Article Written: 3 May 1453
Dymensionalism has been in practice for millennia and has come in many different practices and methods. However, with the advent of the Circlarian School came a standardization of the use of dymensional planes and what medium to use for its inscriptions. Initially, the standard medium was scrolls.
Algorithm Books
It was in Remikra in the 750s when algorithm books came into play, leading the Circlarian School to adjusting its standards accordingly. Algorithm books were convenient in that they made it easier for trained spellcrafters to preserve consistency and efficiency when creating dymensional planes. Early on, special die and talismans were used to connect inscriptions on large pieces of parchment on tables or floors in order to implement the algorithms and bring the planes to life.
However, with the use of algorithm books serving as the main standard for dymensionalism between 750 and 1300, technology moved beyond die, talismans, inscriptions, and parchment. By the late 1100s, special hologram projection frames took the place of the parchment and inscriptions, with such frames including special latch-fixtures to receive, connect to, and read algorithm books. These algorithm books also served a practical purpose in allowing granular animation technology to flourish.
Meanwhile, the projection frames saw continuous development and advancements, especially with the Third Level Society at Cabotton University. In 1281, Keri Mains invented a method to integrate with granular animation with the Society's dymensional planes. This allowed for the full immersion of Society Members into the affected dymensional planes.
Issues came about with algorithm books when normal wear and tear, as well as yellowing of the pages, led dymensional fire scripts to not execute properly. Book writers would need to have the inscriptions reprinted on blank pages in new books. This was high-maintenance and needed to be done once every fifty years for each book.
Spyndles
In 1310, Edward Morris, an inventor living in the Edoran Regiondom, came up with a more efficient way to store and preserve dymensional fire scripts. This new method, known as the spyndle, was basically a spool capable of holding a special metallic twine storing inscriptions in micro-sized grooves wrapping around it. Not only did this help to store more information, but also helped to preserve the inscriptions.
Dymensionalism was not as widely practiced in the 1310s as it is today. And most of it took place among sea guilds and various locations outside Middle Remikra. But these places and entities gravitated rather easily to the spyndle and advanced in dymensionalism as a result.
As these advancements occurred, though, so did the requirement for room to store the ever-growing volume inscriptions. This led to the production of larger and heavier spyndles, which led to obvious issues with weight and storage space.
Drums
A publicly-funded research team from the Canticulan nation of Gamroa addressed this issue with a practical solution: the drum. In 1335, the first drum released for commercial production contained 1500 microstrips, each of which wrapped around the circumference of the drum and contained more room for inscriptions than an entire spyndle. This became popular and, by 1341, almost all of Circlaria, including the Great North, incorporated the drum into their dymensional plane industry.
The issue with spyndles would, ultimately manifest itself with drums, in that, with the expansion in inscription storage room, drums had to be made bigger and bigger. This became a problem by the late 1340s.
Disks
The Royal College of Daylram, in the year 1350, came up with a solution to this issue: by compressing (by symbol-equation compression) inscriptions into tube-like storage compartments and placing these on a disk. Each compartment in this disk held more inscriptions than an entire drum; and hundreds of them were placed around the disk. Like the drum, the disk became commonplace in Circlarian dymensionalism by the 1360s.
Spheres
No storage issues arose with disks, as they had incredible room for storing inscriptions. Nevertheless, Gol Borat, an engineer from the emerging superpower of the Kingdom of Gyrosak, conceived of a revolutionary dymensional plane invention: the sphere. Placed on the international commercial platform in 1371, the sphere made dymensional plane technology much more convenient by serving three purposes: by compressing inscriptions and their symbol equations down to single abstract symbols invisible to the naked eye (known as singular compression), by making these compressed inscriptions three-dimensional in nature, and by connecting them with other similar symbols within the sphere. One small sphere could hold up to thousands of singular inscriptions, with each inscription holding the equivalent of one disk.
This was the peak of the Analog Era of dymensional fire inscription storage.
Tablets
The year 1381 saw a completely different form of dymensional fire inscription storage: numbers. Thomas Watkins, a long-tenured professor from the Edoran Royal College of Engineering and Mathematics, made the discovery in 1379 that, instead of using complicated abstract symbols to store dymensional fire inscriptions, a spellcrafters could simply use a number. Furthermore, such a number was also capable of dictating functions on the behavior of dymensional fire inscriptions as well as groups of them. This kicked off a development project that led to the commercialization of a revolutionary product: the tablet. The first tablet, released in 1381, held only up to 1000 numbers, but these numbers carried extraordinary power.
Nevertheless, the release of the tablet in 1381 marked the beginning of a chapter in dymensional fire practice known as the Digital Era.
Chips
Mera Fulm, the first female engineer to graduate with a doctorate degree from the University of Tennur, delivered to the Congress of Circlaria a proposal to secure funding for a new invention: the chip. Up this point, all connections between dymensional planes, even ones stored in tablets, were through either hard cables connected directly with each other, or through hard cables to signal beacons to facilitate a remote connection. There was never a device in place to serve both the purpose of holding dymensional fire inscriptions, hosting dymensional planes, and to directly connect with other similar devices. The dymensional chip, released commercially in 1400, was the first device to do this.
Chips are still used to this day, and are the most modern mode of dymensional fire implementation. Since 1400, there have been produced successive generations of chips, with each generation featuring enhancements and progressive improvements upon chips produced in the previous generation.
Kontacet
James Lawrence Kontacet, having won the 1398 election for Prime Minister of the Independent Commonwealth State of Retun, was the first ever Prime Minister to prioritize the funding of the Commonwealth's biggest dymensional plane project: Library of Circlaria. It was such financing and projection of this agenda that exposed serious flaws in the Commonwealth dymensional plane industry.
Despite the advancements elsewhere, the Commonwealth dymensional plane industry was still using algorithm books.
This drew criticism, and in some instances, ridicule, both from the Remikran Union, who, in the wake of an economic shakeup between 1399 and 1400, threatened to pull essential funding from the Commonwealth, and the leader of the opposing Realist Party, Vet Silonk, who supported the idea of diverting funds toward a new and emerging scriptfire industry. Condemning the Commonwealth's lag in such technology and touting the need for the Commonwealth to take drastic measures to upgrade its knowledge and practicality in technological advancements, Vet Silonk defeated Kontacet for Prime Minister in 1404, and went on to carry out his promises. However, dymensionalism was not as highly prioritized during this time; so advancements, although drastic, did not happen so quickly for Library of Circlaria.
It was the next Prime Minister, Stanley Arland Moore, who, between 1417 and 1419, boosted funding for technological advancement toward the Library, and is credited for facilitating the quick transition of the Library to the chip from earlier technologies. This change was marked by the establishment of a dymensional plane server on Planet Nephina in 1419.
To this day, Library of Circlaria has its host in that location. The facility is owned by the Commonwealth but the framework of chips and hardware used is owned by the Congress of Circlaria.