Tekka Overview

Broken Tekka

Tekka is a catchall term for anything on Callidore with microcircuitry. Everything from space stations to medical scanners.

## The basics of Tekka

Tekka is the name given to the artifacts from the old human civilization, most commonly from Perwyn before the inundation. Items latter identified as tekka were first mentioned when they were found in the Cavern of Karumala. Nobles of Minalan's day make a hobby of collecting tekka; where some go hawking or compete in the list fields, others collect tekka. Importantly, tekka are mysterious objects of strange shapes and material, some with lights that turn on or off, some with glasslike surfaces with indecipherable writing that moves. The use or purpose of the items is lost in time.

The word 'tekka' is first mentioned near the end of chapter 23 of High Mage: Count Dranus identifies items from the Cavern of Karumala as tekka.

The next time it comes up is when Tyndal and Rondal retrieve a Kasari bronze idol; it is completely immune to magic, but when they opened it up it contained several pieces of tekka.

Tekka was also found in the treasury of the Brotherhood of the Rat.

Later, after the events of the 9th book in a short story, Lilastien identifies some of the **tekka**. The collection of items Minalan had at this point in time included:

* A Geoscanner (broken)
* The inner workings of a food preparation device
* Commemorative sports memorabilia
* A solar panel for a trash collector
* A control panel for a lift
* A mechanical arm for a remote drone (manipulator arm)
* part of child's toy
* part of a public address loudspeaker
* A Jukebox/music box (it had the song, In the Mood)
* A General Purpose Analysis and Diagnostic tool with powerful processing and storage capability. It has a synthetic programmable interface

The General Purpose Analysis and Diagnostic tool is implied to be part of Forseti.

Tekka is also found in the storeroom of the Duke of Castal's when Minalan bought it from Duke Tavard to supply Tavard's campaign to conquer southern Alshar.

The only items mentioned from the gigantic collection are:

* a plasma beam rifle
* an exploration vehicle. armored, self-contained, full of equipment to inspect and survey the colony's terraforming. They were called "Beasts".

The other tekka that is discussed but not presented:

* Calsat, a satellite network around Callidore. Their logo is a stylized eagle.
* Orvatas is the Orbital Vehicle Transport System, this system was used to transport people from the orbiting starship New Horizon down to Callidore

Lilastien later tells of the orbital stations outside the Magosphere, great bubbles of glass and metal, or spinning castles of steel. These stations where used to experiment with flora and fauna from Callidore, cultivate various human flora and fauna for use in the terraforming process and great manufactories of tekka. Most of these were shut down when the New Horizon was sent away.

Later, Forseti explains that 3 of the orbital stations where dedicated to native flora and fauna, and 3 to Earth's flora and fauna.

## Iron Hill

Tekka was also found in the caves under Iron Hill, a small mining domain in northern Alshar and part of the Magelaw. An Alon Dradrien located the hidden cavern by the smell of the metals used in the tekka. They found a pile of well-preserved tekka. Here, Minalan found a cart with six wheels the size of a wheelbarrow, According to Forseti, t was a simple monitoring device to observe the health of microorganisms, atmospheric gasses, radiation and a score of other bio markers from the later part of the terraforming effort. These little rovers would go out and periodically check the progress of the terraformation. This device had a level 2 CI (see constructed intelligence) operating it, but a more powerful one could be installed. This later becomes a part of Forseti, giving mobility and better batteries and solar array within a boom arm to the CI.

## CI levels

This is also where the types of CI used by the colonists are explained by Lilastien:

* Level 1, the most basic of CI's used for devices even more simplistic than the rover
* Level 2, simple decision making with the intelligence of a dog or horse.
* Level 3, about as smart as a human or karshak
* Level 4, tended to conduct scientific endeavors or large-scale projects.
* Level 5, the most specialized CI. These were used to run cities or scientific installations, directing colonial policy or controlling spaceships.

Later in the next book Forseti classifies the CI levels a bit differently:

* Level 1, About as smart as a smart dog
* Level 2, About as smart as a low-intelligence human
* Level 3, About as intelligent as a human Genius
* Levels 4 and 5 are each one order of magnitude higher than the previous.

* Level 4's were assigned to high-level technical, scientific, engineering, and military operations.
* Level 5's were utilized as command-and-control nodes, overseeing immanency complex tasks as well as coordinating lower-level CI's.

Level five intelligences are credited with causing the most issues in the later part of the colony, the Staff of the Archmage housed one such intelligence. It's described as a particularly egotistical CI, it was one of the primary intelligence's running the colony and in charge of running a city. This CI was central in reforming the government but ruthless.

Later, Forseti also explains that the New Horizon was equipped with 6 heavy shuttles, each capable of carrying 380 passengers or 340 tons of cargo. These were rated and capable of orbital insertion, point-to-point transport, and interplanetary travel. In addition, there were 400 small craft, some of a highly specialized nature included in the original colony. A corporation started producing smaller electro-gravitic vehicles 21 years after the founding of the colony.

