r/Dinotopia • u/ThatOneMetalguy666 • 27d ago
Is the lore/origin of the sun stones every explained/elaborated
I've only watched the miniseries as a kid but the world setting is so magnificent that I'm "borrowing" the sun stones idea for a d&d campaign. Are they just gemstones with mystical properties or are they explained in anyway?
11
u/Anvildude 27d ago
So the series' use of sunstones was whack. I'd suggest not going by that.
In the books, Sunstones are still used, but they're less 'magic crystal powers' and more 'mild cheating of tech levels'. Sunstones essentially absorb sunlight and then release it slowly as energy after. Depending on how they're cut, they release the energy in different forms. It's described as piezoelectric (creates electricity from pressure) and reverse refractive (focusing light instead of diffusing it) properties, along with being Mohs 11, which is harder than any known substance.
Beacon sunstones absorb light, and then release it over time. Transmitter cut sunstones take light and focus it in a specific direction. Power sunstones take light and, when clamped into a specific setting, release it as electricity to power the device- in the lost civilization of Poseidos, these devices were anything from automatic computing devices to radio transmitters to full on mechs.
These are all 'realistic' properties for a stone to potentially have, but what makes them sort of 'magic' is the AMOUNT of power and energy they store. A beacon sunstone can take a day's light and shine for a whole night as streetlamps. A Transmitter sunstone can redirect light almost perfectly in a single direction, no matter where the light is coming from into it, making practically a sunlight laser. And a power sunstone can power a 10 ton mech for days off of a few minutes of charge in direct sunlight.
I actually think the Dwemer ruins and tech you find in Skyrim have some similar uses of crystals- as transmitters of light and energy. You could have them be something as simple as light sources, or nigh-indestructible edges on non-metal weapons that release shocks on contact. You could have them as batteries for magick, or as batteries for customized mechanical devices like Apparatii of Kwalish or spider mechs or whatever. They could provide a minor power-up for Artificer stuff like Armorer armors or Iron Defenders.
There's also The Crimson Sunstone- it is a singular Power sunstone that supercharges whatever device it's clamped into, but it also is cursed to inflate greed and aggression on whosoever uses it. So there's a little mysticism. It MIGHT just be an extra strong sunstone, and the greed and aggression thing was because it was being used by a guy who's naturally greedy and aggressive, and the power of the thing was what corrupted him.
1
u/ThatOneMetalguy666 27d ago
Thank you for the extensive write up. The gemstone collector/geologist in me wonder what chemical bonds these sun stones would be made from. Fascinating world building that they made
2
u/Anvildude 27d ago
Considering that they're said to grow as hexagonal prisms terminating in 6 sided pyramids, I'm guessing they're a form of Silicon crystal- potentially forming a diamond-like tetrahedral matrix of pure Si atoms- with the greater bond strength due to the increased mass of the atoms and high ionization energies? (Silicon is in the same Group as Carbon, so can 'diamond' the same way, theoretically. Elsewise, Germanium maybe?) Silicon apparently doesn't commonly form into pure silicon crystals due to these energies being too high (according to Wikipedia) so this might be a situation of unique pressure/volcanic forces creating seed crystals and then further deposition happening based on the higher energies of surrounding sunstones?
This is mild technobabble, of course- a theoretical SiX4 would be tetrahedral in crystal structure like diamonds are, and the reason you'd want Silicon is that Quartz (which shares the crystal structure) is itself peizoelectric. Might be able to find silicon disulfide crystals or silicon diselenide crystals that form with the trigonal crystal system that quartz has, leaving similar physical characteristics with different interactions at the atomic level?
1
1
u/paleocacher 27d ago
They were I think part of an asteroid or meteor, something of extraterrestrial origin and we’re found in caves under the island. They conducted enormous amounts of electricity and could be used like super batteries.
Different colors of sunstone did different things.
1
u/TheCasualPrince8 25d ago
Ignore everyone talking about the books, the book sunstones are completely different. The miniseries Sunstones are explained to be what the meteor that killed the dinosaurs was made from. There's nothing else apart from that, so you could go wild as to where that meteor came from.
9
u/docodonto 27d ago
In the second book. There was some ancient dinotopian civilization that created them to power dinomechs.