Agatecraft is a very curious power system, and I dare to say that it might have never been born if it weren’t for the severe peculiarities of its birth location. Tultet is not only a world orbiting a black hole – which already presents its own quirks – but the planet also has a peculiar chemical distribution that favors elements on the heavier side of the periodic table. In all honesty, that couldn’t have been better for Matter’s power system.

  As a mixture of Information and Light, Agatecraft presents a heavy presence in the cognitive plane, though as the name of its Aspect suggests, it only really manifests as matter.

  Agatecraft, in very summarized ways, is a power system that transforms power into silica. The inhabitants of Tultet have decided to refer to everything that Agatecraft might create as agates, which is not as wrong as it could have been. Whilst it would have been more appropriate to call the silica formations calcedony, it’s not something I’m completely dissatisfied with. The scholars of this world are at least conscious of this fault, unlike many other worlds that drown in their own defects.

  But to explain Agatecraft, I must first explain its components. Agatecraft is a multifaceted power system that acts in several planes and ways, so to understand it, one must first understand all the ways Agatecraft can act.

  First of all, any sub-system inside of Agatecraft is end-neutral. One might think that the generation of matter is clearly an end-positive power system, but the power does not come from an external source, like it does with Oration or spellcasting, but from the summoner.

  People who have consumed agates – commonly when they are young, as the assimilation success rate is higher when the body is still developing – are able to access untapped cognitive potential. This, of course, means that anyone trying to mix power systems that require mental power will find themselves a harsh bottleneck, but it works well enough for the inhabitants of Tultet, especially as Agatecraft performs certain activities with trivial ease that other power systems might struggle to do so.

  This finally brings me to the first and most common sub-system of Agatecraft: lithorica.

  Lithorica is the act of manifesting one’s mental power, or more accurately, physicalizing it. This mental power takes the shape of silica, as I have mentioned previously. Agates, chalcedony, opals, onyx… anything really that has high contents of silica.

  …

  It is due to the structure of Tultet as its composition is rich in silicon, yes. Similar things happen with the rest of the planets of the Crown system, but I will reserve that for later; let us now focus on this lithic world.

  Lithorica, the act of commanding agates, is a discipline that allows the summoners to command their physicalized mental power. Much like psionics, this mental power is able to do anything without certain restrictions like imagination, though lithorica possesses its own personal restriction.

  You might only command something the agate is able to do.

  A sentence that makes not much sense without context – and perhaps even less with context – but perfectly encapsulates what lithorica is.

  The lithorist is only able to give commands to their agates that the agate is able to perform, just like commanding tricks to a dog. Having said so, it’s hard to know what an agate is capable of doing. You would not expect a mineral to be able to distort space and create three-dimensional portals, yet it is perfectly able to do so. One of the idiosyncrasies of the materialized chalcedonies, you see.

  There’s also another aspect of lithorica called series programming. Or command programming, there’s no consensus on the title. This field inside the power system is about combining different commands to produce new and unique results, whether it be about synergies or actual functionalities of the commands. Some of the most used commands in these command series are Amplify, which boosts any given command and might give it additional properties; Protect, which namely increases the durability of the agate but also interacts curiously with some commands; and Invert.

  Invert is a command all on its own, for not everything has an antonym. A command that produces the opposite reaction from the given command, yet behaves as unexpectedly as a sharp mind might expect. The difference between a no-name lithorist and one of the most powerful is their close understanding of this single command.

  Scholars on this planet spend their lives searching for new commands, as uttering the word isn’t just enough to perform it, but a clear image is also needed. Which ends up resulting in people randomly stumbling upon commands, even though there have been hundreds of people dedicating their whole lives to it, only to come up empty-handed. Visionaries or prodigies, it’s always the most unexpected person who finds a new command, and because it’s human nature, they always end up dying before sharing them with someone.

  Eighty-one distinct commands have been lost and rediscovered, only to be lost yet again in the few centuries lithorica became widely used again.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  …Lithorica came later, you see. Agatecraft has been known for a while, but not that much. Much like a field of science, this power system only becomes something that has been with you your whole life once it is discovered. Humans weren’t born with mathematics; they seized it from the natural world. The same happened with Agatecraft. Only a handful of millennia have the lithic inhabitants of Tultet been using the power system, and only at a fraction of its power.

