Editing New Jhelom (section)

==Magic and Technology==
* The Empire only has a few major "wells" of magic, which are distributed throughout the island ring by artificial leylines maintained by huge transmission towers topped with crystals and lenses.

===Artistry===
Art and Culture are held paramount in the empire, despite being functionally useless. A product of their massive economy.

Some go far, however, into the depths of Art - some interpretive dancers can induce emotion or thought, from depression to berserker fury. Some painters have prophetic fits - and one painting in the Vizier's gallery, when smeared in blood, becomes a window to another place - high, high above the world.

In the true depths of Art, all beauty becomes power. When one has slaved over a piece, putting every fiber of craftsmanship and skill towards it, carefully shaping or practicing it to be truly beautiful, truly perfect- when one can truly be said to have poured one's heart and soul into it- then that soul can exert true power, not merely suggesting impressions or emotions but demanding them in ways that more mundane art never could. All works of truly Inspired beauty hold power, whether blown glass or carved stone and painted canvas.

; Painting :
* The Vizier's gallery features many paintings, aside from the greatest secret of the portal-painting. Within some slumber long bound creatures, forgotten and unknown by all. Within others are futures, series of paintings leading to the apotheosis of all life or a broken, cracked, desolate waste that makes the Broken Wastes of the West look fertile. Some change routinely. Some are many things - one painting routinely shows whatever the Vizier had for breakfast next week.

; Glass Blowing : The Empire's Glassworkers make creations of outstanding beauty - and sometimes, with the correct delicate patterns, can harness the powers of magic that flow invisible through the skies. Their Glass Cannons are quite a sight.

* The Empire has ships without sails of cloth - they have sails of glass, that draw in the power of the sun and stars and power an engine.
* Magical Glass creations are incredibly expensive and quite rare; but are as much work of art as sorcery, every one is the work of a master craftsman and is ornately and baroquely decorated.
* It is said that there is a way to shape glass so that one can gaze at the heavens - a thing called a "telescope". But it is also said that any who profess to have such a thing are taken to the palace and never return. There is something in the heavens not visible to the naked eye that someone must want to be a secret.
* I had a friend, whose name I shall not mention. He worked wonders with glass and magic.
*: He decided to build a device that could record images - storing these pictures for later. He got it working and showed me. Delighted, he intended to go all over the city, taking these pictures.
*: I did not see him for some time after that. When I next saw him, he was haggard, pale, and would not talk to me. He told me he was now almost done working on a device that could record whole moving scenes. I was astounded and congratulated him on this truly impressive work. He then burst into tears and I left him, confused.
*: Later I found that he had died. He had leaped from his apartment window. I was saddened, and wanted to take some of his "pictures" for proof of his genius.
*: I noticed something strange in them. Many were fairly normal. But in others... there were things there that did not make sense - shadows coagulating themselves into shapes like humans - where there was nothing to catch such shadows. These shadow-things haunted the edges of his pictures, impossible. Many looked to be missing heads, or other pieces of themselves.
*: I then found his scene recording. I have not found a way yet to watch it. A good part of me does not want to. But I must now. I must. Every day, these thousands walking the street - are there things that we never notice, out of sight? And what are they capable of?

; Dance :
* There are none more respected in the Empire than those who have mastered dance.
* I have heard that the dancing girls you see in the Upper Circle and around the Vizier's holdings... the particular ones though, the ones in the outfits of Sky Blue? With the gold, and the pendants with swords? They are the Cloud Guard. They combine the magic of the artistry of their dancing with excellence with the sword and knife. The fact that they are dancing girls means that they go most places in the better areas of the City. And mostly they do just dance - but at the drop of a hat, they will enact the will of the Vizier. Make sure to hire dancing girls with outfits of different colours, yeah?

===Arcane Symbology and Will===
Any living being has the potential to learn magic - it's a hefty effort of will, combined with focus through pre-discovered forms and sigils to form a spell. Most people know one or two cantrips to make life easier. Serious magic, however, requires serious effort and is extremely rare - even more so outside those with elemental heritage to call on.

