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Eye of the Sun

At the top of the Sun Goddess's Throne, a high, wide tower on Cloudspire's highest ridge, there rests an impressive magical gate known as the Eye of the Sun.

Only the sun sees all things.

When the Eye of the Sun is properly aligned with one of its lesser partners, the kind found in countless sites throughout the world, it is capable of opening a semi-permanent gate to that place. As the Eye slowly locks into position, a rippling sheet of light forms within its loop, quickly coalescing into the image of the gate's destination. This portal will persist so long as both eyes gaze upon each other, with one exception; the Eye of the Sun is in fact powered by the sun itself. Cloudy days drastically affect the range of the eye, and it is obviously non-functional at night.

History

When the dwarves of Skyreach Nation first built Cloudspire, they were stricken by the beauty of the sun and the world they could see for miles around them. They built the Eye of the Sun shortly thereafter, in homage to the sun, the light, and everything they saw. In its original form, the giant stone loop was built to follow the path of the sun, and nothing more. A closely guarded secret until recently, Eem herself was so impressed by the dedication of the dwarves, that after 100 years of worhsip she granted her power to their construct. The power of travel, to all the places that she could see.

Appearance

In form, the Eye of the Sun is a stone ring about forty feet in diameter, with the ring itself being about two feet thick. It is able to be turned to face any direction of the compass by rotating and tilting its massive platform with its intricate network of pulleys and winches. Accessing the controls requires one to enter a tight space full of gears and levers beneath the platter (the large mobile surface that passes into the Eye). In this way the Eye can be maneuvered to "see" almost any location for hundreds of miles. Interestingly, one of its major blind spots is in fact large swaths of Skyreach Nation, due to the extreme angles required.

In effect, the Eye of the Sun functions exactly like the ritual Linked Portal, with both destinations being hazy visions through the respective rings of the two-way gate.

The exact positioning of the eye that allows it to access a given partner is known only to the Keepers of the Eye, and such details are rarely shared with outsiders.

Relay Stations

The Eye occaisionally makes use of relay stations to reach its destinations. These low population settlements are always positioned on the tops of the highest mountains, usually along the peaks of the Ironspines?. Each relay station has a skeleton crew of Keepers and a semi-mobile version of the Eye in Cloudspire. Depending on its location, connecting through a relay station may require an overnight stay, though accomodations are certain to exist, for a fee, of course.

On a Timeline

Like the sun, its constructed eye has a schedule to keep. The Keepers of the Eye slowly rotate and adjust the eye throughout the day, allowing travelers to come and go to their destinations. If there's not enough light to reach a given destination, it is skipped in favour of another. Exactly which locations are accessed and how often depends entirely upon the politically activity of said location. Those in favourable standing with Cloudspire obviously receive preferential treatment, with their primary concern being profit.

The optimal cycle begins with the eye facing opposite the sun as it rises in the west, with it making one full 360 degree turn before sunset. Destinations are often referred to by the optimal times in which they can be reached on this schedule, between 7:00AM and 7:00PM. Lom, for example, is a 3:00PM nation, as the eye faces the country most directly during this time.

For reference:

It's not unusual for Cloudspire to shut down public access to the gate so that a well paying client can use the portal to transport something from one area to another (possibly even a small army). Such uses are very rare, however, as the dwarves charge a ludicrous sum for such services.

Setting the eye to a given location takes anywhere from a few minutes to potentially thirty minutes or more (if you were to flip it right around).

Destinations

The following locations connect to Cloudspire through the eye with relative frequency, depending on weather conditions. Time slots are approximate, within twenty minutes.