Artifice

File:ArtificeSkill.jpg

An Artificer is doing his thing.

Artifice

 An overview of Artifice. Artifice requires a Minor Merit to pursue.

=Artifice A brief history of Artifice

Concepts Automata: - Automata are engineered gadgets, weapons, buildings, and golems given the rudimentary intelligence of a Core powered by Alkahest nodes and linked up between them by Routed veins and channels. Dereliction - How automata go awry and malfunction, becoming Soulforged in some cases. Tools Lapidary Wand: A handheld tool that engraves a surface with Routing veins. An Artificer possesses various tips wide and thin for the wide channeling of a Node vein or the narrow finery of logic routing. Routing Lens: A lens that highlights the glimmering spiderweb of routed veins and their embedded Alkahest nodes. Weld Spike: A sharp spike which activates Routing veins connected to Nodes, separating the material or binding it together with the average tensile strength between the materials. Techniques Routing The 'veins' of the automata linking up its joints, appendages, and more. Redundancy is time-prohibitive, but encouraged. Automata can be powered by any form of Alkahest, but depend on Artifacts to wield Arcana in a replenishable fashion. Welding Welding two surfaces together through interlocking routing edges. Wielding to flesh is possible with Journeyman Skill in Medicine or Malediction. Cutting Making clean cuts with powered routing veins. Care should be taken not to cut a fragile Artifact, as doing so could cause an explosion equivalent to a bomb made with the same tier of Alkahest used in its manufacture. Assessment Measuring vein outputs to diagnose Automata malfunctions, staving off dereliction. Edict Inscribing an Automata with rules. Imitation Teaching Automata skills for independent action through mimicked information, limited by the quality of the Core. Components Automata are the sum of their parts, and their Components refer to the various distinct parts of their anatomy engineered by the Artificer. The Frame Among all other Practices, Artificers require the broadest knowledge; they must form and engineer the body of their Automata themselves. Body: The type of Automata is dictated by the overall shape of its body. They are designed as mechanisms, tools, implants, extensions buildings - or the buildings themselves - and given examples in life such as people or animals and insects. Sapient, crawling castles and reactive airships are entirely possible through Artifice just as locks and firearms are, only limited by the scarcity of prohibitively expensive Alkahest and the time it takes to create such things. Rarely a live being will be used as a basis for a frame, usually to enslave their body with Welded implants, forcing the use of their skills or Arcana or denying them. There are derelict gnomish Automata the size of cities; the minimum size of an Automata body is as large as the Alkahest crystals used for its core, up to as far as its networked nodes allow. Extensions: Extensions are any sources of power irrelevant of Nodes such as Steam Engines or Flywheels. Any Artifacts and Alkemicals or Contrivances derived from Practices are also considered as extensions of the design. If the Body is an implant, then the implantee would be studied as an Extension. Abominations of Routed, Node-embedded bone shaped and reinforced by Malediction are not unheard of, and for some intra-Practice creations are a privilege of living alongside magi or having the time to pursue multiple Practices. Extensions are also all manner of weaponry fitted to Automata or made into such. Guns, blades, spears, hammers, and improvised methods such as of ramming. Mechanisms: Mechanisms are components designed by Engineers who then take their plans to Tradesmen or manufacture these themselves. While complexity can be derived from Cores and Nodes, most Artificers prefer to reduce their reliance on Alkahest by manufacturing highly complex machinery. Made from wood in the beginning, they graduate in complexity over time and require extensive Routing to function and bridge their capabilities. The most complex of these - a fully-functional hand as good as a human's - would require Expert skill in Engineering, and an Expert smith to forge its pieces. Below are common mechanisms utilized by Artificers. See Engineering. Engines: Engines are highly complex machines with combustion reservoirs, pistons, crankshafts, and rods. They power machines in lieu of higher tier Nodes. Synthetic Organs: Objects with thin membranes or reservoirs of acids designed to mimic life. These function as rudimentary eardrums, eyes, or pressure sensors when Routed between in lieu of the more accurate and compact Alkahest sensors. Rarely are these functional enough to satisfy the needs of a living body. Wheel: A Wheel, with an axel. With or without a source of Steam power which may be used in place of an Alkahest Node. They serve as internal drivers, or a way of motion. Pulley: Pulleys transfer rotation between smooth or toothed wheels at a distance through belts or chains, often providing shock protection for internal gears as the machine moves or receives impacts. These are often but not always housed to prevent debris from snagging them, but larger pulleys such as treads might crush anything that snuck its way into the rollers. Gear: Gears are toothed wheels meshing against one another at differing angles and diameters. Their rotation is often driven by a pulley system connected to a source of power - Nodes, or Steam Engines - and they create an internal complexity which might drive the appearance of lifelike motion in Automata. Smaller geartrains referred to as Clockwork might be added so that an automaton can tell the time, move its joints precisely, or navigate with built-in logic such as astrolabes. Bladders: Sacs filled with gases or fluids for creating