The Singing Crystals
Singing crystals are a crucial technology that allow music to be used when not in the presence of an Academy-trained musician. They accurately store a melody and reproduce it whenever they are struck with another piece of singing crystal. Singing crystals are incredibly common in the homes of Idra.
Regulation
Singing crystals allows the citizens of Idra greater freedom with the use of music, but because of this ability they are highly regulated devices. There is an entire division of the dyna devoted to regulating and enforcing the use of singing crystals in modern Idra. Singing crystals must be "primed" (the term used for storing the initial melody in the crystal) by a licensed Academy-trained musician. They must be stored in homes within a crystalarium that has appropriate soundproofing and separate labeled compartments for each singing crystal. Misuse of singing crystals is punishable by steep fines.Utility
For the most part, singing crystals are used for everyday household applications. They are primed with melodies that are able to clean the sink, bandage a wound, or mend a sock. These tasks are common and generally involve inanimate objects, which makes the melodies simple enough for the singing crystals to be primed effectively with them. This frees up a great deal of time in the lives of Idra's citizens and allows them to focus more effectively on work and recreation than on the minutiae of household care.
Manufacturing
Singing crystals are extracted from the ground in the northern reaches of the Idran empire and brought to Quring where they are refined through the use of precise percussion instruments in combination with woodwinds in order to shape the crystals without priming them. They are packaged in soundproof containers and brought to the licensed Academy-trained musicians for priming.
Discovery
Fadh Engineer first stumbled, literally, over a singing crystal in the northern wilds. As he was trying to get up from his fall, he knocked another piece of crystal into the first one which reproduced the intonation of his cursing perfectly. He procured several of the crystals and brought them back to Oja, where he continued to work on them until he found that they would reproduce precises melodies when struck by an unprimed piece of singing crystal.
