Master Smiths

[New Dornalia]

A Soviet poster celebrating the Stakhanovite "shockworker" movement of the 1930s, and its emphasis on hard, unyielding labor and "modern" methods of production. It's stylized art is now used on Red Star Cartridges produced by the Smiths.

The People's Acolytes Master Smiths are some of the finest journeymen craftsmen in the United Colonies. Devoted to the industrial arts, they are devoted to the manufacture of everything from lightsabers to custom cartridges for firearms and even art.

The Smiths themselves began as a simple, informal class of people who made lightsabers en masse for others in the PA, as the PA, seeking to break away from older models of Jedi organization, decided to issue standardized lightsabers to its members, barring the decision of individuals to make their own. The result was that a corps of logistics officers skilled in metal working set about making lightsabers, and in time, these were organized into the Master Smiths.

As the years went by, the Smiths branched out. Codifying their traditions into the Rule of the Smiths, they soon became an organized, established force in the People's Acolytes. With the increasing membership rolls, the Smiths opened the Master Smiths Academy, a subsection of the Grand National Academy, on Mars to train new recruits in the ways of the Smiths. And, with the ever-keen knowledge that the PA needed a more diverse source of income, the Smiths began branching out into commercial operations, beginning the sale of swords and firearms to collectors, both refurbished arms and reproduction models ranging from fully functional models to models suited for drill and "stage blade" work.

However, the founding of the Qiangquan School really got the Smiths revolutionized. It's emphasis on firearms and close-quarters battle resulted in the opening of sattelite campuses of the Master Smiths Academy on Luxembourgia and New Chicago to keep up with the demand of quality firearms and the beginning of match-grade ammunition production to meet the needs of the School. More Smiths appeared, and their ranks grew considerably, offering gunsmithing services to both layman and Acolyte alike, as well as fixing weapons and generally kicking ass and helping people out.

Additionally, the founding of the Qiangquan School didn't just revolutionize the way the Smiths did business. The School's more liberal approach to the Force set the stage for a revolution in the ranks--for within the Smiths was a conflict between rationalist thinkers, who were more interested in the Force as a tool in the greater practice of industrial arts, and more mystically minded Traditionalists who saw the whole thing as a spiritual exercise. This spiritual conflict injected new life into Smith rituals and brought new technologies and methods to the fore, but it also brought in a smoldering religious debate that persisted through the Recognition Wars, with Smiths dueling one another at the Battle of Hab 56, and into the era of the Full Unifications.

The latter turned the PA on its head, and caused the Smiths to really branch out. The wave of Anti-Force technologies appearing in Government Service and on the open market, a marked rise in suspicion and to psychic people, and a percieved emerging latent anti-Force prejudice in society at large made many Acolytes worry. It also spurred numerous developments, such as reforms of the Vanguard system, reforms in accountability systems, the dissolution of the International Brigades, and the rise of the Supper Club, a secret society that few have heard about, namely because it likes to be as secret as possible.

In the case of the Master Smiths, it caused a change in naming--gone was the Master Smiths Academy, and now was the Acolytes' Academy of Industrial Arts, a name chosen to sound less threatening to the populace at large. Additionally, it also caused the Smiths to try and get themselves into the wider public arena.

How?

Well, they run a company making match cartridges known as Red Star Cartridge Works, and also run Red Star Armory Works, a company that makes shooting supplies and firearms for sport and military/police use, as well as Red Star Gunsmiths--people that make really nice guns for presentations!. Included among their makes are high-quality M4 Carbines (some of the finest in the UCK) but also original bolt-action rifle designs such as the Model 900.

Also, they remain a big source of swords, and their AAIA schools, opened to outside students interested in learning metalworking and industrial design, are becoming high-quality facilities for learning the latest technological works.

The Smiths however, have the dubious distinction of not only being the "sellouts" of the PA in their efforts to present a good side to the community, but also they have much more positive links to their name.

Namely, their increasingly prominent role as a journeyman class of industrial artisans that can fix things of all sorts and build shit ensures they are a key component of the People's Acolytes logistics machine, keeping ships, guns, and blades running and doing good for the rest of society, grateful or not . And, their scientific and industrial works remain at the cutting edge of technological achievement, with several working at the Tennenbaum Institute.

[New Dornalia]

Culture



An ordinary leather apron, used to hold tools. This forms part of the Master Smith's unique spin on the Acolyte uniform.

