Society of the Noble Arts
Established shortly after the founding of the Kalmasan Samraj, the Society of the Noble Arts is a society of high semioticians who teach alchemy and enchanting and provide material and intellectual support to dues paying members. The society was created as the first rebellion against the hegemony of the ancient Vidvanya jen Dharmu over the study of high semiotics. Its founders were former students and instructors who chafed at the restrictions and semi-religious trappings of the Vidvanya.
The Vidvanya's attempts at outlawing the organization failed due to the influence of the wealthy merchant and noble houses of the Samraj who saw the benefits of having a source of semiotic goods and services without the moral quibbling of the Vidvanya and at lower prices. Graduates of the society are highly sought out by the wealthy and some establish themselves as masters with apprentices and journeymen manufacturing common goods for consumption by the general public.
Members learn the secrets of chemical weapons that the Vidvanya refuses to have dealings in, such napalm, as well as poisons of powder, liquid, oil and aerosol forms. Many of these goods are highly illegal and are punishable by death in some provinces. However oversight is poor and smuggling of such goods is rampant throughout the Samraj and abroad.
The creation of such alchemical goods and devices but a means to an end to the elite of the Society. Their chief focus and what the Society is beginning to be famous for is the creation of semiotic constructs, combining semiotically enhanced components into advanced semio-mechanical systems. The most advanced examples of this technology currently in fashion in wealthy houses across Kalmasa are the automatons.
These complex and outrageously expensive devices take the shape of everything from small birds to child sized humanoids. They are capable of moving in a somewhat natural fashion, following instructions to perform rote tasks, having simple conversations or playing instruments. Scholars of the Vidvanya jen Dharmu criticize the devices as a sign of the Society's base pursuit of profit and fame, instead of being truly devoted to discovering the deeper laws governing semiotics and doing so in an ethical manner. Some of the older semioticians of the Vidvanya refuse to believe that the automatons are purely semiotic creations and that such complexity is not possible without resorting to illegal necromancy by imprisoning a spirit within the mechanism. This accusation is flatly denied and causes Society members to roll their eyes and mock their critics as jealous and backwards.
Comments