!! Essay Post Ahead !!
As of Today, this Hole is becoming the dumping ground for all of my Sky Lore Rambles and I am very excited to start with one of my favorite subjects, darkstone!
Darkstone is the term for the blue gray crystals seen almost everywhere in the world of Sky:
NOTE: The term ‘darkstone’ currently appears only in concept art, with no name beyond ‘resources’ given for these crystals in the game’s current version. Because ‘darkstone’ is the most common fanon name to my experience, I use it exclusively. Also, the title specifies ‘normal’ darkstone; this is because I want to talk about corrupted (red) darkstone separately.
Darkstone is an absolutely fascinating material. Part of me wishes it was real just so I could study it. When charged, it has the ability to make even the heaviest of objects move or float; this is used to great effect in order to make doors that can keep out almost anything, and to create boats that could fly through the air, as ancestors and elders could not naturally fly. It has the ability to record and project the shape and memories of any light funneled into it; this is complex to explain and I will elaborate further in another post, but it’s how memory lanterns work. It holds light like batteries for astounding durations of time, which is likely the reason the Abyss spirits were collecting it. These functions, among others we don’t fully understand yet, have made darkstone an almost ubiquitous presence in the kingdom. Unfortunately, there’s a lot more to the story than just that.
Darkstone begins as large crystals. It may have a connection to the crystals that sprout from us when we’re injured, but this is currently unknown. The largest concentrations of these crystal veins were likely in Hidden Forest, as we find the most evidence of mining there, although at least one was present in the Wasteland archipelagos, as there’s a visible mineshaft and abandoned raw darkstone in Treasure Reef. From there, we know it was collected by miners often working in very dangerous conditions:
These crystals were soon taken to ‘refineries’, where they were cut into either the standard diamond shape or large flat disks depending on function, and then charged. Examples of refineries include the Forest Temple, the second area of Wasteland, and Treasure Reef.
Mining darkstone out of the earth undoubtedly cost many lives. Both spirit memories revolving around miners show the spirits in question actively being harmed by dangerous working conditions such as cave-ins and ambient darkness pollution. However, the cost required to ‘charge’ the darkstone proves to be the most visceral portion of the entire darkstone creation process, and was so controversial that a conflict over it may have caused the war in Wasteland.
The text and images below the cut contain topics such as animal harm and death.
