What's going on in Crater Lake in TT? Has it been explained in any books? All I know of is a brief listing in the old TT sourcebook about the military locking it down, but I can't remember reading anything else about it. Anyone know where I can find out what's going on there?

The Abstruse One

You can find the necessary summaries and references on my "History of the Awakening" page.

You want the short version?

I think there's more about it in Target: Awakened Lands. Maybe in Shadows of North America. IIRC The jist is that it's one of those no mana dead spots. Unusually powerful, unusually stable. The elves still have it cordoned off, but try to keep their own magicians away so they don't get smoked. My guess is that there's more to it than that, but that's all they've got so far.

Theres a fair bit more to it than that, but it's anything but stable.

Touche. But don't tease. Where can we learn more?

Tir Tairngire, of course, and Shadows of North America, Target: Awakened Lands,the novel Worlds Without End, a snippet in Dragons of the Sixth World, and I vaguely recall something in year of the Comet.

Actually, DotSW did much to explain the odd happenings there, with its snippet.

Merci.

Actually, I might as well enlighten everybody (I really need to rework that page, it looks awful).

The Tir closed off the Lake in 2054, some people said they were mining orichlacum and some said they saw flying stone structures. The truth of the matter is that Crater Lake is part of the Ring of Fire, a power site on the network of mana lines that supported the flying island of Mu. Given that the lake used to be a volcano and the magical power there, it's likely there was orichalcum at the site, and it looks like the Tir was experimenting with re-powering some of the old spells (or they might have done that on their own).

Zoom ahead to 2056. Aina fights Ysthgrathe in Tir Tairngire, and banishes him by drawing on Crater Lake. Unfortunately this causes a Mana Spike, letting in a few more horrors (or maybe just a few more nomads/wraiths. Hard to say). From that point on, the power at the lake begins to decrease. Either the Horrors are draining it, or someone else is (my money is on Hestaby. I think she might be draining the mana to Mount Shasta). The IE's don't know what the Hell is happening, but the whole lake is becoming a steadily increasing mana ebb. That means no more orichalcum or telesma from the island. There were some odd aurorae from the lake during the Year of the Comet, just like the night when Aina tapped it...which means something else may be attempting to come through.

More Dragons and IEs and Horrors conspiracies?

*Runs away*

Just the finishing touches o an old one, s'all.

Well, that makes me feel a little better.

Kudos on the sight again, AH.

Thanks. I'm thinking of tearing down the Awakening page and starting over, though. Comes out ugly.

There's always been rumors of orichalcum there, since the Tir Tairngire book. Given that its located on an extinct volcano and on a manaline, there's a better-than-average chance that orichalcum was there.

As for Mu, there was a section of Dragons of the Sixth World discussing Ryumyo and the RIng of Fire. Apparently, the Eastern Dragons kept a flying island in the middle of the Pacific to meet and hash out stuff without killing each other, supported by the manalines running through the volcanoes of the Ring of Fire. When the mana dropped, it sank. Hairy dwarves washed up on Hawai'i. So I call it Mu. You prefer R'leyh, maybe?

I thought the area only went wild when Dunkelzhan died.

Crater Lake's mana ebb started somewher after 2056, so it might coincide with Dunkelzahn's demise (levelling out a mana spike?), but the Ring of Fire wasn't really active until the Year of the Comet.

I'm convinced. A.H, you're good.....scary good. Go get some fresh air.

Thanks Dog.