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The Litiocs

"Grey stone walls without any joints, showing a perfectly smooth face. None would ever try damaging a litioc: whoever does try will temporarily lose his eyesight for a few hours up to several years, depending on the power of the blow."

The walls of the Labyrinth — and the most reliably documented danger in the entire Cadwallon underground. Litiocs are seamless grey stone surfaces, perfectly smooth, jointless. Strike one and you go blind, for hours or for years, in proportion to the force of the blow. Every shrew knows the rule: knock down any wall you like, but never touch a litioc.

What They Are

Litiocs are the substance of the Labyrinth made physical where it brushes the explorable underground. They appear as:

  • Grey stone, without joints — no mortar lines, no blocks, no seams; a single continuous surface
  • Perfectly smooth — unnaturally so; the eye slides off them
  • Immovable and ancient — they predate the Cynwäll, the Sphinx, possibly everything

Where the litiocs appear, the Labyrinth is close. They are the maze's skin pushing up through the older ruins.

The Curse of the Blow

The defining property. From the source:

Some shrews knock down walls hoping to find hidden rooms. But none would ever try damaging a litioc: whoever does try will temporarily lose his eyesight — for a few hours up to several years, depending on the power of the blow.

The harder you strike, the longer you're blind. A casual scrape costs hours. A pickaxe swing could cost years. The blindness is not injury in the ordinary sense — it is the Labyrinth's response, a divine reflex of Conscience's sealing essence rejecting violation.

Why They Matter Now

The litiocs are surfacing

Litiocs traditionally appear only in the deepest reaches — the corridors near the Labyrinth. But since 999, as Desire stirs and the maze expands with every intrusion, litioc walls have begun surfacing in the upper catacrypts — places they were never recorded before. The Sewer Workers know which crews to keep away from them. The Architects' secret Tractor bore hit litioc — and the surveyor who chipped it is going blind exactly as the legends predict. The litiocs rising toward the surface is one of the clearest physical measures of the Labyrinth's growth. (see The Labyrinth, Guild of Architects)

Practical Lore

  • Navigation marker — experienced shrews use litiocs as a warning: if you're seeing litiocs, you're near the Labyrinth, and you should reconsider going deeper
  • Unbreakable — no one has reported successfully damaging one; the blindness comes whether or not the wall yields
  • The tarot-mages treat litiocs with reverence; their corridors are often litioc-lined
  • Blind veterans — the underground has a population of shrews and miners who lost their sight to a litioc and now beg, guide-by-memory, or read evidence by touch (some end up with The Rags)

Relations

The surveyor's blindness

The Architect surveyor who chipped litioc at the Tractor bore is going blind — and before his sight fully fails, he's trying to tell someone what he saw on the other side of the wall the chip came from. The senior Architects want him silenced or sequestered. He wants a free league to carry his account out before the dark takes him.

The blind guide

A litioc-blinded former shrew offers to guide a league through the deep catacrypts — by memory and touch, more reliably than any sighted explorer. His price: they take him back to the litioc that blinded him. He has a reason. He won't say what.

See Also