Constructs and Treasures. Objects of power in Cradle, from Soulsmith-crafted devices to natural treasures and divine artifacts that shift the balance between nations.
Overview
The Omnicodex classifies objects of power in Cradle into two broad categories. Constructs are devices built from the stuff of spirits: crafted by Soulsmiths from Remnant parts, bindings, and
Soulsmithing
A Soulsmith is a craftsman who works with the stuff of spirits. The craft requires “a sharp memory and dedication to experimentation,” and its products range from simple light-emitting constructs to devices that rival the
The binding is the heart and soul of every construct. “A script is a drawing, a binding is a statue.” Where scripts are patterns inscribed on surfaces to direct madra flow, a binding is a complete technique preserved from a Remnant’s core. “Bindings are pearls, and Remnants are the clams around them.” A construct is, at its simplest, a puppet with a single technique embedded in it. [SS Ch.10, BF Ch.1]
Dead matter forms the physical shell: mundane Remnant parts used for their structural properties rather than their madra. Dead matter must be sealed with scripts to prevent decay, as spiritual material exposed to air gradually dissolves. This degradation affects finished constructs as well; essence bleeds into the air as tiny motes of colored light, and some constructs may not survive more than a single use. [SS Ch.10, SK Ch.3]
Reshaping madra is a fundamental Soulsmithing skill. Practice involves re-Forging different aspects into solid discs, then needles, training the control necessary to join disparate spiritual materials. Constructs built without bindings (dead constructs) have no abilities beyond the passive properties of their madra and carved scripts, and may be too fragile to carve at all. [BF Ch.1, SK Ch.4]
Soulsmithing Materials
Three materials recur across every Soulsmithing tradition the records document.
Halfsilver disrupts madra on contact. It contains pale specks like stars trapped in iron and causes internal chaos when used against a sacred artist’s spirit. Halfsilver is extremely valuable in regions where spirit combat is common, though it grows brittle at Lord-level forces; an Underlord’s blow can crumble it. [US Ch.14, SS Ch.3, SK Ch.2, Ch.13]
Goldsteel can get “a firm grip on virtually any kind of madra.” It is the standard material for Soulsmith tools, defensive cages against hostile Remnants, and containers that must hold madra without allowing it to pass through. Goldsteel flashes an unnaturally milk-white color when actively gripping power. [BF Ch.1, SK Ch.7, Ch.12]
Wintersteel is too expensive for an entire badge; even a symbol of it represents the highest achievement. This metal can only be worked by will, making it the exclusive material of Sage-level craftsmanship. It is mined where powerful sword madra synergizes with strong earth aura, and few such deposits exist. The Wandering Titan feeds on it. [WS Prologue, Ch.8, Ch.27]
Other materials serve specialized purposes. Titan’s Bone is ordinary stone that after centuries of earth aura accumulation becomes “all but unbreakable.” Cloudstone provides the base for flight constructs. Dead Iron appears in dreadbeast components where hunger madra warps conventional materials. [BF Ch.1, Ch.11]
Beyond structural materials, the universal currency of the
Construct Types
The records document a staggering range of construct categories. The following classification represents the primary traditions; the simulation continues processing additional data.
