Engineer

*"Now, if I simply adjust the targeting ratchet by one degree… oops! Thank Sigmar they were only mercenaries!"*

## Advanced

(Core) It was the Dwarfs who first introduced the science of engineering to the Old World. Among them, the Engineers’ Guild is deeply respected and its works are held in high esteem, so long as it upholds traditional methods and values. Humanity took what the Dwarfs had to offer and ran with it, especially in regards to gunpowder and other devices suitable for use as weapons. The Imperial School of Engineers in Altdorf is famed for its bizarre inventions, which can be most useful if they manage to function correctly. Outside the Empire, Tileans are particularly famed for their bold engineering ideas.

### Secondary Profile

**Skills:** Academic Knowledge (Engineering), Academic Knowledge (Science), Common Knowledge (Dwarfs or Tilea), Drive or Ride, Perception, Read/Write, Speak Language (Khazalid or Tilean), Trade (Gunsmith)

**Talents:** Master Gunner, Specialist Weapon Group (Engineer or Gunpowder)

**Trappings:** Light Armour (Leather Jack), Engineer’s Kit, 6 Spikes

### **Career Exits**

Artisan, Explorer, Guild Master, Pistolier, Smuggler

## The Imperial School of Engineers

The Imperial School of Engineers, founded more than five hundred years ago, attracts a strange breed. They are at ease only when tinkering with hissing pistons and clanking gears within the diagram scrawled walls of their workshops. Inventors and enthusiasts flock to the college’s illustrious halls, but entry is admitted only to those who display the required talent and verve. Usually, only Imperial citizens are admitted. However, in honour of the genius Leonardo di Miragliano, who helped found the college, the School of Engineers welcomes many of his countrymen (Tileans have a reputation for being progressive freethinkers – a dangerous trait in the minds of most Imperial folk). The school also welcomes dwarf engineers shunned by their own kind for meddling with traditional dwarf workmanship.

The School’s accomplishments include the Helblaster Volley Gun and the Helstorm Rocket Battery. Any machine that fires with a deafening report and results in explosive carnage is considered a success, but it is a brave man who volunteers to crew one of these erratic contraptions.

Engineers toil sleeplessly in their workshops to develop deadlier weapons, or to improve existing ones. The greatest puzzle is the construction of the steam tanks, clanking iron behemoths which spit cannonballs and crush the Emperor’s enemies beneath their wheels. The secret of their manufacture died with their creator, Leonardo, and of his original twelve tanks, only eight remain.

Such disorganisation is endemic among engineers. Suspicious of plagiarism, they scribble notes in indecipherable code. Blueprints are often lost in the explosions that frequently gut their workshops, or are discarded when a new idea obsesses them. The pursuit to rediscover lost inventions can be as much of a drive as the creation of new ones.

## Recent Controversy

In his youth, Professor Rastus Mickelbach won esteem for inventions such as Mickelbach’s Marvellous Flesh Masticator, and the Ludicrously Lethal Lacerating Liquidator. In later life, Mickelbach has devoted himself to the classroom. His lectures in the School of Engineering attract packed audiences. However, many of his peers believe he’s approaching dotage on account of his recent views.

In his treatise, A Machine For All Seasons, Mickelbach argues that the School of Engineers should not just focus on military applications, as has traditionally been the case, but on inventions of a civic value. He proposes the development of machines such as the self-propelled scythe-cart, the clockwork scarecrow, and the steam-powered handloom, which he believes will revolutionise the Empire’s economy. The School’s officials have suppressed the treatise, fearing it will provoke riots against the college among workers enraged they might be replaced by automata.

There are rumours of college authorities planning to enforce retirement on the professor. However, his reputation and substantial following of idealistic students makes this difficult without causing a public rift.