Totems

A totem lays a law on a place: in its circle something never happens — a creeper does not explode, fire does not spread, an enderman does not teleport — or something always does: a sprout grows even in the dark. Sixteen totems — sixteen laws.

1. Make a Totem Blank on the Flux Workbench.

2. Gather 8 parts of the totem's current and 4 of Lattice in a Crucible.

3. Drop the blank in last — the totem of that current floats up.

4. Set the totem down: its law holds in a circle of 8 blocks.

You can always see where a law ends:

look at a totem with the Loupe in hand — its circle shows on the ground;

right-click a totem with an empty hand — the circle stays until you click again;

hold a totem — you see its circle where it would stand and the faint circles of all totems nearby.

Crouching with an empty hand, the owner changes the radius: 4, 6 or 8 blocks. A Gauge Crown on top adds 12 and 16, rims on the crown add 24 and 32.

A redstone signal puts a totem to sleep — that is how a lever switches a law off.

A law over a whole homestead — rims on the crown. A Far Rim on a totem wearing a Gauge Crown raises its radius limit to 24 blocks, a Horizon Rim on top of it — to 32.

Click a rim onto your totem: the Far Rim first, then the Horizon Rim. A broken totem drops its crown and rims, each once.

A wide law costs upkeep on top of the price of events: 3 flux a minute at 24 blocks, 7 at 32.

A totem pays with the flux of its chunk for every event it holds; laws that hold all the time pay a little every second. It leaves no murk. When the land has less than one flux above the riverbed floor, the totem falls asleep: its rune goes dark and the Loupe says "Dry". Six totems in one drained chunk will sleep — set them by a river and a willow or spread them over chunks.

The Reckoners wrote the rules of places — where a current should stand, where it should flow — and carved them on posts. A post held one current on a tether. The Order of the Still Hour decided that holding the whole world was better — and so the Great Stilling came. A totem is the honest measure of the same thought: one current, a small circle, and only while the land pays.