Difference between revisions of "Goran: Temples"

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<span class="DROPCAP">T</span>emples to Goran are always called academies. Various academies exist; most of them tend to be very much like workshops full of tinkered devices with plans for more. Clerics can constantly be seen planning or experimenting. Many experiments are dangerous; for this reason, the temples are often in isolated places and do not get many visitors other than the faithful of Goran.
+
Temples to [[Goran]] are always called academies. Various academies exist; most of them tend to be very much like workshops full of tinkered devices with plans for more. [[Clerics]] can constantly be seen planning or experimenting. Many experiments are dangerous; for this reason, the temples are often in isolated places and do not get many visitors other than the faithful of Goran.
  
 
===== Clockwork Academy =====
 
===== Clockwork Academy =====
  
The masterpiece of the academies is the Clockwork Academy near Vandery on Mistone. Often called the Beehive, this mound of a building is roughly cake-shaped with each successive layer indented from the previous. It forms what looks like a precariously balanced metal edifice surrounded by hills. The Chief Engineer resides here but not on the top floor as one would suspect but on the bottom workshop closest to his Tinkers.
+
The masterpiece of the academies is the Clockwork Academy near [[Vandery]] on [[Mistone]]. Often called the Beehive, this mound of a building is roughly cake-shaped with each successive layer indented from the previous. It forms what looks like a precariously balanced metal edifice surrounded by hills. The Chief Engineer resides here but not on the top floor as one would suspect but on the bottom workshop closest to his Tinkers.
  
Being the largest and oldest of his academies, the Beehive is the crown jewel of Goran's faith. About 200 years ago, it was even more impressive. The entire structure was designed to rotate like a clock with a shaft down the center of the building catching light and reflecting sharp beams off the notched walls. This made every level its own clock. Inventors busy in their work could simply look at the wall to see what time it was since each level is open around the center shaft with steam-powered gnome risers and de-risers moving the faithful between levels. The power supply was a wonder of magic/technology fusion. Created by the gnome who designed the Clockwork Academy, Nibblit Steamwhistle, this power source, called the Waveril, was a compact mithril triangle suspended between three magnets with a number of conduits snaking off the base and throbbing with Al'Noth energy. Unfortunately, it was stolen by Branderbackian thieves; the Beehive has remained still from that day. (It's a common joke around the halls of the Beehive when asked what time is it to respond half past two since that's when the clock stopped.)
+
Being the largest and oldest of his academies, the Beehive is the crown jewel of Goran's faith. About 200 years ago, it was even more impressive. The entire structure was designed to rotate like a clock with a shaft down the center of the building catching [[light]] and reflecting sharp beams off the notched walls. This made every level its own clock. Inventors busy in their work could simply look at the wall to see what time it was since each level is open around the center shaft with steam-powered [[gnome]] risers and de-risers moving the faithful between levels. The power supply was a wonder of magic/technology fusion. Created by the gnome who designed the Clockwork Academy, Nibblit Steamwhistle, this power source, called the Waveril, was a compact mithril triangle suspended between three magnets with a number of conduits snaking off the base and throbbing with [[Al'Noth]] energy. Unfortunately, it was stolen by Branderbackian thieves; the Beehive has remained still from that day. (It's a common joke around the halls of the Beehive when asked what time is it to respond half past two since that's when the clock stopped.)
  
Gnomes being gnomes, the theft was seen as an opportunity to improve the original until it was discovered that the plans had been partially destroyed in an accident. Since then, many gnomes have tried to recreate it, but the exact magical incantations that powered it remain unknown. Unlike the other two largest academies, the Clockwork Academy does not lean toward one area; it's open to all who would revel in the miracle of technological creation. Like the other two academies, special fire- and explosion-proof rooms have been added for safety because of the numerous and often jested about accidents of experimentation, which have been deemed unnecessary with a little precaution.
+
[[Gnomes]] being gnomes, the theft was seen as an opportunity to improve the original until it was discovered that the plans had been partially destroyed in an accident. Since then, many gnomes have tried to recreate it, but the exact magical incantations that powered it remain unknown. Unlike the other two largest academies, the Clockwork Academy does not lean toward one area; it's open to all who would revel in the miracle of technological creation. Like the other two academies, special fire- and explosion-proof rooms have been added for safety because of the numerous and often jested about accidents of experimentation, which have been deemed unnecessary with a little precaution.
  
