At the dawn of known civilization, when Atlantis had long since passed into legend, Sleepers still knew that some men worked miracles. They chained the storm-wind in their bellows to send it roaring into the furnace. Kissed by the fire’s ardor, dull ore sweated drops of shining metal. The smith shaped this metal with hammer and tongs, and then quenched it in water. A hundred useful things came from the forge: barrel-hoops and buckles, pins and plowshares. The smith knew the secrets of shining silver and heart-gladdening gold, the soft service of copper, tin and lead and the resilience of bronze. Most of all, though, he knew the secrets of iron. Not a pretty metal, but a strong one; the perfect metal for the swords and armor that made one man master over his fellows — and it fell from the sky.
Around the world, therefore, common folk and kings saw the smith as a figure of magic — because, of course, he was. Long before Egypt, Sumer or China, the mages of Atlantis wrought wonders in their forges of power. Smith-gods such as Greek Hephaistos, Celtic Goibniu or Yoruban Ogoun preserve a faint memory of their deeds. The mortal smiths remembered, too. They knew their Art revealed a sacred, Supernal truth: in creating tools, the smith did more than change the substance or shape of matter. He imbued matter with purpose, making it an extension of human thought and human will. This metaphysical change was at least as great and wonderful a miracle as the production of metal from ore.
Appearance: Forge Master practices involve a great deal of physical exertion, so there are no weaklings in the Legacy. Young or old, slim or fat, they have broad shoulders and a powerful grip.While working at the forge, a Powersmith wears heavy leather gloves and a heavy leather apron that reaches from his shoulders to his knees. This protects him against sparks and the forge’s heat. He also wears a patch over one eye, so an accident cannot blind him completely. Forge Masters often tool their eyepatch with a personal symbol, as a sort of badge of office. Even when they aren’t working, Forge Masters usually prefer simple, sturdy clothing.
For some Powersmiths, it’s almost a mark of pride to show up at Consilium meetings and other formal occasions dressed in spark-scorched denim and leather while everyone else is in their “Sunday best.” Forge Masters who prefer jewelry work usually dress more upscale; the two factions rib each other over their fashion sense.
History
The Forge Masters don’t keep much history; or rather, they say their history consists of the things they made, not the people who made them. The Legacy’s lore is mostly oral and practical: how to recognize different alloys, how long to heat particular ores, different styles of metalwork and who used them. The great Powersmiths of the past are known through the items they enchanted and the personal hallmarks they stamped on their work. The Forge Masters know their Legacy is very old, though, because it occurs wherever people smelt metal from ore.
In Atlantis, the Forge Masters say, their Legacy did not exist as such. Matter responded to enlightened Will. All mages could do all things if they chose. Some mages simply developed greater skill at working with metal — and those mages wrought wonders. They also discovered the perfected metals such as orichalcum and lunargent. Some Atlantean artifacts suggest a half-technological magic of devices built from crystals and perfected metals: flying ships powered by sorcerous engines, weapons that fired lightning bolts from crystal rods and many other strange devices.When the warring Atlanteans broke the world, the wonder-smiths lost their greatest powers. The arts that remained to them, however, seemed mighty enough to simple Sleepers. The Atlanteans and their heirs still wrought wonders that mythology would ascribe to gods and demigods, such as the dwarf-forged hammer Mjollnir, or the maidens of living gold who served Hephaistos.
As magic faded from the world, the heirs of Atlantis had to re-invent their spells and rely more on mundane artifice. Nevertheless, their power remained great enough that even Sleeper smiths were treated as magicians — and similar to all magicians, the smiths inspired fear and contempt as well as awe and respect. In many cultures, blacksmith families were deemed of royal or even godly descent. In just as many other cultures, blacksmiths were suspected of knowing curses or called unclean for the sweat and grime of their profession.
