Icor are nanite robots created by the singulatarian during the fall of the ancients
There are three types of wizard in “They Came By Night”: the selected, those that have icor chambers and those with ancient tech permitted by the icor and sometimes powered by it.
Icor comes in two states:
Ambient Icor is born and powered in radioactive areas called “The Sickenings”. When icor was first created, during the fall of the ancients, it had three primary directives: clean up radiation from the wars, clean up pollution and fix the environment (global warming), and to heal humans sickened by radiation and pollution. 1500 years after the fall of the ancients the ambient icor still looks after the ecology and heals the sick.
Activated Icor has been given additional programming. This can be done through the wizards or through icor chambers.
The singulatarian created the concept of wizards who were supposed to be good people capable of using the icor to keep the peace and help create a natural paradise on Earth. They are able to heal the sick, create a shield, and a few of them are able to throw fire. The icor selects these good people as children, but often the power corrupts them and they become egotistical and evil.
Icor Chambers These are containers within which icor can be re-programmed. These chambers program the icor for specific tasks and are usually treasured artifacts like truth stones which force the holder to tell the truth, or healing rings, or crop idols which help crops grow, or the jars that help the flying boat fly. There are many types of these artifacts.
The Keys are a special type of icor chamber with cryptographic encryption keys which authorize the owner to reprogram icor. The owner of the prime key is like an admin, they have rights to do anything. The owner of the golden key can do anything not forbidden by the prime . There are other keys which are subordinate to the golden key, and then there is the key held by the council. The golden key and the council’s key are required to activate the prime key.