Machinists' Guilds

Machinists' Guilds are organisations set up within states that have Honours as government. They number the same as the Honour (and so every other Honour or Guild in the world). The members of these Guilds are the only individuals whose use of and research into "machine technology" is legally mandated.

Foundations
The Treatise declared the formation of Machinists' Guilds as groups of highly knowledgeable and intellectual scientists and engineers who would be able to research, develop and use the technology that appeared due to the Incursion. The need for such groups of people was considered a priority after several powerful technological weapons accidentally killed large numbers of people in the rush to acquire the strange artefacts.

Relationships
Machinists' Guilds tend to have much more amicable relationships with other Guilds than Honours and Magicians' Guilds since they all have tendencies towards research into Incursion artefacts. Research papers and new discoveries are peer reviewed and lauded where appropriate, and advances are shared liberally between Guilds and introduced to the public when possible.

There is some degree of enmity and rivalry between Machinists and Magicians' Guilds as Machinists believe in much more regimented, but communal distributions of individual power that allow for large bases of equal ranking scientists and engineers, unlike the pyramid hierarchies that tended to be formed in Magicians' Guilds.

In terms of power, the Machinists have always been on the back foot compared to the other groups; Honours' political and military sway were clearly more influential and Magicians had massive leaps forwards when their guilds were formed as people could learn from each other and teach each other. Machinists were handicapped by the fact that due to safety and security, limited numbers of artefacts were released into their domain to study, and they were bottlenecked towards moments of inspiration and renaissances of understanding between long periods of stagnancy. As such, there has generally been a feeling that Machinists were obnoxious and precocious, especially from Magicians, whose arts have been around since time immemorial.

Machinist Guilds are unique in that members can retire at any time. While many Honours have a similar system to allow members to step down, all Machinists may choose to rescind their membership with the declaration of upholding the laws as stated by the Treatise. Often these individuals take up work in the public domain of engineering and science that does not involve Incursion technology, and are at the forefront of the period's standard advances.

Advances
Despite the relative youth of the Machinists, huge leaps of understanding have been made since the Treatise. While electricity is still not very well understood, it is functional enough to be able to distribute on a limited basis to the general population for low power applications such as radios. Wiring work is often incredibly rare, so places with radios are reasonably uncommon, but accepted by the general population. Electrical power is used for very little else in the public domain, especially as the secrets of power generation is a well kept secret of Machinists, but several new applications are being developed in the meantime.

Nondirective Policy and Recruitment
Machinists have a strange partnership with standard advances in technology. While they work with nonmachinist engineers and scientists who are all limited to the period's technology, they cannot bring Incursion technology to the table during such endeavours. Regardless, the world is on the brink of a technological renaissance as it is; Machinists have a plethora of artists and philosophers amongst their number who are all capable of contributing to society beyond their guild work, something that Machinists smugly hold as a superiority over their magical counterparts.

However, studies independent of the guild cannot be headed by a Machinist. They are strictly involved as manual assistance or advice during these projects, second to a commonfolk leader who will direct people to develop and work on ideas.

The benefit of such a system is that when a Machinist retires, they can become such a leader. The lack of Machinist equipment is a large black mark against their resources, but often this is a form of challenge welcomed by those who choose to leave the guilds. Machinist advisors are fond of taking up advisory roles under these individuals, but it is recommended that they aid those without a guild's teachings in the scientific method behind them in order to spread knowledge more effectively.

Another benefit is that Machinists can find new members reasonably quickly through this mentoring system; nonguild engineers and scientists who show promise are often inducted when there are places available, keeping the lifeblood of guilds fresh and healthy.

This is a reasonably familiar approach for all Machinist Guilds: it makes sense to have those in advisory capacities in the business of scouting out new Machinists at the same time.