Artificer
An artificer is an individual trained under a Guild to create Biofaerics and granted the requisite Faerstone through membership of their Guild. In return, artificers are expected to provide services to their guilds and pay dues. Physically, artificers tend to have telltale streaks of golden scars layered on their body, remnants of Biofaerics once implanted and removed long ago. Some artificers cover these scars in skin-colored makeup to disguise their status, while others take pride of these markings, arranging their Biofaerics to form patterns and filling battle wounds to add to their collections.
The major Artificer Guilds listed below have a presence in most of the major nations, typically with multiple foundries split across major cities. Each is a 15-point Patron that provides hospitality and a contract to purchase Faerstone at a set price dependent on the guild. However, the artificers sworn to the guild are expected to aid the guild if requested, and keep logs on any Biofaerics sold or traded. Dues are typically worked into the cost of purchasing Faerstone, but may be extorted if the guild requires additional funding for large projects.
The Artificers Guilds
The Artificer Guilds are a loose collection of four guilds who hold the secrets to the creation of Faerstone, each claiming to have independently come across this knowledge. While the quality of each's Faerstone is similar, impurities in the production process lead to minor differences in how Eleth can be transmitted. For the most part, the modern guilds keep a tentative peace, keeping to rivalries and the occasional brawl, but destructive wars have been fought in past, and any claims of Faerstone being independently produced is investigated thoroughly lest the secret formulae escapes their hold.The Alton Clan
The Alton Clan were the first artificers to master the creation of Faerstone, using ancient techniques in the depths of volcanic activity. These techniques require specific pressures and temperatures that fluctuate within the volcano, leading to Faerstone activity being unreliable at best. The Alton Clan prefers to act in a covert and calculated manner upon the world stage, rarely interfering with politics except for the clan's gain. They view the other guilds as young, inexperienced, and potentially ruinous, keeping each at a safe distance. There are only five volcanos appropriate for this process, spread out throughout the major mountain ranges of Drisenheim, and the requisite conditions only arise about once a decade. This has led the Alton Clan to form their lives around these fluctuations, going forth from their holds for nine years, before returning to man the forges and foundries for a single, productive year. The Faerstone produced is highly stable and inherently imbued with primordial Eleth. Alton Faerstone can only form bonds with stone, requiring specialized magically-constructed materials for flexible or transparent parts. This inherently triples the weight of any Alton Biofaerics, and removes any ability to camouflage the Biofaerics. However, Alton Faerstone is exceptionally effective at retaining neural bonds, and uses double the subject's Will to determine the maximum number of biofaric points that may be attached; the maximum number of points each biofaric may grant remains at the subject's Will.The Traveler's Guild
The Traveler's Guild is the only guild to have perfected production of Faerstone purely through the use of Elethian Magic, using gate Eleth to create high temperature and pressure systems otherwise impossible to create unnaturally. Unlike the other guilds, the Travelers did not begin as an artificer's guild, but rather a union of Gate mages providing services to the highest echelons of society. The other guilds see the Travelers as imposters who stumbled upon the secrets of Faerstone through blind experimentation, and tend to not include them in official meetings between guilds. Their method of Faerstone production uses gate magic to form closed systems of portals around the constituent elements of Faerstone. As no energy can escape this system, energy can then be added slowly to increase pressure and temperature in a controlled fashion. While agnostic to environments, there are less than a dozen mages capable of performing gate magic precisely enough to produce Faerstone, making this process extraordinary expensive. The Faerstone produced is extraordinarily pure, however, and is typically only used in high-end Biofaerics. Traveler Faerstone cannot form bonds to any substance other than iron or gold and requires specialized magically-constructed materials for flexible or transparent parts. It also is significantly more expensive than the Faerstone of other guilds at $1,100 per gram; thus, Traveler artificers pay $5,500 per biofaric. The price of secondary materials is also increased to an average of $300 * point cost for a +1, and $2,500 * point cost for a +2. In return, artificers who work with traveler Faerstone eliminate up to -5 in penalties before making the final crafting roll.The Laursen Corporation
The most geopolitically active of the guilds, the Laursen Corporation also presides over production and distribution of the Laursen Cannon and derivative technologies. The company was founded by Niels Laursen five decades past, shortly after the discovery and exploitation of Vaplium. Not much is known about Niels Laursen's background and how he came across the secrets of creating Faerstone, not aided by his reclusive behavior and eccentric nature. Laursen Faerstone is created through the use of Vaplium explosives and magically-forged high pressure vessels to create extraordinarily high pressure systems, but the material has a disturbing tendency to produce unexpected and seemingly malevolent results. However, due to the lack of environmental factors and specialized personnel required, Laursen Faerstone is some of the most prevalent Faerstone available, capable of being made in a number of foundries throughout the land, and much cheaper that competing guilds. Laursen Faerstone costs $200 per gram; thus, Laursen artificers pay $1,200 per biofaric. However, the results are unstable; the GM will roll in secret to determine whether the item has any secondary effects. These effects tend to be mind-altering towards the intention of the biofaric, but are rarely lethal or directly harmful. However, inherently mind-altering effects are easier to create with Laursen Faerstone; any Biofaerics primarily imbued with internal, mental Eleth (at the GM's discretion) eliminate -2 in penalties before making the final crafting rolls.The Guild of the Void of the Abyss
Typically referred to as simply "The Abyss" or the "Guild of the Abyss", the Guild of the Void of the Abyss are the most scattered of the four guilds, holding little actual territory or property. They are quite content to keep to themselves along coastlines and in rumored under-ocean cave complexes, seeing many of the problems of the other guilds as inconsequential compared to the study of Faerstone. The other guilds tend to think of Abyssalites as arrogant and naive to the world, which is not helped by the dramatic nature of their name. Their method of Faerstone production uses extremely complex Elethian Magic to generate the necessary heat and pressure required to form Faerstone. However, lacking any place of significant fire Eleth, these rituals are conducted in underground caverns deep within the ocean's depths, and rely entirely on water as a compression medium. This process relieves many of the Faerstone impurities from foreign materials found in other processes, but the strain of the process leads to temperatures variances with their own issues. Abyss Faerstone cannot form proper bonds with metal or glass; rather, wood and water are used as bonding agents. Abyssalites can form water into constants patterns that are frozen in place by the Faerstone, effectively acting as a transparent material resistant to damage. Due to this, Abyss Biofaerics can always be worn under armor and have twice as much HP, but also weight an additional 1lb. Furthermore, it is easier for artificers to work with Abyss Faerstone into natural patterns; if an artificer is creating a biofaric primarily imbued with nature or water Eleth (at the GM's discretion), he may eliminate -2 in penalties before making the final crafting roll.