Constructivity
The heart has reasons that reason does not understand.

 

Elemental planes are pure. Their undiluted essence is a direct manifestation of the environment and power. For a long time practitioners of the spellcasting arts have tried to gather this strength sapping the vitality of the elementals and tying it to their whim. This originally arcane rituals have been tuned by the power of science into a fine art. Expanding the binding not only to the elemental beings but to the true constituents of the elemental plane.

Constructivity involves the binding of elements into materials allowing the intrepid grammarist to access the potential of the connected plane and use it to feed other grammaric contraptions. Constructivity involves the fine tuning and maintenance of the elemental hearts. Any masterwork tool specialized in auscultating the heart or a masterwork tuning fork provides a +2 circumstance bonus to perform checks made in relationship with constructive hearts. The Diausculpason is the proverbial tuning fork employed in the creation of the heart of the inner planes and according to legend with it new elemental planes could be created.

Key Skill: Perform (keyboard instruments)

CONT 101: Intro to Constructivity
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: None
Target: at least 1 solid cubic foot of iron, copper, tin, or mercury
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle transforms a raw material into a constructive heart. The target material depends on the elemental to tie; iron hosts fire, mercury traps water, tin holds earth, and copper captures air. As part of this principle, you make a Perform skill check to ensure that the elemental can inhabit the material and keep pumping energy. The elemental inside the heart produces energy by consuming material of its constructive heart, in doing so this material is turned into the essence of the plane to which the elemental is native, and then lost in the environment without any appreciable effect. A constructive heart requires 1 cubic foot of associated material per week in order to keep functioning.

{table=head]planetary metal|element
iron|fire
mercury|water
tin|earth
copper|air[/table]

A small elemental provides a number of ebbs depending on the result of the Perform (keyboard instruments) check.

{table=head]Perform check|ebbs per round
15 or below|1
16-25|1
26-30|2
31-35|3
36 or higher|5[/table]

A Heart generates ebbs once every round, but cannot store them. Any ebbs remaining from the last time it generated ebbs are lost when it refreshes.

You also know how to update and retune the constructive hearts that you have created in the past so the elementals inside them have room to grow and become more potent.

You can replace the perform check of a conductive heart with a new perform check. If you were not the original creator of said conductive heart you suffer a -5 penalty on the check but are otherwise unimpeded. After tuning it in this way you are considered the creator, and thus can apply this principle again to improve the heart without the penalty.

CONT 123: Constructive Gourmet [Specialist]
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: Perform (keyboard instruments) 4
Target: 1 constructive heart
Preparation Time: 1 hour

Instead of feeding material to the elemental you can satisfy it with material associated with it's plane. By preparing this principle over a constructive heart that you have created you can modify it to feed on the essence of its plane instead of the material of the heart. In this way you need to provide the constructive heart with 1 cubic foot of its associated element (fire, air, water, earth) for it to consume. The consumption is gradual and takes a week, thus the constructive heart needs to be in continuous contact with the associated element for the week, slowly reducing its volume.


CONT 188: Battery Bateria [Military Science]
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: Perform (keyboard instruments) 4
Target: 1 constructive heart
Preparation Time: 30 min

All the soft hearts are drummed out in military school. Sometimes you need a flare an outburst of energy even if it breaks your heart. After preparing this principle the time of the conductive heart is counted. It won't last more than one hour per skill rank in perform that you posses. At any point during that time though you can increase its potency doubling the ebbs produced per round at the cost of reducing its life span to minutes instead of hours unless it was already less. For example if you have 5 ranks in Perform (keyboard instruments), and you prepare this principle in a conductive heart that produces 1 ebb a round that conductive heart will last for 5 hours more. You can then decide to double the amount of ebbs produced by the heart to 2, in doing so you reduce the lifespan of the heart to 5 minutes.

Once you have access to magisterial principles you are able to gather more power from the heart per burst, allowing you to pull 10 times the ebbs that the heart would produce in a single round, but reducing its lifespan by a minute.

CONT 202: Work It Harder
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: CONT 101, Perform (keyboard instruments) 8
Target: 1 solid piece of planetary metal (volume and type varies; see below)
Preparation Time: 1 hour
A small elemental won't do anymore! Your heart is so large it can host a bigger guests. Check the table below to know what different sized elementals you can bind, the volume of material they take and the ebbs generated per round depending on the skill check result.

