I’m trying to work out how Vivian's electric saber could plausibly work. The furthest into fantasy I would prefer to take it is the usage of a cosmic substratum to generate electricity -- in this case zehrisite, a cosmic mineral which produces an electric charge the faster it moves. The main issue I'm running into is that the technology of Freeland is mostly analogous to the late 18th century, so materials such as rubber or copper wiring nor mechanisms like the engine don't exist yet. I know I want Vivian to have electric weapons -- she's an incredibly important character to the scientific development of Freeland in this regard -- but I'm struggling to think of a way in which we could have a proto battery or electric motor when those concepts are still far into the setting's future.

I'm thinking of attaching a kind of primitive tumbler-battery to the hilt that uses a pull cord to spin it, and the centrifugal force maintains the spin so that the zehrisite continues to produce an electric charge inside the tumbler for several seconds. A metal rod encased in porcelain (the main form of insulation for this thing) runs from inside the tumbler and connects the blade, electrifying the metal so long as the zehrisite core is spinning. This will probably need some tweaking. I'm wanting the thing to be primitive in some ways to illustrate how fledgling the science of electrical engineering is in the setting, but not so flawed as to be ineffective.

Another possibility is to change the action needed for zehrisite to produce electricity, but I wouldn't want to specialize it too much so that it could still be used in other applications. It should hopefully be easy to replicate in illustration, as well.

Also, this is the design I've got for her so far (version without the tech on her):

The two most difficult parts of creating her design both stem from the principle that New Unity is most closely comparable to the 18th century in terms of cultural and scientific development. There wasn’t much in the way of an outfit that screamed ‘scientist’ back then — practitioners instead mostly just dressed like any other aristocrat. The other thing that’s proving especially challenging is designing electrical devices in the style of a time period which didn’t have them.

She also used to be a Siva, or a Daughter of Thorns in the Church of the Suffering Grace (kind of like a nun or a bhikkhunī), so I'd want to incorporate a tiny bit of that religious background into the design as well. I think she may wear the gloves to hide the scars on her hands. Daughters of Thorns often wear bands woven from barbed olive branches, usually bound around their wrists, hands, and ankles. When a person's body is observed to bear such intentionally arranged scarring, it is generally taken to mean that they are a Nocrothian. Seeing as how Vivian is attempting to immigrate into Hrenish society, it would be understandable for her to repress any notion that she once belonged to the Church of the Suffering Grace.