Turning stone circles are ritual stone circles that can be found across Uulam in the southern Stormlands. Created long ago by unknown mages, these stone circles are all linked such that manipulating a stone in one - rotating, flipping, or otherwise moving it - simultaneously applies the same action to the corresponding stone in other circles. The many tribes of Uulam use the turning stone circles to communicate across the vast distances of the frozen landscape in which they live, though their use is typically restricted to the most critical and important of messages.
Each turning stone circle contains nine boulders, each three to five feet tall, arranged equidistant from each other and from the center stone, with a radius of 15 feet. This ten foot tall center stones bear elaborate runic markings that seem to never wear or damage, even when attempts are made to intentionally deface them, and as such they are widely believed to be the mechanism by which the turning stones function. As the surrounding stones are moved, these runes dimly glow in blue and white light, ceasing when the movement stops.
Turning stone circles can be found as far apart as the Land of a Thousand Bonfires in the west and the Kuure Archipelago in the east. On the mainland of the Stormlands, none are north of the Barricades. It is believed that many more exist than are known, buried under the thick ice sheet of the south.
Due to long-standing cultural prohibitions, as well as the difficulty in moving the turning stones, they are only used in times when messages of the utmost importance must be shared with tribes far away. No message is, or can be, private - all turning stone circles move in unison. Meaning is converted into movement through a collection of encodings preserved through oral histories across Uulam.