Many of the rotes known to Forge Masters reflect this mythic age. Powersmiths sometimes ascribe their techniques of enchantment to divine smiths such as Hephaistos or Ogoun, the dwarf-smith Alberich and the faerie-smith Wayland or legendary mortals such as Daedalus or Tubalcain. The Forge Masters can point to more than myths, however, as evidence of their presence in the ancient world. Etruscan goldwork, for instance, is sometimes covered with nearly microscopic gold granules somehow soldered on without melting them. A temple in India holds a huge pillar of rustproof cast iron made in a time and place when supposedly neither iron-casting nor rustproof alloys were known.
Medieval blacksmiths lost a lot of prestige. More of them worked for common people, making everyday tools and imple-ments. Armor and weapons became specialized crafts with their own practitioners. On the other hand, workers in silver and gold such as Cellini became famous as individuals for the first time. The Forge Masters lost prestige among fellow mages, too.
Perhaps the most momentous change, however, came when blacksmiths started making precision machines. The techniques developed for articulated suits of armor also enabled smiths to craft mechanical toys for royal patrons — or the first clocks driven by pendulums or springs.
Society and Culture
The Forge Masters are completely decentralized. They have no offices beyond tutor and pupil. Even their “guilds” are so informal they barely exist. In the Western world at least, no Powersmith has the authority to gainsay another’s judgment about how to train an apprentice or when to bring another mage into the Legacy. By the same token, the Legacy has no serious internal divisions: clashes between members stay personal.
Less accomplished Forge Masters do show respect for smiths who have progressed further in the Legacy; that’s just good sense. After all, you may need the senior Powersmith’s help to gain your next Attainment, if something happens to your current tutor. More experienced Forge Masters also know trade secrets they may impart if suitably flattered (and a little tipsy).
Titles are similarly informal. Tutor and pupil are generally called master and apprentice, regardless of their Arcana proficiencies. Once a pupil receives his first Attainment, other Powersmiths may address him as “journeyman” until he achieves his second Attainment. Forge Masters often assume the names of mythical or legendary smiths such as Sindri (the dwarf who forged Thor’s hammer Mjollnir) or Hua Kuang Fo (the Chinese god of silversmiths and goldsmiths). Personal ancestors who worked with metal are another common choice.
In other parts of the world, Forge Masters and their guilds may behave more formally. Some cultures still believe in magic and the blacksmith’s special status. In West Africa, for instance, blacksmiths sometimes belong to secret societies devoted to Ogoun (or similar gods). A society that claims a Forge Master as its leader gains great prestige, and Forge Masters themselves show great respect for members with higher Attainments. West African Forge Masters learn a copious body of myths, secret passwords and symbols as they advance from Attainment to Attainment. These secrets include spells and rotes, the names of spirits that may assist or hinder their work and legends about great Forge Masters. All in all, West African Powersmiths take their guilds and ranks quite seriously.
Whatever their culture, however, the Forge Masters keep a distinctly working-class attitude and sympathies. They do not try to isolate themselves from the common people. Even in places where blacksmith clans claim descent from ancient kings, Forge Masters still work for a living. In West Africa, for instance, the Ogoun societies have become significant advocates for the common people against political or tribal elites — which puts the local Forge Masters in conflict with mages who cultivate the local ruling classes.
Powersmiths in the "civilized" world seldom entangle themselves in politics, either among Sleepers or the local Consilium: tutors often advise their pupils that every other mage is a potential client, so it’s best to stay neutral and sell to everyone. Most mages accept the Forge Masters’ neutrality. Not all mages respect the Legacy, though. Mages who get caught up in the “few and the proud” elitism of being Awakened find the Powersmiths disgracefully common and close to the Sleepers. Such attitudes are perhaps most frequent among the Guardians of the Veil and the worst elements of the Silver Ladder, which exist for domination and control, but every order has its snobs.
The Power of Iron
For centuries, Western scientists doubted that stones and metal fell from the sky, but ancient peoples knew this perfectly well. The Sumerian word for iron loosely translates as “star-stone,” and the Greek “siderite” has the same meaning. The metal from the sky obviously came from the gods and so was used for sacred blades; bits of iron were set in gold like jewels. Even after the Hittites learned to smelt iron, meteoric iron retained special value because of its celestial origin — plus, iron didn’t rust, a property now ascribed to its nickel content.
