With the Grand Wall of Scorpia underway, the Bloody Purge having surgically excised all internal political and criminal threats, and the chaos of the former Empire neatly contained, Maximilian, the Pro-Consul of Scorpia, immediately shifted his focus from military consolidation to the second great revolution: the conquest of power and information. Max understood that the true, irreversible advantage over the militarily rigid Kath Empire and the fragmented Kingdom Alliance was not just in superior firearms, but in absolute informational speed and an inexhaustible energy supply. He needed to command his vast new territory instantly, observe his enemies without reliance on vulnerable physical patrols, and, most crucially, power the endless industrial demands of his new state. His solution was a calculated, ruthless integration of pure technology with the continent's only natural energy source: the latent ambient mana field.
The foundation of all his subsequent developments was the invention and harnessing of electricity. Max's engineers achieved this through the development of turbines—massive, complex machines capable of converting mechanical motion into electrical current. These turbines were driven by the controlled, explosive force of specialized fuel mixtures. Max designed two primary power sources to ensure redundancy and maximize efficiency across his new nation:
First, Diesel-Powered Turbines were established near the oil refineries in the Scofield region. These turbines burned the highly refined diesel fuel, creating immense heat and pressure to spin the generators. This was pure, unadulterated machine power, reliable and terrifyingly efficient, capable of running continuously. The thick, metallic smell of oil and the low, relentless hum of these powerhouses became the new scent and sound of Scorpia's progress.
Second, in a more direct concession to the world's pervasive energy source, Max developed Liquid Mana Turbines. These were more complex, utilizing pressurized, highly refined liquid mana—extracted from controlled natural reservoirs—as the working fluid. This liquid mana was funneled through specialized pressure chambers that converted its latent arcane energy into concentrated mechanical force to spin a different set of generators. This design ensured that even if a foreign power managed to disrupt Max's oil supply, the nation would not plunge into darkness or silence. Electricity, the universal, controllable energy that ran through copper wires, was the invisible blood of the new State of Scorpia, powering everything from the massive cranes lifting the concrete sections of the Wall to the smallest experimental laboratory.
This newly available electric power immediately fueled a revolutionary network of information superiority. Max directed his core engineering teams to solve the problem of long-range communication. Relying on traditional technological methods—laying thousands of miles of copper wire for telegraph or telephone lines—was too slow, too vulnerable to sabotage, and too labor-intensive for a nation still in its infancy. Max found the answer by integrating electrical signals with mana resonance.
The resulting system was a revolutionary blend of science and arcana, a network of wireless communications. Max's engineers developed specialized devices that could convert the electrical signals of speech into a highly focused, oscillating mana wave. These waves were then boosted by small, dedicated mana amplifier towers strategically placed across Scorpia's thirty-six provinces, powered continuously by the new electrical grid. The core innovation was using the inherent conductive properties of the world's ambient mana field to carry the electrical frequency, allowing the signal to bypass physical obstacles entirely and travel hundreds of miles instantly.
This innovation achieved long-range, seamless communication. Max could now issue commands, receive real-time provincial reports from his military governors, and coordinate the vast Wall and road construction projects instantly. This network rendered the ancient courier system, vulnerable land lines, and semaphore flags instantly obsolete. For Max, the Pro-Consul, this was a perfect expression of his rule: his word became law, instantly and everywhere within Scorpia, ensuring total command coherence and eliminating the potential for any provincial governor to operate autonomously. A rebellion could be detected, reported, and suppressed before the first arrow was even notched, all thanks to the invisible power of electricity and mana resonance.
To maintain external and internal information superiority, Max used electricity to power the development of entirely new sensory systems that could capture data objectively, free from human error or magical interference.
Max first developed the Camera—a revolutionary device for capturing permanent, objective visual records. This utilized a simple lens and shutter mechanism to focus light onto a specially treated, photosensitive chemical film. This film, Max discovered, could be chemically stabilized (developed) using a process derived from certain stable, quick-setting alchemical dyes. The resultant photographs, unlike drawings or paintings, captured reality with absolute fidelity. The cameras were immediately deployed by his Internal Security Bureau (ISB) and by his construction foremen. They provided: Objective Records used to document the completion of construction projects, the status of the Wall, and the identity of foreign elements attempting to cross the border; and Surveillance capability that revolutionized security. The era of relying on human memory or artistic sketches for intelligence was over; the undeniable evidence of a photograph became a tool of terrifying political control.
Max's most complex technological breakthrough, however, was Radar (RAdio Detection And Ranging), the ultimate tool for strategic defense. Radar provided the ability to "see" beyond the range of human sight, beyond the veil of fog, or through the strongest magical illusion. This was achieved by integrating the principles of high-frequency radio waves—generated by Max's new electrical current—with the mana field projection:
Signal Generation: A technologically generated, high-frequency signal was boosted by an oscillating mana field projector, allowing the signal to cut cleanly through atmospheric interference.
Detection: The resulting wave was sent out from a rotating emitter dish. When the wave struck a large, physical object (like an approaching army, airship, or fleet), a fraction of the energy reflected back.
Ranging: A receiver calculated the precise time delay of the returning wave to determine the target's exact distance, bearing, and speed.
Radar systems were instantly installed at key strategic points along the Grand Wall, powered constantly by the new turbine grid. This provided Max with an early warning system that was absolutely impervious to magical cloaking, illusion spells, or bad weather. This ability to "see" any mobilizing force—be it the Kath Empire's armored columns or the Kingdom Alliance's mages—long before they could even reach his borders made Scorpia virtually impregnable. The fear of the MSW-1 was the final deterrent; the reality of instant communication, electricity, and radar made mobilization against Scorpia impossible to conceal or execute effectively. Max had not just won the war; he had rendered conventional warfare obsolete, placing his entire nation in a perpetual state of controlled, technological superiority. The lights were on, the telephones were ringing, and the Pro-Consul watched everything.