⚙️Artifice

The Aspect of Advancement

Opposing Aspect	Nature
Melee Affinity	Bash
Magic Form	Lightning

The people of the Four Worlds know they originate from a shared culture, a culture advanced enough to have transported them through the vastness of space. The hardships they faced on their new worlds erased much of this ancient knowledge, but the Artificers strive to either reclaim it, or build a body of work to rival and surpass it. Progress isn’t just a desired state, but required to keep them alive—any stagnation would see them succumb to an always hostile environment. Without the Aspect of Artifice, few believe the colonists would have survived beyond a handful of generations. This claim is often at the heart of much of their conflicts with the Aspect of Nature.

If, as the followers of Nature suggest, humanity was given dominion over the natural world, then surely that world is there to exploit in any way benefiting them. Creation doesn’t have an end point, and raw materials exist to be transformed into something new, more refined. The followers of the Aspect of Artifice seek to raise humanity up from its degraded state and into a future of limitless progress. Advancement in all its forms is at the core of Artifice, and one should never rest while there is still work to be done. Artificers know Nature was just the beginning, and while we might owe it a debt, the best way to repay that debt is to build upon its foundation, and venerate its possibilities.

The arrival of the Unrevealed has whipped the followers of Artifice into a frenzy of creativity. Not only do they need to create weaponry and defenses to protect their way of life, but they’ve been shown just how far progress can take them. The Unrevealed are clearly highly evolved and technologically advanced, and if they want to stand a chance at surviving their ministrations, they need to surpass them. The first step is ensuring their “chosen” warriors win their battles, and the second is convincing their worlds to put their heft behind the Aspect of Artifice—they cannot hope to win if they remain divided.

While devotees of Artifice exist wherever people enjoy creature comforts or the trappings of modern society, the strongest adherents of Artifice command great power and control over the world. Made up of thieves, engineers, and soldiers, this inner circle feeds the wheel. Thieves provide materials, engineers craft them into tools, and soldiers use those tools. While simple and utilitarian designs abound, the most skilled among their number are capable of creating truly magnificent creations, each powered by unfathomable magics. These artifacts are often marked with the Artificers’ chosen element: lighting. Whether it’s employed as a potent energy source, seen crackling around the forms of their automatons, or blasting forth from their devastating weaponry, by harnessing the energy gifted by their Aspect, they’ve pulled themselves out of the hole they landed in so many generations ago.

Followers of the Aspect of Artifice are associated with the color blue.