written as a public access exploration by Minister Qal’ehi
There is a common misconception among scholars that Urbes Tritios has nothing to learn from other planes or other cultures. Although we do have an immense advantage over every other reality thanks to the Anthropian Library and the volumes we’ve been able to recover from it through the years, that does not mean we can’t find new knowledge out there in the natural world. This series of articles are meant to summarize some of the many great findings in Abjuration and Evocation magic that would not have been possible without MITRA’s, the Society’s, and Memorious Ink’s expeditions into the Elemental Plane of Fire.
On protecting ourselves against poisonous gasses
Ever since researchers have identified the chemical composition of the atmosphere, it was clear that standard protection against harmful particles would not be enough to accommodate such an aggressive environment. Therefore, the experts in Abjuration have developed a creative spell to solve this issue. Instead of building arcane antibodies that neutralize harmful substances, we can instead create a field around our eyes, nose, mouth, and ears that repels particles as if they were caught in a spiderweb.
This works by creating a series of layers each focused on halting said particles and then “releasing” them from their gas suspensions by clumping them. Think of a flocculating process, but in the air instead of water. It’s worth noting that this method is currently in development since there are various issues when dealing with the clumped particles that it generates, which can still be dangerous. Current solutions involve wearing different kinds of specialized protective clothes together with the spell, which has proven quite effective.
On analyzing elements present in the plane accurately
As mentioned before, one of the priorities for us was to identify exactly what comprises the Elemental Plane of Fire for us to adequately repel dangerous substances. Luckily, this was fairly simple for the Abjuration wizards from the guild given their school’s specialty in detection. Researchers have developed special crystal boxes in which specific glyphs have been cut; these come in a variety of dimensions, but are fairly small more often than not. By placing a sample within the box (in the case of samples coming from the Elemental Plane of Fire, a zirconium crucible is also needed), the user can cast an identifying spell on said sample, albeit using a complex method.
First, the user holds in their left hand samples of the materials that need identification within the sample. These are usually small spheres or fragments of pure elements. Some elements close to purity can be encased in vials or other recipients without altering the results significantly. Then, the user needs to cast the spell whilst the box sits in front of them, conjuring the arcane energy from their left hand onto the box. The glyphs cut in the box then aim and reshape the energy so it can calculate the presence of all matter different from the sampled materials, shaping reality into information. Then, the user receives this raw information interpreted by glyphs on the right side of the box through their right hand. In this manner, it’s then a matter of mathematics to estimate the mass of the sampled elements based on the perceived information and the real weight of the sample.
For example, assume one casts this spell using an iron sample to analyze a sample weighing 200 gr. If the results indicate that 176 gr. of said sample belong to other materials, then one can safely assume that approximately 24 gr. of pure iron can be extracted from the sample.
This, of course, is an oversimplification since results yielded from this device take some time to be interpreted accurately, and it’s much effort from the researcher. However, it has proven to be tremendously accurate. The massive manufacture of these boxes, popularly called “Substractors”, is being discussed seeing how they could dispel some of the mysteries concerning materials recovered from many planes of reality… including the Anthropian Library itself.
