Mark II Patroller
"With the new Mark II golems at our disposal, law enforcement labor risks and task shall be far lower! The streets of the cities and towns across Waston shall be far safer! We have improved upon the Mark I design tenfold, in all aspects. A reinforced steel-tacturnium alloy framework and plating offers a flawless balance of mobility and protection. Each hand is now equipped with a multiarmament, shifted easily by simple voice commands. Scrying eyes, protected with runic-obsidian etchings to insure maximum visibility and communication, and minimal ability to be magickally (or otherwise) interfered with. The armaments come in three packages, of course, to serve all our nations law enforcement needs. Marshal, Breacher and of course, the workhorse, the Patroller. The Mark II patroller is armed with baton, and revolver for one hand, and a RAESP and a cutlass for the other, allowing it multiple non-lethal and lethal options of on a variable level based on threat assessment. They have semi-autonomous structures within their magicore weavings, framework and engines, allowing them to be detailed to a wider range of tasks without requiring an active and scrying overseer. They can work in partnership, and will happily take lead and point in a firefight or rescue scenario, for they are made to place priority on sapient humanoid lives over avoiding their own destruction.
An excerpt from the transcript of one Markus Fitz-Widgel presenting the new generation of his Police automotans to the highest echelons of Wastonian government and law enforcement.
As you move amongst the market square, you can't help but notice one of the unique things about Rydan, and the nation of Waston as a whole. You are used to seeing an active constable presence in cities all across Valerick that you have visited, however in Waston there is a unique side to this. Patrolling side by side with officers in uniform are an impressive and unique feat of magitech engineering, a sort of limited intelligence living construct. Near eight feet tall, humanoid-esque in shape, with a metallic body bearing the appropriate iconography of the Rydan Police Department to identify it. These automatons seem not entirely mindless or without interactability, indeed people all around you do seem to interact with them, having a dialogue, though one can discern it is a culturally understood practice, the structure of how one talks to such a construct unnatural, the dialogue stiff, a bit linear, though not wholly official. It would seem these constructs possess some basic imbuements within their magickal construction that allow a modicum of general interactability beyond the base scope of being law enforcement.
Utility
As discussed above, with some alterations to armaments, to body construction and to Manna-Fold structures and magi-tech processes used in their daily awakening and enablement protocols, they can be designed with a wide flexibility in task orientation. They are also, despite the price of their construction, generally seen as more replaceable, recoverable and therefore, expendable, than flesh and bone people, which definitely has played a notable role in the choices of where they are found in society, what roles they are designed for.
Manufacturing
The manufacturing processes for these automats are still a closely guarded trade secret by the brothers and those they have working under them. They pay their craftsfolk handsomely, well above guild rates, a bonus tied to their signing of multiple confidentiality contracts and non-disclosure agreements.
Show spoiler
"There do exist slanderous rumors, horrible and unsubstanitated, that part of the way the brothers have advanced the capabilities of teh Mark II models has to do with some sort of heinous activities involving homeless and destitute folk, utilizing their life-force and ego, that is their brains, drawing from them to utilize bits of their psyche in some way, basically stripping bits of their ego and soul and imbuing it into these machines, to allow this added complexity. However such rumors are naught but slanderous and scandalous lies made up to try and harpoon our business acumen and our technological advancement! Myself and my brother would never do such a thing, we wish to help protect the health, safety and legal rights of all Wastonians, regardless of economic position. Frankly it is an affront against our nation and our people's inventive spirit to spread such vulgar rumors and anyone taking part should be ashamed of themselves. We are a society built on science and the scientific method and to make such vulgar accusations and start such crass rumors is beneath us as a people"
Markus Fitz-Widgel, giving a statement to the Rydan Curio, the city's premier news publication, in response to the whispered rumors of dark, twisted and evil practices that were spreading about the creation of the Mark II automats but two years ago.
Social Impact
The social impact of these inventions are best measured and noted in the frankly uptick in public safety, the downswing in fatalities in disaster or crisis type situations, as well as the general downswing in crime in the largest cities. Though naturally some detractors exist whom would tell you that these automats are overbearing, oft committing acts of over-reach, and their power is over used and even abused in many cases, though according to any measured study so far little evidence exists to back up such assertions thus far. Some detractors do point out, however, that any such survey or study has been done and funded in part at least by a city's constabulary, by Fitz-Widgel Machinery and Automat itself, like the business entity, or even the Wastonian government.
Access & Availability
Though expensive, they are a well worthwhile investment, the upgraded tacturnium-steel alloy body and framework making them far more damage resistant, and the more complex Manna Scaffolding allowing room for some Geomantic manna structures that allow the body to naturally mend itself over time, slowly though that may be. As such it has been a slow process to phase out the Mark I's and phase in the Mark II's, as the price is quite notable, nearly a thousand Shaillings each just for the base Patroller model, with the other models, or altered models for other tasks, costing more. However Waston is a wealthy nation, and this is no less true for their government, and so over the past two years, the foot patrols, at a minimum, have made the full switch, with other sectors and tasks in many larger cities, certainly in Rydan, also having completed or nearly completed the transition. It is expected within the next year or two years the switch will be complete nationwide, allowing some budgeting reworking in the years to come.
