THE RED
The red gelstei – also called tuaoi stones or firestones – are blood-red crystals like rubies in appearance and color. They are often cast into baguettes at least a foot in length, though during the Age of Law much larger ones were made. The greatest ever fabricated was the hundred-foot Eluli’s Spire, mounted on top of the Tower of the Sun. It was said to cast its fiery light up into the heavens as a beacon calling out to the Star People to return to earth.
The firestones quicken, channel and control the physical energies. They draw upon the sun’s rays, as well as the earth’s magnetic and telluric currents, to generate beams of light, lightning, heat or fire. They are thought to be the most dangerous of the gelstei; it is said that a great pyramid of red gelstei unleashed a terrible lightning that split asunder the world of Iviunn and destroyed its star.
THE BLACK
The black gelstei, or baalstei, are black crystals like obsidian. Many are cast into the shape of eyes, either flattened or rounded like large marbles. They devour light and are the stones of negation.
Many believe them to be evil stones, but they were created for a great good purpose: to control the awesome lightning of the firestones. Theirs is the power to damp the fires of material things, both living and living crystals such as the gelstei. Used properly, they can negate the working of all the other kinds of gelstei except the silver and the gold, over which they have no power.
Their power over living things is most often put to evil purpose. The Kallimun priests and other servants of Morjin such as the Grays have wielded them as weapons to attack people physically, mentally and spiritually, literally sucking away their vital energies and will. Thus the black stones can be used to cause disease, degeneration and death.
It is believed that that baalstei might be potentially more dangerous than even the firestones. For in the Beginnings is told of an utterly black place that is at once the negation of all things and paradoxically also their source. Out of this place may come the fire and light of the universe itself. It is said that the Baaloch, Angra Mainyu, before he was imprisoned on the world of Damoom, used a great black gelstei to destroy whole suns in his war of rebellion against the Galadin and the rule of the Ieldra.
THE PURPLE
The lilastei are the stones of shaping and making. They are a bright violet in hue, and are cast into crystals of a great variety of shapes and sizes. Their power is unlocking the light locked up in matter so that matter might be changed, molded and transformed. Thus the lilastei are sometimes called the alchemists’ stones, according to the alchemists’ age-old dream of transmuting baser matter into true gold, and casting true gold into a new Lightstone.
The purple gelstei’s greatest effects are on crystals of all sorts: but mostly those in metal and rocks. It can unlock the crystals in these substances so that they might be more easily worked. Or they can be used to grow crystals of great size and beauty; they are the stone shapers and stone growers spoken of in legend. It is said that Kalkamesh used a lilastei in forging the silustria of the Bright Sword, Alkaladur.
Some believe the potential power of the purple gelstei to be very great and perhaps very perilous. Lilastei have been known to ‘freeze’ water into an alternate crystal called shatar, which is clear and as hard as quartz. Some fear that these gelstei might be used thus to crystallize the water in the sea and so destroy all life on earth. The stone masters of old, who probed the mysteries of the lilastei too deeply, are said to have accidentally turned themselves into stone, but most believe this to be only a cautionary tale out of legend.
THE SEVEN OPENERS
If man’s purpose is seen as in progressing to the orders of the Star People, Elijin and Galadin, then the seven stones known as the openers might fairly be called greater gelstei. Indeed, there are those of the Great White Brotherhood and the Green Brotherhood who revered them in this way. For, with much study and work, the openers each activate one of the body’s chakras: the energy centers known as wheels of light. As the chakras are opened, from the base of the spine to the crown of the head, so is opened a pathway for the fires of life to reconnect to the heavens in a great burst of lightning called the angel’s fire. Only then can a man or a woman undertake the advanced work necessary for advancement to the higher orders.
The openers are each small, clear stones the color of their respective chakras. They are easily mistaken for gemstones.
THE FIRST (also called bloodstones)
These are a clear, deep red in color, like rubies. The first stones open the chakra of the physical body and activate the vital energies.
THE SECOND (also called passion stones or old gold)
These gelstei are gold-orange in color and are sometimes mistaken for amber. The second stones open the chakra of the emotional body and activate the currents of sensation and feeling.
THE THIRD (also called sun stones)
The third stones are clear and bright yellow, like citrine; they open the third chakra of the mental body and activate the mind.
THE FOURTH (also called dream stones or heart stones)
These beautiful stones – clear and pure green in color like emeralds – open the heart chakra. Thus they open one’s second feeling, a truer and deeper sense than the emotions of the second chakra. The fourth stones work upon the astral body and activate the dreamer.
THE FIFTH (also called soul stones)
Bright blue in color like sapphires, the fifth stones open the chakra of the etheric body and activate the intuitive knower, or the soul.
