Volundr’s Vault

The sandy dunes of central Kiffu was believed to be largely abandoned and desolate by galactic scientists; only minimal visual scans of the surface were done, and deep-surface geological surveys were never conducted until very recently by Vargeim Enterprises. After discovering an ancient equus-leather map hidden within a collapsed portion of Clan Skelgard’s Skelheim Mines, Skelgard retainers located a large cavern structure hidden underneath meters of sand. Clan Skelgard successfully excavated and repaired the entrance of the cavern after months of careful planning, digging and construction. Careful archaeological work ascertained the cavern to be an ancient mine called Volundr’s Vault, dating back thousands of years. Records within Volundr’s Vault indicate that the founder and leader, only known as Volundr, of the mine was an exiled Force-Sensitive member of the Skelgard Clan. Despite not training in the Force, Volundr still benefited from enhanced perception and dexterity, making him an extraordinary diamantaire and gemologist. Volundr extracted various precious crystals from the countless intersecting lodes at the location of Volundr’s Vault and subsequently cut and polished them with great ability despite only working with primitive tools.

With an extended lifespan due to his untapped strength in the Force, Volundr spent the next hundred and fifty years expanding Volundr’s Vault to the great mining system it is now. Although Volundr’s motivations or purpose in creating the Vault is unknown still, his legacy remains. Now, a number of the miners and diamantaires of the Skelgard Clan have relocated to Volundr’s Vault to continue Volundr’s beautiful work. After months of studying Volundr’s designs and skills, Skelgard artisans have been able to reproduce some of his finest works.

Viskial Crystal

The Viskial Crystal is one of the rarest crystals Volundr’s Vault has to offer. Consisting of super-condensed nebula gas, the Visual Crystal’s wondrous crystalline structure and internal artifacts of royal blues and purples are due to thousands of years of refinement underneath the surface of Kiffu. Geologists at Volundr’s Vault have extensively analyzed the physical and quantum properties of the crystal, and were able to derive the crystals origins to the Nebulas of Osssorck. They theorize that the crystals were originally nebula gas trapped within a frozen meteorite which crashed into the oceans of Kiffu—millenniums ago, the deserts of Kiffu were great oceans which evaporated due to drastic changes in climate; the cause of this paradigm shift in geology is still being studied by Kiffar scientists to this date—approximately 40,000 years ago. Crashing into the sea floor of Kiffu’s oceans, the meteorite was buried underneath an intense volcanic eruption and over time, trapped underneath vast layers of rock and sand. The immense pressure for thousands of years lead to the eventual crystallization of the nebula gas into the Viskial Crystal. The originator of Volundr’s Vault by-chance excavated the meteorite during his westward expansion, but the meteorite was left untouched deep within Volundr’s numerous warehouses and storage facilities. Only during the re-inventory of Volundr’s Vault was the meteorite found and carefully carved by Clan Skelgard diamantaires.

Kuarztiria Shard

Throughout Skelgard history, the Kuarztiria Shard was always believed to be a cursed object, as it would slowly eat away at the lifespan of the Kiffar in close proximity in it. Thus, the Kuarztiria Shard was always sealed underground when found or extracted within the Clan’s mines. Only after reading the intensive scientific studies of Volundr did on the Kuarztiria Shard’s properties was the myth of the Kuarztiria Shard debunked and released back to Clan Skelgard.

Volundr theorizes the psychometry ability of Kiffars was much stronger in the past, diminishing over time as the sacred rituals of the shamanistic Clans being lost to decay as well as the Kuarztiria Shards themselves. These heightened Kiffar “shamans” were buried in a specific, unknown method that allowed the the essence of the dead Kiffar to slowly accumulate and cultivate a mixture of the Force and natural geothermic energy. The Kuarztiria Shard is the concentrated result of the subtle traces of the Force and energy, manifesting itself in a physical crystalline form after millenniums. As the number of Kuarztiria Shards increased, the general presence of the Force began dwindling on Kiffex and Kiffu, leading to the lower presence of Force Sensitivity and psychometric ability within the populations. Volundr was never able to triangulate the exact reasons why the Kiffar “shamans” of the past chose to do this, although he speculates that they were able to prophesies the destructive effects of the immense changes in the balance of the Force in the future. Besides the rich history, the Kuarztiria Shard itself has a worthwhile property: connecting to an unknown pocket dimension—believed by Volundr to the be resting place and final destination of all Kiffar souls—and accessing a small portion of dimension's energy. Volundr’s intense studies and analyses of this unknown type of energy were destroyed by Volundr himself. However, he did cautionarily note to anyone who read his journals on the Kuarztiria Shard that the cause for the deaths of Skelgards from the crystal was due to their inability to properly cultivate the energy and thus, leading to radioactive poisoning instead. However, due to the low favorability the Clan had on the crystals as well as Volundr, all the Kuarztiria Shards the Clan owned were dumped onto public market and upon their commercial success, Vargheim Enterprises expanded their mining operations in Volundr’s Vault to harvest more crystals to meet demand.

Quantalian Stone

The Quantalian Stone produces an interesting phenomenon that Clan Skelgard physicists have extensively analyzed and studied before release to the public. The stone is in fact a semi-artificial entity, being one of the few “products” that Volundr bothered to create during his excavation and expansion of Volundr’s Vault: most of Volundr’s efforts centered around refining his gem-carving and extraction technique rather than actual commodification of goods. The Quantalian Stone is actually normal Quantum—a raw material extensively used throughout the galaxy in the armour of a wide variety of entities—that has been modified by Volundr’s unique quantum crystalline technology, the same technology that was used to produce the galactic wonder, the Cathedral of Winds, as well as Quantum-Crystalline armor. Volundr’s quantum crystalline technology, however, did not change the molecular structure of quantum for strength and durability to be used in armour but instead, was the culmination of his research and study in reproducing Kiffar’s psychometry with artificial materials. After Volundr’s quantum crystalline modification of quantum, Quantalian Stones have the ability to absorb electrical impulses of the mind and store them internally: they are ultimately able to store thoughts and knowledge within the stone. If Quantalian Stones are created with the same resonance frequencies, the Quantalian Stone can actually transmit the stored information through quantum entanglement to the other. This effect was derived when Volundr applied his extensive research on telepathy; his research on telepathy was an attempt at studying a mental phenomenon similar to psychometry and using the gained knowledge to draw parallels and further analyze psychometry. According to Volundr’s journals, however, he largely considered this function of the Quantalian Stone a failure rather than a success, as he was only able to retain information within the stone and not the complex emotions, feelings, color and associated consciousness that a memory often has. Information retrieved from the Quantalian Stone is devoid of any emotion or feeling, and instead, is cold, vapid and colorless. Users who absorb information from the Quantalian Stone often face extreme mental duress, as their minds are deluged with a void of emotion. Dark-side users of the Force and sociopaths have had no negative repercussions, and have been avid customers for the Quantalian Stone as the stones serve as perfectly secure lines of communication and information transfer.