For thousands of years, mortal blacksmiths could not actually liquefy iron. They charged their furnaces with ore and charcoal. Weeks later, they pulled out a spongy mass of iron still mixed with sand, slag and other bits of mineral that wouldn’t burn away. The smith had to hammer these impurities out of the hot metal.
Blacksmiths thought the spongy iron looked like a plant, so they called it a “bloom.” Every iron-working culture developed the same conceit: iron, and other metals, slowly grew in the earth as a refinement or perfection of common stone. The heat of the furnace accelerated this growth into a higher and purer form; the furnace itself was a man-made womb where the generation of life took place. By speeding the work of nature, surely the smelter had worked magic — or even seized the fire of divinity itself.
Iron’s new birth within the furnace did little to reduce the awe attached to the metal from the stars. Homer contrasted “democratic iron” with the bronze of aristocrats’ weapons and armor — but no one ever imagined that bronze would kill spirits or bring luck.
Some Forge Masters give iron a different primacy. Iron nails held Christ to the Cross. Through the iron of Calvary, a single death led to life eternal.
Whatever their faith, Forge Masters see iron as the greatest of metals. It is the metal of life and death conjoined. Iron gives humanity dominion over nature, and enslaves them to other men. Iron is power itself.
Magic
The Forge Masters see toolmaking as an innately magical act — the first magic, in fact, practiced long before Atlantis. A tool consists of more than its form and substance. A tool has purpose. Mages can detect that purpose, too, in the form of resonance. Forge Masters believe that when mages enchant objects, they build upon that resonance.
Arcana
By the nature of their Legacy, Forge Masters must study Matter and Prime: Matter for changes of form and substance, and Prime for imbuements of power. Of course, they do not limit themselves to those Arcana. All Arcana have value for the spells a Forge Master can imbue into an item, but a few have special value for helping them do their job.
Fate can link a tool or weapon to a specific person: the item knows its proper owner and does not grant its power to anyone else. More ominously, Forge Masters can create weapons fated to slay particular creatures — or people. The wonders from a Powersmith’s forge may also carry curses that fall upon people who wield them for improper ends.
Forces can amplify the impact of a weapon. Once upon a time, Powersmiths forged flaming swords and lightning-javelins for heroes to wield in their battles. Such enchantments are still known; the Paradoxes these weapons attract make them less useful than in days of yore. Forge Masters often study Forces, however, to protect themselves from the terrible heat of their furnaces and the metal they shape. Some ancient recipes for wonder-smithing require the use of an erupting volcano as a forge, as if the Powersmith were Hephaistos himself.
Spirit, however, is probably the Arcanum most valued by Forge Masters, outside of their Path and Legacy. They don’t care much about spirits per se (though a few Powersmiths craft fetish items or treat with spirits of mining, smelting or craftsmanship), but Powersmiths need this Arcanum to create orichalcum, lunargent and the other perfected metals they use in their finest work.
Induction
As a Legacy, the Forge Masters set no formal requirements a recruit must meet, beyond the necessary competence at metalwork and the Arcana of Matter and Prime. Each master decides on his own whether to accept an apprentice, and helps shape his student’s soul when the master thinks the student is ready. No Forge Master has the authority to question another Forge Master’s judgment in this respect.
In practice, Powersmiths usually demand apprenticeship before inducting a mage into the Legacy. Helping an apprentice to craft his soul is quite a drastic expenditure on a Forge Master’s part, comparable to forging an imbued item. They do not expend their own soul’s force lightly. Hard work pays the tutor in advance, and makes sure the prospective Powersmith really, truly wants to devote his life to the Legacy. It also gives the tutor and pupil a chance to discover any personality conflicts before what may be a lifetime’s work together.