Chief Engineer Mogwogin Thibble is an aged gnome serving his first time as chief. He is a quietly devoted cleric of Goran and very introverted for a gnome. His inventions speak for themselves' literally. His winning invention is a plate-sized sundial that is powered by a small but complex pendulum system combined with a permanent magical mouth spell to speak the time when one steps close enough to it. While of marginal use to most, to the blind it has proven to be of real value. Chief Engineer Thibble has spent the last 18 years working on improving and finding other uses for his device.
+
Chief Engineer Mogwogin Thibble is an aged gnome serving his first time as chief. He is a quietly devoted [[cleric]] of Goran and very introverted for a gnome. His inventions speak for themselves' literally. His winning invention is a plate-sized sundial that is powered by a small but complex pendulum system combined with a permanent magical mouth spell to speak the time when one steps close enough to it. While of marginal use to most, to the [[blind]] it has proven to be of real value. Chief Engineer Thibble has spent the last 18 years working on improving and finding other uses for his device.
  
 
Third Engineer to the Chief Ballyhoo Schematican is the assistant to Engineer Thibble. A tall, broad gnome, he reviews plans, recommends rewards, and does a great deal of paperwork. Perhaps in anticipation of winning his position, his invention was an automatic paper filer that grasps the paper handed to it and deposits it in its proper slot. He is the fifth Schematican to work in higher office and is proud of it.
 
Third Engineer to the Chief Ballyhoo Schematican is the assistant to Engineer Thibble. A tall, broad gnome, he reviews plans, recommends rewards, and does a great deal of paperwork. Perhaps in anticipation of winning his position, his invention was an automatic paper filer that grasps the paper handed to it and deposits it in its proper slot. He is the fifth Schematican to work in higher office and is proud of it.
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===== Windmill Academy =====
 
===== Windmill Academy =====
  
The Windmill Academy, second oldest and second largest of the academies, sits by the Rusty River on Alindor. The Rusty River owes part of its name not just to the colors from the leaves that drop in but also from the metal parts that dip in its flowing waters. The academy draws power both from the everpresent windmills and from water power as well. The Windmill Academy has the first engineer to the chief at the top and a unique reputation as the academy with the best defense of any. Gnomes interested in offensive and defensive capabilities have been drawn here since Second Engineer Gaugen Bushinghook started it a half millennia ago. His specialty was war machines, and his influence has remained in the lethal automated ballistas that are timed to shoot through the windmill blades and the mighty shields of slab iron that can rise from shallow depressions in the grounds to surround the academy. The academy is not coincidentally home to some of the more strong-willed, militant gnomes'not all of them good-natured.
+
The Windmill Academy, second oldest and second largest of the academies, sits by the [[Rusty River]] on [[Alindor]]. The Rusty River owes part of its name not just to the colors from the leaves that drop in but also from the metal parts that dip in its flowing waters. The academy draws power both from the everpresent windmills and from water power as well. The Windmill Academy has the first engineer to the chief at the top and a unique reputation as the academy with the best defense of any. Gnomes interested in offensive and defensive capabilities have been drawn here since Second Engineer Gaugen Bushinghook started it a half millennia ago. His specialty was war machines, and his influence has remained in the lethal automated ballistas that are timed to shoot through the windmill blades and the mighty shields of slab iron that can rise from shallow depressions in the grounds to surround the academy. The academy is not coincidentally home to some of the more strong-willed, militant gnomes'not all of them good-natured.
  
