Flux Energy

Flux Energy is the term used to describe the magically-included energy that is extracted from Flux. Flux is a crystalline substance that was discovered to have energy-storing capabilities in 12,415 SA, and optimised into the more efficient Flux Fluid in 12,850 SA. Flux energy revolutionised much of the known world, bringing an end to the time of economic depression and resource depletion known as "The Decay", and giving rise to a boom of invention and industrialisation.

History and Discovery

Flux crystals were long known throughout history to have magical conduction qualities, but the true extent of their potential was untapped for thousands of years. The Shamans of the Orcish people of the Cradle Mountains of Sedia and Virias would use flux crystals as arcane foci, atop their staffs carved from lengths of dragonbone. They were used in various magical capacities by high elves; their patron God Aenar quoted the substance as a sacred symbol of invention and progress alongside gold and copper.

"Watch them! My children will inlay their cities with copper and flux and gold, and they will change the world!" ~Aenar to Drisiira, in battle during the Ruination, as told by the Clergy of the Golden Vault.

While the first official published paper on the properties of flux was released in 12,415 SA, it is believed that Ancient Asuri people in the Azure Isles were the first to recognise Flux as having it's own magical energy and that it could be used as a power source. While many cultures used Flux for its ability to channel magic, the Asuri people used flux crystals suspended above the ceilings of their most holy temples. Connected through delicate chains to thin metallic filaments that hung from the ceilings to produce small specs of light, flux energy was used to create starscapes in replication of the astrology they closely follow and in worship of Ellene. This is the first documented use of flux energy in a circuit to power rather than channel something, thousands of years before its credited paper.

Pre-flux, The Decay, and the Last War

Sedia had a steadily advancing rate of production during the early years of the 11th millennium of the Second Age. Steam-powered machinery had been popularised during the mid to late 10th millennium, and Productivity was at an all-time high in the early 12,000s SA. This continued in a blissful golden age of advancement until coal supplies inevitably began to dwindle. Initially, this wasn't a huge problem, as only heavily industrialised countries and cultures such as Virias, Sedia, Mirron, Donoruhm and North Osmen were particularly reliant on burning coal to support their way of life. Other countries relied on more simple lifestyles, and were more than happy to sell coal to these larger countries to support their own economies. A global lack of supply drove industrialised countries across the Known World into a panic by the middle of the 12,300s, beginning the period that would come to be known as The Decay- an economic depression and time of poverty and instability worldwide.
During this time, Sedia's major cities had economies built around factories that began to crumble under the pressure. Virias and its condensed and localised industry coped better, and this change in power dynamic is often quoted as the key pressure that lead into the Last War. Sedia's weakened state and Virias' lack of resources were a strong push toward Virias' decision to push Sedia into conflict.