Regular people, as part of the contracts and rules for doing such potent business with the government, cannot purchase such things from the Fitz-Widgel Brothers, at least not the armed models. There do exist civilian versions for commission for the ultra wealthy, tho these cannot come armed by law, and come more as a sort of servitor machine, for gardening or groundskeeping or the like, only purchased by a select few in society. Similarly, there exists legislation against the brothers selling these to other nations or private interests, even mercenary guilds like the Sickles in Susma, though that legislation is rumored to be a bit more lax now in regards to the simpler and less flexible Mark I constructions. However even still, such a thing would be obscenely expensive.
Regular people, as part of the contracts and rules for doing such potent business with the government, cannot purchase such things from the Fitz-Widgel Brothers, at least not the armed models. There do exist civilian versions for commission for the ultra wealthy, tho these cannot come armed by law, and come more as a sort of servitor machine, for gardening or groundskeeping or the like, only purchased by a select few in society. Similarly, there exists legislation against the brothers selling these to other nations or private interests, even mercenary guilds like the Sickles in Susma, though that legislation is rumored to be a bit more lax now in regards to the simpler and less flexible Mark I constructions. However even still, such a thing would be obscenely expensive.
Complexity
The Mark II's are exceedingly complex, requiring constabularies to keep a handful of Magicore Engineers on staff. This does not mean that once they have gone through the daily necessary awakening and enabling protocols, establishing the parameters of their tasks and bonding their Manna-Folds to the appropriate personal, such as their patrol partner(s) for the day, as well as their precinct lieutenant, amongst all other concerns, that they are difficult to work with beyond this. After that initial hour of start up and necessary magi-tech mumbo-jumbo, they are simple enough to direct, control and work with, and have proven to be an officer favorite.
Discovery
The Mark II Patroller is the stamp of progress for Magitech Engineering, the direct descendent and replacement for the much simpler and single task drive Mark I. Using a second, smaller Magicore Engine and a wide range of complex enchantments and Manna Scaffoldings within the basic framework of the creature to achieve something akin to, but not entirely equal to, consciousness. The discovery of this advancement is attributed to a pair of brilliant magicore engineers, the brothers Markus and Edwin Fitz-Widgel. Edwin, always the least social of the pair, takes limited spotlight credit, though he is appropriately credited in all documentation and adulations or awards given praise unto their shared work by his brother.
It was in fact Edwin whom first theorized the potential of semi-intelligent automats, as the brothers call their inventions and the line of such creations they now produce, after the first generation. He believed it was a way around their initial limited usage in the Mark I systems. The process of putting this theory to the test and then the tech through its paces was grueling at best and almost self-defeating at worst, taking years of study by the brothers. However, the fruits of their labor came to fruition only three years ago, and have proven a massive boon to Wastonian Society, as the limited Mark I's have been rotated out of active duty with constabularies, oft being shifted into roles as prison guards and security, a role their limited protocols and outdated single order programming is far more suited for. The Mark II's have come in a variety of models with more complex task orientation and the ability to semi-consciously and automously make decisions based on preset and established parameters and considerations that can be adjusted via control rod boot sequence, which must be done every morning by a magicore engineer.
The Patroller is perhaps what one might call the base model, the origin of the Mark II generation of these automats, these unique machines. There are two other types for law enforcement, as well as altered and reworked versions of all three for disaster or crisis intervetion, such as firefighting or things like earthquake rescue and response, as earthquakes are not uncommon in Waston. These altered models will generally have their armaments replaced with tools necessary for the job in question, such as tools to shift and most importantly support and move large chunks of rubble, like from a collapsed building for example.
It was in fact Edwin whom first theorized the potential of semi-intelligent automats, as the brothers call their inventions and the line of such creations they now produce, after the first generation. He believed it was a way around their initial limited usage in the Mark I systems. The process of putting this theory to the test and then the tech through its paces was grueling at best and almost self-defeating at worst, taking years of study by the brothers. However, the fruits of their labor came to fruition only three years ago, and have proven a massive boon to Wastonian Society, as the limited Mark I's have been rotated out of active duty with constabularies, oft being shifted into roles as prison guards and security, a role their limited protocols and outdated single order programming is far more suited for. The Mark II's have come in a variety of models with more complex task orientation and the ability to semi-consciously and automously make decisions based on preset and established parameters and considerations that can be adjusted via control rod boot sequence, which must be done every morning by a magicore engineer.
The Patroller is perhaps what one might call the base model, the origin of the Mark II generation of these automats, these unique machines. There are two other types for law enforcement, as well as altered and reworked versions of all three for disaster or crisis intervetion, such as firefighting or things like earthquake rescue and response, as earthquakes are not uncommon in Waston. These altered models will generally have their armaments replaced with tools necessary for the job in question, such as tools to shift and most importantly support and move large chunks of rubble, like from a collapsed building for example.
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