First Engineer to the Chief Madgegit Chimehammer has tinkered with weapons since she was a small girl. Her specialty is finding ways to add damage to seemingly ordinary weapons. Her winning invention is a club using very small and very sturdy gyros to power rotating spikes and specially reinforced to provide maximum bludgeoning damage. Ending a hundred-year span of defensive research, she has shifted the focus to offensive capacity in light of the darkness around the world.
+
First Engineer to the Chief Madgegit Chimehammer has tinkered with weapons since she was a small girl. Her specialty is finding ways to add damage to seemingly ordinary weapons. Her winning invention is a club using very small and very sturdy gyros to power rotating spikes and specially reinforced to provide maximum bludgeoning damage. Ending a hundred-year span of defensive research, she has shifted the focus to offensive capacity in light of the [[darkness]] around the world.
  
 
Second Engineer to the First Engineer to the Chief Sniggs Pinclick is the most fanatical of the New Offensives as the younger gnomes inventing weaponry tend to call themselves. He's been working hard on projectile weapons having spent the first 48 years of his training improving crossbows. It was his creation that allows the Windmill to shoot between the blades without damaging them. He will preach both Goran and self-defense through offensive firepower at the drop of a hammer.
 
Second Engineer to the First Engineer to the Chief Sniggs Pinclick is the most fanatical of the New Offensives as the younger gnomes inventing weaponry tend to call themselves. He's been working hard on projectile weapons having spent the first 48 years of his training improving crossbows. It was his creation that allows the Windmill to shoot between the blades without damaging them. He will preach both Goran and self-defense through offensive firepower at the drop of a hammer.
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===== Mistone Academy of Innovation =====
 
===== Mistone Academy of Innovation =====
  
Headed by the Second Engineer to the Chief Engineer, this small but bustling academy is located in the White Horn Forest. Originally a temple to Prunilla built partly into the ground, the Academy of Innovation came about a century ago when the forest encroached and the halflings moved their temple to more cultivated lands. Some clerics of Goran moved in to use the space. After a few dozen years, they had grown to where they needed more leadership. There was tension between the chief engineer at that time and his second engineer over the use of magic with machines. The solution was to send the second engineer to this fledgling academy to help it get started. Since then, the Mistone Academy of Innovation has become a hub of magical invention' fusing the mechanical with the arcane. Many of those working to re-create the Waveril work and pray here. Of the three large academies, this is the one most prone to violent explosion and other catastrophic events. It has become tradition to send the second engineer to the chief to oversee.
+
Headed by the Second Engineer to the Chief Engineer, this small but bustling academy is located in the [[White Horn Forest]]. Originally a temple to [[Prunilla]] built partly into the ground, the Academy of Innovation came about a century ago when the forest encroached and the halflings moved their temple to more cultivated lands. Some clerics of Goran moved in to use the space. After a few dozen years, they had grown to where they needed more leadership. There was tension between the chief engineer at that time and his second engineer over the use of magic with machines. The solution was to send the second engineer to this fledgling academy to help it get started. Since then, the Mistone Academy of Innovation has become a hub of magical invention' fusing the mechanical with the arcane. Many of those working to re-create the Waveril work and pray here. Of the three large academies, this is the one most [[prone]] to violent explosion and other catastrophic events. It has become tradition to send the second engineer to the chief to oversee.
  
Second Engineer to the Chief Engineer Mecha Fobrivit is a young female gnome from a family without a history in the academies. She is motivated and divides her time between divine studies of Goran (inventing) and arcane studies; she often meshes the two. Barely an adult for a gnome, she was considered a prodigy when her age was discovered because of her invention: a water heater that contains and channels both steam and hot water via a medusa-like nest of pipes on the top. The water is heated with a bespelled piece of lava rock that casts a small fireball spell in a chamber underneath the water upon verbal command.
+
Second Engineer to the Chief Engineer Mecha Fobrivit is a young female gnome from a family without a history in the academies. She is motivated and divides her time between divine studies of Goran (inventing) and arcane studies; she often meshes the two. Barely an adult for a gnome, she was considered a prodigy when her age was discovered because of her invention: a water heater that contains and channels both steam and hot water via a medusa-like nest of pipes on the top. The water is heated with a bespelled piece of lava rock that casts a small [[fireball]] spell in a chamber underneath the water upon verbal command.
  
