COA 411

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COA 411 is Bal-Kriav's Cube of Arcane. Like other Cubes of Arcane, it is fifty miles on a side, thrumming with arcane energy.

Built the same day as the world around it, COA 411 sits partially submerged in the Forbidden Sea. Its presence causes 1000 square miles of sea to be constantly rough. It is blamed for rogue waves and the occasional tidal wave; worshipers of Poseidon would contest this claim.

On the Isles of Jolmgar is a society, some would say cult, that studies Bal-Kriav's Cube of Arcane. These Cube Zealots are the foremost authority on COA 411.

The changing of Ice Cap really started after Cari'phis was dumped into the Cube. Ares, then in charge of taking this dangerous primordial to Denerra for eternal imprisonment, deviated from the plan. He considered Cari'phis as something lacking in honor, too treacherous to ever be put to use in some future war, so he dropped her into Bal-Kriav's Cube of Arcane. The dark blue ice, the Cap Shard, began its eastern advance only three centuries after Cari'phis met her supposed end. I have the theory that the beast is still alive, her great regenerative powers keeping her partially alive, and that she pollutes the icy reaches far into the west and even into the slopes of the Cube Shields.

- Say'e Tung, of the Tazu Hidyal - "The Cari'phis Taint"

The blue glacial flows and azure patches of ice across Bal-Kriav’s region Ice Cap are attributed to Bal-Kriav's Cube. Some theorize this to be a defect in the supposed flawless design, or the result of those harvesting the Cube for its arcane energy.

The Tazu Hidyal, or scornfully the Cube Zealots, mapped the invisible lines of energy, magical rivulets, flowing westward from COA 411 into Ice Cap. These streams of magic are also present in the smoldering lands of Gludragh, a region cooked from underneath by magical heat. This heat, like the chill of Ice Cap are both a product of the magical emanations seeping from a damaged Cube, or so claim the Cube Zealots.

In the Third Epoch, voidships of the Orchish Empire began passing over COA 411, dropping the condemned and prisoners into it. The reports of these "cube death sentences", or Cube Drops, indicate that the victim explodes in blue-white energy as they strike the Cube's glassy surface, followed by a faintly visible shock wave that reverberates upward from point of impact, ending in a shrilling wail of agony from the victim.

In 1832, Trauma Squad explored a subterranean complex under Imrik. Inside the Geledh Labyrinth, they found evidence to proof that wizards of the Šukhan Legion were experimenting on a Sphere of Arcane. They learned that during the reign of the Volgads, wizards used an artifact called the Matter Penetrator, carving pieces out of COA 411.

• After pushing it into the magma, the sphere began converting the lava into water.
• The Matter Penetrator, a weapon forged during the Dawn Era, is the only item that we know of that can cut into a Cube of Arcane.
• We have cut small parts out of the Sphere of Arcane. Even the smallest of these Globules of Arcane will make an area devoid of magic.
• By way of an Orb of Arcane trapped in a null matrix, I have created a special rod to tap into the Web. Due to the instability of this item, I have temporarily contained it in a Time Stop Ward.

- Amrî Khêru, from lab notes found by Trauma Squad