Drudges are specialized Soulsmith tools, “duller than Remnants, more mechanical looking,” made from physical parts rather than manifest madra. A drudge tastes aspects of madra and identifies binding concentrations, serving as the Soulsmith’s primary diagnostic instrument. Fisher Gesha’s spider drudge carried her through her workshop on goldsteel legs. [SS Ch.8, Ch.10-11]
Launcher constructs are the most common combat application: a container with a Striker binding that fires a projectile of madra. Simple launchers are single-use, crackling bars that fire one arrow of sizzling light. Compound launchers use multiple bindings in resonance for dramatically amplified effect; Fisher Gesha’s resonance cannon used six Gold bindings at once, producing a beam “thick as a barrel and bright as the sun.” The concept was impractical in its original form (loud, heavy strain, three shots maximum), but refinement eventually produced a weapon that could burst an Underlord’s soulfire shield. [BF Ch.1, SK Ch.4, GW Ch.6, UC Ch.16]
Communication constructs take many forms across different traditions. Sunlight-colored sparrows dissolve into madra packets for fast travel and re-form at a receiving construct. Purple butterfly constructs serve as military couriers: caged, whispered to, and released. Transmission constructs using gemstones allow real-time voice communication over distance, though such devices are rare and valuable. [WS Ch.11, UC Ch.2, Ch.5]
Transportation constructs range from the humble Thousand-Mile Cloud (a flight platform that follows its owner “like an obedient bird” when fed madra) to cloudships the size of buildings, to floating fortresses custom-designed by Ninecloud artisans and tailored to their owner’s Path. [US Ch.15, UC Ch.11, WS Ch.27]
Memory constructs store experiences for later retrieval. Dream tablets are the most refined form: devices activated by a thread of madra that place the user into a first-person memory. They are ideal for transmitting experiential knowledge (combat forms, cycling techniques) but less useful for raw information. Shelves of memory constructs lined the Ghostwater facility; fully spiritual constructs had vanished over the years, leaving only material-bound survivors. [GW Ch.5, Ch.12]
Defensive constructs include boundary formations: scripted pillars or flagged positions that create barriers of swirling color, trapping targets or repelling hostile entities. At scale, boundary formations can drive away dreadbeasts or contain the advance of a Dreadgod. [BF Ch.17, WS Ch.11]
Natural Treasures
Natural treasures are concentrations of vital aura that form without craftsmanship: spirit-fruits grown in aura-rich soil, elixirs refined from sacred materials, and rare substances that accelerate
Pills and elixirs serve targeted purposes. Clearblood pills remove impurities. Four Corners Rotation pills make madra easier to cycle. Spirit Manifestation pills, refined from the most valuable herbs and blood essences over decades, are customized to the individual practitioner. The expense of advancement resources scales brutally with stage. [US Ch.14, BF Ch.5, Ch.15]
Northstrider’s Ghostwater facility represents the pinnacle of natural treasure research. Three wells occupied its habitats, each a prototype or by-product of his attempts to create ghostwater.
The Dream Well, a knee-high well of worked stone overflowing with purple liquid, granted one sip’s worth of perfect mental alertness: all fatigue eliminated, all thoughts sharpened. A second dose had no effect while already alert. One thousand high-grade scales per dose. [GW Ch.5]
The Spirit Well, at least ten times larger, held blue glowing water that refilled the core, refined madra through a whirlpool effect, and repaired channels. “Like a high-grade madra-refining pill mixed with Little Blue’s touch.” Combined with cycling, it produced twice the result for half the effort. [GW Ch.11]
The Life Well, the rarest of the three, held green glowing water in a vessel the size of a laundry tub. Its effects were subtle on the young but dramatic on the elderly: restoring decades of physical wear. A small percentage of older subjects lapsed into coma and died. [GW Ch.14]
Ghostwater itself was the Grand Work: a twinkling white pearl that fused to the base of the skull and enhanced mental control and focus for one breath, then recharged over time. All three wells were prototypes in its creation. The enhanced recipe combined ghostwater with all three wells and stored
At the highest levels, natural treasures can provide advantages that pure cultivation cannot match. The Heart-Piercer Fruit, a red-and-green swirl growing once per year on a single tree, grants Archlord lifespan to an Underlord. The Sword Codex, a palm-sized shimmering brick containing a hundred dream tablets in one, holds the memories of thousands of swordsmen from Copper to Archlord. [WS Ch.18]
Divine Treasures
The term “divine treasure” designates the highest tier of sacred instruments: objects that carry authority beyond their physical composition, often crafted by Monarchs or accumulating significance over centuries. The distinction between a powerful construct and a divine treasure is a matter of degree, not kind.
