The Conix Stone & Faith

     Many interesting theories have popped up about the Conix or Calling stone if you will, which appeared during the Entreaty or Harvest war, a holy conflict between the Grimlok and the Goblins during the Grimlok Harvest. These stones are revered as holy stones by both these races, yet not many know why. Perhaps in looking deeper at aspects of such, we can start to understand why.

     During the Harvest War, both sides pleaded for Aislings to collect shards of the stone, which might suggest they grow naturally among the cave formations in Pravat. Upon collecting a stone, one must know something about collecting it, or go mad. Perhaps this is from the reeling power of the stone, yet even in shards, it emenates a power such that a person without the wisdom to collect it will go mad trying to pick it up. It makes us wonder then, if these are only Conix shards, what is held in the real stone?

     Some theories suggest that the stone is not something which emenates its own energy, rather it acts as a catalyst to energies of religious types. When discussed that mana exists all around us, it was suggested to me that perhaps the Conix stone amplifies this mana. I of course, had to disagree. The calling stone is something of Holy Value. Since, we as Aislings cannot understand the power held within, we cannot use our mana through this stone to amplify our own spells and skills to Godlike effects.

     Perhaps discussing religious energy will help solve this a bit. Religious energy is something we as Aislings do not possess, but can control through the use of prayer to a God. Many misinterpret this energy as faith, but from another standpoint, faith is simply how much devotion we have in a God. In the polytheistic Temuair, the eight Gods whom are closest to this world take an active part in their fellowships. It is the God's themselves which hold the religious energy, and through our prayer to them, they can use this energy to provide miracles to the Aislings, or through the Conix stone to summon creatures.

     The only God known to date that can summon without the help or need of the Conix stone is Sgrios. The Calling stone itself cannot amplify religious energy to create a greater effect of an entreaty or a supplicate to a God. Rather, the Calling stone holds it's own energies to grant summoning powers to a God, therefore acting as a catalyst to take the energies a God gives out and direct them towards a summoning skill. In Sgrios case however, this would amplify and perhaps even offer different types of summonings to the fellowship, since summoning is an inherent ability of Sgrios'.

     The God's energies differ dramatically, based on the "color", size, and force of the energy. This can perhaps be theorized as to why different creatures are summoned by different faiths. The Calling stone interprets each energy it recieves and summons a monster of matching energies. For example, Ceannlaidir can summon a Goblin, which in effect matches the energy Ceannlaidir gave to the stone. Ceannlaidir is a very aggressive God, often hitting hard, but lacking on some defense skills. Mainly going into to destroy as quickly as possible. Goblins have the same attributes. They hit hard and fast, ambush to try to take the enemy down, but lack in defense. This explains the relationship to the energies inputted and outputted from the stone.

     We also know that the use of the stone drastically reduces the amount of faith to summon. However, the stones power is limited. In order to act as a catalyst, it's residual effects do not remain long, thus your summoning does not remain in the physical plane long. It's a give and take situation. The Conix stone cannot handle much energies at once, and thus can only keep the energies in physical form for a short period. Another interesting side note is that, unlike other summons, those used with the calling stone are loyal to the person whom summoned them. This could be another theoretical effect of the stone and perhaps why it cannot keep an energy in physical form for long. Keeping powerful creatures under the control of those who summoned them may expend a lot of energy that the Conix stone uses, thusly keeping a creature in this plane only for a few short minutes.

     So, at this point we know that the stone itself acts only as a catalyst for summoning energies, because that's all it possesses. Of course, our energies on Temuair are useless to this stone, being that the stone only responds to higher energies, thus suggested those that are given off by the Gods. The Grimlok and Goblins I fear, cherish this stone for it's value in gold, not it's power. They acclaim it's holy power, yet they do not understand it.

     Theorizing such, if they did, I think Temuair would be in a different state now. The Grimlok lack the mental power to use such a stone, and do not possess, like most creatures of Temuair, the higher energies required to operate the stone. Due to their lack of brain power, they are able to hold and harvest the shards and stone, because it does not affect their limited thinking ability.

     As Aislings, with superior knowledge, we cannot hold the stone, for we try to understand more about it, and doing so causes us to reel in madness. It is like contemplating infinity. You cannot do so without having your mind hurt. It is something of a mystery to us, and reeling in the madness of the Conix is what we do when attempting to understand the stone.

     So, in conclusion, not much is known about the stone. We can only gain the knowledge we seek through theology like this, and trial and error, which many have done. So what does the Conix stone truly mean to Aislings? Not much is known, but with study, and perhaps careful care, we shall seek the truth!

Respectfully Submitted this 1st day of Deoch 7,

~*~ Paladine Meatha