Sprigstein Printing Press Invented

Technological achievement

The Springstein Printing Press was invented by a team of Dwarven metallurgists and devout worshipers of Rixa, during the golden age of Vytali's Era, and quite possibly contributed to the spread of ideas that lead to the ultimate downfall of the old monarchies.

The Sprigstein Printing Press was invented by Dwarven Rixa worshippers in Sprigstein in the Acronian Sea, originally as a means of easily printing chemical symbols, as its inventors were metallurgists, but it was quickly expanded to cover the full Dwarven alphabet so that charts and graphs could be made and distributed to different academies, and so eventually entire academic reference journals could be reproduces.   Shortly after printed books gained popularity, the first Acronian publishing houses were founded, and published books became popular among the higher classes. Unfortunately, these houses were bought up by a small group of nobles who coveted the technology, and formed the first interstate printing guild, Jadenhelm House, that holds a strong monopoly on the printed book market to this day. As a result, many books are available in print, but scribes around the world do still copy books by hand as well.   Much to the dismay of many aspiring authors, books printed or written remain a rarity to the common man. They are accessible to anyone willing to save for them, or to upper class citizens, but they remain predominantly uncommon.