Initiating a new Forge Master is the Legacy’s most elaborate ritual. The tutor builds a special furnace of stone and clay, using no magic whatsoever and no tools he did not forge himself. A hollow in the furnace floor holds a cup of the tutor’s own blood and as much tass as he can collect.The apprentice climbs into the furnace. He carries a nail of siderite. The tutor fires the furnace with Mana, using the spells “Celestial Flame” and “Channel Mana”, and seals the apprentice inside. The spell-fire is modulated to cause pain but not serious damage. The apprentice drives the siderite nail through one wrist and lets his blood fall into the spell-fire to mingle with his tutor’s blood. Then he meditates as his tutor channels the spell-fire into his body and soul, until the pupil absorbs all the Mana he can, charged with the resonance of blood, iron and fire.The tutor breaks open the furnace. The pupil steps forth, glowing with spell-fire, and the Forge Master strikes the pupil with a phantasmal hammer of Mana imbued with the pupil’s own soul-pattern. The Powersmith literally hammers his apprentice’s soul into a new form. At the end, the pupil leaps into a waiting bath of cold water and lets the Mana flood out of him in a rush. Thus does he temper his own soul and lock it into the Legacy’s pattern. When he emerges, the siderite nail is gone — consumed along with the tass. The tutor destroys the furnace and may even disintegrate its stones, so it shall never be used for any purpose less sacred.
The third Attainment involves a similar rite. This time, however, the pupil stabs his other wrist with a nail of thaumium.
The fifth Attainment involves a third sojourn in the furnace, but the Forge Master stabs his own side with a blade of electrum magicum, the alloy of all seven perfected metals.
The initiation of a new Forge Master is a big event in the Legacy. Since an initiation is usually scheduled months in advance, other Powersmiths have plenty of time to learn about the ceremony. Even if the tutor doesn’t belong to a guild, several other Forge Masters probably attend to watch and toast the new Powersmith.
Doctrine
Parent Path: Moros
Prerequisites: Matter 2, Prime 2, Crafts 3
Initiation: See Above
Magic
Ruling Arcanum: Prime
Yantras: Succeed on a Crafts roll relevant to the spell (+2), spend a short moment preparing all of your tools for the spell (+1), spend time preparing the subject to receive your spell (+2), exhaust yourself in your devotion to your Willworking (+1, +2 if this imposes a negative Condition).
Oblations: Smelting your own metal from ore you dug yourself. Using that metal to make a tool or weapon for a client, in one day. Forging a small item and quench it in blood. Melting down scrap metal to make something both useful and beautiful. Repairing a weapon or armor that was damaged in battle so it’s as good as new.
Attainments
First Attainment: The Evaluation
Prerequisite: Initiation
The first ability a Forge Master leans it the ability to detect the Supernal power hidden within phenomenal matter. As an instant Action, the Forge Master can ask a number of questions about a visible enhanced item, imbued item, or artifact equal to his dots in Prime. These questions must be related to its nature as a Magical item, and can extend to the capacity of the Mage who crafted it, if one did. If the subject is not such an item, the Forge Master is aware of that fact.
Supernal Vision, limited to “items”, and as such granted the twin benefits of sensory range, and ‘who made it’-questioning, as a Forge Master is more likely than most to be able to detect the workmanship of another.
Optional Arcanum: Matter 1
In addition to the Supernal elements of the subject, with a closer, physical inspection the Forge Master is also capable of determining the subject’s exact chemical composition, weight and density, as well as all other physical aspects of a subject, such as its durability, conductivity, etc.
Discern Composition, reach into Instant Casting. Got to use touch-range for this one, nothing to exchange for the each bonus here.
Second Attainment: The Master’s Hand
Prerequisite: Prime 2, Matter 2, Craft 4
The knowing hand of a master craftsman can work away slight imperfections in a tool, enhancing its performance. A knife becomes sharper, a gun better balanced, a car handles better, a hairpin can even become a better lockpick. With a scene’s worth of maintenance, the Forge Master can enhance a physical object, bringing it close to its Supernal ideal. For a period equal to the Mage’s dots in the lower of Prime or Matter on the Advanced Duration table, the modified object grants the 8-again trick to all dice rolls for which it is used. This extends to the use of Tools as Yantras in spells, and the activation rolls for Imbued Items.
Find the Balance and As Above, So Below, with one free reach into Advanced Duration, then I limited it to physical items which can be worked on in order to get another free Reach to turn it into 8-agains.
