Barrier orb

Barrier Orb
Affiliation	Brahma
Form	An orb
First Owner	non-existent
Ability	Creates a barrier that protects a whole city
Current Owner	non-existent

Barrier orbs (or closed-space stones) are god-class items created by Brahma and gifted to humans to help them protect themselves and their cities from sura attacks.

History

After humans severed their ties with the suras over a thousand years ago (around the year D0), and suffered from deadly acts of retaliation, Visnu asked Brahma to create a protective system for human cities. Brahma, always neutral, didn't want to favor either humans or suras, so she created an imperfect barrier system: Only one person may power it, and it will be weak enough for a few superior suras to break through. But up to the year D873 the barriers worked flawlessly because they were powered by gods, not humans, which kept the suras out.^[1] Even though superior suras were restricted to the sura realm since the Cataclysm in the year D1000/N0, the barrier system still stands because of the presence of inferior suras in the human realm.

Characteristics

An orb is a simple-looking, egg-shaped item placed on a platform and with three jewel-like elements floating around it. Apparently, each city's orb has its own attribute: Atera's, for instance, is fire-aligned and must be operated by a magician who has a triple-Fire attribute. Many of the larger cities have two temples, each with their own orb, usually kept in a special room inside each temple.

So far, only Asha Rahiro has been the only magician shown to alter a barrier's attribute to match her own, a feat that left her deathly exhausted because of Maruna's transcendental attacks.^[2] This would most likely be fatal for every other non-triple-attribute magician attempting it.

Agni was also able to change the attribute of a barrier when he defended Kalibloom from Gandharva's attack.

Atera's fire orb when inactive^[3]

Asha changes the fire orb's attributes to Sky-Wind-Destruction so she can operate it^[2]

Barrier

A barrier (or closed space) is maintained by a triple-attribute magician with the same attribute as the barrier, using the magician's vigor. Normally the priest needs to live inside the temple and keep close proximity to the barrier orb at all times, or have a priest candidate temporarily take over if the priest must leave for some reason. The cities with two temples, thus two barrier orbs, have two barriers.

Kalibloom's Chaos barrier is unique, since it can be maintained as long as the Priest of Chaos, or any triple-Nil person for that matter, is anywhere within the bounds of the barrier.^[4] The Chaos barrier also interferes with magic calculations, which is why Kalibloom is a fighter-based city.^[5]

During the majority of Brilith Ruin's time as the Priest of Fire, Atera's Fire barrier has been maintained by Agni instead of her.

References