Diamonds are...
Unbreakable? Well, they're very hard, but I definitely broke some. I heard a diamond body is hard to break. Maybe the perfect diamond would be unbreakable? (Small bonus)
Diamonds are
crazy? N
o, no, that feels really wrong. I guess I could go crazier fighting if I had a stronger body to power through it, but that doesn't seem like a very diamond-like thing. (No bonus)
(I assume this is a Jojo reference?)
Diamonds are
hard, rigid, and
clear. (small bonus)
The most beautiful diamonds are cut, reshaped, polished, and have enough contaminants... Oh... It feels right and wrong at the same time. Diamonds must be IMMUNTABLE AND PURE. Contamination is WRONG. What do human aesthetics matter? Why do I feel sick? This is weird. (No bonus at merging. Harmonic Bonus)
Diamond is not just
rigid in its strength but also in the
laws of its structure. The
endless repeating pattern of identical material in its internal arrangement is the law that defines diamond, and vi
olations and imperfections in that law weaken it. It is through this
rigid adherence to its own laws and mono-element nature that diamond is tied to Purity. The (literally) crystal clear coloration of unadulterated diamond also contributes.
+
[Insight]
Diamonds are symbols of Order. Their perfect crystalline structure is what gives it strength. By arranging yourself and your life in a self-supporting order, you will be resilient to all that the world can throw at you.
+
On a purely physical level, diamonds are made of the same stuff as coal, charcoal, graphene and ashes. Something black, filthy and fragile is,
through no other distinction than orderly structure, made something clear, pure and durable, not to mention valuable.
+
Diamonds interact closely with light, transforming and refracting it. Even light itself is slowed to admire Diamond's Radiance, and it is not simply an ideal for others to look up to, but a perfect point for other things to be transformed by. Diamond tools cut what otherwise cannot be cut and reveal a material's beauty and purpose. Diamond prisms bend light and shine with brilliance if aligned just right. Even diamond itself is far greater than it once was, from coal to gem, and has far more left to go. Diamond creates beauty, it is
Transformation towards perfection.
Yes, this is RIGHT. Not that strange thought before. (These cover a lot of similar territory. Together they are a Perfect Bonus)
A diamond in the rough still shines but once found effort can be put forth to craft and cut and polish it to improve it. So too can the cleansing touch
rid people of their imperfections and allow their polished luster to shine. Especially when it comes to
that which does not belong in the pattern of their being (such as poison or disease).
Yeah. Diamond is perfecting the things it touches, making them closer the the proper pattern of being. (Small Bonus)
The Clear Domain of diamond allows the light of teotle to shine through it, but a diamond's structure can also refract, reflect, and scatter that light without ever even needing to contest the strength of the light itself.
That kind of makes sense. Feels like there's a crack in it though. (Small Bonus)
A diamond's luster and shine is apparent with even the most casual of observation and diamonds are associated with value. It is from this that Shining Fate emerges. (Small bonus)
[insight]
The shine of a diamond is in the end a reflection, and influenced by the surroundings. Perhaps the aura of purity is not a matter of Diamond injuring them but instead reflecting their own foulness back upon them.
They are foul. So foul. But Diamond is not a Mirror. It would not lower itself to even reflecting foulness. (No bonus)
In the end, a diamond is just a rock. No, no, it's not just a rock. Nor, for that matter, is a rock just a rock. A diamond is connected to something deeper, she could feel it. Not just her own notions, but a kind of heavenly pattern overlayed on the universe. (No bonus).
The rigidity of spirit is not just due to a resistance to change but also how diamonds must be cut to be improved, just as Chachi must carve pillars into herself or cut them out in order to form techniques. Is that why? Frustrating, but it makes sense. (small bonus)
The process through which base matter becomes diamond is analogous to cultivation. It involves Pressure, Refinement, and the Transformation of base matter into something spectacular. Y
eah, that felt right. It was interesting. Lots of things were like that though, maybe everything? Maybe not so much an insight into diamond, as an insight into the relationship between Heaven and Earth. (Small bonus. This covers a few different contributions).
Diamonds are aligned with Heaven That's so obvious I never in put it into words. Diamonds didn't have Heavenly Power to them, but something about them feels more lightly heaven-touched. (Small bonus)
Diamonds are... Life?
