A Korashi Drill is an invention made in the late 17th century created to break through the inner wardings and defenses of the High Temples in Haless. It is made of magic-forged steel with a nugget of damestear as a power source, and at the tip of the drill is a sharp point of Black Damestear, or Korashi as its known to the Halessi. Invented by gnomish artificers of the Gommo, the drill went through various versions until the Mk 5. DOLG (meaning Dagger) Korashi Drill first was able to penetrate a Temple's Heart.
History[]
Drill Invention[]
After arriving in Haless in 1580, the Gommo wouldn't get access to Korashi until 1617, after the Command's failure to take Tianlou. Purchasing siege equipment and loot from the battlefield, including mage collars, the Gommo would begin their experiments on Korashi back in their headquarters in Cannor and through independent researchers in Yanshen. One such researcher would eventually publish a paper on High Temple wards, with the Gommo's seal of approval. Nearly fifty years of experimentation, trial and error, and strange inventions would culminate in the first Korashi Drill built by the recently established Tianlou office (founded in 1667 under Command jurisdiction). This first drill was limited by several aspects. First, being an early model, the drill was inefficient and weak. Second, although the Command had been selling korashi to the Gommo they would be kicked out in 1678, causing both Tianlou drill workers and researchers to move to Feiten (losing papers along the way) and limiting their access to the vital resource. To overcome these aspects, the drill was excessively large with only the smallest part made out of Korashi to make up for their lack of supply.
Testing[]
As testing of the drills, led by Owen Kayman, continued on magical equipment resulting in the Mk 5 in 1697. The first temple originally planned to be tested was Tianlou, but with the poor situation of Command-Gommo relations it was ultimately decided that it would be best to go elsewhere. Arriving at Feiten, the office there was eager to test the device and provided transportation to the nearby major temple of Luoyip.
Unloading the Mk 5 in the Feiten shipyard in 1698, various demonstrators arrived seeking to "resist Cannorization" and to preserve the Temples, yet were bypassed with cooperation from the city guard as directed by the local Feiten Division. Transporting the drill through the hills and jungle between it and Luoyip was treacherous, especially in tandem with the occasional act of sabotage by locals. Ultimately, the Mk 5 arrived at the Temple complex in 1701, undamaged, with a team of gnomish archeologists in tow. The drill pierced the Temple door with relative ease, shattering the warding that was thought to be nearly impenetrable. With the warding broken, two major complications arose preventing further progress. For one, the inner Temple Complex was still littered with traps and dangers that required the skill of adventurers to surmount. Two, even when they did reach the heart of the temple, it was found to be significantly difficult to bring the large, clunky drill through the narrow passageways to destroy its wardings. Although this was done with time in Luoyip, it was considered inefficient and a waste of resources until a smaller model could be invented.
Further Improvements[]
With this task in mind, the Gommo division responsible for inventing the Mk 5 was provided funding and patents to further their research and production. With the bloodless coup of Tianlou in 1705 came limitless opportunity for the Gommo, having made a deal for an independent office in Tianlou in exchange for their support against the Command, the Gommo's influence in the newly freed states of Yanshen began to grow rapidly. The Tianlou office would only be official reestablished in 1720, though work had continued both there and in the Feiten office allowing the first handheld drill to be invented in 1721.
Effects[]
By the beginning of the Rending, adventurers such as Indiboddo Jonesonn had handheld version that allowed them to simultaneously break through the Temple's warding and explore it with relative ease, The proliferation of the drill and its decreasing size allowed for more widespread usage to raid Temples, contributing to the plundering that took place through the early mid-late 1700s. This and the Oni's corruption of the Temples are considered the primary causes of the Rending.