Authors: M.J Kreyzer
Furo
In the year 245 M.I., an energy crisis kept the world in uncertainty and economic turmoil. Meanwhile, in the city of Chydea, located in the Tarmus Straight, a young quantum physicist by the name of Malcolm Rowlings had spent the better part of a decade researching and examining the chemical makeup of Popus Trees, specifically those that managed to grow in the shallow waters of the Tarmus Straight. In a small, controlled experiment meant to draw certain elements from the tree samples that he had collected, Rowlings burst the atoms apart and made a startling discovery.
During the small, controlled explosion, the atom itself had completely vanished. Curious about the result and convinced that he had done something wrong, Rowlings repeated the experiment with the same findings. Bewildered with the facts of his experiment, he began a series of experiments to figure out why this particular result kept repeating itself. Eventually, Rowlings decided to introduce a number of various compounds to each experiment. And while Rowlings himself won’t admit what compound he introduced into the experiment that triggered his discovery, he will simply say that, by trial and error, he discovered that for all mass there is an equally 'negative' mass. From that point and through the next year, Rowlings became the first person to directly observe the 'God particle'. Over the course of the next year, Furo was used as an effective tool for not only subverting the Union, but also serving as the beginning of the Furian Renaissance.
General Definition
Furo is negative mass. This negative mass is a physical requirement in order to balance out an atom's positive mass and create balance. It is attached to every atom of every molecule of every object throughout the universe. Without it, nothing could exist while with it, and an ability to control it, one could theoretically create anything. Each particle of Furo is home to a deep well of energy, which is why it is extracted with such zeal to power most of the world’s larger cities. (Fossil fuels, incidentally, have been outlawed.) Furo is also known to bend space/time. High, dense concentrations of Furo found only in Raw Furian Aquifers and underground streams have been proven to slow down or speed up the flow of time within a certain radius. In a few, extreme scenarios, ultra-high concentrations of Furo have been theorized to create wormholes, though any individuals who have discovered them have not returned to report on it.
Alternate Time Fields
An Alternate Time Field is an area where the normal flow of time is disrupted by an abnormal presence of raw Furo. These Alternate Time Fields (ATF's) can either be accelerated or decelerated, the cause of the ATF being one or the other being unknown.
ATF's can be especially dangerous though. Because their existence is based entirely on the volatility of raw Furo Plasma, the presence of a stabilizer, depending on its size and power, can ultimately mean the complete annihilation of an area contained within the borders of an ATF.
Moonlight Module
Most commonly found in the ranks of the First Legionnaire, a Moonlight Module emits light of equal intensity and wavelength as the full moon, thus triggering a transformation in Werewolves. Because control over one's transformation is a rarity in the race, Moonlight Modules are the only way to willfully induce a Werewolf transformation other than walking outside on a fully moonlit night.
Viral Intelligences
Viral Intelligences (Often known as a VI) are actual, quantum beings written on viral organisms. These can be malevolent or benign and their effects are as varied as different strains of disease, and like those strains of disease, Viral Intelligences evolve, though at their own discretion. Viral intelligences also have the potential to channel an individual's sensitivity to Furo, giving them unique or 'supernatural' abilities. Possessions occur as a result of a VI infection. There are many types of VI's. And though rare, most VI's are evil or malevolent, causing the infected to behave erratically or even hostile. These bad VI's are known as 'Demons'.
Arc Theory
Arc Theory (later renamed the 'Arc Principle') was developed following the creation of Rowlinian Mathematics. It is a unified theory of the universe which led to the discovery of the 'God Particle', referred to by Dr. Rowlings as 'Furo'.
Rowlinian Mathematics
In 243 M.I, Malcolm Rowlings, a young, unknown physicist at the time, owned a small lab in Chydea. His purpose was to study the unique growth of Popus trees, particularly those located in the Tarmis Straight which grew large by even Popus standards. During this time, Rowlings witnessed a vast series of unexplained phenomena, mostly on a subatomic level. With dozens of experiments eliciting reactions consistent with the properties of the theorized 'God' particle, Rowlings concluded that his inability to make any further scientific progress wasn't inhibited by his own inadequacies, but rather the inadequacy of contemporary mathematics. Upon further consideration, Rowlings realized that their current system of mathematics was based on concepts originating thousands of years prior. And while many physicists would vehemently dispute the claim, their concept of mathematics could only carry scientific discovery so far. There was more than one way to describe the universe, and numbers had become inadequate.
So over the next several years, Rowlings' time was spent developing a new language of mathematics, starting from the ground up. After three years of seclusion and exhaustive work concluding in 246 M.I, Rowlings, using his new system of mathematics, developed an equation that accomplished something that contemporary mathematics had pursued but was incapable of producing: A unified theory of the Universe. This theory, dubbed 'Arc Theory', meant absolutely nothing to anybody else but Rowlings. Written in a mathematic language that only he understood, this Arc Theory was ridiculed by the scientific community. However, only a month after developing Arc Theory, Rowlings applied the equation to the observations he had made during his research of Chydean Popus trees. It was this application that led to the most spectacular scientific discovery in Havok's history.
His discovery of Furo revolutionized the world. The world's general conceptualizations of everything from Science to Math, Economics to Technology and even Anatomy to Religion experience radical alterations. Prior to Furo, the discovery most widely regarded to be the world's most important was the mass distribution of the written word. After Furo, though, there was no argument.