Because they both have some of the same materials sort of? No, that's silly. I've never put a person in the Forge but I've put diamonds and living things in there and the only thing they have in common is Teotl and some basic essence types in different proportions. (No bonus. This covers a few different contributions.)
You can be more Diamond-Like by removing impurities. That made sense. Do I have impurities in my life? Yeah, a lot more now. Sometimes business feels so dirty. (small bonus)
Diamond is impossibly strong in some ways but weak in others. It can be shattered with a hammer or consumed in a fire. Nothing is truly invincible. A cultivator must be strong, but humans must work together to cover each other's weaknesses.
Oh, there's that sick feeling again. (No bonus in merging, small harmonic bonus).
Diamond is pure, and with this impurity you remove the distraction from your sight, by removing the unimportant your sight is clearer, to see the connections of fate and heavens.
Yeah, that kind of makes sense. Kind of. Something is missing. (Small bonus)
A diamond is crystal clear for it does not allow deception and it will not embrace lies. This clarity can help someone find what they seek.
Yeah. Diamond isn't good for all kinds of divination, its primarily an aid in removing deceit. (Small bonus)
A Diamond is something that will last the ages. It's beauty is timeless but any scars or broken prices will also last forever.
Diamonds shouldn't have scars at all. But the world is full of should nots. (Small bonus)
A
diamond can cut but it is not a weapon, it will burn away impurity because of how it shines, some things cannot survive the light (Small bonus).
However, diamond is not unbreakable. It is important to recognize one's shortcomings as well as strengths. Diamonds may be pure and sharp, but they are also inflexible and brittle. A blow that can be stopped cold and reflected by one face of the diamond will crack it, if it hits at the wrong angle.
Diamonds are both strong and fragile. (Small Bonus).
[Experiment] Chachi takes diamonds to their limits and beyond, destroying them in various ways to understand diamond's weaknesses as well as its strengths.
Chachi spent some time pushing diamonds to their limits. The best way to destroy one, she found, was to strike it in the correct place. She could do it with her hand. However, almost every other method was foiled. She could not generate enough natural heat to melt them, and whenever she tried to enhance the fire with Teotl it was disrupted. In fact, every hostile use of Teotl at the Perfecting level was rebuffed by even a small diamond. She didn't have anything destructive at Transformation to try. Very odd, since all her tests showed that the diamonds were entirely mundane. Even odder, they did not disrupt all Teotl, only techniques that would do the diamond harm. But also, her Forge broke them down with ease.
[Experiment] the diamond the heart of the mountain was used to purify water before you merged with it. Jump into the water you pulled it from and see that purification up close.
Chachi jumped in the SageSludge river and emerged clean. There was filth all around her, but it refused to touch her body or soil her clothes. She could see a small bubble of clear water around her, but it extended only a thumb's width. Experimentally, she took a drink and it tasted like fresh, clean water. The river itself didn't transform, and she noted no change between upriver and downriver from her presence. She took a bowl of water from the river, and once removed from the larger body she could purify it completely with a touch. It felt good. She played with this for a bit. Pure water wasn't actually useful for elixir brewing, the old purification plant was designed to leave some of the sludge but make it safe to drink. She took a look at the facility's design. The sludge passed through the diamond chamber at high pressure. She found that a quick slap got the water semi-pure. She could also get the same effect by just staying near it without touching for a few minutes. It didn't feel good at all, like a job half-done. But, it was better, wasn't it? They didn't need pure water. Right?
[Experiment] The concept of purification is inherently subjective. If there is a glass of octli, extracting pure ethanol would be purification, both of the ethanol and of the water. Experiment with trying to purify things generally considered impure. Can you purify poison of anything compromising it? Can you purify dirt of valuable metal dust that would nevertheless harm any plants growing there?
