Engineer

Engineers, the backbone of any adventuring party, are the sole providers of Essential Gear upgrades, enhancing armor, relics, and weapons. Their expertise in mechanics and engineering elevates Essential Gear's durability, power, and damage output, significantly bolstering the party's survivability and combat effectiveness. Their analytical minds solve problems through practical applications of scientific principles, creating solutions ranging from simple tools to complex machines. Their skill and commitment to their craft earn them high esteem within their communities, enabling progress through technological innovation.

Origins

The engineering tradition began in Elyndaar City, where the Elyndrians established the first formal technical academy to study and replicate Builder technology discovered throughout Solaris. This initial focus on reverse-engineering ancient artifacts evolved rapidly when Mechanoids joined the community, bringing their intuitive understanding of technological principles. The profession underwent a revolution when Humans arrived through the rifts, introducing scientific concepts from Earth previously unknown on Solaris. The most significant advancement came when Krauser Killener discovered Ciedium, leading to the development of hybrid magical-technological systems that define modern Solarian engineering. The profession spread beyond Elyndaar when the Elyndrians established outposts on Lunaris and Gorgonia, adapting their techniques to survive in these hostile environments.

Notable Locations

The Technical Institute of Elyndaar stands as the most prestigious engineering center on Solaris, where master engineers work alongside Scientists to develop new technological solutions under the guidance of Krauser Killener himself. In Andorum on the Dormuzahn Isles, Mechanoid engineers operate an advanced fabrication facility where they construct and maintain the self-replicating mechanoids that support Elyndrian operations across Solaris. Explorer's Landing on Lunaris houses the Adaptation Workshop, where engineers modify standard equipment to function in the moon's hostile environment, developing specialized life support and defensive systems. In Korbgrad City, Gorgon engineers have established the Seismic Engineering Guild, specializing in structures and equipment that can withstand or harness earth tremors, integrating their natural abilities with technological principles.

Techniques and Specializations

Weapons engineering focuses on creating and modifying offensive equipment, from simple mechanical enhancements to complex integrated systems that combine conventional damage with specialized effects. Defensive engineering specializes in armor and shield technologies that maximize protection while minimizing weight and movement restriction, particularly important for expeditions into dangerous territories. Structural engineering applies technological principles to buildings and infrastructure, creating everything from temporary field shelters to the elaborate defensive systems of Elyndaar City. Environmental engineering, a specialty that emerged on Lunaris and Gorgonia, develops systems that allow survival in hostile conditions, from air filtration to temperature regulation to protection from exotic environmental hazards.

Race Affinities

Mechanoids possess an innate affinity for engineering, their technological nature giving them intuitive understanding of mechanical principles and unprecedented precision in fabrication at their workshops in Andorum. Humans often excel as engineers, bringing diverse technological knowledge from their original timelines that frequently introduces innovative approaches unknown to native Solarians. Gorgons from Korbgrad City bring their physical strength and natural connection to earth to engineering, specializing in robust construction and seismic applications. Guardian engineers utilize their inherent understanding of protection to create defensive systems of remarkable effectiveness, particularly valued in frontier outposts facing unknown threats.

Class Synergies

Techknights naturally gravitate toward engineering, their combat focus on technological integration creating a perfect synergy with the profession's emphasis on practical application. Warriors who develop engineering skills create and modify equipment with intimate understanding of battlefield needs, resulting in gear of exceptional practical utility. Hunters with engineering expertise excel at creating specialized equipment for wilderness survival and tracking, particularly valued by the Pathfinders of Lunaris. Knights who pursue engineering focus on defensive systems and team support equipment, creating gear that enhances group coordination and protection in combat situations.

Magical Affinities

Ciedium magic forms the foundation of advanced engineering, allowing practitioners to create technological systems that respond intelligently to users' needs and adapt to changing conditions. Lightning magic enhances power generation and distribution systems, creating more efficient energy usage in complex mechanisms. Earth magic aids in structural engineering, granting insight into material properties and stability principles crucial for construction applications. Gravity magic, though rare, represents the cutting edge of engineering potential, allowing for manipulation of fundamental forces in ways that can revolutionize everything from propulsion to construction techniques.

Tools of the Trade

Fabrication tools range from simple hand implements to complex multi-function devices capable of precision work at microscopic scales, with master engineers often possessing extensive collections specialized for different materials and applications. Diagnostic equipment allows engineers to identify problems in complex systems, from simple mechanical issues to the intricate interactions of magical and technological components in hybrid devices. Portable workshops, essential for field operations, contain compact versions of critical tools and materials, allowing engineers to make repairs and modifications away from formal facilities. Technical schematics, carefully guarded and continuously updated, document successful designs and standard modifications, forming a critical knowledge base passed between practitioners. