The Universal Guild of Most Noble Engineers

"Independence Through Discovery"

A comparatively new organisation in the world of the Alliance, having been

founded a mere thirteen years ago, the Guild of Engineers is an international
collection of individuals who believe that magic can and should be harnessed in
physical objects that can be handled safely. Most consider them to be at best eccentric
and at worst dangerously unhinged, but there can be no doubt that they have already
created uncounted gizmos, enchanted items and trinkets to help or inspire - although
for every success, there have been a dozen accidents, failures and devices of more
sinister purpose.
Founded by Edrick Saul, the Guild started out as little more than a handful of
outhouses filled with scrap but within the year boasted a hundred or more members
across the continent. Since then, Engineers have become an increasingly common
sight in most nations and, as ever more individuals, organisations and national armies
have contracted them, an increasingly influential faction in the endless politics of
international relations.

Membership
The Guild is a fairly open institution; most of its members are more than
happy to talk about their work to anyone who will listen (or anyone too slow or too
polite to run away) and accept apprentices or inductees from any race, provided they
show the aptitude.
Membership to the Guild is simple - once accepted by the Guild a member simply
has to send a percentage of their earnings to the Guild (originally 5%, but since the
construction of Antithyka, 10%) to ensure that the organisation can continue to run
and its city to stand. Beyond this, each individual is free to do as they wish as a
member, although they are expected to keep a certain standard
Life as a Guild member is fairly simple; there is no need, if the individual does not
wish to, to move to Antithyka, nor are there many limitations on which contracts and
commissions an individual may take. However, in addition to the fairly simple
'membership fee' that they must pay to the Guild, members are expected to heed to
word of the Guild council on the rare occasion it does chose to make a decree.
The council is a fairly informal body at the heart of the Guild; a collection of
roughly a dozen of the most august, renowned and financially successful of its
members who meet at the Great Patent Office - a grand and imposing building that is
spiritually and physically at the heart of Antithyka - and discuss the issues facing the
Engineers. It is this council that acts as the voice of the Guild and the Free City when
dealing with other states and organisations, that chooses which projects to back for the
good of the city, and that decides what actions to take against those few Engineers
who do not pay the Guild their cut, or work for those on the Guild's blacklist.

Patents, Invention and Ownership

One of the earliest problems to face the Guild was that of information sharing
- if one Engineer created a new ensorcelled weapon or magical device and others wish
to recreate those designs, how are they to do that without creating unfair competition
for the original inventor? The answer was the creation of the Patent Office - a body of
archivists and analysts who would oversee the cataloguing of the creations of the
Guild.
It's operation is fairly simple; if a member creates something that they consider
worthy of the Guild, they may take a copy of the blueprints/recipe/instructions to the
Patent Office where further copies will be created and made available to all who wish
them. In exchange, the original inventor gains a lump sum of money and their name is
forever attached to that design - ensuring that their fame lives on through their
incredible designs.
The Guild reAntithykanises, however, that some Engineers do not wish to have
their works copied during their lifetime and so the handing over of designs is not
compulsory. However any Engineer who doesn't apply for a patent on their creation
runs the risk that a competitor will see their creation in action and find a way of
replicating it and getting the patent themselves. Such is the risk one runs if they wish
to be a creator of the unique.

Guild Factions
Despite being a single organisation, the size of the Guild (as well as their
member's eccentric tendency to be eccentrics and insane 'visionaries') means that the
Engineers are often divided into ideological camps. Some of these are small,
consisting of only a few individuals in a relatively small geographical location, whilst
others come and go within a year or two - the most famous example being the
factionalism between proponents of coal against supporters of the more traditional
Barrow-Ore, which despite almost leading to civil war, was all but forgotten in a year.
However some factions are large, with almost all members of the Guild belonging to
one or another, and have existed almost since the Guild's founding. Of these, the two
most common are as follows;
Arcana-Isolationists
Also known as 'Mechanics', 'Anti-Ritualists' and 'Steam-Engineers', the Arcana-
Isolationists are perhaps the largest faction and the ones that, to their own minds at
least, are closest to the ideals laid down during the Guild's foundation. However, their
views are also the most 'extreme' by the standards of the wider society, which is
perhaps part of the reason why many people are still unsure about the Engineers. The
Steam-Engineers believe that rituals and other temporary bridges are a danger to
world and that everyone would be better off forgoing the use of rituals entirely.
To this end the Mechanics labour tirelessly to create devices powered by a stable
and permanent bridge, or by some mundane energy source, so that they need no
longer rely on rituals. Indeed most swear never to use even the smallest of ritual
magic once they become a full Engineer, choosing instead to keep their house tidy
with honest labour (or with a self-propelled broom), their blades sharp with a
whetstone (or with an automated weapon-keener) and their fields free of crows with
mechanical automatons.
The Arcana-Isolationists have produced some of the most widely reAntithykanised
creations of the Guild to date, such as; the musket, van Pierce's Clockwork Messenger
Fish, the steam-pistol, the electric plough and the (infamous) Exploding Platypus.
Ensorcellers
The other major faction within the Guild, Ensorcellers take a far less radical
approach to progress than the Mechanics. They too focus on creating permanent
magical objects, although they do so not through steam power or by creating enduring
bridges, but by using so-called 'Anvil Rituals' to create objects with unusual
properties. They are known throughout the land for their ability to use strange rituals
to create magic weapons and armour, as well as endless alchemical potions and
powders.

The Free City of Antithyka

A few short years ago the area that is now Antithyka was simply an
unassuming stretch of coastline - the soil was not very suitable for farming, the seas
yield less bounty than those further north and south. As such, the Guild was easily
able to afford the land - it was bought completely; the city that was to be built there
was to be free of the laws of any nation save its own and would pay no taxes save to
the Guild and to the Redemption Corps.
The results of the purchase were as remarkable as they were sudden; within a few
years a city had sprung up of a size to rival the capitals of the great nations. It was a
warren of great forges, workshops, hurriedly assembled shop-fronts and rickety
alchemical towers. There is little planning or thought to the city's layout; Engineers
who arrive hurriedly throw up buildings in which to work as close as they can to the
Great Patent Office - the home of the Guild's council, revenue and customs
department and private pen-pushers.
The city has become one of the strangest places in the Alliance; a place where
districts are occasionally reduced to ash or turned to feathery frogs due to scientific
accidents, where the surrounding fields are tended by automated ploughs and
clockwork farmhands and where the fishing fleet is equipped with ever more
elaborate lures and nets. Thus far Antithyka has avoided any large-scale accidents,
although some people believe that such a calamity is inevitable given the poor
building regulations and endless experiments.
The Dreadnoughts
One of the most intimidating sights in the city are the three huge metal shapes that
sit in the centre of the docks; the Dreadnoughts; the Valiant, the Vengeful and the
Victorious. One of the few large-scale collaborations that the council actively funds
and supports, the Dreadnoughts are to be the defenders of Antithyka. They are ships
unlike any other ever built; clad in ensorcelled steel thicker than a knight's plate,
armed with the pinnacle of the Steam-Engineer's arcana-mortars and lightning rods
and manned by a trained crew of soldiers, each Dreadnought is, according to the
Guild, capable of defending the city alone - the three are capable of levelling it.
The Battle of Antithyka
There has only ever been one attack on the City of Antithyka; six years ago a local
bandit warlord gathered an army of followers, mercenaries and pirates with the intent
of sacking the Free City and taking its minerals, its wealth and its wondrous
contraptions. The City seemed vulnerable and ripe for attack; it had no walls or
standing army, the Dreadnought project was still in its infancy and the Engineers had
never shown any aptitude or appetite for fighting together. However, as the army
descended into Antithyka, it quickly became apparent that they could not have been
more wrong.
The Engineers were loathe to abandon their workshops and homes to these thieves
and set about them with all manner of strange weapons and allies; clockwork pigeons
swooped down and struck at the eyes of attackers, apprentices in leaning towers fired
off experimental arcana-rifles and alchemical fires burned through steel and flesh.
Beside the Engineers, farming-automata swung rakes and hoes like great axes, office
workers from the Patent Office leaped forward with telescopic spears and strange
electrical devices designed for fishing fired bolts that shattered the hulls of the corsair
ships.
The next day the local Redemption Corps forces arrived to aid the defence of the
city - or at the very least reclaim it - only to find the city bustling with activity;
Engineers rigged strange cranes ready to rebuild their homes and the fishing fleet was
pressed into service hauling the wrecks of pirate vessels out of the port. Nearly two
thousand soldiers had descended on the Free City less than twenty-four hours before
and, by anyone's best estimates, less than three hundred left with their lives. All that
remained was for the Corps to take custody of the wounded and the captured.
In the six years since there has never been another attack on the city. Antithyka
remains free of fortifications (it grows too quickly to even consider building them)
and the only professional soldiers are those employed and trained expressly to crew
the Dreadnoughts and yet it is only the insane or the desperate that would risk an
assault.

