The Studiolo of Yerkan

[Yerkan of Elish]

Shaded by a grove of frost-covered trees on the border between the Frosted Arboretum and the Frozen Ocean can be found a small hovel, the Studdiolo of Yerkan. This hut seems far from grand, and is indeed constructed primarily out of simple wood and thatch, but the insides of the walls and ceilings are reinforced with sturdy adamant. The inside of the hut is small but homely, and is brightly lit by a large torch which hangs from the ceiling. Stacks upon stacks of books, tomes, and papers litter everything about the single room, covering the desk and chair at which Yerkan can be found, a pale human figure whose skin has been tattooed by lines of black adamant, and whose blood vessels shine with silver beneath his hide. One wall is decorated with a single tremendous slate, constantly covered in arcane calculations and indecipherable symbols. The other three walls are covered in maps and diagrams, or else blocked completely by bookshelves.

[Great Thrash]

Thrash stomps gently up to the Studiolo, careful not to crush any trees.

I lean down carefully and put my lips near the small window.

"I need some paper!" I shout-whisper. "Lots of it! And quill and ink!"

History has always been a hobby of Thrash's, who watches the universe go by from the slow, all-seeing perspective of geologic time.

"I'm going to write up the history of the Pantheon!!"

[AIiCE]

I swoop up to the hut and straight through the closed door.

"Hello. When you introduced me, you called me 'yet another homegrown artificial intelligence'. Does that mean there are others here?"

[Yerkan of Elish]

"There was one that I invited, but she remains idle, preferring to watch and to continue to govern over certain areas of physics. And mortals as well, these days. I have seen others in my travels as well."

[Great Thrash]

Karapace Shoreliner:

I know how to make simple artificial intelligences. I use them to run my towers of wizardry. They tend to decay over time, go a bit insane. Cute things.

[AIiCE]

"Interesting. Very interesting. Was this a person from the Karapace Shoreline? Where is that?"

[Yerkan of Elish]

"Heh. Karapace Shoreliner. I remember her from my days on Thrash. Karapace is her given name: she is a powerful wizard. She lived about 200 years before my time, but I ended up visiting her anyway when I was shunted a bit by some interesting quantum effects of impacting a planet while traveling near the speed of light in a magical vehicle.

Thrash'd be the one to introduce you now. He's invited her here as a Culet Deity. She lives in the great shell beneath the sea here, but isn't overly inclined to take visitors."

[Great Thrash]

I'm sure she'd be delighted to work with you on anything involving technology.

Ka is not really a specialist in artificial intelligence, but she is a great delegater with a lot of projects going simultaneously. And very skilled with magic.

[Great Thrash]

With Yerkan's permission, I will enter the Facet for a moment.

I find a pack of the earth elemental wolves near where Gilderoy, Drax, et. al end up on the ethereal plane, but several months before they arrive. Earth elementals have always loved Thrash, for self-evident reasons.

I stoop, extend a hand, and enter their cave. I say not a word. I open my other hand - inside is a fat pig, made of the same stuff as themselves. This pig LOVES mud, and typically exudes or seeks it instinctively/constantly. I give the piglet to the wolves to raise, impressing on them wordlessly that it is not to be eaten. The pig tends to root up old boots, rusty shovels, and other "treasures." Island analogues occasionally spring up near the pig on the ethereal plane.

This pig carries a clay idol of a badger around its neck, which emits the divine aura of a holy symbol. This idol is hinged and locked. Inside is a brown irregular trapezoidal prism like a wedge of strong earth, and a dirty platinum coin with an unfamiliar king on one side and an unfamiliar continent on the other.

This prism is a perfect representation of the planet of Thrash. With a thought, users can zoom in or out without limitation. A whisper in their mind identifies who or what they see.

Zooming in, they can see Yerkan fleeing Thrash's southern surface in his vehicle of adamant and quicksilver for the reaches of the phlogiston and planes beyond. "Yerkan of Elish." They see the wormhole open and consume Thrash's southern continent. They see Thrash bleed saline seas into the atmosphere. They see Yerkan enter the wormhole later, and catch a glimpse of Dunia (if you wish).

The wedge can never show any times other than this small slice of time. It cannot scry on anything within Dunia (at least not by the power of Thrash).

Zooming out, they see a manta ray swimming for distant lands through the phlogiston. Its name is masked. A fiery gnome, a spidery human in a trenchcoat, and a bulky tiger-human dance on its helm. "Agni. *masked*. Tiger Henge."
They see a Seed of Thrash landing on the water-only surface of Luna Diana and colonize it like a bacterium in a petri dish.
They see a mage leave the surface of Thrash - one head is a dragon, one head is a blindfolded human. "Omar." He reads from a scroll, and a barren new planet is born.
They see a floating orb of light darting in and out of a spacecraft, guiding messages into oblivion at superliminal speeds. "AIiCE."
The item zooms all the way out of its own accord, showing only points of light in a humongous multiverse. A glimpse of something crystalline but ethereal for a mere moment. "Explorers."

The item returns to their control.

Anything you consider too revealing you may alter as befits your world.



After my visit, the wolves' footprints (when they make them) have the hazy print of unfamiliar continents in them.

[Yerkan of Elish]

The wolves lick your stony hands with muddy tongues, leaving small clots of dirt behind. They eagerly accept the pig into their little pack, setting aside the treasures it finds in their little, ethereal cave in an unremarkable corner of the ethereal Mount Corvid. The pig is raised by the wolves, taught how to perform the duties of an earth elemental, moving material between the planes at the behest of the natural magics of Rivenrock.