Function
Shield generators are defensive devices that create or sustain protective barriers. Cities use them for long sieges, ships carry built-in shields, armies deploy replacements when older generators fail, and hazardous expeditions can carry smaller generators into hostile terrain.
Description
Shield generators include city-scale defenses, siege generators, shield towers, built-in vehicle shielding, and portable expedition devices. Malverand vaults store them beside essence-channeling weapons, essence-engine prototypes, and god-core-related artifacts. Malverand vault shield generators include equipment designed to protect cities.
Their scale varies widely. Solvarria's generators protect Sol behind cosmic-blue and gold shields for months. Ishtanur is later fortified with divine shield generators, and its defenders keep the city protected by throwing out replacement generators before older ones are destroyed. Around Cyndarel, Raphael-aligned forces shelter behind immense shield generators. Garrik avoids destroying the city outright.
In a smaller form, Alistair constructs refined shield generators under Oktlix's guidance for descending into the essence-heavy lake at Zarephon and reaching the rift below. In the Malverand Intergalactic Empire, Vireen uses shield towers topped with domes; when activated, they project liquid crystal shields over the city and nearby farmlands during severe storms. The empire also uses particles designed for defense and shielding, and those particles operate through the main core.
Rules & Properties
- Shield generators can be city-scale defenses, immense siege defenses, tower defenses, built-in vehicle shielding, or portable devices small enough to hold or deploy.
- Outputs include cosmic-blue and gold city shields, divine generators, divine and cosmic replacement shields, liquid crystal tower shields, and vessel shields controlled from ship panels.
- Long-running shields need power. Sol's defenses draw on essence reserves. Ishtanur's replacement generators drain essence cores over time.
- Overlapping or replacement generators can keep a shielded position protected under heavy attack after individual generators fail, are destroyed, or are exhausted.
- Shield generators are deployed with mages, skyships, essence engines, shield towers, city defenses, and essence reserves.
- Device-made shields are technology-driven defenses. Their outputs can resemble caster-made divine shields or cosmic barriers.
History & Origins
By the Malverand era, shield generators are already stored in the Malverand vault beneath Maraveth among city-defense artifacts, weapons, and essence-engine prototypes. Other Malverand vault spaces also contain shield generators with weapons, engine prototypes, and casings.
After the failed Thalassai invasion, Zain targets Solvarria partly because he wants its shield generators and defense systems for Ulzathir. During the siege of Sol, the capital's shields hold for months and force Ulzathir to attack Redcliffe in order to drain Sol's essence reserves.
After Zain seizes Solvarria, Archibald fortifies Ishtanur with advanced divine shield generators. During the Attack on Ishtanur, the defenders maintain divine and cosmic shields by deploying new generators before the old ones are destroyed. This drains their essence cores.
Alistair later builds refined generators for research near Zarephon so he can descend through the lake and reach the source-rift environment. Much later, the Malverand Intergalactic Empire uses shield towers, city coverage, ship shielding, and particles designed for defense and shielding that operate through the main core.
Related
- Essence core
- Essence-powered devices
- Essence engines
- Divine shields
- Cosmic Barriers
- Skyship
- Malverand vault
- Solvarria
- Sol
- Redcliffe
- Ishtanur
- Zarephon
- Cyndarel
- Vireen
- Alistair
- Oktlix
- Archibald
- Zain
- Garrik
- Raphael