Nullstone Constructs

Start-class article · First seen: pre-campaign brief · Last seen: pre-campaign brief

The Nullstone Constructs are Aurelia’s colossal divine war machines, forged from black-veined Nullstone that suppresses magic, and by the world brief immune to spells and unstoppable by force alone. They are known from one war: Aurelia’s crusade against Arcanthys (the War of Fractured Heavens, 582-589 A.I.), in which they marched through Arcanthys’s arcane defences until the Grand Conflux and the risk of collapsing the floating platforms brought a stalemate. The party has not met them, and they have never been named at the table.

Overview

The Nullstone Constructs are Aurelia’s colossal divine war machines, forged from black-veined Nullstone that suppresses magic (world brief). They are the most extreme expression of Aurelia’s anti-arcane doctrine, beside the city’s everyday use of the same mineral in its buildings.

The Constructs exist in the campaign as a historical fact behind the present-day peace between Aurelia and Arcanthys: deployed in one named war, neither victorious nor defeated.

Known traits

  • Material. Black-veined Nullstone that suppresses magic (world brief). The brief does not say how it differs from the Nullstone mixed into Aurelia’s pale building stone.
  • Capabilities. Colossal, immune to spells and unstoppable by force alone, and nothing more (world brief).
  • Deployment. In the War of Fractured Heavens (582-589 A.I.) Aurelia launched a crusade against Arcanthys and the Constructs marched through its arcane defences. Arcanthys answered by unleashing the Grand Conflux, the reality-warping apparatus of the Grand Conflux Spire, which trapped whole battalions in mirrored illusions and shifting streets (world brief).
  • The stalemate. Destroying the Constructs risked collapsing Arcanthys’s floating platforms, and Aurelia could not advance without devastating losses. Both cities have kept an uneasy peace since, each knowing war would mean mutual destruction; in the brief’s words, “Neither side won, but both pretend they did.” (world brief).
  • Present-day state. Unknown. The brief gives no count, no location, and no word on whether any still stand or have been forged since.

Relationships

  • Nullstone: the same mineral, at siege scale. In play the party has met it only as armour and masonry: the plate looted from an Aurelian paladin in session 10 (Terry: “It is Nullstone armor”, [2]) and the mineral Terry explained to Mike in session 18 as “the magical black stone that seems to disable magical effects” [3].
  • Grand Conflux and Arcanthys: the other half of the balance that keeps the peace (world brief). The nearest the table came to that peace was the DM’s remark in session 14 that the only people who can use arcane magic near Aurelia and get away with it are those of Arcanthys, because of something Aurelia has with that city [4]. The DM named neither the Constructs nor the war there; linking the remark to the stalemate is the wiki’s reading, not the DM’s.
  • Aurelian forces and the Pure Light: the Constructs are listed with Aurelia’s forces, but no session says who commands them.

History in the campaign

Not yet seen in play.

Status

As of session 23. Dormant and off-screen. The Constructs have not been named in any session, and the world brief records no use of them since the war (world brief).

See also

References

  1. ^ : DM world brief only (the War of Fractured Heavens); the Constructs are not named in any session.
  2. ^ Session 10, line 1644: Inline citation.
  3. ^ Session 18, line 1922: Inline citation.
  4. ^ Session 14, line 1616: Inline citation.