Shield Stones - Lanryin

Surrounding the city of Lanryin, these stones sit atop several towers and act as an anchor point for the city's large-scale defensive magic, which creates an anti-life and anti-magic shell over the city. The stones appear in a five different colours that are arranged in a pattern, but their size and shape vary, seemingly randomly, and most of them look like raw, uncut crystal. 
Thanks to the protective capabilities of these stones, Lanryin is one of very few cities on Trayst that doesn't have outer city walls. The system's weakness is that the whole shield must be raised or dropped at the same time and thus any attempt from within the city to break a siege comes with great risk.
The stones are activated at least once a year to ensure that they are in full working order. These tests are considered great shows of arcane power and many people, especially those who are studying the arcane arts, come to the city to watch it, resulting in a small festival of sorts accompanying it each year. The exact date of these tests is kept pretty secret, but they are normally in Yuhess or Frontir since the tests involve firing magic at the dome to ensure it is properly negated and short days mean that the spells can be more easily seen and assessed. Other wizards cast spells and artificer-crafted rockets are fired towards the dome as well during the celebrations with the intention of creating colourful displays for all to view. A few Wizarding Colleges are given a heads up so that they can make arrangements to come, as are other officials throughout Mer-Rein, but other than this the date is only announced about a week before the event; as a result, people who can travel to the city in advance begin to arrive in Lanyrin during these months so they can be ready for the tests and festival before they are announced.
Category:Lanryin