concept

Elemental Prisons

Summary

The elemental prisons are ancient containment systems that imprisoned eight powerful beings as batteries for the Barrier.

Known Details

  • Elementals said the Barrier was enslavement and that oppressors used them as batteries.
  • The eight beings imprisoned to power the Barrier were Valentinhide, Anorazorak, Garadul, Limusvita, Salinus, Leedus, Mericok, and Papa Marmaru.
  • The Salt Dragon Prison contained Salinus, the salt dragon, inside a smaller barrier.
  • Garadul was imprisoned in one of the eight dome prisons after consuming a void elemental.
  • Quasi-elemental lore distinguishes salt and water, with salt poisoning or polluting water elementals.
  • Cardonal described seven prisons, five labs, three Grand Towers levels, and teleport-circle codes, with other sites near pylons, a Goldenswell impact site, Riversmeet menagerie, a Goliath city, and missing dwarf and Goliath cities.
  • Earlier uncertain names and descriptions for the prisoners included Salinas or Salias of salt, Limus Vita / Limnuvela of ooze or life, Merocole, Papa I Meurina, and Valententhidle / Valententhide; the settled list is now preserved above.
  • Rubyeye’s prison-status readout used an effigy, runes, and prison connections; the Grand Tower control centre and Rubyeye lab wheels could affect prison systems.
  • Enwi’s siphoning of life force from his prison replicated across the prison system and weakened all prisons.
  • The life prison was converted into flesh by high-level Carnamancy and siphoned by The Mother; Limusvita survived by holding the Barrier up.
  • The Guilt claimed it could reset the control room and fix a prison, and later admitted it accidentally opened a prison while controlling a wizard.
  • Treamen, the Earth Excellence, was killed and left a jagged purple crystal skull artifact made partly from [uncertain: shield] crystal.
  • Day 42 Ashkellon prison rooms contained air, light, goat, sphinx, copper-dragon, mirror, and other entities behind barriers, including Trixus, Steven, Hephestus, and a copper dragon from Snowsorrow.
  • Emri was still imprisoned and missing soul-parts including guilt, misery, and possibly sorrow, compassion, Joy, and mercy; the elves had learned to remove soul-parts in an attempt to perfect themselves.
  • Day 43 says Hephestos was only his soul, wanted a pact, and may have been asked to attack the dome; Trixus could help with memories but a spell inside the Barrier interfered.
  • Cardonald’s Day 43 teleportation-circle list included seven prisons with no defences, labs with uncertain defences, Grand Towers factory/control/meeting lounge, Menagerie, Ashkhellon, and five pylons.
  • Day 44 recovered historical material on emotional elimination, automations, and a possible core or sphere network from the old mage school.
  • Day 47 Hartwall lab records show frost-prison runes disappearing, an elemental puzzle placed into an elemental ball, and an ice elemental ball later given to a fire elemental before the fireplace rift was dispelled and closed.
  • The frost prison contained lightning and snowflake doors, handleless doors, black sap or rubber seals, a semicircular oracle room, an iced snake door, and prisoners or door heads named Dorion, Tim, and Geoffrey.
  • One dark door led to an ancient dwarven hold containing a massive shaggy blue aurora; Geldrin promised to return once the dome could be powered without exploiting elementals.
  • Bynx explained that where the pure elemental planes meet, they combine.
  • Day 48 added a lava elemental orb / prisoner in an underground dwarven city, Rubyeye’s charges of elemental spirit entrapment, and Rubyeye’s statement that there were six elemental forces all along.
  • Killing Pride released a void elemental that absorbed its brother, teleported away, and may also have absorbed Pride.
  • Day 48’s dwarven prison included pylon runes, a key or wheel to open a dome, a featureless lost part of Valentinhide, and a claim that elemental planes were a highway used in a world-making pact.
  • Day 52 says destroying the dome would cancel all pacts and release all prisons.
  • Day 54 elementals at the Magstein / Grimcrag bridge were appeased with about 100 coins to their mother, adding another unresolved elemental authority or relation.
  • Day 55 adds Papa Illmarne’s dome and Papa Marmaru / Mericok to the prison network: Papa’s Dome had a hole that could not be repaired without pylons, Papa had more freedom and was breaking dwarves, and Mericok appeared as a smoke sphere with spidery legs and a human face.
  • Day 56 Grand Towers control-room systems included prison runes, statue states, a black shard claimed to be an elemental of Void, a Frost pole ball for switching frost elementals, and possible dome activation that captured Bynx’s sphynx brothers: Trixus, Benu, and Garadul. The dome also drained the party like elementals, especially near the edges.