{table=head]Perform ranks|elemental size|volume required|material per week|{colsp=5}

Ebbs per round

{colsp=3}|

Perform Check

|15 or below|16-25|26-30|31-35|36 or higher
0|small|1 cubic foot|1 cubic foot|1|1|2|3|5
5|medium|2 cubic foot|2 cubic foot|1|2|3|5|8
10|large|3 cubic foot|3 cubic foot|2|3|5|8|13[/table]

Once you access doctorate principles you can go way beyond!

{table=head]Perform ranks|elemental size|volume required|material per week|{colsp=5}

Ebbs per round

{colsp=3}|

Perform Check

|15 or below|16-25|26-30|31-35|36 or higher
0|small|1 cubic foot|1 cubic foot|1|1|2|3|5
5|medium|2 cubic foot|2 cubic foot|1|2|3|5|8
10|large|3 cubic foot|3 cubic foot|2|3|5|8|13
15|huge|5 cubic foot|4 cubic foot|3|5|8|13|21
20|greater|7 cubic foot|5 cubic foot|5|8|13|21|34
25|elder|11 cubic foot|6 cubic foot|8|13|21|34|55[/table]

A larger constructive heart might not always be more efficient but it is more durable, its material gains bonus HP and bonus hardness depending on the elemental bound to it, if you have access to CONT 123 it also gains fast healing as long as it is submerged in its associated element.

{table=head]Elemental size|HP increase|Hardness increase|Fast Healing
small|10|-|-
medium|20|1|1
large|30|2|2
huge|40|4|4
greater|60|8|8
elder|80|16|16[/table]

You are also able to upgrade your hearts to accept larger elementals, this works as CONT 101 making a new perform (keyboard instruments) in place of the old one.

CONT 266: Connect the dots [specialist]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: CONT 101, Perform (keyboard instruments) 8
Target: 1 solid piece of planetary metal (volume and type varies; see below)
Preparation Time: 1 hour

You learn to connect the dots between the different elemental planes gaining access to new heartful compositions. You can now bind elementals from the Paraelemental planes. That is:

{table=head]Connected Planes|Plane name|Associated element (or elements)
Air / Water|Ice|Ice & Snow
Water / Earth|Ooze|Mud, Sludge & Goo
Earth / Fire|Magma|Magma (& Lava)
Fire / Air|Smoke|Smoke[/table]

Binding an elemental from a paraelemental plane has its complications, the material required needs to be a solid mass composed of the two associated planetary metals and the skill ranks required to bind them is 3 points higher (for example binding a large paraelemental requires 13 ranks in perform (keyboard instruments)). There is a benefit though a paraelemental somehow is better at generating energy and they always generate 25% more ebbs (rounded down; minimum 1) per round that they would generate otherwise. As with other conductive hearts it needs to consume metal (or associated elements with CONT 123) And it consumes a quantity of metal depending on the size of the elemental, this is split half and half between the two metals that compose it (rounding up to the closest cubic foot).

CONT 276: Food for thought [Military Science]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: CONT 101, Perform (keyboard instruments) 8
Target: 1 constructive heart
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Sometimes you need to improvise sometimes you need a quick and tried energy source and well... it's war isn't it? You can modify a heart to accept life as a material, in a similar way to using the grist of the mill, you can choose to feed it creatures. In this way a constructive heart consumes 1 HD per cubic foot of material it would normally consume, for this to be possible the donor of the HD needs to be in contact with the constructive heart for the whole time. The HDs can come from a dead creature, provided it has deceased within the last week. If the creature is alive, when it's last HD is drained it will not raise as a wight nor as any other creature, at least in the material plane, it's soul is taken into the elemental plane linked to the heart, and a limited wish, wish, miracle, true resurrection or similar effect is necessary to restore the deceased.

If a heart is fully feed a creature with intelligence (3 or more) its soul is specially delicious, and the constructive heart can pump it and use it to work better. A small heart can store up to one such soul, if you have access to bigger constructive hearts from CONT 202 the storage capacity also increases.

{table=head]Elemental size|stored souls
small|1
medium|2
large|3
huge|4
greater|6
elder|8[/table]

Each soul stored in a constructive heart provides a cumulative 10% increase (rounded down) of ebb production (as such 4 souls provide a 40% increase of ebbs).

