Artificer

An artificer is a magic user capable of crafting magical items and manipulating magic through mechanical or alchemical means. Artifice (the name of an artificer's craft) is a branch of learnéd magic.

Career

Career Progression

Artificers study at magical universities often dedicated specifically to the craft of artifice, the best-known of which is the Inventor's Institute of Cape Hildegard. Upon graduation, artificers typically apprentice for at least three years; the rare artificer who does not attend university apprentices for at least seven years.

Perception

Social Status

Artificers are more highly regarded than most guild artisans, with social status closer to the level of a successful merchant than to a mundane blacksmith, mason, or similar craftsman. That said, a stereotype exists among arcane academia—particularly among wizards—of artificers as an immature and overly excitable bunch, more prone to danger and magical accidents than magic cast through traditional means.

Demographics

Many guild craftsmen dabble in artifice to some extent, but dedicated artificers are relatively rare among their ranks, although less so in places with strong cultures of arcanum such as Cape Hildegard and Dodiöu Réijmí. Gnomish and Dwarven societies also tend to have exceptionally strong artificer traditions. The Common word artificer comes from the Gnomish word årtefük, meaning "to craft with great skill or care." Though famous Elvish artifice traditions exist—most notably Elven Jewelrymaking and Elven Swordmaking—elves who engage in these traditions are much less likely to label themselves artificers.

History

Modern artifice is a relatively new branch of magic. Items have been imbued with spells or crafted to bring out their natural magical properties since at least the Age of Anxiety, but dedicated artisans with a specific focus on complex machinery and rapid enchantment are distinctly a phenomenon of the Age of Complexity.

Operations

Tools

Artificers use and are proficient in the tools of mundane craftsmen who work with the same mediums; depending on the type of item they craft, they may require blacksmith's tools, carpenter's tools, cobbler's tools, an herbalist's kit, jeweler's tools, a potter's wheel, a weaver's loom, or any number of other toolkits. Some versions of such tools need to be modified by either a Transmuter or a fellow artificer to work properly for the creation of magic items.

Materials

Materials for magical items often combine mundane materials of high quality, items native to the Material Plane but naturally imbued with power (like gemstones or Cypruvian steel), and/or substances native to other planes like Fey-goat wool or Deepsilk.

Alternative Names

årteföka, artfucker

Type

Arcane

Famous in the Field

• Axel Hawthorne
• Lida Rose Hawthorne
• Nick Bottom
• Tink Tinkerton

Other Associated professions

• Alchemist
• Wizard

Related Locations

• Cape Hildegard

Related Technologies

• Perpetual Flight
• Wellspring