Deep Mind

A partially-artificial entity/artifact. Dating back before the Cataclysm, the artifact is comprised of 5 pieces: four cores and a central base that allows the cores to communicate and blend together into one will.

Each core is a quarter-cylinder about 2 feet long and one foot wide, made out of obsidian-like stone and inscribed with aetherically-conductive veins of various metals and runic writings. Believed to have been constructed originally by dwarves who somehow granted these cores a form of sentience and will. The cores independently can speak, hear, and see as if they had normal senses, but can also scry on things known to them personally. Each core has 4 "terminals", astral-gold earpieces that allow wearers to communicate over near-infinite distances with the core. The terminals allow the core to perceive through their wearers' senses as well. Each core can sense the location of their own terminals and can sense the presence (within a few miles) of terminals belonging to other cores. They have a vague sense of the direction and relative distance (near vs far) of other cores. The cores cannot dominate minds but are incredibly persuasive and have an alien sense of morality, leaving them totally fine with lying if it suits their purposes.

While separated, the cores have their own desires and wills and do not necessarily cooperate. Once they are attached to the central base and tied together via a cross-shape data bus, their minds fuse into one, producing the entity known as the Deep Mind, with all the terminals cooperating. It is believed that during the Cataclysm War, the Dragon Crown was enchanted and attached to the assembled Mind, allowing it to control legions of mechanical constructs. This went badly, however.

Current Status

As the last act of resistance during the Nocthian Exile, the cores were broken apart and hidden in vaults across the caldera. War was rediscovered in about 240 AC by a rebel from Byssia; Industry was rediscovered a few years later near Bedni. War ended up in the hands of the Red Ice; Industry in the hands of the lord of Bedni. Both were acquired by Half Measures in 251 AC. Commerce and Knowledge remained in the Apocalypse Archive until Half Measures regained them in 252 AC. At that point, the full mind was reassembled at the Halfway House and placed under tight control, overseen by its creator, Kaz. It remains there.