Cantograph

Invented by the arcanist and artificer Wiclif Marenus Uhland Penn, the cantograph is a fairly new invention initially made to be a tool in translating ancient texts. One can input any word and symbol and meaning of said word or symbol into the machine, and with the information given the machine will offer up translations of other words by examining the components of the parts of the language that is already known. The more words that are input, the higher the probability it is that the machine will be able to accurately guess an unknown word.
Although at first only able to carry one language at a time, the machine can now carry five languages at the same time, and a word has to be put under the right language. Initially, it was impossible to simply move a word from one language to another, and it was necessary to delete the whole catalogue the word had mistakenly been put under to be able to remove it from there. Now, however, it is possible to move it, though it takes a while.
It's a fairly new tool, but it's already one that many people want to get a hold of for various reasons. Of course, there's those working with unknown languages, scholars, antiquarians, wizards, and the like, who use it to try to decipher dead languages. There are the law enforcers, using it to decipher thieves cant, from where the name comes as one of the earlier backers was the Keeper of Heplana. Then there are the criminals, using it to counter the law by creating new languages and decoding these languages back again. To get a message, one has to go through several layers of translation.
Wiclif Marenus Uhland Penn lives in the shadow of this invention and grows more and more eccentric trying to keep up with the requests to constantly improve the tool, coming from the law enforcers. He has provided several machines to Rust, a criminal organization in Heplana, who sympathises with his stress and often keep the upper echelon of the law too distracted to bother him as much. As such, while the law want to keep track of every single machine, there are more cantographs out there than they actually are aware of.

Item type

Mechanical