Machinaria

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Machinaria

Shireroth2.png
Feudal Status: Unspecified, but mostly corresponded to the County of Caverden
Capital: Citadel
Largest Cities: Citadel, Dolorous, Fortis, Maltenstein

Local Leadership Title: None, ruled by the Asynchronous Assemblage of Wills
Local Government: Leadership by ruling council
Current leader: Discontinued

Local language: English
Local Religion: Cedrism, Machine God worship

The Technocracy Machinaria was the dominant society of the county of Caverden as well as some surrounding counties between its formal foundation in ASC 4046 and the rise of the Lichgraviate in ASC 4563.

Machinaria combined largely atomic era technology - for instance transportation blimps and nuclear steam trains - with extensive human enhancement technology, into a generally positive, humanistic and well-functioning democratic society. The Machinarian ideal of humanity, and the basis of its culture and government, was the Divine Mandate of the Machine God, a list of five commandments exhorting peole toward personal excellence and laying down for the functioning of society.

Throughout its existence, Machinaria grappled with questions about the balance between humanity and different interpretations of the Machine God's nature. Should human enhancement technology be mass produced and the adepti become a majority rather than a tiny group of 50-100 specialists? Should the Meshed Lands, strange places in some of the mountain valleys where the distinction between living things and machines is blurred, be protected and used only for research and economic gain, or should they be allowed to expand, or should they be destroyed for safety? What to make of the underground capital of Citadel, and the constant encroachment of exhausting heat and pollution caused by the expanding industry?

History

The overall string of events leading to the foundation of Machinaria is still a topic of debate among historians.

One widely accepted theory, described for instance by Adeptus Laszlo, places the source at the secession of Elwynn and Straylight in 4016. Not nearly all Elwynnese and Straylightians were happy with the secession decisions, and when the loyalists moved into Shireroth, Caverden became one of the biggest attractors of immigration almost by accident: A poorly developed society of pastoralists and miners at the time, the sudden influx of new citizens - many of them either Elwynnese with Hyperborean training in rationality and ethics, or skilled engineers from Straylight - nearly led to social collapse in the short run, but in the following decades, brought about a rebirth of urbanisation and industrialisation.

It is not known who originally wrote the Divine Mandate of the Machine God. Contemporary sources state that the rules simply appeared in some form in the data storage of nearly every computing system within several hundred kilometers of Citadel, whether connected to a network or not. Some stories have Alexi as the original author, but it is not known how she could have caused the original propagation without infiltrating a large majority of the electronics industry decades in advance.

Economy

Machinaria was and remains a prosperous, highly industrialised society deriving its wealth mainly from manufacturing, mining and steel exports. The Crestfall mountain range is rich particularly in in iron, nickel, bauxite and chromium, and the Machinarian steel industry at its peak produced over 16 million metric tonnes of steel a year - even under the extensive green regulation springing from the first commandment in the Divine Mandate of the Machine God.

Even with extensive automation, the single job title of steelworker has been shared for centuries by nearly a full percent of the county's entire population. Chemical and manufacturing industry as well as engineering services employ much of the urban population.

Another source of wealth is the Meshed Lands. Despite the dangers involved, limited logging and simple foraging in the Meshed Lands is the traditional livelihood of many outlying villages. Produce from the Meshed Lands sometimes behaves in anomalous and possibly dangerous ways, but much of it is psychoactive and addictive in one way or another, which tends to ensure a constant market of curious, wealthy consumers.

Later development

The political structure of Machinaria was dismantled in the rise of the Lichgraviate, which after some political instability ended up establishing itself as the Duchy of Lichbrook. The Adepti remain in their role as semi-independent transhuman specialists, formally charged with stewardship over the Meshed Lands by Lichgravial decree, but actual authority is vested in the Lichgravial hierarchy. The effect of the Lichgraviate, from the introduction of the cheap zombot laborers to the unusual design tastes of the leader herself, has changed the face of Machinaria.