Question (The) Artificer(s)

So, can there be more than one Artificer at any one time? ... Then again, mutation can do a lot of things...

Do all Artificers look the same?

From Walking Alone ...

We know that there was an Artificer at the Sundering or something, and that there was one in the Middle Ages or something, that was forced into use of the Knights of the Thorn.

Circe also notes one near the beginning of the 4th Crusade. From Circe, we also know that at least that specific one could be burned.

Galatea was actually an Artificer. And an Artificer made Destiny's Wave. Aunghadhail also knew an Artificer?

Widening Gyre has the Troll Bride say that one was in... Somewhere in North Europe in 1890s. But could be forged documents.

There is now an Artificer Wiki Page as of this writing.

Eldritch is the only known Artificer at this time.

The Artificers where four beings who where transformed by a seriously bloody ritual into magical servants. We don't know if all of them where smiths like Cait. After the first shells where destroyed the spell, which traps the hosts soul within it, seeks out a new host and then sinks into it's hollow space and makes the body over.

so it's kind of a parasitic artificial spirit. Or at least that is my read on it.

Cryptic wrote: The Artificers where four beings who where transformed by a seriously bloody ritual into magical servants. We don't know if all of them where smiths like Cait. After the first shells where destroyed the spell, which traps the hosts soul within it, seeks out a new host and then sinks into it's hollow space and makes the body over.

so it's kind of a parasitic artificial spirit. Or at least that is my read on it.

Can you cite the "four beings" part? The spiritual parasite bit is from Call The Thunder 5 when Circe is speaking, if I remember right.

EDIT from Walking Alone:

"I don't know. There are maybe three or four artificers, and not all of them manifest. It takes a rare circumstance to have one in the right place at the right time to absorb enough magic to manifest, and they were always hotly contested when word got out. We're worried that if someone finds out before we can find a solution to the slave dilemma we are going to be in for a very vicious brawl."

It... might have been in the unpublished Ashes of an Old Life that I got that from...

I'm not at all sure where I got the impression from but I thought that 'The Artificer' was some kind of spirit/intelligence which could be trapped within it's host by the use of the magical tattoos. Those same tattoos also caused the suppression/destruction of the host's own soul/spirit while forcing the now magically controlled Artificer to take possession of the former host's body.

Now, as I said, I have no idea how I came to this conclusion, so you can take this for whatever it's worth, but if it is anywhere near correct that would suggest that there can only be ONE Artificer around at any one time.

John.

Cryptic wrote: It... might have been in the unpublished Ashes of an Old Life that I got that from...

Nope. It's Walking Alone. Sir Lee reposted the Ashes Teaser in the Rubberjohn Archives.

rubberjohn wrote: I'm not at all sure where I got the impression from but I thought that 'The Artificer' was some kind of spirit/intelligence which could be trapped within it's host by the use of the magical tattoos. Those same tattoos also caused the suppression/destruction of the host's own soul/spirit while forcing the now magically controlled Artificer to take possession of the former host's body.

Now, as I said, I have no idea how I came to this conclusion, so you can take this for whatever it's worth, but if it is anywhere near correct that would suggest that there can only be ONE Artificer around at any one time.

John.

Nope. Hollow Men/Women are made by Soul-Coring Spirit, as said in Call The Thunder 5, from Circe, but that's a different thing than a Artificification, which needs lots of magic to activate, which is said in Walking Alone.

Note: Need to make a Hollow Men Page... Although, only reference is with the Eldritch-related pages.

Malady wrote: Aunghadhail also knew an Artificer?

It's not confirmed in-story (specifically Instructor), but it can be assumed that the Queen/Lady referred to is Aunghadhail, as opposed to one of her sisters, simply because she is the one we readers are more familiar with, at least through the time of posting to now.

