Mekanos Infinitum
Overview
The Mekanos Infinitum is the mechanical core of Novus. If the Calyx Arcaneum is the beating heart of Novus, then the Mekanos Infinitum is the muscles, bones, and nerves. It is a sprawling expanse of machines, all interconnected that run a number of different functions within the city. All machinery that is core to a function of the city itself is a part of the Mekanos Infinitum, but most people refer to the Mekanos Infinitum as the place were these machines are densest -- in the Iron Ring. Research has shown the the machines link here powered the city's propulsion, teleportation, advanced defenses, and a number of other functions that have yet to be determined, much less repaired to even functional now. This is why, in part, the Mekanos Infinitum -- the Infinite Machine -- is called as such: More and more if it continues to be discovered and more and more functions continue to be determined.
Discovery
The Mekanos Infinitum has always been a part of Novus, core to its function. It was presumably assembled around the Calyx Arcaneum as a part of the founding of Novus and has been continually functional is some part ever since. The Mekanos Infinitum's function is thought to be a perfect machine -- a machine that will never cease function barring catastrophe. Even the fall could not stop the function of the machines, which continued to function (barely) after the fall.
Access/Availability
A strong contingent of the Ironworkers Guild and the Gearworkers Guild have a presence repairing and maintaining the Mekanos Infinitum. Their purpose here is more than often based around discovery, learning, and undertanding, which aligns them artificers of the Deerai Collective. Workers who are here are properly trained and vetted by a team led by Arbidon Wentzler, who uses his position as Bearer of the Brass Ring of Ironworks to lead reconstruction efforts and gain a deeper understanding of how the various machines of the Mekanos Infinitum work together.
Most people interface with part of the Mekanos Infinitum without realzing it. The Mekanos Infinitum continues in all directions away from the Calyx Arcaneum, linked to machinery on all levels of Novus. This is controversial for some -- such as the deeply religous who view The Mekanos Infinitum with a degree of suspicion. These people often hold the luddite view that these machines and similar such advances are an afront to the gods and the reason why Vespala was punished with the fall. Believers in Ezrithel are stalwart deniers that the Mekanos Infinitum machinery within the Jade Ring is responsible for the unnatural growth rate, soil stability, and productivity of all Novus agriculture, instead holding that the Wellspring's continued bountiful blessings are at work. People who hold these beliefs are deeply opposed to efforts to understand, repair, and reactivate sections of the Mekanos Infinitum.
The Mekanos Infinitum is a source of riches for those who dare to enter its unmapped regions. Long burried or lost areas of Novus are within this massive substructure, containing lost technologies and treasures. There are often expeditions of treasure hunters who enter the Mekanos Infinitum and never return.
Complexity
The Mekanos Infinitum bears a complexity beyond comprehesion, relying on an understanding of technology that has been lost to time. Endless arrays of cogs, valves, tubing, pistons, struts, and others weave and interconnect, sometimes without logic (at least by today's standards) and thier very nature eludes the best minds in Novus. It is estimated that even now, hundreds of years after the fall, only about 30% of the Mekanos Infinitum is discovered, mapped out, and understood. Only 20% is active and powered. Arbidon Wentzler's research team is ardent in their pursuit to understand this machinery, hoping that a breakthrough could accelerate this process.
Manufacturing
No one is certain how the Mekanos Infinitum was constructed. It is presumed that most of it was built using principles from ancient Sorati. Replacement parts developed by Arbidon Wentzler's team have often failed, even though they by every measure should now.
The Mekanos Infinitum & the Gearforged
The Mekanos Infinitum is of particular interest to the Gearforged. The Gearforged do not reproduce, but rather, new gearforged are found, recovered, and reactivated from within the depths of the Infinitum. These gearforged who are "born" are often found by the Axiom Rangers, a group of skilled explorers of the Infinitum from Axiom who take on this task. Other gearforged simply awaken within the Infinitum and stumble out from its depths deeply confused, only to be recovered by outposts within the Iron Ring.
The Mekanos Infinitum is the only known source of vital gearforged parts -- namely everwound springs, memory gears, congnition relays, and raw mythral used to house the soul crystal within gearforged. As these parts age and decay within Gearforged, they functionally limit the lifespan of the Gearforged.
Defenses
The Mekanos Infinitum contains a number of internal defenses, including fixed turrents, traps, pitfalls, and creatures that are mechanized (and many that are not mechanized) that travel the reorganizing chambers of the Mekanos Infinitum. Because of this, traversal is incredibly difficult. It can easily take days to simply travel anywhere in the infinitum, between its labyrinthine passages and many defenses.
Utility
Manufacturing
Social Impact
The Mekanos Infinitum is central to a controversial debate at play within Novus -- reconstruction and its goals. Officially, the mandate from the Brass Ring of Novus is to restore a level of function to the Mekanos Infinitum that can keep the city stable, comfortable, and functional. Anything beyond this has been strictly prohibited, though staunch advocates for reconstruction view continued work to be necessary to Novus's survival.
Generally speaking, the stances on the Mekanos Infinitum are:
- The Brass Ring of Novus wants to maintain its current function, which has affored a level of prosperity and equilibrium to Novus.
- The Council of the Hallowed Abbey wishes to see the Mekanos Infinitum's reconstruction efforts halted. The most extreme within this view are advocating for the complete demolishing of it.
- The Deerai Collective wishes to understand it for the development of Novus. Not everyone within the Collective is unified on their thoughts about restoration, save for the highest ranking artificers, inventors, and engineers, who see it as essential. These vocal supports wishi to see Novus fly the skies and cross the planes once again.
- The Brass Spears of Novus are supportive of reconstruction efforts so long as military and defensive purposes are served primarily. As miasma storms and monster attacks have become more frequent, their support for the reconstruction efforts has grown.
- The Adamantine Wayfinders have given tepid support of the reconstruction process, but ultimately see it as a distraction from their beliefs that Novus most grow beyond her boundaries to survive in the long run. If understanding the Mekanos Infinitum can help this objective, then the reconstruction efforts have their support.
In general, thoughts about what to do have widely polarized Novus's citizens, though more often than not, concerns about the Mekanos Infinitum are drowned out by more immediate social or public policy concerns. When times of unrest come, the reconstructionists are quick to quietly push their objectives while the public and other institutions are distracted.