Third Attainment: Primal Tempering
Prerequisite: Prime 3, Craft 5
As a Powersmith rises in master, he can strengthen the power of will and purpose in any man-made object to make it realer than real, capable of cutting through the skein of creation. Such items become physically “real” to all manner of Ephemeral being, including Ghosts, Spirits, Goetia, Strix, and even so-called “Angels”. To use this Attainment, the Powersmith must work on the subject item for a scene, empowering its reality with his own force of will and his Awakened soul. Such effects last for a duration equal to the Powersmith’s dots in Prime on the Advanced Duration Table, and can affect objects of up to size 5. However, this is capable of functioning on “parts” of a greater whole. Such as the bumper of a car for example.
Ephemeral Enchantment, reach into advanced duration.
Optional Arcanum: Matter 3
In addition to enhancing the item’s capacity to affect all levels of reality, the Mage may also refine its physical effect, increasing the item bonus (or damage for weapons) of a Tempered item by 2, or 3 with Matter 4. This can only increase such item’s bonus or damage to a maximum of 5, and lasts for the same duration as the main element of the Attainment.
Simple boost to Weapon Bonus.
Fourth Attainment: Supernal Refinement
Prerequisite: Prime 4, Matter 4, Craft 6
Base, fallen matter is a worthy material, however Forge Masters practice with one with far more power, Perfected Materials. In a scene-long process of refinement and imbuing, the Power Smith may refine a metal into its purified form. This permanently transforms an amount of metal of up to size 5 into its Perfected state. Having Forged this material himself using his very soul, should the Forge Master then attempt to use the Imbue Item attainment on it, he gains the 8-again trick to his dice pool.
Hone the Perfected Form, with the original +2 Reach option, reintroduced because this is an Attainment which can break the rules a little bit. Added in the 8-again to give Prime something at this dot-level, and an excellent shot at a free relinquishment of an Imbued Item.
Fifth Attainment: Primal Forge
Prerequisite: Prime 5, Craft 7
At the apex of the Legacy’s power, a Forge Master no longer needs a forge. He has so internalized the power of toolmaking that he can conjure weapons, armor or simple mechanical devices from pure Mana or tass. As an Instant Action, the Powersmith can generate a physical object of size 5 or less, and has a number of points to divide between increasing its item bonus, its durability, or its uses. This creation lasts for a single day, before dissipating back into nothingness. In addition, any uses of the item gain the 8-again trick. If the Powersmith takes a scene to activate this attainment, he can also imbue this item with Primal Tempering, however in addition it can be specified as a specific “Bane” of an Ephemeral entity. No matter its capacity, this item only requires 1 Mana to create, and only contains one mana, and this point cannot be extracted at any time, it is stretched too thin by the Mage’s own soul to be recovered.
Optional Arcanum: Matter 5
Having forged the tass-skeleton for his creation, a Powersmith who is also a Master of Matter can now gird it in the rigidity and power of his craft. The creation is treated as if it is treated as if it is any specified perfected material, or alloy thereof. This means that any use of Mana to which that perfected material could be put, is accessible by a use of one “use” of this Attainment. The alloy Sophis channels scavenged mana directly into the body of its wielder, rather than storing it in itself.
Based on Platonic Form, with Reach into Instant Casting, Advanced Duration, and 8-agains for tools. Primary factor is Potency, granting 5 points to split between enhancing item bonus, durability, and “uses” which is originally Mana capacity. However as Attainments decrease mana costs to a minimum of one, this transforms into “capacity”: how far you can stretch that singular point of Mana. Modification with Primal Tempering should turn this powerful Tass-sword into something capable of killing all manner of nasty creature. Especially as the “bane” element is free. The Optional effect is the icing on the cake, allowing a Master of the Legacy to access any Perfected Metal or Alloy at any time, for the cost of a single point of Mana. The creator can for example create Thaumium Amulets containing 6 free universal Clashes of Will against any unconsenting spell for their bearers, at the bargain price of 1 Mana each.