There's a huge clockwork construction somewhere in avechna's peak (don't recall exactly where) and there's some other clockwork constructions found around the basin. Most date back either to the work of the Elder gods or from the time of the GCE.

Be interesting; clockwork is always funny stuff. Especially if it'll run without magic. Perhaps we'll see Avechna's Peak become some sort of giant transformer and rape Kethuru after using Avechna to cut loveholes inside?

I'd bet its tied into the fact that Magnagora/Taint is basically the equivilent of an industrial revolution.  Mag being an "engine of transformation".. producing the taint.. its all very Industrial Era Britain, i've always thought. The dense fog  in London, for instance, was actually due to the factories and such.. and then you have Magnagora's taint cloud..

IDEAS FOR WEBSITE THEME

Since Lusternia is unique among the IRE games for its focus on conflict among other planes, I think the design of the webpage should reflect this other planar, or inter-dimensional, theme. By this, I mean magical portals or gateways, somewhat like portals in Stargate.  Perhaps opening new pages could mimic the opening of a magical gate.  Perhaps the design could look as though it is multi-layered gates on top of each other, for example, the menu bar could appear to be a floating magical portal and clicking the menu items would open new portals in the main frame/window.  (By floating, I mean the artistic illusion of floating, not actually a floating window--gods no!)

So as not to look too science fiction-like, I think in general the design should  reflect an advanced civilization whose "technology" is based on magic.  Perhaps baroque or gothic frames, with thick gold gilt and fancy scrollwork, like an ornate mirror. In any event, by gothic, I do not necessarily mean extremely dark with gargoyles.

If the baroque is too heavyhanded, I'm also rather keen on Celtic designs.

I haven't really given too much thought on art nouveau, but possibly that might also be a good design theme to match with planar travel.

Of course, perhaps ideally the design should be some mixture of gothic, baroque, Celtic and art nouveau to give it a uniquely other-worldly flair.

Some, small slow-moving animated gifs might also give that magical, other planar elegance, like gems encrusted on frames slowly changing color or very occasionally sparkling.  I'm no fan of lots of fast flickering gifs, but if its very subtle and occasional, I think that may work well.  Again, my preference would be to stay away from flash but am open to the idea.

This may be wishful thinking, but for the background I think it would be neat if it gave the illusion of a darkly-hued, cloudy fractal that slowly -- very slowly! -- swirls, rather like a lava lamp or, ahem, the swirling void of astral plane.  Anyway, I *think* this could be achieved by someone adept at creating animated gifs whose borders can seamlessly create patterns.

Again, I don't expect any animation to be fast, annoying or otherwise distracting.  Alternatively, if the swirling is too much or unreasonable, perhaps a static grey cloudy background, that occasionally flashes with silver motes.  (I have no idea how this would actually look so someone slap me if it's a terrible idea.)

I really hope to one day get my hands on a copy of the original design doc for Lusternia.  I think it would be interesting to see what was intended, and how it's changed since then.

It'd be a wonderful read, I'm sure.

The Chambers of the Aetheric Meridians beneath Avechna are chock full of gears. It's really cool, you should go take a look.

100 pages? =\\  I read the 6th Harry Potter book in about five, maybe six hours.  That's like, an ice-breaker.