THE SIXTH (also called angel eyes)
The sixth stones are bright purple like amethyst. They open the chakra of the celestial body located just above and between the eyes. Thus their more common name: theirs is the power of activating one’s second sight. Indeed, these gelstei activate the seer in the realm of light, and open one to the powers of scrying, visualization and deep insight.
THE SEVENTH (also called clear crowns or true diamonds)
One of the rarest of the gelstei, the seventh stones are clear and bright as diamonds. Indeed, some say they are nothing more than perfect diamonds, without flaw or taint of color. These stones open the chakra of the ketheric body and free the spirit for reunion with the One.
THE LESSER GELSTEI
During the Age of Law, hundreds of kinds of gelstei were made for purposes ranging from the commonplace to the sublime. Few of these have survived the passage of the centuries. Some of those that have are:
GLOWSTONES
Also called glowglobes, these stones are cast into solid, round shapes resembling opals of various sizes – some quite huge. They give a soft and beautiful light. Those of lesser quality must be frequently refired beneath the sun, while those of the highest quality drink in even the faintest candlelight, hold it and give back in a steady illumination.
SLEEP STONES
A gelstei of many shifting and swirling colors, the sleep stones have a calming effect on the human nervous system. They look something like agates.
WARDERS
Usually blood-red in color and opaque, like carnelians, these stones deflect or ‘ward-off psychic energies directed at a person. This includes thoughts, emotions, curses – and even the debilitating energy drain of the black gelstei. One who wears a warder can be rendered invisible to scryers and opaque to mindspeakers.
LOVE STONES
Often called true amber and sometimes mistaken for the second stones of the openers, these gelstei partake of some of their properties. They are specific to arousing feelings of infatuation and love; sometimes love stones are ground into a powder and made into potions to achieve the same end. They are soft stones and look much like amber.
WISH STONES
These little stones – they look something like white pearls – help the wearer remember his dreams and visions of the future; they activate the will to manifest these visualizations.
DRAGON BONES
Of a translucent, old ivory in color, the dragon bones strengthe
n the life fires and quicken one’s courage – and all too often one’s wrath.
HOT SLATE
A dark, gray, opaque stone of considerable size – hot slate is usually cast into yard-long bricks – this gelstei is related in powers and purpose, if not form, to the glow stones. It absorbs heat directly from the air and radiates it back over a period of hours or days.
MUSIC MARBLES
Often called song stones, these gelstei of variegated, swirling hues record and play music, both of the human voice and all instruments. They are very rare.
TOUCH STONES
These are related to the song stones and have a similar appearance. However, they record and play emotions and tactile sensations instead of music. A man or a woman, upon touching one of these gelstei, will leave a trace of emotions that a sensitive can read from contact with the stone.
THOUGHT STONES
This is the third stone in this family and is almost indistinguishable from the others. It absorbs and holds one’s thoughts as a cotton garment might retain the smell of perfume or sweat. The ability to read back these thoughts from touching this gelstei is not nearly so rare as that of mindspeaking itself.
BOOKS OF THE SAGANOM ELU
Beginnings
Mendelin
Sources
Ananke
Chronicles
Commentaries
Journeys
Book of Stars
Book of Stones
Book of Ages
Book of Water
Peoples
Book of Wind
Healings
Book of Fire
Laws
Tragedies
Battles
Book of Remembrance
Progressions
Sarojin
Book of Dreams
Baladin
Idylls
Averin
Visions
Souls
Valkariad
Songs
Trian Prophecies
Meditations
The Eschaton
THE AGES OF EA
The Lost Ages (18,000 – 12,000 years ago)
The Age of the Mother (12,000 – 9,000 years ago)
The Age of the Sword (9,000 – 6,000 years ago)
The Age of Law (6,000 – 3,000 years ago)
The Age of the Dragon (3,000 years ago to the present)
THE MONTHS OF THE YEAR
Yaradar
Marud
Viradar
Soal
Triolet
Ioj
Gliss
Valte
Ashte
Ashvar
Soldru
Segadar
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Diamond Warriors
David Zindell lives in Boulder, Colorado, and is the author of Neverness and The Requiem for Homo Sapiens trilogy: The Broken God, The Wild and War in Heaven.
BY DAVID ZINDELL
NEVERNESS
A Requiem for Homo Sapiens
THE BROKEN GOD
THE WILD
WAR IN HEAVEN
The Ea Cycle
THE LIGHTSTONE: THE NINTH KINGDOM
THE LIGHTSTONE: THE SILVER SWORD
LORD OF LIES
BLACK JADE
THE DIAMOND WARRIORS
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
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HarperCollins Canada
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United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
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United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
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The Diamond Warriors Page 59