Master Smiths are distinguished by the wearing of leather aprons, which hold their tools. Additionally, the Smiths also wear some kind of headgear, from helmets to hardhats, a legacy of industrial work environs which demand headgear to defend one's noggin against abuse. Otherwise, their uniform is the standard PA Uniform, with additional badges prominently featuring sledgehammers.

----------------

PA Master Smiths have their own unique rituals and arcana. To enter the Master Smiths, one must have graduated to the rank of Acolyte 3rd Class, whereupon after a simple test involving a written exam and a demonstration of metalworking skill (either a previous shop class project or something made on site in front of a jury), they are admitted as Apprentices in the Master Smiths.

Apprentices and Journeymen engage in Fieldwork and training like most Acolytes. However, like most normal artisans and tradesmen, they also work under the supervision of an expert who instructs them in the arts of things such as metal working, automotive repair, etc., and take classes supervised by the Acolytes' School of Industrial Arts and other technical schools and scientific institutions around the UCK.

Additionally, the Smiths, although not a specialized combat force, have begun to supply personnel to the reformed Vanguard Teams in the form of Quartermasters Officers. Given that fact, and their recent combat experiences in Hajarra, the Master Smiths opted to commission a sub-class of Master Smiths known as the Combat Engineers. Operating under the Suzerainity of the Vanguard Teams, the Combat Engineers undergo Vanguard training, and attain the rank of Quartermasters Officer with qualifications in Combat Engineering, enabling them to operate in support of Regular Officers in the field in operations such as Explosive Ordinance Disposal, disarming booby traps and setting up defenses.

The Smiths have their own ranking structure, as follows:

Apprentice (equivalent to Acolyte 3rd)
Journeyman 3
Journeyman 2
Journeyman 1
Senior Journeyman 2
Senior Journeyman 1
Master Smith

Master Smith is the highest rank, equivalent to Sensei (Shinmei and National) or Master (Qiangquan).

------------------

Owing to their industrious nature, the Master Smiths possess several unique weapons. Reflective of their technomagical nature as a whole, these weapons are nothing short of wierd.

One unique weapon possessed by the PA Master Smiths is the Shock Hammer. A modified warhammer, it resembles a combination between a sledgehammer and a pickax, with the head a combination of both. While mostly used as a tool, it is also a potent self-defense weapon. Sparking and an eerie glow often can be seen off of it, and this is because it not only has an energized tip on the pointed end similar in function to a lightsaber, the front end is also augmented with a hardened energy shield that, similar in concept to the Imperium of Man thunder hammer, increases damage on impact and actually offers a modicum of penetration.

Another weapon is the Golden Wrench, a prestige tool carried by Master Smiths and Senior Journeymen. Rumored to actually be made of a special material known as Australium, the Golden Wrench is a nanotech multitool rebuilt out of a standard pipe wrench used to quickly assemble complex projects. In the hands of a normal, it works like a wrench would, save for some nanites speeding the process. In the hands of a Smith and his powers, however, the Wrench's Australium build is hooked up to a specialized Improbability Generator that conducts psychic energies, causing the Australium to vibrate with eldritch energies and the Improbability Generator's psycho-kinetic fuel cell to go into action.

Great care is needed to manipulate the Golden Wrench, as improper use can cause the Wrench to vibrate apart. However, in the right hands, it becomes a powerful tool. For upon impact with an item under construction and subtle manipulation with the Force or another psychic source, it begins reshaping reality--and the smacked object--into whatever the user desires. With a few simple whacks and twists of the wrench, a structure such as a portable sentry gun can be set up in seconds, as opposed to say, minutes, just with one man.

Finally, Master Smiths-Vanguards Combat Engineers field two designs--the Powerthirst Arms Super Dispenser and the Level 3 Sentry Gun. The former is essentially a quick-setup portable nanite device that uses nanites to convert organic waste into ammo and medical aid, the latter is a modular frame. Said frame by default supports a single gauss machinegun in .308 with 500 shot drum magazines, however it can be expanded to accommodate .308 Gauss Miniguns and eventually, a quad rocket launcher mod with a portable replicator.