CONT 303: Ex Machina
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any three CONT principles, Perform (keyboard instruments) 15
Target: 1 solid piece of ascended planetary metal
Preparation Time: 1 hour
All your attempts at binding elementals together has given you a great insight in how the elements interact with the world. You can now attempt to create constructive hearts out of the ascended planetary metal that would normally be associated to it. For example you can create a phlogiston constructive heart and it will be able to host fire elementals as if it was an iron heart. The ascended metal is much more attractive to the elemental than other similar metals, and thus your perform (keyboard instruments) is counted as 5 ranks higher to determine the element that you can bind and the ebbs generated per round, but not for any other purpose. In addition the heart produces 25% more ebbs (rounded down; minimum 1). If you have access to CONT 266 you can bind paraelementals, provided you use both ascended metals, i.e. either all the metals in a constructive heart are ascended or none of they are. The increase from this principle and from binding a paraelemental stack, making the heart produce 50% more ebbs (rounded down; minimum 1).

CONT 330: Schwanengesang [specialist]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any three CONT principles, Perform (keyboard instruments) 15
Target: 1 constructive heart that you have created (or tuned per CONT 123)
Preparation Time: varies
Understanding the finest connections of the constructive hearts with the elemental planes you can let the elemental in the constructive hearts play the song for themselves. Doing this brings the elemental plane closer, drawing upon the essence used to hinge it together and infusing it on the metal that forms the heart.
While you apply this principle the constructive heart to which you are applying it won't produce ebbs. Once the principle is finished the constructive heart will be destroyed. But it will convert half of the original metal volume, that composed the heart into its ascended form. You can use this principle, taking 1 hour, into pure elemental constructive hearts. This allows you to create carmot, quicksilver, phlogiston, and alkahest. The properties of the ascended metals can be found in the Alchemetry section. If you have access to the highways and stairways discovery you can also produce moonsteel and cursed lead. As part of this principle you need to succeed on a perform (keyboard instruments) check with a DC of 60.
This material isn't rearranged into pureness but rather elementally beaten into it, either way the finished product is really similar to that obtained by an alchemetrist.

The interesting part of this principle though is using it to create pure alloys, by using a constructive heart linked to a paraelemental plane (if you have access to CONT 266) or to a quasielemental plane (if you have access both to CONT 266 and the highways and stairways discovery) you can create perfect alloys of two metals. This alloy, unoriginally known as an amalgamation of the metal names require 2 hours to create, and a perform (keyboard instruments) check with a DC of 80. The resulting metal functions as both metals in all regards, for example a magma paraelemental heart that has this principle applied would generate a tin-iron mixture that works both as tin and as iron. The physical properties of the material (Metal Hardness, Hit Points Per Inch, Melting Point, Boiling Point, Break DC Modifier, and Density) are determined by averaging both of the materials used. The resulting metal is gramarically functional, and can work as either metal (a tin transformer could be made of such material, but also a simple orthogonal engine). This alloys are particularly useful for geoccultists, as someone with access to GEOC 323 could use such alloys to produce a biome combining features from both metals.

The most interesting part comes when applying this principle to constructive hearts made of ascended metals and linked to a paraelemental or a quasielemental plane, note that in order to do this you need access to CONT 303, CONT 266 and potentially the highways and stairways discovery. If such is the case the application of this principle takes 4 hours and a perform (keyboard instruments) check with a DC of a 100 is necessary. This creates ascended alloys but the elemental soul is trapped into them granting them secondary benefits. The resulting metal has an intelligence of 4. Unless the constructive heart was prepared with Mephitopheles discovery, in such case it has an intelligence according to the size of the elemental inside of it. The ascended alloy also has both the properties of the ascended metals. Having an intelligence if the metal is shaped into a gramaric device it can take one logical decision per round, it can only use this logical decision to modify its settings and parameters in ways they could normally be changed.

CONT 375: Genie in the Machine [military science]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any three CONT principles, Perform (keyboard instruments) 15
Target: 1 constructive heart that you have created (or tuned per CONT 123)
Preparation Time: 1 hour
There are many creatures roaming the elemental planes, and some of them are more useful than mere elementals. You can re purpose a constructive heart to trap the essence of a genie (Djinni, Efreeti, Janni or similar beings) in addition to its own elemental.

You can then use the genie abilities to grant a wish with the following restrictions.

• In order to use this skill you need to get the heart to produce 5000 ebbs and not use them, the genie inside it is consuming them.

• If the wish replicates a spell it needs to have consumed additional ebbs equal to the XP cost, and it also needs to have stored souls (per CONT 276) before attempting to do so. Using the wish this way consumes a number of souls equal to the spell level of the spell that is replicated.

• If the wish creates a magical item ebbs equal to the XP that would be used in such a crafting need to also be consumed by the genie. Additionally the wish consumes a number of souls equal to the spell level of the highest level spell used in the creation of said item.