A bit of speculation on my part is that this Artificer was specifically kept distant from Aunghadhail. Interaction was through intermediaries, and I expect the the binding itself was performed by one other than she herself, so as to server as a non-magical proxy. There are sure to be ramifications to being the one to bind an Artificer, and Aunghadhail would be crafty enough to not do it herself unless absolutely necessary.

Actually... From Call the Thunder we have this:

Caitlin turned her head to the sky and sighed, her tongue issuing words that hadn’t been heard by ears since before mankind walked fully upright. “Your armor will take time my queen, and will not be complete until the seasons turn eighteen times.” Caitlin didn’t bother looking back. “You might not remember, but I do. I know the name Aunghadhail, even if the memories are only coming back while we talk.”

“Oh gods!” Nikki shuddered as the memories Aunghadhail was trying to hold back surged forward. Images of an ancient forge, more massive and impressive than any ironworks of the modern day, dedicated to one purpose, flashed through her mind along with images of an artificer with black, runic tattoos of a type Aung was only vaguely familiar with. It was the same artificer. Along with the memories came a knowledge that never once had the thing at the forge ever shown an iota of independent thought or emotion from the day it was presented to the Sidhe.

But from Upheaval we have this:

The hammer struck the metal with a loud clang and the shower of sparks. Again it struck, in perfect rhythm, forging the blade. She paused once when it was safe to do so in her work, and quenched the heated metal in the blood of the Dragon Carathwyn, who had been felled by the Knights of the realm. After a break, she went back to work, hammering the blade again, and again in perfect rhythm. The work had to carry on through the day and on through the week. Any interruption would mean disaster and the precious Mithril being forged into the steel would be ruined and useless. She pounded at the blade, for days, nonstop, never slowing. Her queen’s sword had to be ready by the eve of the solstice. So little time.

(...)

She walked to her mirror and looked upon herself. She did not know she was beautiful. She did not know she was human, or had been. It had been so long since she realized she was like those round-eared people. She was plain, even ugly to the court. She did not see herself. She saw the marks of the tattoos, they covered her body, her face framed on the sides by delicate, cobalt blue waves that tapered to tips on her forehead and chin. The tattoos that bound her power, that allowed her to ply her craft. Without them she would have died, consumed from within. The tattoos marked her for all to see.

So to me it's pretty obvious that we are talking about two different Artificers: the black-tattoed one, who Aunghandail had met (which, from the fanfic, is likely to have been the first Artificer) and another one, with blue tattoos, who may have served a different queen.

By the way, there was originally a mention in the page to an Artificer who lived "when there were World Trees", but I couldn't identify the source of this, so I removed it when I reorganized the page. OTOH, both the black and cobalt-blue Artificers are clearly pre-Sundering (the black one, because she met Aung; the cobalt-blue one, because she was probably Jialing, who we know to be pre-Sundering from Forging Anew. That is, we already know that there were at least two Artificers before the Sundering, at the time of the World Trees.

The one I said was in the time of the World Trees is the Staff-maker, 'cause in her flashback, there's talk of a Tree, captialized. Although, I guess making that Tree a World Tree might be speculation? Although, I also speculate that the tentacled Master is the Bastard...

Also, in other news, for Cryptic, I'm wrong about the Ashes data.

whateleyacademy.net/index.php/forum/the-...-iron?start=30#27081

JG wrote: Bloodsteel is reactive to magic in that it draws magic (and life energies) inward to itself so its wielder or the item its attached to can draw power. An ounce of Bloodsteel can be refined from a single human life taken.

Now imagine what it would have taken to create the artificer, for whom this stuff is the blood in her veins. And it, by itself, is inimical to life.

Hmm... So, from that info, I guess each Artificer isn't made from scratch, and instead summoned around their new host-spirit-person like Billie and the Star Stalker, else there'd be some large amounts of death every time an Artificer appears?

I wonder what the tattoo colors mean, as Jialing and Eldritch both have Cobalt Blue Tattoos... Just randomly similar like that? Or some reincarnationy sorta thing?