 
Second Engineer to the Second Engineer to the Chief Kebbin Gongwire the Third is a middle-aged gnome from a long line of mages. He is in fact the first inventor in his current extended family. He is a pure cleric of Goran but has a knack for finding new uses for, and modifications to, old inventions, and he is often consulted when inventors need inspiration or help getting out of a rut.
 
Second Engineer to the Second Engineer to the Chief Kebbin Gongwire the Third is a middle-aged gnome from a long line of mages. He is in fact the first inventor in his current extended family. He is a pure cleric of Goran but has a knack for finding new uses for, and modifications to, old inventions, and he is often consulted when inventors need inspiration or help getting out of a rut.

Latest revision as of 15:00, 11 March 2019

Temples to Goran are always called academies. Various academies exist; most of them tend to be very much like workshops full of tinkered devices with plans for more. Clerics can constantly be seen planning or experimenting. Many experiments are dangerous; for this reason, the temples are often in isolated places and do not get many visitors other than the faithful of Goran.

Clockwork Academy

The masterpiece of the academies is the Clockwork Academy near Vandery on Mistone. Often called the Beehive, this mound of a building is roughly cake-shaped with each successive layer indented from the previous. It forms what looks like a precariously balanced metal edifice surrounded by hills. The Chief Engineer resides here but not on the top floor as one would suspect but on the bottom workshop closest to his Tinkers.

Being the largest and oldest of his academies, the Beehive is the crown jewel of Goran's faith. About 200 years ago, it was even more impressive. The entire structure was designed to rotate like a clock with a shaft down the center of the building catching light and reflecting sharp beams off the notched walls. This made every level its own clock. Inventors busy in their work could simply look at the wall to see what time it was since each level is open around the center shaft with steam-powered gnome risers and de-risers moving the faithful between levels. The power supply was a wonder of magic/technology fusion. Created by the gnome who designed the Clockwork Academy, Nibblit Steamwhistle, this power source, called the Waveril, was a compact mithril triangle suspended between three magnets with a number of conduits snaking off the base and throbbing with Al'Noth energy. Unfortunately, it was stolen by Branderbackian thieves; the Beehive has remained still from that day. (It's a common joke around the halls of the Beehive when asked what time is it to respond half past two since that's when the clock stopped.)

Gnomes being gnomes, the theft was seen as an opportunity to improve the original until it was discovered that the plans had been partially destroyed in an accident. Since then, many gnomes have tried to recreate it, but the exact magical incantations that powered it remain unknown. Unlike the other two largest academies, the Clockwork Academy does not lean toward one area; it's open to all who would revel in the miracle of technological creation. Like the other two academies, special fire- and explosion-proof rooms have been added for safety because of the numerous and often jested about accidents of experimentation, which have been deemed unnecessary with a little precaution.

Chief Engineer Mogwogin Thibble is an aged gnome serving his first time as chief. He is a quietly devoted cleric of Goran and very introverted for a gnome. His inventions speak for themselves' literally. His winning invention is a plate-sized sundial that is powered by a small but complex pendulum system combined with a permanent magical mouth spell to speak the time when one steps close enough to it. While of marginal use to most, to the blind it has proven to be of real value. Chief Engineer Thibble has spent the last 18 years working on improving and finding other uses for his device.

Third Engineer to the Chief Ballyhoo Schematican is the assistant to Engineer Thibble. A tall, broad gnome, he reviews plans, recommends rewards, and does a great deal of paperwork. Perhaps in anticipation of winning his position, his invention was an automatic paper filer that grasps the paper handed to it and deposits it in its proper slot. He is the fifth Schematican to work in higher office and is proud of it.