• If a wish has material components of a value greater than 10,000 gp the value of said component needs to be added to the constructive heart in whatever metal was used to create the constructive heart. For example, for an iron constructive heart (binding an Efreeti) if the wish requires 15,000 gp in salted bacon instead of using salted bacon 15,000 gp of iron need to be added.

Once the wish is granted the constructive heart will be destroyed unless it was made of an ascended planetary metal, if it was made of an ascended planetary metal it will consume a volume of material as if a week had passed; if this volume takes it below a sustainable volume it will also be destroyed.

 

Constructivity Discoveries

• Key improvisation: Keyboards are cool but swords are cooler, and sometimes playing a harmonica is just what you need... You can use any perform skill instead of perform (keyboard) for anything related to constructivity.

• Highways and Stairways: The Energy planes are almost as interesting as the elemental planes, and you have a hunch that there must be Elementals there somewhere. You can now bind positive and negative energy elementals to silver and lead respectively.
  
  {table=head]planetary metal|element
  silver|positive
  lead|negative[/table]
  
  If you have access to CONT 266 you can also bind quasielementals from the quasielemental planes. They do not produce more ebbs but require less maintenance; quasielemental hearts consume material at half the normal rate.
  
  {table=head]Connected Planes|Plane name|Associated element (or elements)
  Air / Positive|Lightning|Electricity
  Air / Negative|Vacuum|Vacuum
  Water / Positive|Steam|Steam
  Water / Negative|Salt|Salt
  Earth / Positive|Mineral|Minerals (& Jewels)
  Earth / Negative|Dust|Dust
  Fire / Positive|Radiance|Light
  Fire / Negative|Ash|Ash[/table]

• Platinum shackles: Platinum is kind of hard, elementals don't bind well to it, but it is good on absorbing ebbs. You can add platinum shackles to your Constructive Hearts. The shackle needs to occupy 50% of the volume of the Constructive Heart (this is additional volume) and can hold up to 500% the amount of ebbs that the heart would generate in a round.

• Resonant concerto: You can tie hearts together, to do so you need hearts of different sizes. Each heart can be tied to one heart of its size, or a number of smaller hearts depending on the size difference. For this purpose 2 small hearts equal 1 medium, 2 medium equal 1 large, 2 large equal 1 huge, etc. Any ebbs generated per round is calculated from the sum of the different hearts, but moving the ebbs around only takes a logical action (and not a logical action per heart as it would otherwise take).

• Elementary my dear Elemental: You must have at least 12 HD to select this discovery. You know how to tap into the elementary elemental elements of the elements that form the elementary elements. You can now sustain your constructive hearts with energy effects depending on the elemntal tied to the constructive heart.
  
  {table=head]Element|Energy
  Fire|Fire
  Earth|Acid
  Water|Cold
  Air|Lightning
  Positive|Positive
  Negative|Negative[/table]
  
  If you have access to elementals that are formed by more than one element your elementary knowledge of elemental elements still apply and as along as the Constructive Heart is subject to the effect of both elementary element energies it keeps beating.

• Mephitopheles deal: You must have at least 12 HD to select this discovery. You can add a Mephit touch to your constructive hearts, in doing so they gains a sort of basic intelligence, being able to reroute the ebbs it produces as a standard action (this keeps counting as a logical decision, but takes a standard not a move).
  
  {table=head]elemental size|intelligence
  small|4
  medium|4
  large|6
  huge|6
  greater|8
  elder|10[/table]

• Plug it, play it: You must have at least 16 HD to select this discovery. You can create constructive hearts that will never run out of juice, but they are less efficient. You can create a constructive heart of any size and material that you would normally be able to produce, this constructive heart does not need to consume material, to produce ebbs but it only produces 80% of the ebbs that it would normally produce (rounded down; minimum 0). At any point you can choose to have it consume material and produce ebbs at the normal rate.

• Dense Density Dens: You must have at least 16 HD you can reduce the size of your hearts by 50% this reduces their ebb generation by 20% (rounded down).

 

Feats

Constructive Cardio [Gramarie]
Prerequisite: CONT 101, Perform (Keyboard Instruments) 4 ranks
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Perform (Keyboard Instruments) checks. In addition you can make ebbs flow into your heart to keep yourself going whenever lesser beings would need sleep or rest. You can replace a full night sleep (or trance, or whatever you do instead of sleeping) with 10 ebbs, you must still rest for 8 hours before preparing spells.
Special: Taking this feat means you cannot take Skill Focus (Perform (Keyboard Instruments)), and you cannot take this feat if you already possess said Skill Focus.