A Knob On The End Is Optional
So, let's talk about the glitterstaff, that favorite prop of half the anime characters to come out of Delphys's own Kyo Aziris.
If you are familiar with the history of nanotechnology - which I admit, gentle reader, is unlikely given that you are reading this book - you will be aware of the concept of a "utility fog", a vapor of trillions of nanites, foglets, designed to link together in myriad structural combinations to simulate objects, apply force, and perform whatever other functions are demanded by its owner.
While popular for a while, particularly in the scenario rooms that predated modern virtuality, the inefficiencies involved in such fogs - especially in the creation of fully general foglets - have long since relegated them out of the technological mainstream. For virtually all of their functions, specialized devices - be they nanoscale or macroscale - have proven superior in practice.
And yet, there is the glitterstaff, itself a moderately absurd way to transport this inefficient technology around.
A glitterstaff, which strongly resembles a quarterstaff when carried, is in reality a short swagger-stick designed to contain the computer-controller, microwave pulser, and powercells needed to support a utility fog. (High-end models add to this room for a feedstock cartridge and a tiny nanohive to permit lost foglets to be regenerated.) The remainder of the device is the fog itself, condensed in its most dense arrangement around the control wand and manipulating its own surface color and texture - in the interests of presentation.
And so, with a gesture of the staff and a few appropriate words in some obscure and ancient tongue¹, you too can spin illusions, conjure objects from thin air, summon daemons from the vasty filesystem, and do many of the other things beloved of cosplayers, augmentality gamers, and tourists visiting places where they haven't figured out that they ought to be squeamish about people importing trillions of tiny robots quite yet.
Does it have any practical uses?
Well, the other market for glitterstaves is the Imperial Exploratory Service, who are scrupulous in obeying the regulations that prevent them, under all circumstances, from pretending to be gods.
Wizards, on the other hand, are something they're prepared to be more flexible about. It is, after all, technically true.
- First Books: Nanotechnology In Daily Life
- They don't actually do anything, but they cover up your busy mental scripting in the background.