The incursion war lasted for only six minutes, but it destroyed both the First Tribe and their enemies: the Dae Usara. When the world broke so too did the Dae Usara—their bodies fell from the sky and shattered across Victory!
The actual fragments are called Animus and are the core of the Tribes survival.
Most are small stone-shaped objects that can be programmed and reshaped to make tools and weapons. They can transmute, manipulate, and spontaneously create matter. They can generate water, food paste (mana), and even complex lifeforms such as bees and worms.
The stones, usually referred to as “sky stones”, are at most a few inches wide with anything larger being rare. They appear as translucent metal with a semi-fluid interior. Upon closer inspection there are organic elements in the fluid.
The interior emits a low light and when activated will flash an increase in luminosity. The amount of applications that can be applied to a single stone are not limited to size, however most stones have only one.
The Cimbri and Suebi economies rely heavily on modifying and maintaining and distributing sky stones. The Cimbri are the keepers of the ancient languages of The First Tribe which gives them the ability to connect to the core programming in the Animus. Cimbri can upload Animus Application Programs that create a variety of effects. When a new Animus is found the Cimbri scour it for new programs.
The Suebi Tribe is able to manipulate the shape of the Animus, converting it from stone into blades, heat cores, and other objects. The Suebi engineers can compress Animus which then creates a heat stone. Heat stones radiate high amounts of raw heat energy that can then be placed into steam reactors. These are the foundations of most cities and airships.
Animus requires fuel. It is unknown exactly what the fuel is, but there are millions of containers of “quanta” both in control of the tribes and even more buried in the desert. Quanta are small egg shaped nodules that when placed near Animus allow it to “charge”. A family usually has two or three quanta which allow for several years of recharging multiple stones under normal situations .
Some stones have “spirits” within them. Possibly the remains of the Dae Usara, an ancilla, or artificial intelligence. Whatever they are no longer seems to be fully cognizant. Usually dangerous and unstable, these stones are quickly corralled by Cimbric Researchers.
At present, the origin of Animus is unknown. It is generally believed to have been the universal material of the Dae Usara. It composed their bodies, their cities, and even their omnidimensional habitats. One fact is certain and applies to all Animus, it’s dying. All Animus is becoming less effective. Only the large airships seem to be immune, but it’s believed that they too will soon degrade.
Without water stones or cooling stones (the core of the food supply, weapons, and defenses of the Tribes) Victory will become untenable.
Applications of currently available Quanta
- Water: Creates water (up to 3 gallons a day)
- Mana: Converts enough sand and dirt into food paste to feed three people for a day
- Cooling: Can cool average three man tent for up to seven hours, as low as -30 degrees of the current temperature.
- Fire: creates small sustainable flames for cooking
- Fertilizer: Multiplies waste material by ten fold and dries it out. (4.5kg per day)
- Bee Swarm: Converts carbon or plants into a swarm of pollinating bees
- Worm Mass: Will convert carbon or plants into a mass of earthworms (3kg)
- Rift Finder: Will detect dimensional fractures (6km range)
- Navigation: Works like a compass
- Thrust: Rare. Used in Warbirds as a rocket.
- Floater: Rare. Quantum locks the Animus so it “floats”.
