Aetheric Goggles
Sturdy goggles with thick green lenses, and wires that lead to a battery of thaumic energy.
"These things? Best purchase I ever made, mate. Lets you see the Aether clear as day. Helped me keep a few choice projects from going up in my face, they have. No engineer worth his kit goes without a pair."
-Dellas Fench, thaumaturgic engineer
Full Item Description
Hefty goggles built from hefty leather straps, brass frames, thick green glass etched with nearly invisible patterns, and a set of copper wires extending down to a solid battery of thaumic energy, the Aetheric Goggles are a common sight among thaumaturges of all stripes.
The goggles themselves are fairly lightweight, and easily strap around the head, adjusting to easily fit most faces. The battery, however, is a bit bulky, weighing close to three pounds and most often strapped to the belt, giving it a lopsided tilt in most cases.
When in use, the lenses of the goggles glow with a faint light, and occasional multicolored sparks of waste energy spit from the battery's contacts.
History
"We can only surmise what marvels the Cadwall Factory might have produced if they'd taken the expense to properly outfit their engineers. Now, instead, we have the lovely Cadwall Memorial Lake. We don't advise swimming in it, it's quite heavily contaminated with thaumaturgic pollution."
-Matron Glokspiegel, showing a tourist around town
Thaumaturgical engineers have had difficulty in dealing with aetheric currents and the problem of how to deal with their unpredictable shifts when thaumaturgic equipment is put to use. Lacking the carefully honed inner senses of a mage, they had to commonly rely on complex calculations, which were wrong as often as they were right.
Then some bright young engineer had the idea of duplicating 'magesight' via engineering. It took him a few tries, and nearly cost him his eyesight when one pair exploded without warning, but soon enough he had a functional prototype.
Since then, the goggles have become indispensable tools and are the trademark of a thaumaturgic engineer, no matter the specialty.
Magic/Cursed Properties
When deactivated, the goggles simply do the job of any goggles, a bit more poorly than most due to the thickness and color of their lenses.
Activated, however, the goggles detect aetheric currents, and translate this information into a visual form for the wearer, permitting anyone thus equipped to determine when a piece of thaumatechnological equipment is being set up in a dangerous position, or if something is causing problems with the steady flows of thaumaturgic energy. Average battery life is two to six hours, depending on the charge and quality of the thaumic battery powering the goggles.
Steampunk!
Any sort of steampunk at all from thaumatech to simple old-fashioned steamtech.
Wind up your imaginations and start the kettle boiling!
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? Responses (18)
Read ´em, liked ´em, stole ´em... :)
/D
Steampunks always seem to have goggles, so it seemed a fairly logical progression.
They're much more able to fit into any steampunk environment than some of my Kuramen-specific materials, too.
Standard thaumatech gear. This needs to go into the Tools of the Trade freetext. I'm also fairly sure there's a scroll or codex for the same sort of thing, but I can't find it for the life of me. I'm sure Moon will know exactly where, and most likely have the number memorized for ease of insertion.
Definitely standard gear. Goggles are among one of the defining images of the entire steampunk movement, so it seemed right to have them included in this quest in some form or another.
Yes, they are a great visual cue that serious steampunk are about to take place... :)
Most definitely.
No stunt of mad science is complete without a pair of goggles.
Usefull, very much so.
Tool of the thaumatechnological trade.
Sometimes it is the little things, like goggles that make a setting, moreso than the grand and impressive things. Well done.
Steampunk's trademark is the goggles, really. This is a logical progression for thaumatechnology. Really, Ouro's commentary on the aether in his sub about how Locastus's power sigils work is what inspired this the most.
Do you really respond to every comment? Srsly?
It can be the manifestation of three things, only one of which is bad.
Post whoring, for pure xp and sub recognition, is the bad, and should be discouraged with brutal mockery. However, it could also be simply a major enthusiasm for the flow of ideas, as well as the simply outpouring of ideas in an attempt to stimulate more, both amongst the author and the commenters. As I said, only the first is bad. The second two are commendable.
I try to respond, yes. It helps encourage activity, and the Citadel could use the stimulation to action at times. Not that I can really complain, when I'm prone to vanishing for months on end without warning.
*pushes at people*
Yes. I like these.
Glad to hear it. It was another one of my largely spur-of-the-moment ideas.
Echo likes. Goggles fit steampunk like horned helms fit dwarves and long leather coats fit vampires. Good stuff, solid post, nothing to object. I like the battery part: makes for a good tale when you're on the clock! 4,5 from me.
The battery can also serve as a drain on the funds of the owner, if they rely on them too much.
Sweet!