Chachi tried to purify impure things. She started by turning a brown alcohol clear. That actually made it a lot less valuable, but it worked! It was not a separation or extraction, presumably the valuable 'contaminants' were obliterated. She wasn't much of a drinker, but this got her on a tangent. It turned out she had another minor weakness she hadn't considered: a great many things that people thought were delicious became pure, clean water when she tried to drink them. A few became clear alcohol mixed with water. Then, she tried to purify poison. It became water, which wasn't what she wanted. She wanted it to be pure poison. She tried a deadly poison powder, and it became a kind of spicy dust that even a mouse could eat unharmed. Finally she tried to purify dirt mixed with lead, to remove the harmful lead and make the dirt safe for growing. Nothing happened at all, completely non-reactive. Could lead then be used as a poison even against her? Troubling. She concluded that purification was not, in fact, subjective. Or, not dependent on her subjectivity? Diamond, or maybe Heaven, decided what was pure and what was impure regardless of what she wanted. She imagined some Heavenly Bureaucrat with a grand list of Pure Things, which diamond liked, and Impure Things which diamond destroyed.
[experiment] feed diamond treasures to the forge, examine the way they break apart into essence and then take that essence and use it to pull together diamond glasses to look at the world with pure lenses.
Chachi fed diamonds to the Cosmic Forge. They broke down easily. What came out was a very small amount of Earth Essence and no Teotl. Huh. She grabbed a boring rock of similar size from the garden and got a nearly identical result. She created a diamond in the Forge. Cool. The strength of diamond was in its structure, not in its essence. So, could she mass produce them? She tried it, and it worked for a few diamonds, but then the Teotl Storage Chamber turned all weak and brown, telling her that she'd burned through a substantial store of her Teotl. It seemed that producing the internal structure of diamonds was essence cheap but costly in Teotl. Essence was matter, Teotl was change. Interesting, but that told her more about the Forge than Diamond.
She called in a group of production assistants to refill a portion of her stores with their Teotl and Forged some Diamond Lensed Glasses. At first they didn't seem to do anything, but after some trial and error she found that they let her see through Teotl-based illusions. Not all of them, just the ones that relied on the manipulation of light. It seemed the glasses "corrected" the deceptive light that flowed through them. She was delighted, but after a bit of research discovered that Diamond Glasses were already on the market. Expensive because of the valuable materials and precise cutting involved, but not actually a new invention.
[X][Experiment] Ask other diamond artists, jewelers and some philosophers about what diamonds mean to them, read books about the subject, the insight of others is no less vaild.
I'll take that one then given this is one of the perks of living in a society. I added asking jewelers too given they'd have an insight into them too from both the crafting and refining side, and why people value them ect.
Chachi couldn't find a Diamond Artist willing to answer her questions on short notice. Diamond was a "common" path in the sense that there are a few known diamond artists alive, and were a few more throughout recorded history. They are not common in the sense of there being any besides her in Tlaloc City. The most available one she knew of was Lady Tehuilotl, who married into the Chalchiuhtlicue House after she distinguished herself in battle under her banner. If things went well with the meeting, she may be able to chat some with her senior sister in diamond cultivation.
Jewelers were much easier to find. She divided them into Mortal and Exalted. Mortal jewelers used flawed gems, cast off due to structural imperfection or contamination, and then cut and polished them to create beautiful shining decorations. They then sold them to wealthy mortals or cultivators who wanted something that looked nice and didn't care that it had no other use. They were happy to show Chachi anything she wanted and openly discussed their process. She learned quite a bit about the shaping of gems for aesthetics. Exalted jewelers obtained gems closer to their perfect ideal and shaped them so they would fit in precise arrays that took advantage of their spiritual properties. Chachi was already familiar with the divination and purification arrays that used diamonds, which was good because Exalted Jewelers outside her clan were tight-lipped. Those secrets were valuable, and she was a Merchant Matriarch. Those inside her clan were happy to discuss the proper patterns of the diamond arrays they knew. Chachi noted that the Pure Diamonds that were best for this kind of work looked rather plain compared to the sparkly creations of the mortal jewelers. Arrays were not proper treasures, and as far as she could tell diamonds were a very unpopular material for treasure forging. They just weren't receptive to the carving of Teotl waterways, which was a key step in traditional imbuement.
There were many kinds of philosophers. Will of Light Legalism and Transcendent Oneness, the most popular schools in Tlaloc City, had nothing to say about Diamond. But Heavenly Interpretationism had some claims. They argue that diamonds are a Perfect Structure, and harmed Impure Things, such as Abyssals, because their touch attempted to re-order them into something more favorable to heaven. An Abyssal Favored by Heaven could not exist, however, so they were instead restructured into ash and pools of liquid. It was like untying a knot, when you succeeded the string was still there but the knot itself ceased to exist.
