Techmaturgy

> *"Magic, they call it. It is a word of the lazy or uninformed. The true power of the world comes from the understanding of all the physical properties and interactions of everything in it. Decades of study have led me to the conclusion that with the correct application of resources and ingenuity, anything is possible"* -Prologue: Techmaturgist's Primer
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**Techmaturgy** is the broad term for the interdisciplinary field of science that involves **chemistry, engineering,** and **physics.** Techmaturgy is used primarily in the creation and maintaining of gadgets and constructs such as steam dynamos, gear watches, and weaponry.

Practitioners of this art are often called **Techmaturges** or **Technomancers.** Several universities on the planet teach higher forms of this science, other smaller businesses, guilds, and private practitioners are scattered throughout the world.

## Techmaturgy in Soi

### **Encircled territories**

The Circle is one of the most prolific users of techmaturgy. Its primary use in the circle is for commercial consumer goods such as watches, personal heaters/coolers, ovens, and other appliances. The upper echelons of the circle have access to aerostats and flame-less lighting.

~~The commoners of the Circle are encouraged to tinker with techmaturgical inventions as much as they can to help tap into potential inventions, though this often causes random accidents and mishaps, occasionally a new creation will be made. The best tinkers in the circle often go to Kallopolis University for further instruction.~~

* The Circle's military makes heavy use of techmaturgical weaponry

### **Ashed city states**

Cities within the Ashed confederacy house several industrious guilds that make limited use of techmaturgical machinery. These devices generally take the form of massive building sized steam dynamos that power the city's plumbing or circulation of air or **forge gas** throughout the city. It is rare that a single private citizen will carry a techmaturgical device, but rather common for a business guild to commission a large clockwork time teller to keep the workers on schedule. Most guilds of any real note have at least one techmaturge on staff.

* Techmaturgical devices within the city states are usually the property of the city council or a guild head and are used for guild utility

### **Family Hearth**

The Family Hearth due to its prosperity and wide reach as the stewards of transportation across Soi have access to every resource and technological mind outside of the Encircled territories.

### **Mamutok Tribes**

The mammoth tribes of the southern pole due to their relations with the Family Hearth Trading Co. and Technocracy have easy access to techmaturgical devices and knowledge. Due to an agreement set in the First Age, the Mammoth tribes, with their mathematical expertise, work with the scientific communities of the Circle. These are often small devices, due to the nomadic nature of the tribes, with the exception of the observatory and research center at Polaris.

While they have easy access to techmaturical devices, they rarely carry them due to having their own techniques for most of the tasks that such a device would perform.

### **Broken Kingdom**

The Broken Kingdom brings little to the world of technomancy. Not being given to the study of chemistry and mostly limited to practical application of physics the technology generated in the Kingdom takes on an extremely rustic flavor. Windmills and waterwheels are immensely popular and power a wide variety of contraptions for agriculture;and the occasional creative mind finds another use. Unique in the Kingdom is the use of the horse-wheel, powered by the strength of the kingdom's specialty breeds. This adaptation allows for horses stand in when wind and water are not available or reliable.

The only institution in the realm with any devotion to technomancy is the Cathedral itself where the Seekers of the Trinity Order operate and gather their knowledge under the direction of the Truest King. This interest is mostly defensive in nature, new products are not generated and released unless a specific need in war arises.

Popular techmancy imports to the kingdom are generally limited to lighters and phonographs. Time-pieces are generally viewed as abhorrent and antithetical to the Kingdom's relaxed pace of life.

### **Tallet Empire**

The Tallet people being a widespread and powerful society have several institutions within their inner empire dedicated to the study of applied sciences. The application of techmaturgy typically takes the form of comfort devices such as air circulation or smokeless light within the houses of noble families.

Military application has been pushed, however due to the expansive and widespread nature of the Legion, applied use is very rare and only used to supplement their war engines.

### **Goran nation**

Outside of major cities Goran Techmaturgy is completely unknown. Within the cities special breeds of Goran known as the Minthos religiously research all fields of study no matter how eclectic. To Goran all knowledge is merely a small shard of the True God. The void taints and corrupts all things. It is the high duty of the Goran to study anything discovered by Void tainted minds and purify it. In application this involves reverse engineering foreign technology. Even when done successfully the technology is rarely distributed throughout the Nation.

Uniquely Goran Techmaturgy is limited structural engineering. Holding an all or nothing philosophy on building Goran's have loose tent cities or mammoth over built city structures. The most common structure is the pyramid or cone depending on the age of construction. These structures are fortifications that house all the infrastructure included in many cities of Sio. Although rarely used the pyramids use a modular block design that allows later addition or modification of the overall structure. Some of the largest pyramids may have as a many as five main bodies of various heights linked together.

