Managlou-Dube Printing Press

Dimatina Managlou was a nun. Day in, day out, she copied Oi Lexias in Old Kardian script. Her forms were perfect, her hands stained black with ink. Every chapter began with an magnificent illumination. She turned The Words of the Almighty into a work of art.
She was bored out of her goddamn mind.
Sure, she had enjoyed it at first. It was the whole reason she became a nun. The letters held a certain beauty to her. She loved the low swoops of the 'hus,' the sharp points of the 'ois.' Even her illuminations were getting better. But there was only so many times she could write out just how much The Almighty loved you before you just needed to do something else.
So, in the evenings, when her transcribing was finished for the day, Managlou would set down her quill and pick up a pencil. She told the story of Diamanta Manakou, an ex-nun turned adventurer who journeyed around the land, finding new mysteries and new lovers everywhere she went. It wasn't the most pious of pursuits, nor was the writing worth writing about, but they were something new. Nobody else was putting anything to paper besides Oi Lexias. And in the words of Diamanta Manakou, "Any dock will do."*
Managlou quickly developed a devoted following amongst her fellow nuns. When a copy found its way outside the convent, she suddenly had a devoted following in the surrounding town. Soon, Managlou was making as many copies of the Manakou Mysteries as she was Oi Lexias. While she was glad people liked her work, the constant copying was cutting into her true love, coming up with new stories.
She stumbled upon a solution when a wandering goldsmith came to town. Daza Dube had seen three separate businesses go belly-up back in Inkazimulo. Sick of the constant failure, he packed everything left to him in cart and headed south west. He set up shop near Managlou's convent, where he started experimenting with wine presses, of all things. And against all odds, he became successful at it. The convent hired him to build some for their grape crop, which is how he met Managlou. She, half-joking, wished she could just press the words of the holy book onto the page and squeeze out the ink. Dube, missing the half-joking, said it might be possible, but you'd need...
After a fevered brainstorming session, a partnership was formed. Dube handled the technical details and Managlou gave the project purpose. It took five years and a couple more failures to add to Dube's list, but they managed. The final prototype could ink all three-hundred pages of Oi Lexias in about three hours, technically all in Managlou's hand; she had provided the font for the typeset. The original model was used exclusively for the holy book, but Dube built another two for the Manakou Mystery novels. It was hard to say which was more popular.
By the end of the first year of production, an estimated one thousand holy books and five hundred smutty mystery novels were making their way around Kardia. Other writers began showing up on Dube's doorstep, asking for their books to be put through the miracle machine. Almost overnight, he found himself purchasing a bigger workshop, building more presses, all to keep up with demand. Managlou left/was kicked out of her convent, and she began to write at a feverish pace. At some point, the two business partners were married. Money was coming in hand over fist. Life was good for Managlou and Dube.
Then, people started reading Oi Lexias. Actually reading it for the first time, not just letting priests tell them what was in it. They started noticing some problems. Contradictions, hypocrisy, outdated values, spelling errors. How was this the undisputable word of The Almighty?
Kardia broke down. Two factions arose. The Readers, those who accepted Oi Lexias as it was, and The Writers, those that wanted to update the holy book. One side held the printing press as the dawn of new era, while the other declared it as a tool of the Shadow. Unfortunately for them, Managlou and Dube found their factory smack in the middle of Reader territory. One night they were woken up by an angry mob outside their home. Grabbing only their latest prototype, they fled out the back door. After a week of adventure worthy of a Manakou Mystery, the two were in the court of the King of Brazo , asking for asylum. Pedro the Third graciously granted it, even providing funds for them to start over. The king's court was in love with them. Even his personal chef took interest in the device. Things started to look up for them again. Managlou's writing output increased, as she started a new series about a dashing inventor who traveled the world, getting into trouble and into ladies beds.
But the companeros were a jealous bunch, always jockeying for the king's favor. One of them came to Dube with a pamphlet smearing a rival. The price was just about right, so he completed the order and thought nothing of it. Until the rival showed up on his doorstep, his own pamphlet and an even bigger bag of gold in hand. Back and forth, the two went until they snapped. Their duel turned into a brawl that grew into a riot. King Pedro, while attempting to staunch the violence, was struck by a flying rock and killed. The army was eventually called into settle the city. The king's daughter, the newly crowned Queen Estrella the Third began banishing everyone she thought was involved. Including the printer who published the slanders and his wife. The couple headed east hoping for new lands.
Times were tough for a while. In Vraecur and Brust they had to sell the rights to their patent, just so they could eat. When they finally reached Inkazimulo, they were in rags. And they stumbled right into the first Barrutia Night. The king's chef they had met in El Brazo, Artitza Barrutia, had left the court and gone collecting recipes around the world. She'd become quite famous in her journeys, to the point that the empress had invited her to hold a feast, with dishes from every corner of the empire. Barrutia invited the couple to join her at the feast. She had big plans for her book, and she needed the printing press to pull it off. The three of them worked out a plan, while Managlou and Dube set up a shop here in Inkazimulo, Barrutia would finish her journeys, getting recipes from 'the legs'. Then she would return and they would print the "Oi Lexias of food." Everyone would grow rich and old together. When Barrutia Night was a great success, the empress agreed to finance the plan. Life was rosy once more. A cross-over of Manakou Mysteries and Indube the Inventor was released to great critical and commercial success.
But Barrutia never returned. Something happened in Kakiatas, and Barrutia disappeared with her book. The empress finally heard what had happened in El Brazo and quietly withdrew funding. The Temple heard what had happened in Kardia and decreed that their scripture could only be copied by hand. The opportunists heard about what happened in Brust and Vraecur and began circling like sharks. Managlou started drinking, "just to help the creativity flow."
Then the Kardian ambassador showed up on their doorstep. The Writers had won the war, Kardia was a republic, the new holy book was ready for printing. Managlou and Dube were brought back to the town where it all began to find a statue of Diamantia Manakou smiling down on them. They were national heroes, prophets of revolution. Their creation had reforged a country, and Kardia was just the start. Brust was circulating Das Eiche's Ninety-Five and rumors of a Writer revolt were brewing. Vraecur had seen a sudden flood of philosophical writings, questioning the nature of the soul. Even in Inkazimulo, where the priests sat at the right hand of the empress, scientists were publishing ideas that contradicted the gospels at an astonishing rate.
An enlightenment was sweeping Elcadaver, all because one bored nun wanted more time to write romantic mystery novels.
*Given the context of the scene, this is commonly accepted as a typo.

Inventor(s)

Daza Dube and Dimatina Managlou.

Access & Availability

Every town larger than a postage stamp has at least one, usually owned by the local newspaper.