Terra Nova Research Base, Antarctica.

RAIN-1: The South Pole.

Published in 1923 [without following updates]

Discovered in two occasions, the first under the strict gaze of a selected research community in 1909, and the second was a public one, announced to the human press on December of 1911. This was at the closing edge of a period in Human History which historians refer as “The Heroic Era of Antarctic Exploration”. Objectives and motivations, respectable in their own terms, were multiple and varied. Some of the expeditions dedicated themselves to mapping the coastline of the continent or to create a database to make the region more comprehensible to future explorers. However, only one task would grant fame and fortune, and was reaching the final earthly frontier.

The South Pole, referring both to the geographical coordinates and the artefact that emanated from its source, has to be one of the most fascinating elements I had the opportunity to check in person. This is one of the rare cases of an archivist talking from personal experience and not creating a report from third person accounts. It is also fitting this is the first Archival Report of the revamped archives.

RAIN-1 refers to the manmade artefact installed in place of the geographic southern pole. This artefact is not ingrained with the original source; the proprieties gathered during its time will be immediately transferred to whatever thing will be put in its place if removed. The energy produced by this point cannot be completely harnessed by the intended-to-be artefact, working instead as a type of spectral possession. However, its focus was on remaining on site, behaving as an inactive artefact in every other way.

Up until the writing of this report, there is record of only three artefacts that behave in this way, requiring monitoring in-site. RAIN-1 is one, obviously. RAIN-2 is another, in the extreme opposite of Earth, at the North Pole, behaving in the exact same way as RAIN-1. The third is RAIN-3, located in the “fictional” Null Island, and works as a condensation point between the other two locations.

There is a reason beyond the usual convergence of manmade objects and magical abilities in these three scenarios. The poles are located in the only two points on earth where all the Ley Lines intersect. This creates “Vacuum Cones”, which we aren’t able to correctly study, but we know store all the residual magic of the world that’s not entangled to an artefact or person. Null Island, on the other hand, is in the middle ground and following the central Ley Line.

Even though they are way more…dense than the members of the Magical Community, humans aren’t completely immune to the effects caused by the Ley Lines. Like moth to a flame, they are attracted to points where the lines cross, stablishing temples and settlements. Places that’ve played a key role in past or present Human History, are crossing a Ley Line; London, New York, Moskow, Pekin, Kyoto, Paris, the list goes on and on. They even recognized the biggest Ley Line of all and gave it a human name: Greenwich.

Regarding the abilities in effect of the RAIN-1, and which are extensible to the other two artefacts mentioned here, we can perceive a few from the get-go. We are going to focus on the second and third main proprieties, since the first one (the hijack effect and its jumping from object to object) was already discussed.

The Vacuum Cone in the poles work as points comprised in space. This meant that they are bigger on the inside and can store large extensions of nothingness in a small site. In this case, a surface of 300 square miles, about the middle ground between the cities of Paris and London is comprised in about 20 square yards. This are stretched versions of the places from which they emanate; which means that RAIN-3 is an extension of ocean, RAIN-2 is the embodiment of the ice island that is the Arctic Pole, and, alas, RAIN-1, the last to be discovered, was an extension of the frozen continent.

The third ability the Vacuum Cone has is to cause a faster magical decay. This proved extremely helpful to the current manmade objective, following the example set for the other points.

Originally, the South Pole Artefact was a Norwegian flag brought by explorer and famous adventurer Roald Amundsen in December of 1911. Currently, to march the symbolic duality with the Northern Pole, the artefact is a caricature-esque barber red-white striped pole of ten ft. high. It has a reflective golden orb on top to work as a beacon. And if RAIN-2 is the entrance to Wotan’s Workshop, this artefact, RAIN-1, is the entrance point to the Terra Nova Research Base.

Ariel Bonheur, Chief Archivist.

Attached note from the Overseer’s Office.

Ariel,

I’ve taken the task to temporarily disable reading of the old reports, this included. The current Board of Directors has considered the Archival Reports need to be updated to concur with the modern norms of archival writing and updates. I sincerely lament this measure, but since you haven’t show up at the meetings was difficult to address this issue in person, and I hope this is not a byzantine and inconvenient task.

Kind regards,

R.

October 26, 1985.