The Fluxrace and Legacy Flux

Following a period of poverty and wastage through The Decay and then the destruction of the Last War, Sedia and Virias were both standing in the burning ashes of their own destruction. Much of Aresia had lost a substantial chunk of their population through a mix of disease, hunger and war. Desperate for an edge in their conflict, great minds of Sedia and Virias were whipped into a frenzy of innovation, hoping to come up with something to turn the tides of the war. With large-scale machinery grounded by lack of resources and supply, combat had become more intense and focused on ground and arcane skirmishes. It was days before the devastating and desperate Battle of Windy Peak that Wyn Feywrith, a second-year Veridian elf student in Texora academy, made a breakthrough. Alone in the almost abandoned laboratory of Texora Academy in the early hours of the morning, he created a rudimentary circuit using a neatly cut flux crystal and a mess of copper wiring; an experiment on a theory he had proposed, but not wholly expected to be true. The avid 70 year old student began his work; experimenting, compiling and documenting his findings. He would write a paper over the following months that proposed that flux crystals not only channelled and conducted magic, but that they had a powerful magic stored within them, locked and hidden within the structure of the crystal form. This magic could be used as energy, and cutting and refracting the crystal in a particular manner allowed it to flow. Unfortunately for him, he was very excited about his discovery and despite warnings from his professors, he was unable to contain this excitement. Fortunately for the state of Sedia and Virias, his loose tongue attracted the attention of elite Sedian Secret Operatives Agent, Kelsie Marlow, who was undercover in Virias at the time. She allowed him to work on the project before raiding the vaults of Texora Academy the night before he submitted his final paper, stealing it away and riding back with it to Sedia.
It was this one single act that changed the course of history and the outcome of the Last War. Kelsie Marlow perhaps singlehandedly saved Sedia from total destruction, levelling the playing field in the Last War enough to lead to the Nimadelle Agreement being formed. Sadly, only days before the Nimadelle Agreement was signed and the war came to an end, Wyn Feywrith was found dead in his college room, the cause of death being apparent hanging. It was never determined fully if this hanging was a suicide or a strategic assassination, but many theories surrounding his death are still discussed to this day.
The end of the war began what is now known as "The Great Fluxrace". Sedia and Virias were now armed with the knowledge of making basic flux circuits and the science behind the phenomena. With the memory of the War hanging over their heads like a dark, threatening shadow, began frantically experimenting with the newfound wonderous system, knowing full well their age-old enemy was doing the same. The perceived threat of each country and the potential of a rekindling war spurred innovation like the world had never seen before. In these years, flux systems were refined and what is now known in the flux industry as "Legacy Flux" systems became the popular standard. These flux systems were simple and basic, but could fit in even small spaces and could supply houses with light and energy in a relatively easy and safe way. Flux lights brightened the city streets of Astrellos and Isvamelle with fantastical lanterns and glowing signs. Stoves were soon able to be flux-powered, and houses were able to be warmed without wood and coal. Flux was cleaner than burning- with no smoke or emissions, and people rejoiced as the flux boom brought hope back to desperate people of the world. On Astrellos' Founders Day in 12418, in a momentous day the Star of Astrellos was extinguished with holy water and relit as an ornate flux-powered lantern.
Flux brought about a flourishing economy in many places around the world. New jobs were suddenly required- many of them skilled. Fluxcutters were required to expertly cut and understand clarity and energy output of different coloured stones. Engineers known as fluxtricians created complex circuits and invented new ways to integrate old steam systems.

Important Inventions during the Fluxrace

• Steam-flux engine (for steam trains), invented in Sedia in 12,421 SA
• Flux-powered airships, invented by Donoruhm engineers in 12,425 SA

Fluxfluid and Modern flux use

During the depths of the 12,800s SA, Sedia was once again noting shortages in the supply of their main source of industry. Though flux crystals were still fairly plentiful, their supplies were decreasing quickly, and demand was becoming too high for mining corporations to keep up. With the Sedian Revolution on the horizon, miners were already striking and protesting the unfair and unsafe work conditions in Sedian mines, and the Sedian government had resorted to importing flux crystals from countries overseas that had less industry. A series of supply chains were set up with drow mining houses, bringing a supply of more crystals- though often of more undesirable and unsafe hues such as z'rhinn (deep purple) flux and indigo flux.
A breakthrough came when a young chemist by the name of Mrs. Caroline Wells completed a prototype for a new form of flux energy. She had worked on the theory silently for years in her underground laboratory in a tiny home in the farming town of Dellbarrow, Sedia. Very aware of the importance of keeping her recipe close to her chest, she made sure she had a functional prototype before announcing her work at all. A very bright and cunning businesswoman, Mrs. Wells travelled lightly with her prototype to Astrellos where she held an appointment with the Council of Sedia. Famously illustrating the power of her invention by concealing the fluxfluid canister in a plain box and connecting a fluxlight tube that required high and constant energy flow, she demonstrated that whatever she had in the box was effective and efficient. She shrewdly bargained while keeping the specifics secret, and was able to negotiate for the desperate Sedian government to fully fund and build all the factories and labs she required to get the invention off the ground in return for the technology.
Her invention was fluxfluid- an energy-dense, high-conduction fluid form of flux. Crystals of any one hue and clarity are powdered to an extremely fine consistency before being dissolved in high-grade wyvernic acid. The solution is then primed with a highly refined distillation of bleakbark, rested for 28 days and then agitated and prepared for the key process known as flux alignment.
Fluxfluid revolutionised industry in a world-changing manner. Fluxfluid is up to 500x more efficient than its legacy counterpart, all but erasing flux scarcity in parts of the world with access to fluxfluid. Sedia had a huge head start in utilising fluxfluid, bringing it once again to the status of a world-leading nation into the late 11th millennium SA. People in capital cities experienced wealth and prosperity like never before, though the wealth divide in major cities did steadily grow as rich investors became richer off of production, and with few laws around work and labour groups of people living in poverty grew, and crime in the undercity became more organised and serious.