Synthetic Organs, or else increasing the ability for zeppelin-type Airships to float. Coptics: Rotor blades for creating helical-type Airships, aerial or watercraft propulsion, and spinning laceration devices. The Core The Core is a series of Alkahest housings dedicated to serving as the brain and logic systems of Automata. Most often they are centrally located, or spread across the body. Note that an Automata still needs the necessary frame and engineering to move in the ways required of its Skills, and cannot naturally wield or be initiated into Arcana. Logic Gates: Created from Alkahest Dust for each command, Logic Gates allow for basic reactions when their Routing veins connect. Mnemonic Sliver: A Sliver of Alkahest which contains an embedded function or idea imparted through Sovereignty and linked up to Logic Gates for further programming. With enough additional Logic Gates, a single skill of Novice or Apprentice level might be conferred by the Artificer. Practices are not yet viable for a Mnemonic Sliver, but they might still assist in other ways like being taught to pan for Alkahest. Thought Shard: A Shard of Alkahest imparted with the idea of a soul through Sovereignty. A Shard has the ability to adapt, but with limited ability to reason. Each Thought Shard has up to a single Journeyman skill or Arcana Practice through Imitation, and multiple may be routed together within a single Automata. Mind Sphere: A Sphere of Alkahest given some small semblance of a soul through Sovereignty, capable of interpreting and learning with occasional logical errors and mistakes. A Mind Sphere confers up to a single Expert Skill or Practice through Imitation, and cannot yet learn on its own; multiple may be routed together within a single Automata. Quintessence: A Globe of Alkahest which has been steeped in Sovereignty, forming a mind of its own that draws personality and Skills from each who held the Quintessence. Each Quintessence confers up to a Master-level Skill or Practice through Imitation, but must have a Master-level node to enact that Skill in the physical world. Soul Star: Taboo and often illegal Alkahest which contains the soul of a sentient being, a Soul Star is created by Necromancers. These impart the mind of the sentient while binding their will to Edicts. They possess the skills they had in life including Arcana, but they are limited in how much of their Skill they may access by the tier of Alkahest. Shard: Journeyman, Sphere: Expert, and Globe: Grandmaster. These true soul Automata are referred to as Venator, as they are often enslaved as warriors and beast hunters by magi, and they are the most likely to become Soulforged unless made from flesh or bone, in which case they become Draugr. Nodes Nodes are both the nervous system of an Automata, and its power source. They dictate how quickly an Automata can function when spinning or manipulating its own joints and gears without the aid of engines, and the tier of Skill they can operate at. Nodes may also be used as multi-purpose Sensors if left exposed or positioned well by the clever, but this often makes the creation less hardy against violent trauma. Even if the Automata is powered by an engine, it must still have some kind of Node to allow for a Core to control its routed mechanisms. Dust: Incapable of moving steel while iron is barely mobile. Wood is favorable while paper is nimble. Can operate engineered clicks and whistles for its voice. 5ft of length per gram. Can operate an engine, but with significant lag time. Supports Known Novice skills. Sliver: Incapable of moving stone while steel is barely mobile. Iron is favorable, and wood is nimble. Can be vibrated for monotone voices and improved with engineered mechanisms. 50ft of length. Supports Known Apprentice skills. Can operate an engine with some lag time. Shard: Stone is barely mobile while steel is favorable. Iron is nimble. Supports Journeyman skills. Voices are still robotic yet vary in volume, tone, and pitch based on Imitations of what that voice should sound like. 500ft of length. Can operate an engine with minimal lag time. Supports Known Journeyman Skills. Sphere: Stone is favorable while steel is nimble. Voices are human-like. 5000ft of length. Can operate an engine as an extension of itself. Supports Known Expert Skills. Globe: All materials are nimble. 50,000ft of length. Voices can match those of Imitated orators and singers, or those who participated in its Quintessence. Supports Known Master Skills, and Grandmaster Skills linked to a Quintessence Core. Sensors Extending the core to create the five senses, or additional senses based on Metaphor. In the case of eyes, two or more are needed for depth perception. Contrivances might make use of a membrane to hear, or a glass scope to see. More advanced senses depend on exposed crystals of Alkahest which themselves provide one specific sense each through the routed nervous system to its Core. Contrivances: Muted senses. Sliver: Normal senses. Shard: Above average senses. Sphere: Superior senses. Globe: Supernaturally gifted senses. Alkahest Prices The price of Alkahest scales in powers of ten. Dust - 1 Gold Sliver - 10 Gold Shard - 100 Gold Crystal - 1,000 Gold Sphere - 10,000 Gold Globe - 100,000 Gold

Skill Tiers

Novice A Novice can manipulate up a single Sliver of Alkahest dust by themselves in one creation. Apprentice An Apprentice can manipulate up to three Slivers of Alkahest by themselves in one creation. Journeyman A Journeyman can manipulate up to a Shard of Alkahest by themselves in one creation. Expert An Expert can manipulate up to a Crystal of Alkahest by themselves in one creation. Master A Master can manipulate up to a Sphere of Alkahest by themselves in one creation. Gestalt The Gestalt can manipulate up to a Globe of Alkahest by themselves in one creation.

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