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ARTIFICERS

ARCANOI

An Artificer can learn the following Arcanoi at initiate and common level

  INHABIT            ARGOS          FLUX   

Any other Arcanoi an Artificer learns is common level only.

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The phrase “ghost in the machine” is a rusted-out cliché when it comes to Inhabit, but if the Pagani Zonda fits, wear it. This venerable Arcanos allows a wraith to immerse his consciousness and form within an inanimate object, gaining increasing control over its operations and fate as his prowess increases. Masters of Inhabit can command machinery with a touch or imbue simple relics with the power of Artifacts. Before the Arcanoi, there was soulforging. Nhudri, Charon’s first and most trusted councilor, brought the secrets of hammer and flame out of the Labyrinth. Upon his disciples’ forges was Stygia wrought — and out of their work came Inhabit. By its nature, soulforging transcends mere physical process, requiring a quasi-mystic empathy for the material’s personality and properties. As Nhudri and his apprentices refined their techniques, they also explored their growing affinity for the form and energies of mortal engines. Inhabit is the best-known result of these experiments. Modern Artificers learn it separately from soulforging, though some of its ancient arts still highlight its origins.

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Guildmarks

Artificers accrue wear and tear mimicking that of the objects they Inhabit. Those who prefer simple objects or physical machinery manifest scuff marks and gouges, smell of exhaust and hot metal, and seep lubricant from under their fingernails. Circuit patterns flicker under the skin of wraiths with a more digital bent, while running error logs of their internal dialogues with their Shadows scroll across their eyes.
Soulforging leaves its own residue on its tradeswraiths, and uninformed Stygian citizens often mistake these for Inhabit’s guildmarks. Apprentices are scorched and charred from the forges. Longer-serving smiths take on some of the forges’ own aspects, patches of their forms glowing with dull red heat. Smiths of the Guild wear an additional unique token that they forge as a rite of passage and a reminder of their trade’s true cost: a coin hammered from one of their own hands.

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The Guild

The Artificers’ Guild is the modern incarnation of Stygia’s oldest trade organization. As Charon drove Stygian expansion in its early centuries, Nhudri took on a trio of apprentices to satisfy the demand for tools and construction materials. These three legendary figures taught other wraiths the arts of soulforging and Inhabit, eventually giving rise to the Society of the Hammer. As Stygia emulated mortal feudal systems, so too did the Society, restyling itself as the Artificers’ Guild. The Artificers’ monopoly on soulforging was always the key to its wealth and political power. Vital to the Underworld’s economy, the guild enjoyed a strong symbiosis with the Stygian power structure. Its claim to the mantle of Eldest Guild gave it similar pull with its nominal peers — though Artificer heavy handedness also aroused envy and contempt. This fueled the War of the Guilds, and the Artificers displayed unexpected finesse by emerging from this conflict not only undiminished but at the head of the Council of Guilds. The postwar years were the Artificers’ high-water mark. Masterforgers enjoyed power and prestige second only to the Deathlords’, spurring the hubris that drove their fatal overreach in 1598. The failed rebellion cost the Artificers many leaders and shattered their monopoly on soulforging, as lowerranking fugitives traded service or lessons for protection from Stygia’s wrath. Over subsequent centuries, gradual reconciliation with the authorities allowed the Guild to reforge many of its old customs and rites. Recognizing that they can’t soulforge the genie into its own bottle, the Guild’s leaders grudgingly tolerate non-Artificer smiths, but any smith who doesn’t wear the coin quickly learns the social cost of crossing the Eldest Guild. Under the rule of the Council of Masters, the Artificers remain Stygia’s most conservative Guild. Not all Masterforgers are active on the Council, but each one has a voice and a vote when he chooses to exercise it. Most focus on traditional arts; few specialists in electronics, let alone data, are admitted to their ranks. Beneath the Masterforgers are Journeymen, those wraiths skilled enough to earn their own forges, and Apprentices who are still learning their craft. Modern Guild customs superficially resemble labor union practices, though under the surface are a hundred secret societies and Nhudri-venerating mystery cults.

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Factions

Though not what it was before the Breaking, Artificer unity remains proverbial. The Guild drills loyalty unto soulforging into every apprentice. Having said that, political differences and diverging specializations have yielded some internal divisions. Hammerboys specialize in soulforging, while Wrenchwraiths are masters of Inhabiting machinery. Wraiths who Inhabit Internet-connected devices and ride the infosphere tend to eschew labels, though older Artificers have several nicknames for them (none complimentary). Ghostriders are a Wrenchwraith subset whose domain is transportation infrastructure; they enjoy close ties with the Harbingers. Artificers who possess machinery for mischievous or malevolent purposes are termed Gremlins.

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