Lachlen & Sunstone - Innovation Through Rivalry

Lachlen & Sunstone - Innovation Through Rivalry is a book recovered from the library of Humbleblossom Estate.

## Description

The rival Realms of Lachlen and Sunstone have engaged in a long and prolific competition, bolstering the will and imaginations of their artisans and labourers alike. While political matters were not unknown to spill out into war between the pair, this tome focuses on the origin of their rivalry - as well as the fruits of their contesting ways.

## Research

### Completed by Sprocket and Fafnir Lutgehr

The conflict between Lachlen and Sunstone has existed since the years of Aita's Second Gift, according to the histories, from the day that Tohmos the True granted nobility to a pair of former lovers who then deigned to share their rule - and so created competing Realms. The people that became the Lachosi found themselves shaped by their proximity to all manner of Fey creatures, benign and malignant alike - and so grew quickly apt and able to adapt and innovate quickly and spontaneously. The Sunar people instead turned their thoughts inwards, focusing on matters introspective - and so placed value upon calculated thought and due process.

Though conflicts between the Realms did often rage, most commonly petty border disputes or disagreements on tariffs or import taxes, the rivalry that existed between the Lachosi and Sunar ultimately proved mutually beneficial. When the Lachosi considered the Sunar as taking too long on a matter, they would spring into action, motivated to design, create and refine a prompt but steadfast alternative. Should the Sunar consider the Lachosi response to be concerningly unsystematic, they would retire into research chambers to analyse evidence, speculate upon possibilities and variables - and then enact the most viable and befitting solution. As such, while overlap did exist between their exports, certain commodities played to each Realm's strengths, the Lachosi skilled and fanciful carpenters, masons and weavers of textiles and metal alike, whereas the Sunar specialised in anthropological matters such as translation services, as well as mapmaking and alchemy.

Most famed of the crafts of Lachlen were those of enchanted statues, busts and other effigies. Nobles delighted in being able to leave dinner guests in the company of a statuette enchanted to hold light conversation, a magic reportedly taught to them by the fey of both Candlegrove and Covengrove. Any object enchanted to do - or particularly those innately capable of such curiosities was particularly delightful. Arcane artisans capable of casting a modified version of the *Awaken* spell able to induce some minor intelligence into inorganic substances enjoyed fruitful careers, many of them finding a start as an acolyte of the Guild of the Crimson Blossom just across the border in Atralran.

With a proverbial foot in both the sea and upon the shore, the residents of Sunstone almost found fame for their shipwrights and mapmaking. While the cartographers of Astaz and Sather deigned to enchant their charts to offer guidance - as was the attempt of one-upmanship provided by the Lachosi - the quality and accuracy of them was without parallel, and so most maps found through the Realms of Ahlus, whether used for navigation, military planning or designation of political domains, bears a maker's mark associated with the Land of the Morning Light. Fame and infamy are however simply two sides of the same coin, for just as common throughout the Realms are the creations of the Alchemists of Halima, the *Cinder Cube*. Although available in a range of configurations and designs, the fundamental purpose and intention remains the same across all *Cinder Cubes* - a seemingly mundane object of layered metal and stone with a potent ability to damage, disrupt or destroy a passing target. The initial *Cinder Cubes* were simply explosive devices, but in time the cultivation and refinement led to them being created with the distilled essence of a spell contained with, triggerable with a timed fuse. Whether used to ward remote outposts against bandit incursions with seething waves of *Cloudkill* or to invoke psychoactive disruption through use of *Confusion* to incapacitate trespassers, later versions could be modified for all manner of roles. After reports of their use by the Sect of the Tenebrous to first kill and then reanimate their victims through *Danse Macabre* to prey on any survivors, their ownership has since been banned for civilian purposes, although production remains ongoing through military contracts.