ManseTech
Manse Technology
During the decadent height of the first age, it was common to produce minor magical items that had relativly mundane effects. These would be given to servants as a display of wealth, and to show the superiority of the Exalted. A persistant problem with these devices was the provision of essence, as the Unexalted has no abiltiy to commit motes to the item.
While this fact is difficult to find, most of these effects were created by the Dragon Kings. The Dragon Kings could not wield essence with the fidelity of the Exalted, so they created lots of little devices to fill the gaps between the inflexibility of their Paths. These devices are also somewhat common in the realm. The reason for this is that they produce supernatural effects, but don't require the Dragon-Blooded to spend essence, which increase their chance of their anima flairing and the attending damage.
Eventually, a special type of hearthstone was invented to solve this problem. Sometimes call mundane hearthstones or dedicated hearthstones or embeded hearthstones, these small rocks were used to provide essence to all manner of devices. These stones would only draw power from the manse as necessary, and had no 'special' abilities. The result was a single manse could support a large number of such stones, and still produce a normal hearthstone at it's full rating. Functionally, this was the same as channeling the power of the demense into workings of the manse itself, but allows remote operation. These devices tended to be activated, rather than provide continous effects, as a continous effect was much more draining to the manse
Generally, the creators of these items would sell the items complete with embeded hearthstones. The result is, most of them no longer function, due to damage to the sellers manses. While a small amount of Magical Materials is necessary for the construction of these items, it is usually hidden as part of the construction. Generally, low quality jade was used(when the magical material was entirely internal), although exceptionally ornate devices may use different materials for decorative purposes.
It is actually possible to power these devices directly from a users Essence pool. May minor artifacts have a small connector that will fit onto one of the stranger fittings on common hearthstone holders (such as bracers or necklaces. They are almost unknown on weapons). This allows the bearer to spend a number of motes equal to the minor artifacts activation cost to give it a single use(which remains until used).
Manses and Mundane Hearthstones
Mundane Hearthstones use the same effect as the essence regeneration power of a normal hearthstone. Since most bearers of heartstones are not continuously using them to regenerate essence, the extra power could be used for mundane stones. Using a large number of mundane stones can reduce the essence regeration of the main stone under extreme circumstances, although it is not possible to negate the main power of the hearthstone in this manner. Also, due to this effect, these devices may occasionally fail to work, due to insufficient power, although this is rare. This is probably almost impossible in the second age, due to the low number of devices remaining, and many owners of such devices do not know how to use them.
It is possible to use a mundane hearthstone to track down the manse, but this has a +1 difficulty. Addionally, manses used to power these devices tended to be unsuitable as dwellings or have main hearthstones that were not very useful. They are commonly in inhospitable terrain, for instance. These features do make them less likely to be claimed however. Addionally, in many cases, the fact that item is powered by a form of hearthstone is non-obvious, although a Lore(5) roll or disassembly via the appropriate craft skill and examination of the interior could reveal this fact.
Modifying a manse to produce mundane stones is not difficult, the difficulty is discovering the need to do so. The skills required are the same as for a level one manse, but only a few skill craftsworkers and several days are needed. A mundane hearthstone will form within 24 hours whenever all of the maneses mundane hearthsones are removed from it. This also serves as the method of limiting the number produced.
The number of mundane hearthstones that can be supported without impacting the function of the main hearthstone is explicitly left vague, but at minimum it should twice the rating of the manse, for devices that draw one mote per use. Devices that draw more essence would have a greater effect, but are rare.
Mundane hearthstones may not be used power artifacts that require a hearthstone for power, they are only used to produce these special 'minor' wonders.
Another thought here was that, well, given the frequency mentioned in the Literature, there are ALOT of manses(because Creation is so huge). This gives the option that most of them are remote and/or inaccessable. Hence allowing newly exalted Solars to stumble on them with disturbing regularity. Many of these were once taken up powering now defunct technology.
Examples
UCS one Luna One
Comments
Kinda a different concept here --FlowsLikeBits
