Science & Technology

Mankind has come a long way since the end of the Dark Age, rediscovering the value of science and the wonders it can create. A methodical pursuit of knowledge through logic, deduction, and experimentation has led to many important breakthroughs. Few on the Sphere today remain unaffected by scientific progress. Homes in the most modern cities are fitted with electric lights, climate control, and devices to pump and purify water. These metropoli hum with motorized vehicles, neon signs, and the latest and greatest new gadgets. However, most of the world remains untouched by such progress. The influence of science and the prevalence of technology lose their hold the further one goes from the center of a handful of major civilizations.
 
While there are many fields of science, there are three primary expressions of science through technology. These are: 

• Arcanoi: Golden Age technology recovered from ruins by adventurers and researchers. Those specializing in this field work to understand and reverse engineer the wonders of the Second Era, hoping to rediscover the lost knowledge of the ancients.
• Magitech: The fusion of technology and The Mystery to reach new heights neither study could reach on their own. Needless to say, this is a perilous and cutting edge field of research, fraught with danger and exciting discovery.
• Steam: Steam was first among the big three technologies science discovered and successfully applied. As such, it enjoys the greatest popularity and most widespread use. Steam-powered devices fill cityscapes, urban homes, and even places typically untouched by other technologies.

Science aims to tame the worlds not through the Mysterious, but through experimentation, discovery, and sound reason.

Long ago, The Sphere was filled with wonders. Arcanoi are rediscovered or re-purposed artifacts from those times.

Arcanoi

Long ago, the world was filled with wonders. The Golden Age of the Sphere was a time of great discovery, invention, and opulence. Exchange of goods, culture, and technology across the Void allowed even worlds full of harsh trials and monsters to flourish. In those days, mystics were commonplace and Mankind was undisputed master of The Sphere. Airships filled the skies, great mystical engines gave light, heat, and power to cities, and indestructible war machines kept the borders and highways safe from marauding monsters. Today, these wonders are called Arcanoi, 

Both The Harrowing and The Collapse saw to the destruction of many Arcanoi, at least in their former state of glory. As the worlds shifted and changed, cities full of technological marvels were buried beneath the earth or covered by the seas. The ravages of time and ruin were unkind, and Arcanoi unearthed today rarely live up to their original potential. Modern artificers and engineers, while well-intentioned, are as children mimicking the great craftsmen of old. Men of the current era do not understand the subtleties of Golden Age technology. The spotty historical record, lack of discernible operations manuals, and the baffling nature of many devices has led to widespread misuse of technology which is often bent to incorrect, though admittedly creative ends.

Perhaps the most impressive form of Arcanoi endures to this day in the form of the Mechan, a race of sentient humanoid machines with a will and intellect of their own. About 50 years ago, Mechan began crawling from Golden Age ruins where they had slept for an Age, emerging with only scattered memories of who they were, what they were created for, and where they had come from. Mechan continue to awaken still, their circuits sparking to life within the deep confines of ancient cities, wandering the depths for a time before making their way to civilization to become a part of a brand new world. These anthropomorphic robots are able to speak intelligibly, form memories, feel a full array of emotions, and act according to their own a unique personality. Despite these distinctions, many treat them with the same regard they would show an inanimate object.

Common Arcanoi Applications

•  Arks: Pods that fill with a strange ubiquitous fluid. A living creature sealed within the Ark will recover from all non-magical injuries and illnesses within a few days, even to the point of regenerating lost limbs and organs.
• Lightships: During the Golden Age, Man devised a way to cross the seemingly endless gulf of blackness between worlds. Using the Infinity Engine, Lightships are able to sail across the Void on currents of time.
• Reactors: Enormous stations that generate electricity through some lost art. Powered by strange, radioactive crystals, Reactors provide almost limitless power to nearby cities; an invaluable resource to any metropolis.
• Warpweir: Lightships were not the only means the Men of the Golden Age devised to cross the Void. The Warpweir are permanent interconnected gateways linking the worlds of the Sphere to one another.

Magitech

A fusion of Mystery and technology known as Magitech provides the means to create incredible devices capable of exceeding the limits of either field. Magitech devices operate by combining science and technology with Mysteries, particularly the Mystery of Runes. Because of their complexity, creating and maintaining such devices requires more than engineering or arcane skills alone; building and maintaining Magitech requires talent for both the mechanical and the mystical. A skilled engineer can use either technical skill or Mysteries to coerce a Magitech device into working or even repairing itself if damaged.

Due to the ability of Daemons and Raksha to sense use of The Mystery, engineers must be cautious in their use of the arcane during research, invention, and operation of Magitech devices, lest the technology be turned to wicked ends. Similarly, technology tends to react poorly or even violently in close proximity to Mysteries; unless proper measures are taken, there is a good chance that lab could go up in flames or be pulled into another dimension with the slightest miscalculation.

Magitech is a combination of magic and technology. The design, creation, and maintenance of such objects requires a formidable knowledge of both science and the arcane.

Common Magitech Applications

• Airships: Vessels enchanted to soar through the skies. Airships vary wildly in design depending on their purpose, whether low or high altitude travel, passenger or commercial transport, civilian or military use.
• Caster: These firearms use special enchanted cartridges to fire spells instead of bullets. There are two primary designs; pistols for close to mid-range and rifles for tactical and long-range use.
• Tabula: By all appearances, a small, flat slab of black, surprisingly lightweight stone. Tabula can be linked to one another to allow communication across great distances simply by speaking into the stone. The stone can even display recorded sound and images sent by another Tabula.

Steam

The vast majority of modern technology is more mechanical than mystical. By harnessing the power of heat and pressure, Steam technology provides modern Man with a number of conveniences; climate control, indoor plumbing, electric lights and motors…the applications of Steam are nearly endless. The power of gunpowder and steam has also been used in the creation of numerous firearms, grenades, and other weapons.

Though inferior to Arcanoi and Magitech in many ways, Steam technology is much cheaper and therefore, more popular, seeing widespread use outside major centers of civilization. Steamtech is also reasonably safe and does not present the risk of catastrophic malfunction due to misuse like Arcanoi or the possibility of drawing the ire of Daemons like Magitech.

Common Steam Applications

• Motors: An engine of pipes, valves, and whirling gears that can move a carriage, provide electricity, or any other number of uses. Motors are powered by steam and see widespread use all over the Sphere.
• Radios: These large boxes catch invisible signals in the air and convert them to audible sound. Radio is used to broadcast messages, music, and communicate across great distances.
• Trains: These massive engines allow for quick transit of goods and passengers across great distances. Propelled along pre-laid tracks by steam, trains are among the most affordable and efficient means of transit available.