Invented sometime around 1100 ToR by Ai Chu who went on to create many other time keeping design concepts and was the head designer of a number of famous Astrostone Clock towers such as the Saar Tower in Aear Gwing. The Astrostone Clock is a stack of six cylinders affixed to a central Astrostone core via different sets of gears. Each cylinder represents a different increment of time starting at the top with years.
- Years
- Month
- Day
- Prak (10 Prak in a Day)
- Esprak (10 Esprak in a Prak)
- Meprak (10 Meprak in an Esprak)
An outer casing with a set of six vertically aligned holes displays the current value of the time cylinders which utilize mutilated gears and gear ratios in clever patterns to quickly move each display once it has changed according to the Astrostone’s rotation at the center.
Astrostone Clock Towers
Astrostone Clock Towers typically have only four cylinders and sound every half Prak. The first Astrostone Clock Tower drawn up by Ai Chu was originally a similar six cylinder design, but it was quickly realized that this would increase cost substantially and who really needed the clock tower to display Esprak or Meprak?
Distribution
Ai Chu was an early graduate of the Zyclest University but quickly after her graduation moved to Beleg gúl, specifically Glavra citing nostalgia and beauty for her reasons. Initial Astrostone Clock’s circulated and propagated through the Elven nation for several years before their popularity with the wealthy began to push their reach across the rest of the continent.
Astrostone Clocks do not require additional Chips to continue operation, however every few years a new year cylinder must be bought depending on the radius of the device you purchased. Despite this relatively low repeated cost the Astrostone mechanism inside does require a Minor Stone for its initial creation which incurs exceptional cost for the average citizen of Attovia. Anywhere from 100 Bits - 30 Slivers depending on whether or not the customer supplies the Minor Stone.