Plasma

Very Hot

On very rare occasions, the plasma containment can fail. If this happens, do not attempt to repair the engine. Do not attempt to minimize the damage. Abandon ship immediately.

— Imperial Mechanical Guidebook, issue 17, page 26

Plasma has existed for as long as the rest of the Blue, but it was not until the late Industrial Era that people learned how to create and harvest it. Now, it fuels the modern world, keeping huge airships afloat and the towns and cities of the Blue alit late into the nights.

Properties

Superheated

Plasma exists at a base temperature of over 20,000 degrees. This is far hotter than even the strongest of ceramics can withstand, and it would quickly melt through the engine were it left uncontained. This heat is what gives it its incredible power, however.

Airship Engines

Electric Engines

Air is pulled into the engine and forced to flow past the contained plasma, which heats it. This superheated air wants to expand, but it is compressed instead as more cold air is forced into the engine. The compressed, superheated air is pushed into the thrusters, where it mixes with an oil extracted from palm. This mixture ignites, and the explosion is directed away, providing thrust. Modern thrusters contain between 8 to 12 separate channels for these explosions, which are staggered to ensure continuous thrust.

The other form of plasma engines are used to power electric generators. Instead of using the heated air for thrust, the contained plasma is used to heat water into steam. The expansion pushes pistons, which is then converted into rotational motion. This rotation is used as the mechanical force behind standard electric generators, turning a coiled copper wire through a magnetic tube to generate a charge. Due to the extreme heat of the plasma, a single plasma engine can power nearly 40 generators at once.

Energized

Another aspect of plasma is that it is inherently charged. When first created, plasma is a mixture of both negative and positive, but these can be separated out. Specifically, the positive charged parts are what is used in a plasma engine. This positive charge then allows it to be safely contained without melting through its casing, as it can be suspended with magnets inside whatever material it is being used to heat.

Creation

Flameblood magic can energize anything, including air. However, to heat air to the point where it becomes plasma requires either a very skilled sorceror or a series of sorcerors working in tandem. As the air is heated, it is kept inside a heavily insulated container, to ensure that no energy is lost, before being transferred to the magnetic containment once it reaches a certain temperature. This process usually takes several days, and new plasma is constantly being made to replenish plasma engines as they cool.

Wild Plasma

When lightning strikes, it superheats the air in its path. This raw plasma quickly cools once the strike has finished, and due to the rarity of lightning in the Blue, harvesting this raw plasma is not very likely. The Tempest, a constant storm above Nimbifer, has many more lightning strikes than the average storm, but the storm is also much stronger, preventing attempts to harvest the plasma from it.

Related Articles