One of the few Level 6 Manses in Creation and it caps a fire demesne of unparalleled potency.
Special Functions
Zone of Influence: Rathess
The Central Hearth once activated extends it zone of influence to the entirety of Rathess. Right up the Outer surface of the City Walls. This is a design of the Manse and cannot be changed without physically changing the geomancy quality of the manse. Since the manse is indestructible that would be an impossibility. This means should Rathess expand the new sections will not benefit from the various special abilities of the Central Hearth.
The Zone of Influence is not the “Rathess Essence Power Grid” that is something entirely different. The zone of influence is areas in which the Central Hearth can exert is various control and abilities that is described below.
Comfort Zone
The Central Hearth renders all beings within its influence resistant to the effect of heat. All within its actual physical structure is perfectly defended against the raw elemental might it contains; this perfect defense only applies to when individuals are physical within the actual manse.
The larger effect that applies to Rathess in a way “air conditions” the entire city of Rathess and additionally makes the city structures immune to fire damage (such as arson) regardless of construction material. Keep in mind – this does not actually lower the ambient temperature of the City, but its inhabitant’s just feels cooler.
This larger area power cannot be selective. All that is in Rathess are granted this power. However, the Keeper of the Central Hearth can withdrawal the protection of perfect fire defense within the actual Manse from anyone who is not attuned to the manse.
Central Control
The control room of Central Hearth is the Fountain of Liquid Fire that displays the real time 3-D model of its zone of influence (which is Rathess) with constantly flowing lava. The Model is perfect accurate but only in regards to structures. People and Objects are tracked only when requested and only updated via the Essence sense capability built into the city’s power grids. This effectively means those in the Central Grid can monitor the events in the entire city with Essence Sight (no sound).
The System is NOT meant to be used for surveillance. The essence sense capability is meant for diagnostic and repair purposes. Those who wish to avoid such surveillance can do so with no penalty to their stealth roll. With Rathess in such disarray however, entire section of the city are off the monitor network and repairs these links will be painstaking and long.
The actual mechanism for control is achieved via floating orichalcum and obsidian shapes with runes facets that glow when activated. The entire system is not intuitive and requires training to use.
The control system is actual a “translator” that tells the Keeper what needs to be done and the Keeper does the appropriate tasks.
Glorious Halo of Hesiesh (Fire Favored)
The Central Hearth can sent real time communications to anyone within its zone of influence via 3D images made of heatless flames of a million shades. These messages can be sent to the perserspective recipient from alcoves dotting the city. Obviously there is no guarantee of privacy intrinsic to the message since the image is displayed for all to see. Because the system does not transmit sound, the messages usually consist of the image of the sender and the text of the message burning next to him/her. Public announcements or private messages with audio can also be sent by those within the Central Hearth or by the bearer of the Superintendent Stone (as long as he is attuned) from anywhere in Rathess.
Bond Servitor Force
The Central Hearth does not require additional workers as it can produce a large number of Lava Servitors to serve its purpose (around 500-600) these are not sentient beings and are only suited as labor force. They take care of the mining and processing of raw materials and their transportation. They can be used as military force but only with sentient supervision.
Each Lava Servitor appears as however the Superintendent wanted them to appear. The last Superintendent chose the iconic figure of a Muscular Dragon King warrior with 4 arms to better hold things and a great serpent’s lower body to better move through the earth and waterways as they can move through both freely without trouble or disturbance.
Currently A colony of around 200 Mice of the Sun resides in the Central Hearth and they supervise the Lava Servitors. These mice like to ride the servitors while they are working within the manse for fun and for closer supervision. Since the Lava Servitor’s ability to pass through earth is not conferred to the mice, they monitor and direct their work via the Control Room.
Note: The Central Hearth’s magic protects those in its zone of influence from suffering accidental harm via the Lava Servitors. It does not protect against deliberate harm caused by a controlled Lava Servitors.
Fire DRAGON’S NEST
The manse’s structure concentrates elemental Essence so strongly that every room is overwhelmed with its aspect. Light changes color as it enters, as do any objects left therefore long. Moreover:
- Terrestrial anima banners of the corresponding element cannot damage the manse. The manse’s energies absorb their physical power. People, however, are not immune.
- Appropriately aspected Charms and spells – including the abilities of elementals, Terrestrial Charms with the Elemental keyword, or spells directly affecting the element – have their final cost reduced by (manse’s rating) motes, minimum 0.
- Children of Dragon-Bloods conceived within the manse gain a +1 bonus to their chances of Exaltation, as if a parent had higher Breeding. This increases to +2 if the child is brought to term within the manse. The Exaltation’s aspect is hardly in doubt.
- The hearth room of the manse is in a state of dangerous elemental upheaval. It’s an environmental hazard with a Damage of 3L/action and Trauma of 5, ignoring armor. The hearthstone bearer is immune to this effect, but probably had trouble attuning in the first place.
