Magic reservoirs

Table of Contents

An incredible imperial technology that allows people to store the magic of poor workers and to use it to fuel the magitechs of the new wave of technological revolution. The magic cannot be absorbed directly by people, but this is just a question of time...

The importance of reservoir

Limits on magic: A major limit on magic has always been the size of people's inner power reservoir, aka their power level. The traditional techniques to work around this—collaborating with other mages to combine power or dividing an act of magic into distinct sections that can be performed at different times —are not always possible to put in place and are challenging to work out when they are possible and never brings out a result of the same quality anyway.
Organic magitech: The recent invention of organic magitech increased the complexity of the magic that is possible to perform, only leaving the amount of magic available as a limiting factor. In addition, more complex magitechs need to draw on a source of magic on a constant basis, requiring people to relay themselves as a source.
Reservoirs: Finally, in the last 50 years a solution has been found: an artificial magic reservoir that can temporarily store the magic poured into it and then distribute it to paying customers. This new innovation leap has brought in its own technological revolution.

The reservoirs

The reservoir buildings: The reservoirs have the shape of a classic water reservoir—a high cylindrical building with a ladder on its outside wall to allow people to access the inside. This inside contains a huge magic-storing filament coiled unto itself. Both the inside and outside of the building are covered in runic diagrams that control whether magic is absorbed or released in different sections of the filament.
The magic: The filament is made in a special metal alloy that has been designed to 1) naturally bind magic and 2) when receiving the signal from the runes, for the metal atoms to change their position in regards to each other, thus reducing their affinity for the magic particles and releasing them.
Customers: Paying customers have an artefact that allows them to tap into the network of magic reservoirs and that makes the released magic hone in on them. Reservoirs are mainly used to power the new mass production machines used in the manufacture of magitechs and to power flying carriages. A few private individuals also use them punctually when working complex magic.
Limits: Customers need to be in a radius of a few kilometres from a reservoir to draw on its magic. This has leads to the creation of a wide network of reservoirs through all cities in the empire but areas in between cities are not served by any.
Future innovations: The next challenge is to allow people to absorb the magic of the reservoir directly into their body. However, this is controversial: anyone with access to the network could become incredibly powerful, which would upset all social hierarchy in the empire. Imperial elites have banned public funding of this research, but it continues in private. After all, few people are not drawn by the idea of themselves making the discovery and keeping it secret, thus becoming the most powerful person in the empire.

The fuellers

Fuellers: The reservoirs are mainly powered by people, poor workers who are not qualified to do any other type of work. Work shifts are short, only a few hours per day, but it is an extremely gruelling and tiring job—exhausting your magic is never agreeable. Depending on their power level, workers are assigned shifts of a specific duration. However, shifts are standardized, forcing most workers to work not adapted hours, further reinforcing their exhaustion.
Day workers: Fuellers always try to find another job as soon as possible, regularly resulting in a shortage of workers to fuel the reservoirs. When this is the case, the reservoir put out a sign to call for any volunteer to come in and work a shift of a few minutes in exchange for pocket money and as a service to the empire.
Conscription: In time of war, part of the population is not conscripted in the army but to work as fuellers.
Animal sacrifices: When there is truly not enough workers available, animals can be sacrificed to fuel the reservoirs, however less magic is obtained this way. Powering circles are found in all slaughterhouses to make double use of the killings.

Hundreds of people were gathered in the lobby of Building 3A Rune, giving the allusion the entirety of the building had come. Hélène was not a fan of crowd, but their win of the neighbourhood wall painting competition had put her in a mood magnanimous enough to tolerate this horde.
Old Malik gestured and she obediently came forwards to join his group—some of his family members she had already met and a few other people whose face regularly appeared in the newspaper.
"Here is Hélène [FalseFamilyName], my top enchantress and the author of our last masterpiece!"
A few eyebrows rose.
"Surely not alone," one of Malik's cousins said dubiously, "given the incredibly short time the Lotuses gave you to react to their little stunt."
"Completely alone," Malik confirmed smugly.
That earned Hélène looks of consideration. She smiled sweetly at the thought of the new artefact orders these people were going to send her soon.
"Were you the one who came up with the glass shard technique for the dragon scales? That came out spectacularly well!"
"No, this was the work of Julie [FamilyName]."
"Oh. The cursed one. Why are you allowing her in your building Malik, let alone to contribute to your art? All those people should be left to the manufactures. Fuel is the only good thing that can come out of them!"
Hélène kept on her smile and made sure to memorise the face of the speaker and of all those who nodded alongside. She might have abandoned the family name, but she was still an [RealFamilyName], and it never paid to offend them...

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