Originally developed by Vicky Liang for Marine Commandos after playing too much Team Fortress 2 (OOC: Yes, I got these from TF2), Powerthirst Arms ended up finding their wares in limited use with the MCs. However, that didn't stop Powerthirst Arms, and before long, the Vanguard found use for it. They are currently the largest users of these systems, and the Combat Engineers are deadly experts in placing and maintaining these devices to keep Vanguardiers fighting.

[New Dornalia]

Beliefs

The Master Smiths are theologically divided into two factions--Realists and Traditionalists.

Realists do not reject the Force. They don't reject psychic powers, either. In fact, they embrace these things.

However, they do not feel that interpreting these powers in light of "bush hippie crap," as a wise man on the Discovery Channel said once, can cut it anymore in a more hostile world, where demands for a Mutant Registration Act appear daily on the Holonet. Indeed, such overly spiritual, obscurantist approaches, in the minds of the Realists, only distance the PA and the Smiths from the outside world. Therefore, they feel that a rational approach to spirituality and psychic materia is needed--namely, one in which technology and reality are fused with the spiritual to better do good in the modern world, while helping to reassure a skeptical public that psychic powers can be used for great good as well as great evil. Professor X from X-Men would be among their ranks.

These folks are often apt to support more technomagical solutions, and make up most of those in the Supper Club. When they make weapons, it resembles an ordinary workshop or armory, with the occasional psychic influence--or even a research lab.

Intellectuals, thinkers, nerds and eggheads, they are, much to the chagrin of others including Nikolai Batov (head of the Shinmei School), at the forefront of the efforts to "clean up" the image of the People's Acolytes, be it in American Liberal terms or American Conservative/Liberatarian terminology (most of them are surprisingly legalistic in thought). Most of these efforts focus on how they write and try to present a more rational and law-abiding People's Acolytes agency, much as liberal Christians and Muslims do in RL.

The Traditionalists, meanwhile, see their work differently. A more mystical sect akin to the Sufi Muslims or the Hasidim or the Monastic orders of Europe, they believe in achieveing a closeness with the divine through their psychic energies--and their industrial works. While keeping with the Non-sectarian PA ethos, the Traditionalists see their respective entities as being best approached in this way, and find the Realists to be "filthy little athiests" in the words of Teddy Roosevelt.

In particular, the way they handle their productions is how modern Gamelan instrument makers handle their production:

(OOC: Courtesy of National Geographic)

...Gamelan makers are specialized, highly skilled and revered craftsmen who fashion and tune the instruments they produce. Working with metal so closely is believed to be spiritually charged, carrying both possible risks and potential benefits that must be taken seriously.

Gamelan instruments are considered to be imbued with great spiritual power. Stepping over the instruments and touching them with one's feet are forbidden; such actions are considered disrespectful to the instruments and potentially unsafe for the offending individual or other ensemble members...

As Gamelan instruments do, so do Traditionalist Smiths and their tools, believing them to be not just mere tools but conduits of divinity, to be respected and cared for; likewise, they treat their productions the same way, shrouding them in mystery and ceremony as they go about making arms and armor. Traditionalists often perform ritual baths and handwashings when they begin producing a weapon, and will often even add meditation to get into the right mindset before making a weapon.

Even during the manufacturing phase itself, it's not unusual to hear chanting and prayer-like humming. While Realist factions will use work songs and shanties to keep a good work pace, the Traditionalists will use this to enhance the spiritual effect of the occasion. Using the Force or other Psychic powers during their processes is similar--Realists will use the Force to get themselves out of tight spots, but visitors peering into a production line at a Traditionalist facility have reported ghostly lights flash and dance around as weapons get made, and a sense of eerie stillness, as if God came to visit. They are known for making "magical" objects, and allegedly produce some of the best ammunition available for the Starwind Rifle.

They will venerate their wargear with the same respect, cleaning their rifles often and polishing their swords to ensure they are as good as day one.

Reflecting this, they generally don't make as many Mall Swords or Tacticool M4 Carbines as their Realist companions, refusing to perform what they see as a cheapening of their art. Instead, they produce small batches of high quality weapons--indeed, some of the finest Master Smith-produced gear has resulted from their hands, and is so rare that they have become valuable museum pieces unto themselves, forever lost if destroyed.

They care little for the attempts of making themsleves "hip" or "relevant" to modern ways and demands--their logic is focused on a more systematic understanding of the Force and Psychic power as divinity, not as a tool. They are more attentive to ritual.