Technology In Adel

Posted: June 8, 2011 | Author: Dennis N. Santana | Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Other Systems, RPG, Spirits Of Eden |3 Comments »

Adelians have a host of technologies that they’ve either rejected or haven’t fully tapped into. As such their current technological level is somewhat strange. Though some of their technology has proliferated, most of it remains the purview of the military or the academia. In this article we’ll take a closer look at some important Adelian technologies and the principles under which Adelians view technology, the production of technology, the discovery of technology, as well as its proliferation among the Adelian population. An important note is what Adelians believe a “machine” is. For them, “machine” is any tool or object complicated enough that it might have a hidden mechanical sentience, believed by the Adelians to be evil.

The Origin of Adelian Technophobia

Adel’s curious ideas on technology can be traced to two sources: discoveries from the Lost World, and Angels. In the ruins all through their world, the Adelians discovered ancient artifacts from the Lost World that hinted at the great power and cruelty of the former inhabitants. Most of the technology was deemed blasphemous and is destroyed whenever uncovered. One particular technology that the Adelians revile are the Angels. These robotic enforcers have nothing but animosity for the Adelians, and whenever they are discovered they attempt to exterminate any Adelians around, and harvest as much of the environment as they can for the resources to build more of themselves. The Adelians believe these genocidal, rampantly expansionist behaviors are all part of a hidden “machine sentience” that, if nurtured in any technology, will lead to the Adelians’ downfall.

The Three Principles Of Technology

1. “Supervised or not, no machine shall ever be allowed to build another machine or its parts.” Adelians believe that all technology is destructive and evil at its roots. Some are less evil than others – an Adelian would not be scared of a wagon. However industrial production, whereby one machine is allowed to construct others, is madness. Eventually, Adelians believe this will lead them down a slippery slope where machines will make themselves more complex and powerful. So while Adelians might be able to build industrial machines more advanced than their primitive printing presses or looms, they won’t.

2. “No machine shall be developed which can act autonomous of a flesh and blood Adelian.” Adelians as mentioned above have primitive printing and weaving mechanisms, and the reason they do is because these machines function under supervision. A Golem is a machine that must function under supervision, so it can be used for mining and warfare.

3. “No machine shall be developed or used that has not been properly consecrated.” Adelians have developed many rituals which are necessary for a complicated machine (a golem, a firearm, a vehicle, printing presses, etc) to be built. These include traditions like applying symbols of purification, chanting, working under the correct seasons and star patterns, and other somewhat pointless-sounding tasks. This can make the production of such products much slower than it needs to be.

Adelian Technological Construction

An Adelian artificer is the one (often a mage, but not always) responsible for the overall production of most machines. Artificers lead workshops where a multitude of workers from varying professions, such as smiths, woodworkers, and even dedicated clergy and apothecaries, work on building and consecrating a machine. To make a printing press for example, they need someone to make the type, the frames, someone to chant the proper mantras and perform ritual yogas, people to affix all the parts together such that they don’t fall apart, and so on. Most Artificers handle some part of the work themselves – they’re not always just grumpy, lazy bosses. However, the Artificer as an organizer is becoming a more common (and reviled) archetype. Despite this, the Artificer is still important for conceptual labor. The Artificer is often the innovator, the visionary, the inventor.

Some rather dedicated folk can build a machine all on their own, performing every part of the work that’s needed. Hobbyist Artificers exist that make a living on the novelty of being one-person workshops.

Clockwork

Proliferation: Common

Adelians are fond of clockwork. Most villages own a big communal clock they can all take a look at. Small watches are somewhat rare, however and often a sign of wealth or prestige. High military officers, for example, are given a watch – an expensive and important gift. Affordable (relatively, and still somewhat expensive) clockwork exists mostly in the realm of toys. Simple gear-driven toys, turnkey music boxes, and other delights are sold by traveling clockmakers in towns and sometimes in villages that happen to be in their way. Some clockwork analytical and astronomical mechanisms exist among the Academia, but they are closely guarded. Such devices are a sign of mechanical intelligence that cannot be completely trusted and must be employed with caution.

Spellcrafts

Proliferation: Common

Magical items of minor power see wide use in Adel. These items can either be manufactured, or natural magic. For example, a common cooking tool for even villagers is a Heatstone – when oil or fat is poured on it, the natural magic of this ore causes it to heat up and cast fire. For some Adelians, this is safer to use than burning wood. A heatstone can be reused several times before all of the magic inside it is gone. A common manufactured item is a sweetpatch – a mage imparts a piece of paper with a sugary taste, and children can put it on their tongues. Another common item is an Origami Swan. The mage folds the swan while imparting essence upon it. The Swan is then unfolded again and can be sold or given out. The function of the swan is as traveling stationary – the unfolded swan, once a message is written on it, will fold itself and fly away to the intended recipient. Origami Swans are a popular, widespread and affordable form of communication, but its limited range means it has yet to oust snail mail.

In general, spellcrafts have some limitation. Often, the magic can be stored for a certain amount of time only, and will vanish after use. Natural magic is much more resilient than that of mage handicrafts. An origami swan is a one-use, one-way message, and swans in shops have an expiration date of a few months at best. A Heatstone, however, can endure a dozen burnings before it begins to lose its power. Another limitation of spellcrafts is that handicrafts cannot emulate biological material. A Mage’s sweetpatches, candied ice and other concoctions have no nutritional value, and magic can’t generate necessities like water correctly.