### **The Citadel**

The Citadel or the **Academy** is the center of the highest levels of Techmaturgical advancement on the face of Soi. The exact levels of technology or what they develop and produce are well kept secrets due to the secluded nature of the Citadel.

The Citadel's policy regarding the techmaturgical levels of other nations is to monitor the advancement of other nations and suppress technological advancement. This is either done by recruiting or abducting the greatest scientists, engineers, and thinkers of other nations, or failing at that, destruction and confiscation of their work is the second solution.

## Notable Techmaturical uses

### **Dynamos**

Dynamos, engines, or generators are devices which harvest and re-purpose energy. They come in a variety of different forms and can harvest energy from nearly anywhere dependent on the build and make of the machine. Dynamos harvest power from steam, burning various kinds of fuel, the force of moving water, wind, or even the heat of the sun, with some mythical dynamos said to harvest the power of storms. The simplest example being a wind-crank the most complex being what the Technocracy calls an internal combustion engine.They are used to power anything from water pumps, grain mills, to in some extremely rare cases, moving carts.

* Dynamos other than wind-cranks and water-cranks are extremely rare in the world and are most commonly used for agriculture

### **Weaponry**

> *"That does not scare me."*
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> *"Oh really ?"*
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> *"'How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children.'"*
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> *"You really lack imagination."*
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> *An interrogation between an thief and a Asset Protection Agency Member.*
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Techmaturgy is occasionally used to enhance standard weaponry of Soi. Techmaturgical weaponry is used by a few major nations in their standard military. Rarely individual tinkers and techmaturges will augment weaponry for independent buyers, however these devices often break and require maintenance beyond the skill and expertise of most soldiers, when used properly they can be devastating.

#### **Krak weapons**

> *"We as men feel that the primal force of the sky are within this as as such all men should not heed its call" Boorson Ironback.*
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Some of the most advanced weaponry under the Techmaturical umbrella belongs to the "krak" category. These weapons range from nation to nation depending on their access and in general knowledge of the science to the construction of these weapons. Be is the smooth-bore muskets found in the Circle to the "krak bungee spears" found in the Goran territories. It is typically an weapon that lunches a type of projectile out of a object though an miniature controlled explosion. While not the norm some have said to have used the term "Krak weapons" to the ignition style explosives and bombs found in both the Family Hearth and the Circle.

The term "Krak weopanry" is a coined term by the Tallet Empire. During the First invasion before the great war, the Empires forces was halted by an group of Unbound forces belonging to the Circle. I was said that the booming sound of the weapons seemed to drown out even the cracking of thunder. The term Krak means both thunder and explosion in Old Tallet speech.

#### **Granada**

> *"Dangerous weapons granadas. Mishandled or dropped they are just as likely to blow up your own men, set them on fire, or spill toxic clouds in the middle of a battlefield. Only to be given to the most steady handed, or expendable of soldiers"* (Dhakaran General on weaponry)
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The simplest of techmaturgical weaponry, these are usually nothing more complicated than a clay or glass container filled with toxic, flamable, or explosive powders that when broken cause their contents to spill out or ignite. These devices are the most common techmaturgical weapon and can be found in the use of nobles and high ranking individuals' armories all over Soi.

#### **Capacitor weapons**

Relatively compact battery cells attached to conductive metal weapons that store electrical energy. Upon contact with a target, the electrical charge is triggered and released into the target. The battery cell can be charged by crank or other method.

#### **Tension weaponry**

Close quarters weaponry that is augmented by stored kinetic energy. Such as a hammer with a wound gyroscope that once in motion is triggered to release and increase the momentum of the hammer. A circular blade attached to a tension wire that is cranked to store energy, only to be triggered when it comes into contact with a target.

#### **Ignis weaponry**

> *"Waving that greatsword high, it suddenly burst into flames, the men were too shocked to block properly and were cleaved in two. The iron warrior charged through the ranks of footmen, clearing a path for his own troops. It was only when it collided solidly with a shield that the swords flame died, still it had done its job"*
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Close quarters weaponry that has a tube running from a fuel filled tank to somewhere on the striking surface of the weapon. This flammable fuel can be ignited to wreath the weapon in flame. Rare and often considered purely ceremonial due to the structural weaknesses caused by the design of this weapon. These are occasionally found on the battlefield striking fear into the hearts of enemies, often distracting them long enough to get in a lethal strike.