salt (Session 30). Bafael supplied them, and the party set them on mantles for the ritual (Sessions 40–41).
  • Racing: race cars run on registered violescence crystals. Elspeth's career ended when her brother swapped hers for an unregistered one (see Cooper racing crystal). Denlin's orphanage ran racing simulators on it (Session 49).
  • Weapons: Victor was building guns to fire violescent orbs (Session 43). Iro gave Bru a grenade launcher and a bandolier of violescence (Session 52). Eldoran fighters wear the crystals openly: the twins at Razlemania (Session 51), and knights with six crystals each on their armor (Session 52).
  • Hazard: raw violescence is reactive, and handling it loosely is inadvisable (Bru's Arcana 20, Session 50). The orphans who refined it regularly fell sick (Session 48).
  • A warning from another world: in the wrecked world of Interlude 11 the party found artificial violescence crystals more advanced than Eldoran technology, and learned that concentrating too much magical power in one place can shatter reality. In Session 48 the party learned that the Empire is accumulating violescence toward something catastrophic, and that another universe was already destroyed this way.

History​

  • The Denlin heist (Sessions 48–50): Denlin ran a violescence-processing operation out of his orphanage, with the children refining crystal in the afternoons. During the raid and the race the party stole four crates of raw violescence and stored them in the pocket village.
  • Luna (Sessions 48–52): the party learned that violescence was what Luna needed to come back. In Session 52, at Luna Trench, it cut the Eldoran knights' chain and packed the four crates into Luna's chest cavity ("Wakey wakey, violescence and bakey"), and her body assembled around them.
  • The Eldoran capital (Sessions 57–62): five giant floating violescence crystals, arranged in a pentagon with one at the spaceport, beam purple energy to pylons across the city (Session 57). The research tower's findings and Fredo's harmonic engines followed (Sessions 61–62).

Session History​

  • Interlude 11 — In Marcus's tower the party finds artificial violescence crystals more advanced than Eldoran technology, and a warning that Eldora's collection could end in the same catastrophe.
  • Session 30 — The High Forge vault tablets require four perfect spheres of pure violescent for the rebinding ritual.
  • Session 31 — Silas works out that Lady Corwin plans to deliver High Forge to the Empire so it can annex the violescence-rich region.
  • Session 41 — Four violescent spheres are set on mantles for the rebinding of Raingoth.
  • Session 43 — Victor's lab holds a shelf of violescent orbs and gun designs to fire them; Silas pockets several.
  • Session 47 — Lady Viper names the Empire's violescence caches as a target, and the party reckons a rocket ship would need a lot of violescence.
  • Session 48 — Denlin is found to be running a violescence operation with orphan labor, and the party learns Luna needs violescence to recover.
  • Session 49 — Undercover as orphans, the party finds the children refining violescence and racing simulators powered by it.
  • Session 50 — The party steals four crates of raw violescence and stores them in the pocket village.
  • Session 51 — Eldoran wrestlers arrive at Razlemania with violescence crystals sewn into their gear.
  • Session 52 — Bru fights with Iro's violescence grenade launcher, and the party packs the four crates into Luna's chest cavity to bring her back.
  • Session 57 — Five giant floating violescence crystals are seen powering the Eldoran capital.
  • Session 61 — Research in the university tower shows violescence enabling the harmonic resonance that turns belief into power.
  • Session 62 — Fredo Boggins tells Elspeth about harmonic engines that make the crystals ten times more powerful.