The Gevolian Handbook

Staangee (COMPLETE)

Staangee

The most important piece of Technology ever found in Gevola.

Pronounced as 'Staun-ch-ee', it is basically a resource generator, creating anything from apples to swords with only the power of thought.

In the 1700s, Decius Staangee was excavating a burial site when he found an oddly shaped pot, buried in the arms of a middle-aged woman's sketelon. He took the pot for further analysis, and realised that this 'pot' or 'canister' held a powder inside of it that he had never seen before, nor that existed on Earth. He careful extracted the dust from the pot, where-upon he performed a variety of different tests, which confirmed that there was no record of the powder existing. After months and months of testing, Staangee was ready to give up.

But then a miracle happened.

One night, when Dr Staangee was working, he was holding a medium amount of powder in his hand, checking for appearance changes from the experiments. However, he was supposedly very hungry. He closed his eyes for a moment, dreaming of fresh fruit and meat. When he opened his eyes again, he saw the most extraordinary thing.

In place of the powder, he now held a ruby red apple. Understandably, he was shocked. After more tests, Dr Staangee figured out that the more powder he used, thebetter the quality of the item produced. He designed a metal case, which he called the actual 'Staangee', and named the strange powder 'Doue Powder', but it is rarely called that nowadays.

Decius Staangee's invention was a huge success, millions sold world-wide.

However, the staangee would only be able to create items that already existed - they would not be able to create anything that was in myths & legends. It was unable to create living animals (although cooked meat was able to be created) and when money was created, it had a perculiar pattern on it (a series of spirals and crosses) and these coins - deemed 'Sta-coins' - were stripped of any value; they were worthless.

Since the 1700s, men - women rarely recieved them - were given a staangee for their eighteenth birthdays - the day they officially 'came-of-age'. This was a sign of moving to adulthood and responsibility, and most families could afford one.

However, this led to problems. In the 1940s, many young adults rioted in the streets, particually in Tereine and Ckalascino. They used stolen staangees to create baseball bats and guns, which they used to loot and steal from many homes and businesses. The Doue powder had gotten much cheaper - as it could been made easily - so these youngsters were able to get it very easily. The Doue powder production was halted until the riots were over, but the rioters seemed to have stocked up on the Powder very early on.

It took nine months for the riots to stop, but the impacts were felt for a long time afterwards.

A 'Doue Powder Tax' was introduced, preventing under-eighteens from buying it and taxing the overs. This led to make families not being able to afford the powder for their children, leading to a decrease in actual staangee purchases, as it was useless without the powder.

Over the years, the 'Doue Powder Tax' has been reduced slightly, to allow the poorer families to purchase it, but it was still quite expensive.

In 1963, The Ruby invaded the city of Geramina, which controlled most of the main land. She decreed that Staangees were banned, as they were percieved as a threat - due to the fact that they were able to create weapons. She collected all she could find and destroyed them, also stopping further production of both the Staangee and the Doue Powder. Nowadays, staangees are quite rare, but Doue Powder is sold regulary on the black market. (See chapter 2 for more information)

The actual Staangee case consists of four basic components. The first element is the shape. The staangee is quite small - it was made to be about two or three inches longer than the length from your wrist to your middle finger - and is mostly rectangular until the bottom, where it narrows into a point.

The second element is the powder containment. This is a small hidden section inside the staangee and - as the name suggests - is the place where the Doue powder is kept. Only a small amount of powder can fit into each staangee, but it varies each tool.

The third element is the decorative head on top of the staangee - it is different for everyone. It is determined by a series of questions asked by a determiner when the new owner comes of age.

The last element is the lid on the top of the staangee. The user can open this to determine how much Doue powder is still in the staangee, and put more in if needed. There is a small clasp at the side to secure it so that no powder can fall out.

The Ruby's rules have continued on throught the 60s, and show hardly any sign of stopping.

The staangee remains the most famous invention of all Gevolian time, although it is used mainly by criminals in modern times.