On the Obsolescence of Fae Machinery

THE ASTROLABE SITE OF POWER
By Charles Babbage
=== CHAP. I ===
(1.) There exists, perhaps, no single circumstance which distinguishes the Calcularia more remarkably from all other Factions, than the vast extent and perfection to which we have carried the contrivance of tools and machines for replicating Fae constructs. The amount of patient thought, of repeated experiment, of happy exertion of genius, by which our manufactures have been created and carried to their present excellence, is scarcely to be imagined. If we look to the city we inhabit, or to the Astrarium and Fourth Transept, we shall find in the history of each gear and cog, a series of failures which have gradually led the way to excellence; and we shall notice, in the art of making even the most insignificant of them, processes calculated to excite our admiration, to prove our superiority to the outdated methods of Fae.
(2.) The accumulation of skill and sciences has not been beneficial to the Calcularia alone; all of humanity has participated in its advantages. The sedate Sages of the Temple, and the ruder Hermetics in their Academy are alike indebted to our Astrarium, the very machine which by passed the outdated and Augean Sites of Power. The resources acquired through our Fourth Transept have preceded even our most enterprising expeditions of the past. The unfortunate dissemination of its design round our planet, to be attempted with mixed success by foreign nations, has proven that Calcularian minds alone and the application of objective, empirical principles be the only path forward.
(3.) The advantages derived from Calcularian machinery seem to arise principally from two sources: The acquisition of knowledge once unfathomable.-The addition which they make to human power.
=== CHAP. II. ===
(20.) The acquisition Of knowledge once unfathomable is the first advantage of Calcularian advancements in machinery. So extensive and important is this effect, that we might, if we were inclined to generalise, embrace both advantages under this single head; however, we shall restrict our illustrations upon this point.
As an example of knowledge unfathomable, the superiority of the Astrarium to the observatories of the Astrolabe Realms may be noticed. The Court of Empyrean spent millenia constructing observatories in pursuit of the study of Realmic space: yet Hooke and Newton constructed the Astrarium in but years; and Lovelace deciphered its outputs in mere months. Humanity can now pinpoint concentrations of aether, chart shifting pathways through the Realms, surpass a Fae Princes Portal magick which could not, even with the best tools, be accomplished by Lesser Fae means.
== SECTION II ==
=== CHAP. XIII. ===
(163.) Of additions to human power. With consideration of the first advantage of knowledge unfathomable, human power derives from the combining of knowledge with, what the lesser educated deem, magick, but what the Calcularia knows to be the practical and tangible results of natural law and science. At each increase of knowledge, as well as on the contrivance of every new machine that puts that knowledge into practice, human power becomes augmented. The Empyrean who contrived the Astrolabe observatories, invented a machine by which his power was quintupled. With the Astrarium, we have decupled it. So quintessential is this advantage, that we might posit, with near certainty, that our power will surpass that of Fae in but a few decades. Through invention and machinery, the Calcularia will see us render the entire archives of Fae obsolete.
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