The Broken Crown is awarded to tournament champions: a divine treasure implanted in the soul, colored by a Monarch’s madra. It confers no power. It is eternal proof of status, a white ring that unfolds to a white crown. [WS Ch.6, Ch.27]
The Book of Eternal Night, called Suu by its wielder, is a Forged book of violet madra whose cover displays the most intricate script-circle ever documented, turning like wheels within wheels. It contains seven pages, each holding a technique from a different shadow Path. Crafted by a Monarch for her successor. [GW Ch.13, WS Ch.4, UC Ch.6]
Diamond Veins, a blue-white crystal, strengthens madra channels with an effect comparable to a Sylvan Riverseed’s touch combined with divine healing. [WS Ch.12]
The Moonlight Bridge provides near-instant transportation anywhere in the world. The practitioner cannot bring others, and world-spanning use requires up to three days of recovery, but short-range use is unlimited. A Monarch’s personal attention went into its creation. [WS Ch.22]
The Queen’s Gift is a rainbow gem the size of a human head: crystallized Monarch command granting political and conceptual authority. Royal madra at its purest. [DG Ch.21]
At the highest level, divine treasures represent concentrated aspects of reality itself. The records document ultimate treasures for specific aura types: Heaven’s Torch (a miniature reddish sun of fire aura), Void Matter (a fist-sized flickering gray substance of destruction aura that shifts like millions of tiny insects), Blade Crystal (a paper-thin jewel so sharp it serves better for training than combat), Abyssal Ink (a drop that rejects all light), and the Sovereign Drum (a head-sized bronze ball of force aura, pre-Dread War construction, whose accidental strike could blow an island apart). [WB Ch.1]
Hunger Constructs
Dreadbeasts represent a category the Omnicodex classifies with particular caution. These living creatures contain twisted corkscrew hunger madra bindings grown alongside their organs. Unlike normal sacred beasts, dreadbeasts keep their souls in their bodies and leave no
The Archstone is the most dangerous hunger construct documented in the Gold realm. A crystal ball slightly bigger than a hand, dim diffuse light swirling like smoke inside, radiating an endless will to devour. It drains madra from everyone in range, streams of color funneling into its core. It can transfer bloodline abilities between practitioners, but overuse erodes the wielder’s soul. [SK Ch.2, Ch.6, Ch.11]
The deeper truth is that all hunger constructs trace their origin to the same source. The labyrinth beneath
Void Keys
A void key opens a pocket of extra-spatial storage accessible only to its holder. The simplest form is a copper key the size of a fingernail that opens a seven-foot doorway into a closet-sized pocket. Only Sages or stronger can create them, and their rarity makes them immensely valuable; Ghostwater once had rooms full of them. Void keys store equipment, natural treasures, and even people, and their contents persist indefinitely. [GW Ch.10]
Related spatial constructs include gatestones (single-use emergency devices that shatter space itself to teleport the user to a predetermined location, leaving spatial cracks at the departure point) and gatekeys (reusable teleportation devices that create portals to one specific anchored spot, many times more valuable than gatestones). [GW Ch.3, Ch.9, WS Ch.14, Ch.26]
Advanced Soulsmithing
The ancient Soulsmiths possessed tools the modern tradition has lost. Soulsmith hammers were sacred instruments used to inject willpower into objects, shaping function at a level beyond bindings and scripts. Each hammer was specialized (weapons, dream tablets, armor) and only useful to Lord-level Soulsmiths. The tradition was believed extinct until the labyrinth yielded examples of the original craft. [RP Ch.10]
Significant Objects represent the highest level of Soulsmithing. These are objects that exert greater force on reality due to what they represent: they carry the weight of authority, perceptible to Sage-level senses as a distortion in the fabric of the world. A weapon wielded in a defining battle becomes more than its materials. A tool that shaped the course of history carries that history in its substance. The collection and study of significant objects was once an entire branch of the craft. [RP Ch.11]
The Soulforge is a portable Soulsmithing workshop contained in a void key: a platform of stone wedges in a starry sky, with an altar and anvil at the center burning blue flame. It burns significant objects as fuel to increase the “level of existence” of whatever is being crafted, overcoming the ceiling that Archlord
Genesis, forged in the Soulforge from three broken labyrinth hammers fused with pure and Blackflame madra, is a double-headed Soulsmith hammer: one side red (carrying the impression of Blackflame’s destructive hunger), one side blue (carrying the soothing patience of pure madra). Both sides share a single will: to create. It is the first new Soulsmith hammer forged since the tradition was lost. [RP Ch.18, DG Ch.3, WB Ch.33]
Related Topics
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Sacred Arts -
The Spirit -
Madra -
Techniques -
Advancement -
The Armory