Pearls

The church of Delar has long used pearls taken from oysters off the coast of Great Eldys to peform one of their most vital civic services: the blessing of communication pearls. When a priest of Delar skilled in his divine arts is available, they will be available to bless mundane, ordinary pearls for supplicants.

A blessed pearl carries the true name of the supplicant on the pearl. Anyone who knows the supplicant's true name and has their own pearl may reach out and contact them over vast distances. Two pearls that have been entangled in this way will transmit all audio bidirectionally through the pearls. This facilitates rapid communications across Eldyian territory and beyond.

Note that while you need the pearl's owners true name to contact the pearl, that is no assurance that the pearl is still on their person. The pearl will answer to their name for as long as its blessing holds -- even once its own divine energy is expended -- no matter if it is on a corpse, on the ground, or in the possession of a third party. Voices coming through pearls are indistinct and can only be identified by apparent gender.

The amount of times a blessed pearl can be used to contact another blessed pearl scales with the original quality of the pearl. Once a pearl has been blessed once, it cannot be blessed again. You must source a new pearl.

Command                          What it does
contact                          List the pearls you are holding and whether each is
                                 not blessed, quiet, linked, or expended
contact <name>                   Link a blessed pearl you hold to a pearl blessed for
                                 that person, by their exact name
contact <name> with <pearl>      The same, choosing which of your pearls to use
contact off [<pearl>]            Break the link on a pearl you hold; both ends are told
contact mute <name>              Have the pearls you hold refuse contact from pearls
                                 blessed for that name
contact unmute <name>            Accept contact from that name's pearls again
contact mutes                    List the names you are refusing
whisper <pearl> <message>        Speak privately through a linked pearl: only the
                                 person holding the other pearl hears the words
bless <pearl>                    Have a priest of Delar here bless a raw pearl you
                                 are holding; the fee scales with the pearl's quality
ask <priest> about pearls        Hear what a priest offers and how the blessing is
                                 paid for