Numeral based mathematics became obsolete. School curriculums from an elementary level were radically altered to accommodate the existence of Arc Theory (relabeled as the 'Arc Principle'). And once individuals such as engineers, physicists and scientists became fluent in Rowlinian Mathematics, the world entered the Furian Renaissance and technology boomed.
Rowlinian Mathematics was the spark that changed the world. Without the development of this new mathematic language, the discovery of Furo would have been impossible, thus setting a ceiling for how far the world could ultimately progress. Also without Rowlinian Mathematics, the Subversion of the Union would have been made much more difficult and, in all likelihood, would have failed. However, the development of Rowlinian Mathematics made the discovery of Furo possible, that discovery leading to the second world war, the consequential fall of the Union, the near extermination of the Durant race, and the unquestioned rise of the Commune.
Refractors
Palm sized, Furo-powered device typically reserved for use by Legionnaire Phantoms. Using technology derived from Elemental, a Refractor bends light around the user and renders them virtually invisible. Because the device itself has limitations on the area that it can cover, its use can only be found as a personal device. And due to the fact that it requires a rare, specially treated Furian crystal to operate, Refractors are reserved for soldiers that spend the majority of their time immobile as a Refractor's cloaking becomes ineffective when in motion.
Parlic Steroids
Parlic Steroids, when introduced into the bloodstream to a warm-blooded vertebrate, initiate rapid growth within any biological being that uses them. Because of its extreme and relatively rapid alteration of one's overall size, it has an extremely high fatality rate, with only one out of every three injections being successful. The other two out of every three Parlic users face handicap or death, while an extremely small percentage see little to no change in their appearance.
Furo-Based Ballistics
Found in most rifles developed after the Freedom Class rifles, Furo-Based Ballistics creates a chamber explosion on an atomic level that will shoot a projectile with more than triple the speed and force of a bullet built around powder-based ballistics. This also removes the need for brass, making ammo and the weapons firing them much lighter.
Dead Zone
A Dead Zone is an area where, due to an uncharacteristically prominent Furo presence, electronics face excessive disruption while all devices based off of Furo technology malfunction and ultimately fail. The primary cause of these Dead Zones are Furian Aquifers. And while these Furian Aquifers can be found in several places around the globe, only a handful are large enough to create a Dead Zone, namely the Sestik, Aliyan, and Central Marsectan Dead Zones.
Atmospheric Control Center
Technology developed and put into field testing in Pyre. It’s effectiveness and novelty would result in another explosion in Pyrian real estate.
Furo Radar
Invented in 252 M.I, Furo Radar could detect magnetic impulses unique to Durants, thus making it possible to track them down. One of its biggest negatives, a pitfall which made it possible for large groups of Durants to cross into Marsecta and reach Olsgrad relatively undetected, was that Furo Radar does not respond to an area where Furo is stabilized. As such, any Durant in possession of a stabilizer could wander about freely completely undetected.
In 261 M.I, a change in solar radiation would render Furo Radar, an extremely sensitive technology, useless. With increased amounts of radiation and accompanying magnetism, a profuse amount of false readings made the technology unreliable. It would go into immediate disuse.
Metallic Fossilization
Using specially designed, metallically based chemicals, Metallic Fossilization is the forced integration of organic and metallic materials. This process results in the organic material assuming a density and stability of metal, that metal depending upon which metal was used in treating the chemicals themselves. Metallic Fossilization was originally conceived by environmentalist settlers as a way to make shelters carved out of the Popus trees in the Tarmis Straight sturdier and more reliable and the methods would eventually see broader use in construction projects around the world.
Cities
Pyre
First established in 1476 M.E as an escape from western persecution. With the discovery of the new continent and a colony as appealing and promising as Valhalla, word spread to other humans concerning this 'Promised Land'. Over the 150 years from the time when Valhalla was first established, civil unrest began to rear its head once more. While small settlements had been established in the jungles surrounding Valhalla, no settlement could be said to be as large or as ambitious as Pyre was.
Discovered only a year prior to Pyre's establishment, the Selsnik Basin in which the town would reside proved to be the most promising place to escape the conflicts of the west. With several fresh water springs and the presence of a then unknown substance (later discovered to be raw Furo), the Selsnik Basin was in oasis in the midst of the Bremonni Badlands, the size of which was unknown to these primitive explorers. However, because of its hidden nature and the desolation of the surrounding territory, the newly dubbed Pyrians considered the Selsnik Basin to be a blessing from god.
Over the years, Pyre slowly expanded into a populous and thriving colony with settlers coming from various corners of Solara to separate themselves from the rising contentions in the west. As its population approached ten thousand, Pyre's reached a tipping point where the resources of the area could no longer sustain them. So in the year 1493 M.E. a man by the name of Charles Bannick lead a small expeditionary force out of Pyre and towards the Byfaynes, the area through which they had migrated several decades earlier. After finding the area to be ripe with resources, Bannick and his team comprised primarily of Durants and Werewolves established Praemon in 1495 M.E. which led to the subsequent establishment of the North Santarian Trade Route along which supplies collected in the Byfaynes would be shipped back to Pyre.