Ksema

One of Clan _______'s proudest possessions is its grand orrery; a contraption of spinning metal spheres and discs that tracks the movements of all known planets and moons in the solar system. (Supposedly, it even tracks Sornieth's unknown, secret moon.) Of course, such a machine can't be built to a realistic scale, but that doesn't make the orrery any less useful for the clan's mages. Their magic is affected by the angles and rotation of the spheres, not the distance between them. Ksema's work on her orrery has proven invaluable for both her arcane clanmates and other mages who are only visiting the clan.

As any magical scholar knows, no physical object could fully capture the complexities of the interactions between the celestial bodies. That is why the grand orrery is only half made of shining metal. The rest of it is insubstantial, formed of countless threads of light magic. The glowing beams spin alongside the metallic planets, showing the strength and direction of the many stellar leylines that are so important to arcane magic. This part of the orrery even stretches into higher, magical dimensions, making it completely incomprehensible to anyone without significant elemental attunement. Ksema's also used that same magic to label every celestial object with tiny, glowing letters. Those are fortunately readable by anyone.

It's even solar powered, running silently and eternally — as long as it receives a few hours of direct sunlight every day. Ksema's magic doesn't entirely decay if separated from the sun for too long, so she won't have to redo all the enchantments, but the various parts are unlikely to grind to a halt at the same rate. Preventing that is one of Ksema's highest priorities. Resynchronizing everything would take weeks of hard work. And during that time, her clanmates might try to work magic based on completely inaccurate data! Some of them probably wouldn't even be able to figure out what season it is without reading the orrery.

Now, if only the fragile contraption didn't need to be kept in a specially designed room, carefully protected from the elements (except for sunlight — there's a skylight to permit that), and with only fae allowed inside to view it as anyone larger risks pushing the spheres out of alignment just by moving their wings too quickly. There are fae willing to sketch out the astral alignments and do some calculations for larger dragons, but Ksema would prefer it if anyone could safely visit the orrery in person. Both for equality, and because there's a few spirals who keep sneaking into the orrery room anyways who inevetably end up bumping some spheres out of alignment. She's tried to create projections of light magic that mirror the orrery at a larger scale, but without the metal parts to bind the magic to her attempts have all torn themselves apart. And that much light magic escaping at once is a great way to blind the entire clan, so she's not willing to try again without many precautions.

After all, Ksema doesn't want to cause any problems for her clanmates. She's a bit of a secluded dragon, preferring to keep to herself and tinker with the orrery in peace. And often, Ksema will be so lost in calculations that she won't even notice the dragons that do visit. She tends to talk to herself while solving equations, and can even semi-consciously answer questions about her work without being aware of the dragon speaking to her. But when she does notice other dragons, she's quite pleased to hear about the ways that her efforts have helped the clan.

While Ksema does spend a lot of her time calculating the movements of the planets, she has other interests. Such as books. She's collected the works of all of the Isle's greatest novelists, both beastclan and dragon. Ksema has even learned a few beastclan languages, just so that she can read their untranslated books. To her surprise, the stuff Westerfield writes is actually pretty good. He'd always seemed like a mith who would write stories that are shallow and formulaic, but his efforts are actually very thought provoking. He can count her among his fans.

Ksema is also a fan of listening to Radio Starfall, though she might not describe the broadcasts as being good. Or professional. Honestly, she finds the things the two radio hosts talk about to be completely incomprehensible. And yet, for some reason she can't stop listening to them.

She's recently discovered that Ipomoea has a similar interest in making intricate magical contraptions. The little puzzle toys he makes are really fascinating! Ksema has considered collaborating with him to make a truly difficult puzzle. Imagine trying to solve a puzzle with pieces that are constantly spinning under the power of one of her enchantments. It sounds incredibly frustrating to Ksema, which is presumably the point of puzzles? Also like a great way to get your claws pinched between some gears. And Ksema's had that happen many, many times while working on the orrery, so it's time for her clanmates to understand the dangers of her work.