Beyond Aertimisan:

by William Walley

The Artificers didn't start out to exile the gods, or to wreck the world. Originally they were philosophers and mages who pondered the fundamentals of the universe. The accidental discovery of steam power and its applications, when combined with magic gave the Artificers a degree of power that rivaled the priesthood. More frightening, from the priests' point of view, was that the Artificers offered an attractive rival worldview. The various religions began active opposition and persecution of the Artificers and their TechMagic. The Artificers also attracted adherents who were opposed to the religions, whether for idealistic reasons or political reasons, and who would benefit with the destruction of the religions.

Initially at a disadvantage due to the number of the Godsmen's followers and their faith-granted powers, the Artificers responded with an increasing level of TechMagic sophistication, in an increasing spiral of destruction. Eventually, the Artificers determined that soul energy, what they called the Life Matrix, was the source of divine energy. Once that was ascertained, the Artificers could then approach the problem of denying the deities their source of energy.

Nikus, the leading researcher of the Artificers, discovered that the severing of the God's energies would disrupt the world, and that an alternate energy flow would need to be discovered to maintain a balance of energies. This, in turn, lead to the discovery of the Great Barrier and the unlimited energy contained behind it. Nikus's colleague, Sardus, designed the Armageddon Spell, which would sever the deity's form, the world and replace their energy with the energy from beyond the Great Barrier. He also designed the SoulCloak, which hid the Artificers from the Gods, while Torbran designed the SoulMatrices that would hold the energy and channel it through the Artificers. This, in turn, would enable the Artificers to become as gods themselves.

Everything began going wrong the moment the spell was cast. The God's powers were limited, but not removed. Even worse, some form of malevolent intelligence came through the Great Barrier, consuming each Artificer through their SoulMatrix. The disruption wrecked the world, literally ripping a great rift across its surface. Most of the Artificers died and the few who remained soon succumbed to the hatred of their creed that spread across the planet in the wake of the Godswar. Now, the Artificers are practically extinct and their once noble creed despised.

The creed of the Artificers was devoted to rationalism and the freeing of mankind from superstition and the whims of the gods. During the course of the Godswar, the ends began justifying the means and the Artificers ended up trying to set themselves up as gods. They ended as mirror images of the capricious deities they despised. The most famous Artificers were:

Jyros: The most rational and methodical of the Artificers, he was the first to desire Godhood for himself. When he realized what was going wrong with the Armageddon Spell, he activated a contingency plan that transformed him into an undead monstrosity, the Death-Lord of Necrys. Now hiding his Artificer background, he maintains his unlife by harvesting the vast corpse-fields of Necrys and purchasing the products of the Soulthieves. His greatest desire is to discover how to make himself sole god of the world.

Symnath: The youngest of the Artificers, she was the most creative. When the Armageddon Spell went awry she improvised, severing herself from her SoulMatrix. However, the resulting spell drove her insane. She now wanders the ruins of the world, by turns cryptic and dangerous.

Torbran: Torbran was the chronicler of the Artificers. When the Armageddon Spell was cast, he sacrificed his own life to inscribe a symbol upon himself. The symbol contained the details of the Armageddon Spell and the events that lead to the Artificer's downfall. This information was to wait until a new generation of Artificers could undo the effects of the spell.

Nikus: The leading researcher of the Artificers, Nikus discovered the basis of divine power and first proposed destroying it. Destroyed during the Armageddon Spell.

Sardus: Premier spell designer of the Artificers, Sardus had little concern for non-Artificers. Designer of the Armageddon spell. He fell into the hands of the Godsmen by accident shortly before the casting of the spell and was burned alive as an enemy of the gods.

A generic term for the followers of the deities, coined by the Artificers to label their foes. There was no real cohesion or structure to the Godsmen, other than their hatred of the Artificers. Following the Godswar, the Godsmen withered with the decline of divine influence. Now, very few are left who call themselves Godsmen, and they spend most of their time scheming to ensure that TechMagic is never again released upon the world. They are, for the most part, very intolerant zealots. The most important organization is the Chosen, a group of witch hunters who seek out any sign of TechMagic, which is loosely defined to include anything deemed a threat to the return of the gods. The Chosen are located in the ruins of the city of Kynosis, from which roving bands of warrior-priests disseminate across the land, spreading the word and tracking down any last remaining Artificers.

The name for the conflict between the Artificers and the Godsmen. It lasted approximately forty years and ended in the casting of the Armageddon Spell, the disruption of the world, and the virtual extinction of the Artificers. The Godswar involved very little grand strategy, being a virtual war of extermination. The Godsmen fought to eliminate any threat to their divine masters, while the Artificers sought to eliminate divine meddling in mortal affairs.

The Artificers, laboring under an initial handicap in that the deities could locate and destroy them easily, crafted a spell that, through the energy of souls, could conceal them from the senses of the gods. Unable to detect the Artificers, the gods were forced to lay waste to the world and the citadels of support for the Artificers, using up the lives of their followers to do so. The Artificers, in turn, sacrificed their allies to draw the attention of the gods away from the Armageddon Spell until it was ready to cast.

The Godswar ended with a bang, not a whimper, as the gods were exiled, the world torn apart, and the Artificers consumed by the horror they released. The end result was a wrecked planet slowly dying, a decimated population, and a division in society that has never healed. Its legacy is the SoulMatrices scattered about the planet, slowly leaking the stuff of the Anti-Universe into the world, and the manifestation of that dark intelligence, the Dweller in the Rift.

(Note: The Aertimisan saga begins roughly a millennium after the end of the Godswar. --F.B.)

The final spelled, designed mostly by Sardus, which was to banish the gods from the world, and turn the Artificers into defacto gods. It required the construction of SoulMatrices, vast complexes sunk into the planet and forged of TechMagic and souls. Each Artificer had a SoulMatrix, which would channel the energy from beyond the Great Barrier into the Artificer, focusing the spell. The construction and preparation took thirty years. When cast, the spell allowed the malevolent intelligence beyond the Barrier to enter the world. The dark energy consumed each Artificer in turn, except for three, and created its focal point, the Dweller in the Rift. The spell failed to completely eliminate the gods, who in turn managed to contain the spread of the dark energy. The presence of the SoulMatrices allows the energy to slowly spread its influence, through the Darklings, mutants created by the warping effect of the dark energy, despite the attempt by the gods to stave the flow.

Greatest city of the ancient world and the only location still worthy of the name. The former stronghold of the Artificers, Sabbath was practically at the center of the rift when it opened. What remained was the wreckage of a city perched on the edge of the Rift. Human resiliency proved up to the task and, in the absence of the Artificers, the Council restored order. Swollen by refugees from the Godswar and the Armageddon Spell, Sabbath re-established itself. It is organized into tiers, based on wealth, with the wealthy living nearest the sun while the desperate poor are confined beneath the earth to toil in the mines and the underground fields. Order is maintained by the Council Guard, formed of mercenaries, and the Guild Police, which obeys the Council of Guilds. The most powerful guilds in Sabbath are the Skyriggers Guild, the Merchant Guild, the Thieves Guild, and the Slavers Guild. Though it is still technically illegal to worship the gods in Sabbath, several temples still exist. Sabbath is a bloated vulture feeding on the remains of a dying world, but it is also the last hope of many refugees seeking refuge from the darkness enclosing the world.