  I feel like I haven’t been talking much about lithorica but more of the history of Agatecraft as a whole…

  As a handful of addenda, lithorica is a power system that drains the mind on usage. It’s to be expected as it acts on the cognitive plane and it’s end-neutral, but I wanted to explicitly say it, as I know you will pester me about it if I leave it implicit. This results in the lithorists, more often than not, collapsing as they have completely spent their processing capabilities; their brains shutting down in a small death halfway between sleep and a coma.

  …

  Yes, interesting remark. The singularity in the heart of the Crown system and the empowered osmium nucleus of Tultet have had an effect on the power system as a whole, but also in its death. I would rather reserve this when I talk about another sub-system. For now, let me continue talking about the lithic infinity and the one who peered into the unknown.

  You see many images of the same tattered book. You have the faint feeling that it is a textbook of some sort, even when taking into account the archaic formatting and leather cover. Most pages are blurry and bleached as the owner has clearly not preserved the book adequately, and the light illuminating them is a harsh blue one, but you managed to rescue some of the following descriptions.

  Summon: This command allows the materialization of an agate. This factor increases neither with quality nor Stratum of the agate, though the agate's summoning time can be reduced depending on the summoner's reaction time.

  Recall: This command allows the retrieval of an agate. This factor does not increase with any property whatsoever. It must be noted that an agate outside of the command range cannot be recalled, but will be instantly recalled outside of the recalling range regardless of these restrictions.

  Shape: This command allows the shifting of an agate's form. This factor increases both with the quality and Stratum of the agate.

  Control: This command allows the manipulation of an agate with one’s thoughts through telekinetic means. This factor increases with the quality of the agate. It must be noted that this command has several synergistic properties that allow it to modify the power of a command mid-execution within certain limits. This additional factor increases with the quality of the agate.

  Amplify: This command increases the potency of the next command. This factor increases with the Stratum of the agate. Amplify is one subtype of command that only takes effect after the Second Stratum, for it can only affect commands that are simultaneously given to an agate and not given next in chronological order. Using the Amplify command with a First Stratum agate will render it inert and will be ineffective. The Amplify command can also dote specific commands with new – normally just enhanced existing ones – properties. These will be referred to as ‘Amplify addenda’ in this book.

  Range: This command increases the operational range of agates. This factor increases both with the quality and Stratum of the agate, making it one of the better scaling commands out there. Amplify addendum: When the Range command is amplified, it creates a buffer zone akin to a new command and recalling range, therefore massively increasing the effective range of agates when a chain of Range agates is created. It must be noted that this buffer zone does not include a new increased summoning range, and thus, any new agates are limited to the lithorist’s existing summoning range.

  Anchor: This command locks an agate in place. This factor does not increase with any property whatsoever, but if an agate is applied more weight than the command can support, it will start cracking, technically making it scale with durability. Amplify addendum: The agate will no longer be locked relative to the planet's gravity, making it highly dangerous and unpredictable. It is also highly likely that the agate will shatter into pieces when coming into contact with something unmovable.

  Speed: This command shoots an agate forward in one directional vector. This factor increases with the quality of the agate. It must be noted that the command will actively fight against any change in the direction of the preestablished vector.

  Light: This command makes an agate shine. This factor increases with the quality of the agate.

  Compact: This command compresses an agate, increasing its density. This factor increases with the quality of the agate.

  Sleep: This command makes an agate inert. This factor does not increase with any property whatsoever. It must be noted that when applied outside of any series this command with turn an agate instantly inert.

  Heat: This command makes an agate emit heat. This factor increases with the quality of the agate.

  Chill: This command makes an agate emit cold. This factor increases with the quality of the agate.

  Combust: This command makes an agate release a wave of fire. This factor increases with the quality of the agate.

  Gate: This command allows two agates to link with each other and create a passageway. This factor does not increase with any property whatsoever. It must be noted that for this command to work requires - beyond two agates - that the agates used are perfectly spherical and of the same size. Using Gate on a single agate will result in nothing.

  Spin: This command gives an agate a tangential speed in one directional vector. This factor increases with the quality of the agate.

  Duplicate: This command creates a copy of an agate, albeit reducing the quality and mass of both. This factor does not increase with any property whatsoever. Amplify addendum: Amplify appends an additive scaling factor, making it possible to make Strata plus one copies of the agate. The mass and quality of the agates get reduced accordingly to the number of copies.

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