Guild Gizmos
The Engineers have over the past years created innumerable incredible
inventions, however some have gained truly legendary status within the Guild - and
sometimes even beyond! Presented below are a selection of the most common of
these famous items:
Edgar Raven's Neverdull Blades
Perhaps the most well-known example of the Ensorceller's art, Neverdull Blades
are keen swords that have an almost impossible edge able to all but pass through
armour as if it wasn't even there. Despite their legendary status, Neverdull Blades are
surprisingly easy and simple to make, which has led to may Ensorcellers teaching
their apprentices how to make these swords early on. There are rumours abound that
in recent years Ensorcellers have begun to discover variants to the procedure that
allow for the creation of Neverdull Axes and Spears...
Leonardo's Lightning Wand
Annoyed at the cost of ammunition for his new steam-pistol, Leonardo - father of
the Dreadnought project - set about creating an ensorcelled alternative that would
never need reloading. The result was the lightning wand; a device capable of creating
and 'firing' bolts of magical lightning as potent and deadly in the right hands as any
pistol ball or musket bolt. Early models could only be created during thunderstorms,
but it is now fairly common practise in the Guild to use a teacher or friend's lightning
wand to create your own.
Izabelle's MkIII Ingenious One-Use Detonating Duck Egg (Patent Pending)
A relatively new, but already popular, weapon design created by a young
Mechanic protégé, the Detonating Duck Egg is a simple device which uses black
powder to create controlled explosions when broken. Three workshops were
destroyed as Izabelle developed the first Detonating Duck Egg, but now the MkIII
represents the pinnacle of weapon's technology - a fist-sized device able to kill
assailants by the score. The Guild is hurriedly trying to rush through the patent
paperwork so that they can develop larger variants for use in the Dreadnought project.
Piston Hammers
A catch-all term for the strange gear-driven and magical hammers that fill the
workshops and forges of Antithyka, piston hammers are remarkable works of art used
by both Ensorcellers and Steam-Engineers in order to create their remarkable artefacts
with even more precision. For as long as the Guild has existed, there have been
dozens of variant piston hammers but all have one thing in common - they give
apprentices' work the quality of a full Engineers', and turn an Engineer's work into a
masterpiece.
Emilia's Heart of the Air
In an organisation as accepting, eccentric and progressive as the Guild of
Engineers, it takes a lot to be considered controversial and yet in creating her Heart of
the Air, Engineer Emilia managed it. A remarkable device, the Heart of the Air
utilises a simple magical engine and a series of strange glass panels in order to
improve the power of rituals - particularly those used in the heat of battle. Given the
Guild's desire to be (mostly) free of their dependence on rituals and battle magic in
particular, the creation of such a device sparked heated and occasionally violent
debate. Despite that, Hearts of the Air are common enough as any Engineer looking to
make a profit can sell them to non-members relatively quickly and easily once they
master the art of making them.

Guild Engineers in the Corps

Even beyond the 19th, Engineer volunteers are disproportionately common in
all twenty-two Redemption Corps. This is for the simple reason that for those
Engineers that wish to create martial potions, weapons, armour or devices will have
ample chances and volunteers to field-test their latest model within the Corps.
Engineers in the Corps tend to be eccentric even by the standards of their strange
Guild - they enter battle festooned with esoteric devices, weapons and notebooks;
either standing quietly making notes on the performance of the impossible devices
their allies fight with, or in the very heart of the battle, convinced that they are a hero
for the modern age as magic hammers, Detonating Duck Eggs and self-loading pistols
deal death all around them.
The Free City of Antithyka is within the jurisdiction of the 6th Redemption Corps.
As a result of the large number of Engineer volunteers that have served within the 6th
this past decade the Corp has gained the nickname "Smokebelchers" and has
developed a reputation for entering every mission festooned with peerless and
impossible weapons.