Murn

What it is

A murn (Lald written Muzreln (translating directly to lovely reln)) is any item that grants or enhances a user's ability to perform an action; It's truly a catch all term that has many subcategories. The broader or stronger the action, the more difficult it is to craft a murn for that action; and in some cases the more difficult it is to use the murn.

Verities, Forms, & Applications

Some murn can accentuate the users potential. This can be as simple as enhancing strength or as complex as forming a specific claw shape in a Vinsel’s gaseous paw. Some murn grant the user abilities they would find difficult to perform, if not impossible. An example would be allowing a Humi to fly or generate opalescent fire that lingers and acts as clothes.

Most murn take the form of small rocks or gemstones, though they can be anything from a droplet of golden liquid to a heart of rosy flame. As most Oo have multiple murn they use daily, they keep their murn in a Haln. The haln is comfortable to wear and easily configurable with what murn it holds. In addition to the haln, others have their murn fashioned clothes, jewelry, and body modifications. For those willing, enchanted tattoos and other permanent items can be applied.

Murn can be passive in use or active. Passive murn act with the user, performing their action like it a natural extension of the self. Active murn only perform when they are acted upon in some way; It can be a simple tap on the murn or submerging it in water.

Everyday vs Unique

Common murn, such as lurr, can be and are used by most everyday Oo. It is almost unheard of if a traveling merchant is without a lox or a murn to hold his goods, or a laborer without a murn to enhance their strength, or anyone with any amount of currency having a murn as a proxy between them and where their currency is held. A murn's use should, in theory, not be dedicated to be used by only one user, allowing for the effects to be used by whomever wields it (the exception being unique murn). If a murn is picked up by a stranger, and the stranger knows what the murn is used for, they should be able to use that murn.

There are, however, unique murn that either only a singular soul can use or is one of a kind. Most of these murn are wholly inconsequential, rich persons buying custom murn as a status symbol. Or a murn being gifted to someone for a myriad of reasons. Most of these murn are made for one singular being. For the murn that are unique to themselves, there is usually some sort of great power within them that is not easily replicated. Many of these unique murn are left to legend; a murn powerful enough to generate earthquakes and rip apart land, or a murn which strength grows by consuming souls.

Crafting

A murn is crafted by a Ntelnu, or truly anyone with the knowhow, by meticulously arranging greln in specific patterns. These patterns can be hard to create as greln naturally push and pull each other and meld into shapes they naturally would (such as kag greln shapes only accepting other specific shapes without catalysts). It is only once the greln is fully crafted that the greln it's made from find stasis.

Depending on the greln used, the creation of a murn has many different methods. In a most basic murn, all one has to do is push the greln together, past their repulsion point to a stasis. The intricacies of murn can become impossible complex, different shapes, sizes, states, temperatures, etc of greln meticulously placed in relation to one another to have the object perform a specific action or enhance one's ability to perform that action. Greln placed inside other greln, molded and culled, heated and chilled, rotated and shifted, made into alloys and dissolved, sublimated and melted, there are many ways to affect a greln to become the proper state and position with one another for the end result of helping or performing an action.

Murn used to be much larger, as the people who created them only had their physical abilities to craft them. Some murn were poles, articles of clothing, large stones, and even entire buildings. With modern tools, murn have been crafted to be much smaller and much more potent, leading most modern murn being the size of small pebbles that one can adorn their body with or keep in a small sack.

Origin

No one person or even one area discovered how to make the first incarnations of murn. The essence of what a murn is, is inherit to the world, beings first seeing it in natural phenomena and attempting to replicate it. Ancient peoples took notice of their world: how burning something would change its consistency and purpose, how some rocks where easier to jump off of, or that rain made the ground soggy and easier to pull apart. Upon their attempts to replicate these things that made actions easier they learned that by placing and manipulating greln, they were able to make new and unexpected things happen. Over time this evolved to be more and more complex, scientists learning why these things happen and using that knowledge to make new, more innovative, things happen. Eventually, these devices that take the core principal of how reln interact with each other became small and abundant, leading to people picking up the term murn.

Before the term "murn" was used so generally, there was no one word for something that assisted with or caused an action. A stick could be technically classified as a murn as it is an item that assists with an action, more specifically the action of extending one's reach. But most would call a stick a stick and not a murn. That beings gave the name of murn to are objects that are so small and similar in size that calling every differing action by a different name would be tedious and unintuitive. The advancement of tools has progressed so far that most tools are but a small pebble in size, only staying as large so it does not get lost. No one can say for certain when and where the term started cropping up, but it is now used by near everyone who is able to speak (at least with their Language equivalents if they are unable to pronounce the word).

Terms:
Greln - Pure Reln, without flaws and without mixing with other reln
Oo - Any living being.
Ntelnu - The profession of crafting murn (crafter being called Ntelnu)

Examples:
Staimem: records thoughts to be played back later.
Gnox (gahnox): when used in tandem with a ksech (noxech), will allow the user to travel on the wind from one ksech to another.
Lurr: Grants the user enhanced telekinesis
Lox: Also known as a speech murn, this is used to translate one’s professed language to another specified language instantaneously. Most lox can translate from one single language to another; but more expensive, and more delicate, lox can translate into or from multiple languages.