Concepts
- Automata: - What are automata?
- 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
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.
- 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.
- 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 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 Arcana 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 Arcana through Imitation.
- 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.
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 Metaphor, limiting the Arcana available to it.
Node
Nodes are power sources. They dictate how quickly an Automata can function when spinning manipulating its own joints or gears without the aid of engines.
Extending Routed veins of Metaphor to enhance the speed of a reaction. They also enable skills or Arcana to be wielded through the appendage.
- Dust: Incapable of moving steel while iron is barely mobile. Wood is favorable while paper is nimble. Supports known Novice skills and Arcana.
- Sliver: Incapable of moving stone while steel is barely mobile. Iron is favorable, and wood is nimble. Supports Apprentice skills and Arcana.
- Shard: Steel is favorable while Iron is nimble. Supports Journeyman skills and Arcana.
- Sphere:
- Global: Supports
Welding
Welding two surfaces together through interlocking routing edges.
Cutting
Making clean cuts with powered routing veins.
Assessment
Measuring vein outputs to diagnose Automata malfunctions, staving off dereliction.
Edict
Inscribing an Automata with rules.
Imitation
Teaching an Automata skills for independent action through mimicked information, limited by the quality of the Nexus.
Alkahest Prices
- Dust - 10 Gold
- Sliver - 100 Gold
- Shard - 1,000 Gold
- Crystal - 10,000 Gold
- Sphere - 100,000 Gold
- Globe - 1,000,000 Gold
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