Fabricating lifestones has been a dream of somatei society since its advent: imagine being able to grow in number, settle in new caves, develop society at a new pace… until a hundred years ago however, this dream seemed far away.
Lifestones are a wonder of medicine, jewelry and magic in equal parts. It would take experts of each field to fully understand the inner workings of a single stone; consequentially, research was only possible with these three fields in close cooperation. Another factor that made research so slow was, of course, ethics. Research on a live lifestone was always done with the utmost cautiousness, while broken lifestones were much easier to handle but also gave far less insight.
Most research was unsurprisingly held in Zintotel’s Academy. While some saw this idea in a negative light, the general opinion was always that being able to maintain, if not grow, population would be beneficial for somatei society.
The first viable Somatei-made lifestone (now commonly called Artificial Lifestones) was finalized a hundred years ago and laid in a small soma chamber dedicated to research in Zintotel’s cave. The resulting Somatei, born in the typical 13 months, was perfectly healthy.
This event started a new current of expantionism, with politician along with popular opinion pushing for lifestone production in order to populate new caves.
With the new production, 50’000 new lifestones had been created and put in circulation in the span of 10 years. Many Somatei left their hometowns to be the first to establish themselves in new caves, while others joined the common effort of raising the influx of children. 30 years after the first successful birth however, the total number of non living lifestones in Zintotel alone would reach a thousand, leading to a new world changing event.
When the Somatei from the new generation of lifestones started reaching the end of their life, the additional load on soma chambers became apparent: newborn Somatei started appearing with deformations due to the lack of place, or conjoined with their soma bed neighbor. Several lifestones even became lost for a while, unable to develop new bodies while layeing in a chamber. These phenomenons put a quick end on population growth and started a new effort of thorough chamber usage regulation. Lifestones started being put on waitlists and their placement in soma beds started being carefully controlled and documented.
Nowadays, the number of existing lifestones exceeds the soma chambers availability in most big cities. Lifestones of deceased Somatei in wait for a place in a soma bed are declared dormant and put on a waitlist.
Dormant stones are usually kept in special, secure cases by former friends or family members. Each city also offers public secure storage for such lifestones and finally, dormant stones can be used to create a tzautan, a small artificial creature meant to protect the stone while it is waiting for a new life.