Timeline

  • day-14: The party learns of elemental battery claims, Garadul, Salinus, and the salt dragon prison.
  • day-15: Elementharium/Clementarium explains quasi-elemental categories and salt-water problems.
  • day-17: Leaking elemental prisons are part of the urgent Barrier crisis.
  • day-23: Cardonal’s lab reveals the larger prison/lab/Grand Towers network and named prisoners.
  • day-25: Rimewatch identifies Ice prison concerns and Enwi’s system-wide siphoning.
  • day-26: The party investigates the Ice prison and life prison, then moves to Baytail Accord.
  • day-27: The Guilt offers to fix a prison and gives an Abyssal-inscribed ring.
  • day-30: Valentinhide, Galatrayer, Salinus, and barrier energy depletion become urgent.
  • day-31: Treamen the Earth Excellence dies, leaving a skull artifact.
  • day-42: Ashkellon exposes multiple prison rooms and confirms Trixus, Steven, Hephestus, the copper dragon, and Emri-related soul-part issues.
  • day-43: Trixus is released, Hephestos’s soul status is discussed, and the Riversmeet memory-interference spell is located.
  • day-44: Riversmeet school history reveals old emotional-elimination and automation research connected to later prison and Barrier problems.
  • day-47: The party explores frost-prison structures, negotiates with prisoners and door heads, learns more about dome power dependency, and closes the fire elemental rift.
  • day-48: Rubyeye is arrested for elemental spirit entrapment, a lava orb / prisoner appears, a void elemental escapes after Pride is killed, and a dwarven prison reveals pylon, dome, and Valentinhide-lostness clues.
  • day-52: Bridged-domain revelations state that the dome anchors pacts and that all prisons release if the dome is removed.
  • day-54: Elementals near the bridge accept coins for their mother.
  • day-55: Papa Illmarne’s Dome, Mericok, and Papa Marmaru expand the pylon and prison-control problem.
  • day-56: Grand Towers control-room runes, Void and frost components, and dome drain show the prison network still active.

Open Questions

  • Were they imprisoned for danger, exploited for power, or both?
  • How do sand and void fit the quasi-elemental model?
  • Why do some sources say eight imprisoned beings while Cardonal lists seven prisons?
  • Which prison did The Guilt accidentally open, and can its help be trusted?
  • Which of the Ashkellon barrier rooms were prisons, protections, or both?
  • Where are Emi’s missing soul-parts or emotions, and can Trixus restore them?
  • Which Day 47 frost-prison beings are prisoners, guards, door mechanisms, or displaced entities?
  • Can the dome be powered without the elementals, as Geldrin promised?
  • What are the six elemental forces Rubyeye remembered?
  • What is the escaped void elemental after absorbing its brother and possibly Pride?
  • Would releasing all prisons by destroying the dome be liberation, disaster, or both?
  • Who is the elementals’ mother, and why would coins appease her?
  • How do Papa Illmarne’s dome and Papa Marmaru’s identity relate to the eight-prison system?
  • What does the black shard elemental of Void contain or release?
  • Did dome activation capture Bynx’s sphynx brothers, Trixus, Benu, and Garadul, and can they be released safely?