The Craftsman

The Craftsman

The Craftsman is the patron god of smiths, engineers, miners, carpenters, weavers, stonemasons, and anyone who improves their world through construction, smiling on anyone who builds for the greater good. A bridge connecting two villages allows new friendships and trades to form. A city wall protects everyone from mutual harm. A loom can produce cloth for others to use for any number of purposes. Referred to as Old Sweat, The Great Maker, The Forge God, or First Fire, the Craftsman is both the weakest of the Sept and the most important.

The Craftsman has only one formal temple, and that is Voltanicus, which resides deep inside the mountains of Terra near a glowing river of magma. In most cases, the Craftsman’s temples are found in a workman’s tools. An anvil stamped with the Craftsman’s mark, or the keystone for an arch is inscribed with his rune, or even something as small as the gears for a clock can count as a thing of worship. It is the act of fabrication that turns even the most drafty workshop into a place of divinity. Any worker who loses time, his hurts, and his hunger while making a thing of beauty and worth to all, is counted as an Artisan of the Craftsman. Be it the master sword smith, or the village shoemaker, none of the Artisans holds any rank above their peers.

The Craftsman is often portrayed as a robust man carrying workman’s tools. His followers, both formal and private, are known collectively as Artisans. These Artisans will typically have a small shrine in their workshop. A particularly successful circle of potters in Terra call themselves the Craftsman’s Brides, thus demonstrating the forgiving ease with which both the god and his followers accept life as it comes.

The Craftsman’s powers are only found in what he can build. Without tools and materials, the Craftsman is an empty divinity. The Craftsman borrows materials from the Elemental. He borrows ingenuity from the Scholar. He makes use of the Soldier’s strength, and asks the Mother to heals the burns, pinches, and fatigue that come with hard work. The Stranger is asked to extend the life of the construction, so that the builder might not see its end in his or her lifetime. And the Knight’s sense of purpose is used to craft an item that satisfies some need. In return, the Craftsman builds roads, so the fields are not all trampled. Libraries, to house the great intellectual works. Shields to protect the fighting men, and beds in which they may rest and recover from their wounds. Sepulchers and catacombs for the Stranger’s children. And spurs and swords for those sworn to champion the lofty goals of the Knight. Only through negotiation with all his kin can the Craftsman satisfy his divine purpose. Thus, alone, he is powerless.

However, it is the Craftsman that acts as the chain that links the Sept together. Without the Craftsman to build bridges between these disparate entities, Illumitas may have drifted apart after his seven rebirths. It is the Craftsmen who converses with all his brothers and sisters in turn and keeps the family knit together. He spreads news, collects stories, and hears their various woes and concerns. The gift the Craftsman brings to the Sept is coordination through communication, or the concept of acting in concert. His tools and machines can change the world, but without the Sept acting together the changes would be greatly different. The greatest invention the Craftsman has ever built was this notion of family. But it was not his only invention, by far.

Time was built by the Craftsman. Envisioned as a Great Dam, time keeps everything from happening all at once. This allowed a slow but steady series of experiences to be relished, struggled with, and learned from.

Promises are a collaborative work of the Knight, the Scholar, and the Craftsman. The Knight’s ideals, the Scholar’s words, and the Craftsman’s parchment and ink still to this day form the basis for binding agreements between sincere cooperating individuals.

Worth and merit were his inventions, and the minting of coins to ease the chaos of barter still exists as a successful (if abused) system. The first coins were blank, and made of soft metals, so that each man could hammer his mark into a coin. In this way, the Craftsman wanted to show that everyone had some worth to their community.

Later, after societies had cooled from the forge, he tooled them with the use of horses, the wheel, the mastery of fire, emptiness as a virtue for vessels, smelting and purification and the like. It is said that the Elemental once asked him to forge the most beautiful ring he could, though she never returned to claim it from him. Artisans today tell that story with a smile, and use it as a parable for making things of beauty just to make the world more beautiful, and for no other purpose. They suspect that the Elemental simply wanted to see the hard working Craftsman smile, though some think that only the Stranger knows the reason behind the ring, now that the Winter Lady has disappeared.

The Craftsman is the one god of the Sept who has made peace with his own mystery, accepting that no matter how powerful, self-sufficient, or skilled a being may be, the mortal and divine alike are connected to their companions. No one can ever be alone and be thought of as whole. Great experiences are worthless if not shared. Without communication and compromise, nothing can change the world. Thus, while most of the other Sept gods struggle with their essential natures, the Craftsman alone finds peace simply by aiding his family.

The Craftsman does not so much stand against the Dark Three as he stands valiantly with the Sept. When they need him, he is there. Much like certain of his Kin, the Craftsman is not a jealous god, and smiles upon Artisans who keep both he and his brothers and sisters in their thoughts and actions. To betray the Craftsman is to turn against the Sept. Redemption from this error is possible, though like smelting ore, the candidate must work the impurities from his or her soul before they can be reforged.

Categories: Game Setting | Religion | Gods