Flux Definitions in Summary

The complicated timeline of coal, steam and flux usage has left a trail of obsolete and strange systems in its wake. Many old flux and steam systems and legacy flux systems were discarded, scrap often being sold by Virias and Sedia to Donoruhm to be reworked. Others lie as shells of their former importance to this day, scrap metal being a lucrative venture for many tradespeople. Fluxtricians now have terms that piece together categories for both old and new flux systems:

• Coal powered steam: The first form of truly industrialised machinery in the Known World, there are some steam-powered machines today that still function off of coal or, more commonly, burning wood. Most of these machines could now be converted to use fluxfluid as their heating element by a skilled fluxtrician
• Steam-flux: A term for the hybrid use of steam machinery, heated and powered by flux energy rather than by the burning of coal or similar fuels. Steam-flux is effective and used commonly to this day for large-scale engines and heating processes. The main negative to steam-flux over more advanced systems is their high usage of water, making them unsuitable for very arid climates.
• Legacy flux: Old flux systems from the original rudimentary circuits of the Last War, right up until the invention of fluxfluid
• Legacy conversion: Many legacy flux systems can be converted to use fluxfluid as a power supply, avoiding the use of an entirely new system. Fluxhubs can be retrofitted with canister receptors, resistors changed to match the required flow of magic, and cables and tubing insulated to prevent shorts. Almost all of Astrellos, for example, runs off of Legacy conversion, with the roadmap plan for Sedia's power supply to be converted piece by piece. Sedia updates sections of grid and circuit as old systems fail, breaking the huge cost of converting the entire city down into parts. This is controversial, as legacy conversion is less efficient than both pure legacy and modern fluxfluid systems.
• Fluxfluid or Pureflux: Fluxfluid systems, when built from new, are incredibly effective and efficient, break down and short very rarely, and can keep very cool even in cramped spaces. The main downside is that building new fluxfluid systems can be very expensive and time-consuming, and requires some rare resources. Additionally, handling highly acidic and reactive fluxfluid is a lot less safe than handling stable flux crystals, and workers frequently protest against the more dangerous working conditions.

Environmental Impacts and Waste

Depleted flux crystals

Flux crystals are a much cleaner method of power and automation than the more archaic options that came before it, but it is not without its flaws. "Empty" flux crystals that have been depleted of magic were historically discarded as waste product into the sea or later, buried in the mines they came from. These crystals formed pockets of magically unstable waste across many nations, effecting the environment around them in ways that are still not fully studied and understood. General good practice of discarding unwanted depleted crystals is to bury them in caves they were extracted from, where the ecosystem can already handle the magical aura that the crystals give off. However, with advancements in research indicating that flux crystals may be able to be recharged, we are now faced with the reality that so many crystals have been wasted in the past, lost to the depths of the seas where they can no longer be easily recovered.

Flux aura

Some in medical circles have raised concerns about the potential health risks associated with the magical radiation that is given off by flux crystals. A poorly studied field, there are some studies that show that flux aura can have a negative effect to long term mental stability and health, as well as potentially increase the prevalence of children born chaosmarked in areas with dense crystal usage. None of these studies are completed as of yet, and the effects on health are yet to be fully understood. Many families in Virias hold concern about the effects of flux aura more so than in other nations, and in large cities most families hang decorative hematite ornaments, windchimes and wear hematite around their neck. They believe that hematite absobs the harmful magic. It doubles as a symbol of Irasil, the God of Order and Balance.

Fluxfluid Spills and Hazards

Fluxfluid is a volatile, reactive and unstable material. Doubled with being highly acidic and toxic, it is a terrible hazard environmentally and to individuals handling it if proper care is not taken. It is particularly toxic to waterways and fish, a common accident being airship crashes over the ocean or into rivers. Spills can also be incredibly damaging to metal and stonework, and difficult to clean up even in urban locations. Usually absorbant paper discarded in glasswear is the easiest way to quickly collect spilled fluxfluid on land.

by spooktacular

A top-of-the-range Sedian steam-flux engine