A very few people uncover some sort of secret that allows them to impose their will on the world without the artificial mental constructs, significantly lessening the effort and founding small fonts of power within themselves, which they stoke and tend eagerly. Most of these people become hermits, unlike the traditional magicians who typically end up in courts such as that of the Vizier.

*The most common form of magic is that of strange symbols and runes. They go by many names, and they take shapes simulating natural formations from the ground. They each seem to represent a single concept and thing, and are tied to an element. Somehow, with the death of many water elements, those magic symbols tied to water have been waning in potency.
** They say that there is a certain sign. And if you place this sign upon a door, it will open to the Palace of Memories. The Palace of Memories has many, many doors and is filled with knowledge and secrets. The Vizier is said to send envoys there from time to time. But be wary to not become lost in there. Your memories will seep from you, to become tokens in the palace.

* Rarely people are born with an intrinsic connection to the arcane, the rarest of these beings are the star-touched. The last star-touched, Heylel, once blackened the sun upon being threatened by the vizier.
** I heard that Heylel yet lives, tucked away in some forgotton corner of existence searching for a way to resurrect the goddesses.



===Blood Forging===
Blood Forging is the art of turning the blood of various creatures and peoples into different, magical metals. It is said it was invented by the knife ears, and that since blood is the currency of the soul, the quality of the soul effects the quality of the metal.

It is said, that the younger the blood used in blood forging, the more durable and potent the metal will be. Why this is? No one knows. But it is suspected that it is why the Knife Ears steal children during their raids... using their blood to create the metals that they so depend on.

* The blood of a holy man makes a metal that will turn aside all evil.
* The blood of an honest man will shiver in the presence of untruth.
* The blood of a criminal makes the best lockpicks.
* The blood of a mage crafts no finer magical focus.
* The blood of a Magos is said to make blades that shatter enchantment, or rune-letters that protect the bearer from spellcraft.
* The blood of a liar, specially forged, can craft a tongue-stud that twists the speaker's words to sound convincing to the listener.
* A blade forged with blood of the Chasatha leaves wounds that sicken easily, and will not heal.
* And the blood of an astrologer is said to craft devices that can read the future - the missing astrologers, some whisper, are being crafted into the Vizier's Orrery - the largest prognostication device ever made.
* The weapon forged from the blood of an orphan and quenched in their tears and heartblood always strikes true.

===The Artifacts of Old Jhelom===
In Old Jhelom, powerful magical artifacts can be found built out of organic, blobby nodes and rods of snowflake obsidian rather than the usual delicately blown bubbles and sheets of rainbow glass that modern artisans use.

===Air Ships and Sildron===
Sildron is an ore torn from the earth, but carefully shielded. When it does not have a piece of andalum, an ore found around deposits of Sildron it recoils away from earth and water. Some deposits are torn loose from their andalum 'wrappings', leading to floating mountains. The silvery stuff is worth a king's ransom and enables modern flight. The Glittering Isles has some productive mines for Sildron, but for some reason has a vast amount of andalum instead which it exports all over the world.

===Numerology===
Numerology is not like other magics, it is debase, vile, tampering with the very fundamentals of the universe. Math is used to equate EVERYTHING, and numerology disturbs this practice, creating vile, broken rules. Only a Numerologist can make it so that 2+2=5, and while this might seem like it could be a great thing, it destroys the natural order, and slowly, ever so slowly, the very world begins to die just to satisfy the whims of the numerologist's blasphemous magic.

In most civilized parts of the world, to be discovered to be a numerologist is to be executed on the spot. Woe onto the accountant who does not make it clear he works no magics what so ever with is abacus and counting stones.

Some say that Numerology was invented by the Demons... for who else could so well understand the mechanics of the vast machine that is existence except for those who lived outside and looked in upon it.

* In the empire, all mathematics must be done on black paper with white ink, and their tools such as counting stones and abacuses are made to be as obvious as possible. No one wants to risk a Numerologist using such things for demon summoning.
*: It is a sad state of affairs, that hinders true engineering in most parts of the Empire, since true Numerologists usually become so good at mathematical numerology that they no longer require such base tools.