This is the simulation of the raw power of a level 6 Fire Manse. The shaft in the control room is burnt by the convergence of the dragon lines. The resulting demesne is made of tangible heat so intense that it vaporizes everything in its immediate vicinity and liquefy everything miles from it. This awesome power is tapped and turned to shield the actual manse encased in this lava sphere. Everything in the manse (including visitors) is actually immediately liquefied but the magic protects their form. The walkways are red hot (actually molten) and visitors soon start to glow as they too are burning.
Thankfully the Manse is indestructible and thus its protection will never fail, should the keeper withdrawal this protection however, the unfortunate being will immediately expire. Into liquid if he is at the outer skirts of the manse, into vapor if he is near the core.
The actual manse is huge, a network of orichalcum essence conduits that wires across the entire sphere. These conduits range from thickness of a hair to as vast as 100 yards thick. Most people only ever been inside the control room, so most believe the manse is just the shaft chamber.
The Hearthstone Chamber is at the center of the Control Room at the bottom of the Hearth. Even the grand magic that keeps the manse safe cannot prevent the fury of the demesne from leaking through at this focal point. The room is filled with the tangible heat of the demesne that ignores all armor and soak. It inflicts an environmental damage of 3L/Action and Trauma of 5. No common fire immunity or resistance can prevent or lower this damage. Only exceptional defenses like a Greater Elemental Dragon, Greater God of Fire, Perfect Soaks, or the Superintendent Stone can prevent this damage.
The Central Hearth also has the ability listed above regarding terrestrial exalted.
Workship Manse
The Central Hearth as built in Self-maintained workshop designed for both Craft(Fire) and Craft(Air). The tools here are good even by first age standards and can be used to repair virtually any wonder falling under those craft’s purview. It is also considered a flawless workshop for artifact construction.
It however cannot automatic make artifacts. It is just a workshop that provides the means for one with such skills to do the task. The ancient dragon kings can probably make good use of it.
Ability Enlightenment
The manse encodes knowledge in its structure, mystic arts have coaxed a hint of mind from its Essence, or perhaps a previous owner was so closely attuned to the manse that her knowledge passed to it. The manse “understands” orders beyond straightforward programming – but isn’t sentient. Although it learns and remembers information, it can only grow so far, and has no consciousness or personality.
Effectively, the manse has four Abilities it can “think” about. Since the manse doesn’t have Attributes, it receives an automatic four successes whenever a situation would call for a roll using those Abilities. The manse may need other powers to act on its Abilities, however.
The Keeper have the Ability of Craft(Air), Craft(Earth), Craft(Fire), and Bureaucracy. These abilities are not broad scoped like normal, instead only contain information regarding the repair, refit, and maintain Rathess. The Keeper adds these successes to the Superintendent’s result when performing tasks within that scope.
Altelier-Manse
The most powerful function of the Central Hearth and why it is central to the reconstruction of Rathess is its massive Atelier-Manse Function or Automated Production Line in earth terms. It can mass produce any mundane Craft(Earth) or Craft(Fire) design smaller than 50’ x 50’ x 50’. It however still takes time to produce things, while much faster than any mortal workshop, it can only produce around 100 swords a day – the quality is determined by the design supplied by the Superintendent and not the Atelier-Manse. The Manse only determines the speed by which the assembly takes place. Size is less important than complexity. To produce a solid block of stone 10x10x10 yards would take less than 5 minutes, however, should the stone be heavily carved or requiring an exact composition or color or type, the time will be increased significantly.
This Atelier-Manse is meant to be used to produce tools and building materials needed for the everyday maintenance of Rathess, however, it can be used to manufacture implements of war as well. It can only produce mundane objects and not magitech or artifacts. That is what the Workshop is for. Thaumaturgy can be done but at great difficulty. The Altelier-Manse will mindlessly and constantly repeats the design given to it until a quota has been reached or until it is stopped.
The only drawback is the Altelier-Manse require massive amount of maintenance to sustain its operation. The mice of the sun shut it down when the manse was sealed and has just recently restarted it. Already their hands are full with repair and maintenance and they don’t think anyone capable of replacing them will appear soon.
The mice’s Great Schema Mickey have repeatedly approached Nejimaru regarding him staying in Rathess to “learn the trade” but after Nejimaru informed him of the state of the world he agrees that the Chosen of the Unconquered Sun are much needed elsewhere. So Mickey returned to work with renewed dedication, determined to shoulder the reconstruction of Rathess so the Chosen of the Unconquered Sun have one less thing to worry about.
Indestructible
The Actual Manse is indestructible, completely impervious to damage as long as the demesne it caps remains at 6 dots. This however only applies to the main structure of the Manse. It doesn’t apply to things like the clockwork parts in the Altelier-Manse or the tools of the Workshop.