## The Doctor Hugo Anga station

The Doctor Hugo Anga Station for Geophysical Studies for the northwestern caldera zone, Anga station (also known as the 'edge of nowhere') also contains an incredible amount of tekka. This station was preserved by inert gas (Nitrogen) that kept corrosion at bay. Here is a list of the tekka found here:

* Outer vehicle bay
	+ 2x six wheeled "Beasts" at the entrance
	+ Tools and workbenches
* Central control
	+ 2x level 1 CI's and 1x level 2 CI (collectively for data collection and data analysis)
	+ A satellite antenna (the last update to the station was in Colonial year 89)
	+ A Geo-thermal power supply
* A fully stocked medical bay (classified as an aid station)
	+ Everything but a
	+ Internal imaging machines
	+ Monitors
	+ Ventilators
	+ A surgery suite
	+ A blood work lab module
	+ A toxicology lab module
	+ A Labor and delivery suite
	+ 3x Colonial Therapeutics Mark 4 medical scanner field model (75 TB Medical knowledge, lvl 2 Medical assistance CI with instructions up to brain surgery)
* Weapons locker
	+ 2x civilian model, Raytheon Siemens high-powered plasma rifles
	+ 4x Weglar Duglas defense plasma pistols
	+ 6x Conventional pistols
	+ 2x 30 caliber hunting rifels
	+ one a shoulder fired precision guided anti-aircraft rocket
	+ A variety of hunting knifes
	+ 1000 pieces of ammunition for each firearm
	+ Each energy weapon has a case with a video tutorial
	+ Additional weapons can be found it the transportation bay
* Mess hall complex
	+ basic information terminal
	+ 2x workstations
* Forward storeroom
	+ Radio's
* Achieves (data storage)
	+ extensive scientific literature
		- Geophysics
		- Volcanology
		- Chemistry
	+ standard literature (books, video's, movies, music (90 TB))
* Other
	+ Lights
	+ Security camera's

Other Tekka mentioned is but not present:

* heart lung bypass
* A biochemical synthesizer (a machine that can produce 1000's of useful medicines).

Near the station is also a military outpost. Forseti could not open it, but it's classified as a utility outpost, hardened, secured and concealed to blend into the terrain. It wasn't planned when Forseti went dormant. It most likely contains communication and command-and-control equipment.

## Space Assets

We learn about the remaining space assets after the connection to the cal-sat network was re-established.

* There are only 9 functional satellites left in orbit, the rest are damaged.
* 2 weather and detection satellites remain out of the original 16
* 3 research satellites out of 14
* 2 satellites of unknown function, probably added later on in the colonizing effort, these respond with a military code.
* The lunar facility and its platform did not return a response
* 3 of the ECHO (Environmentally Contained Horticulture Orbiter) stations are offline
	+ 6 of the original 8 where deployed during the transformation phase of the colony
	+ In phase two, 2 stations were used to grow crops

One of them is dormant, this ECHO station contains a ship that was bound for the new horizon and contains 18 of the forsaken in cryogenic units as well as general cargo. The CSS serenity, A harmony class shuttle that has been sitting in that dock for more than 600 years according to its systems due to a malfunction in the docking system. It was set for reassignment and is currently in dormant mode and isn't responding to more than essential systems and telemetry. The cryogenic pods were rated for a 2000-year active life, almost half of which has passed.

It's unclear if they have been properly maintained, even in optimal conditions nearly 1% of colonists experienced a catastrophic failure of their unit resulting in severe injury or death. This will undoubtedly be higher in this stage of the operation.

## The ancient vault of the Alka Alon

This vault was said to contain the weapons of the Alka alon from there war's and dating back to their home world. When it was opened it also contained quite a bit of Tekka:

* The CI backups (between 50 and 60 of them)
	+ Colonial central authority CI 5 replacement unit, uninitiated. For civil use only
	+ 1x CI 5 M, a level 5 military grade CI
	+ Multiple CI 5 (level 5 CI's)
	+ Multiple CI 4 (level 4 CI's)
	+ A lot of CI 3 (level 3 CI's)
	+ A bunch of CI 2's and 1's
* More unnamed tekka
* A nearly pristine Military Grade Plasma rifle, more compact and powerful that the civilian model.

1. ↑ Mancour, Terry. The Spellmonger's Yule: Book 9.5 Of The Spellmonger Series
2. ↑ Mancour, Terry. Necromancer: Book 10 Of The Spellmonger Series (chapter 66).
3. ↑ Mancour, Terry. Thaumaturge: Book 11 Of The Spellmonger Series (chapter 31)
4. ↑ Mancour, Terry. Arcanist: Book 12 Of The Spellmonger Series (chapter 9)
5. ↑ Mancour, Terry. Arcanist: Book 12 Of The Spellmonger Series (chapter 13)
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Mancour, Terry. Footwizard: book 13 of the spellmonger series (chapter 34)
7. ↑ Mancour, Terry. Arcanist: Book 12 Of The Spellmonger Series (chapter 24)
8. ↑ Mancour, Terry. Footwizard: book 13 of the spellmonger series (chapter 11 and 12)
9. ↑ Mancour, Terry. Footwizard: book 13 of the spellmonger series (chapter 20)
10. ↑ Mancour, Terry. Footwizard: book 13 of the spellmonger series (chapter 46)