Windmill Academy

The Windmill Academy, second oldest and second largest of the academies, sits by the Rusty River on Alindor. The Rusty River owes part of its name not just to the colors from the leaves that drop in but also from the metal parts that dip in its flowing waters. The academy draws power both from the everpresent windmills and from water power as well. The Windmill Academy has the first engineer to the chief at the top and a unique reputation as the academy with the best defense of any. Gnomes interested in offensive and defensive capabilities have been drawn here since Second Engineer Gaugen Bushinghook started it a half millennia ago. His specialty was war machines, and his influence has remained in the lethal automated ballistas that are timed to shoot through the windmill blades and the mighty shields of slab iron that can rise from shallow depressions in the grounds to surround the academy. The academy is not coincidentally home to some of the more strong-willed, militant gnomes'not all of them good-natured.

First Engineer to the Chief Madgegit Chimehammer has tinkered with weapons since she was a small girl. Her specialty is finding ways to add damage to seemingly ordinary weapons. Her winning invention is a club using very small and very sturdy gyros to power rotating spikes and specially reinforced to provide maximum bludgeoning damage. Ending a hundred-year span of defensive research, she has shifted the focus to offensive capacity in light of the darkness around the world.

Second Engineer to the First Engineer to the Chief Sniggs Pinclick is the most fanatical of the New Offensives as the younger gnomes inventing weaponry tend to call themselves. He's been working hard on projectile weapons having spent the first 48 years of his training improving crossbows. It was his creation that allows the Windmill to shoot between the blades without damaging them. He will preach both Goran and self-defense through offensive firepower at the drop of a hammer.

Mistone Academy of Innovation

Headed by the Second Engineer to the Chief Engineer, this small but bustling academy is located in the White Horn Forest. Originally a temple to Prunilla built partly into the ground, the Academy of Innovation came about a century ago when the forest encroached and the halflings moved their temple to more cultivated lands. Some clerics of Goran moved in to use the space. After a few dozen years, they had grown to where they needed more leadership. There was tension between the chief engineer at that time and his second engineer over the use of magic with machines. The solution was to send the second engineer to this fledgling academy to help it get started. Since then, the Mistone Academy of Innovation has become a hub of magical invention' fusing the mechanical with the arcane. Many of those working to re-create the Waveril work and pray here. Of the three large academies, this is the one most prone to violent explosion and other catastrophic events. It has become tradition to send the second engineer to the chief to oversee.

Second Engineer to the Chief Engineer Mecha Fobrivit is a young female gnome from a family without a history in the academies. She is motivated and divides her time between divine studies of Goran (inventing) and arcane studies; she often meshes the two. Barely an adult for a gnome, she was considered a prodigy when her age was discovered because of her invention: a water heater that contains and channels both steam and hot water via a medusa-like nest of pipes on the top. The water is heated with a bespelled piece of lava rock that casts a small fireball spell in a chamber underneath the water upon verbal command.

Second Engineer to the Second Engineer to the Chief Kebbin Gongwire the Third is a middle-aged gnome from a long line of mages. He is in fact the first inventor in his current extended family. He is a pure cleric of Goran but has a knack for finding new uses for, and modifications to, old inventions, and he is often consulted when inventors need inspiration or help getting out of a rut.

Maintenance Engineers

While Goran smiles upon those who create and invent, he also extends his love to those who keep the inventions working. A small but hugely important part of each of the three academies (and indeed any community of Goranites) are the men and women who specialize in repair. Not inventors themselves, they take the time to learn an invention and how to maintain and fix it. They have a natural aptitude for the workings of machines and what drives them, but they don't enjoy the creative process like a tinker would. There are roughly a dozen in each academy and at least one in each community, but they all call themselves maintenance engineers. It's not uncommon for a tinker or engineer to turn to them for advice, especially regarding function. There is no leadership per se' in this organization. Those that fix, fix.