Firearms

Proliferation: Common

The first Adelian firearms used a single-cartridge firing mechanism. These one-shooters are rather common now – any particular village will have three or four such rifles for hunting and defense. The state of the art rifles used by the military and well-equipped mercenaries are repeating guns, with a cross-shaped revolving cylinder with four bullets. There are repeating long-barreled rifles, carbines and pistols. Adelian cartridges use a liquid chemical mixture rather than powder. The cylinder is guarded by a shield that can be slid back to pop out the cylinder and reload – when closed the shield keeps gas from escaping when the gun is fired. Revolver pistols are more common among mercenaries and adventurers, but the rifle is not to be underestimated either.

Repeating cannons and heavy guns also exist for military use in bombarding fortifications and fixed positions, as well as for mounting on ships for ship to ship or ship to fixed position combat. These tend to be fielded with three people working them. Two carry, set up and fire the heavy weapon, while a third loads it and carries the ammo.

The Arrowlance is a different sort of weapon altogether. Heavy and powered by a miniature arcane engine, it is used mainly by Sargasso’s powerful, all-female holy knight order, the Seraphim, who can carry the weapon two-handed or, if wielding their sacred armor, one-handed. Most other people would find it even more cumbersome than the repeating rifles. The Arrowlance is in essence a magic railgun: it shoots solid metal projectiles through kinetic force along its barrel. It is boxy and encrusted with runes – and very powerful. It is one of the reasons even the average, teenage Seraphim trainee is a great soldier.

Firearms have not completely displaced melee weapons. Most Adelians, even soldiers, carry a pistol and a sword. A variety of creatures Adelians fight consistently make all-ranged combat impossible to adopt. Elves can flit about the battlefield and harass targets too easily if they’re not defended by a melee weapons specialist, for example. Sorians can take numerous shots before coming into range, and a bayonet alone is too awkward to fight them off with. There are also numerous styles of traditional Adelian martial arts that can be learned and allow a swordfighter to perform feats that a rifle simply cannot.

Golems

Proliferation: Uncommon

A Golem is any metal or rock tool that is shaped like a creature or limb and used to perform labor. Most golems are either a single arm shaped for a specific purpose, or a pair or two pairs of legs, carrying a box. Arm-Golems are used as tools to crunch rocks and do heavy lifting. Commanded by a Mage, they can generate a lot of magical strength. For the layperson, certain golem arms have Arcane Engines attached to simulate the Mage’s channeling of magic, and generate a marginally lesser but still effective force. Golem platforms are used by the military to create vehicles that can be used in combat situations. A common vehicle is four legs and a box with a mage inside to supervise locomotion, along with a weapon platform and its operator.

Golems are generally only used by academia or government-sponsored mining and military expeditions. A powered-golem (one with arcane engines) might be issued to miners partaking in projects of government interest, such as opening up new veins of necessary ores. Generally, golems are owned by a government, and “loaned” to interested parties. It is extremely rare to find somebody who actually owns a golem, regardless of the golem type, unless, perhaps, they made it themselves.

Arcane Engine

Proliferation: Uncommon

An Arcane Engine is a box-shaped mechanism consisting of a few important parts. The “top” of the Arcane Engine is the Feed and the “bottom” is the Exhaust. An Arcane Engine has an intricate interior of runic etchings, specially-shaped coils, drip feeds and silver weights. The Feed accepts Arcane Chemicals, which are moved through the coils in such a way as they disturb the weights, regulated by the drip feeds. The silver touch activates the runes, and generates kinetic force from the Exhaust. The Engine’s action generates heat, slowly evaporating the chemical mixture. So it in effect “consumes” the fuel, though it does not literally.

An Arcane Engine can be placed either vertically or horizontally, generating push, lift, braking force, etc depending on its position. Arcane Engines are very scalable – the ones installed in a golem arm might be very small and work in tandem to help control the arm, while huge ones also exist. Typically Arcane Engines are used in Floats: basket or platform with a few engines that move it about it like a convoluted hot air balloon. Airships, too, exist because of the Arcane Engine’s ability to generate lift.

Arcane Chemicals are relatively easy to come by. They can be made through an alchemical process involving certain, mostly common alchemical reagents, such as pumice or volcanic ash, certain vinegars, dried herbs and special oils. The real problem with the proliferation of Arcane Engines is the complexity of the rituals to make them. Particularly the smaller engines require great precision. As such Arcane Engines are expensive, and objects powered by them somewhat trickier to get a hold of.

Yet it’s not unheard of for people to get a hold of airships or powered wagons for commercial purposes.

Steam

Proliferation: Rare

Adelians in general hate steam technology, and one of the few reasons they don’t outright consider it blasphemous is that nothing much has been done with it. It is noisy and heavily pollutant. Nobody in Adel has to put up with big noisy smoking things on a regular basis, and nobody will. Steam is only generally used in a few rare metal steamships, often designed by rogues and pirates in the Trieze archipelago. Steam has many disadvantages against an Arcane Engine – it cannot generate lift on its own, so no flying steamships actually exist. It cannot power golems – the mechanisms would be enormously bulky and require too much fuel consumption. It is more dangerous than an Arcane Engine, burning fuel to power multiple failure-prone mechanisms.

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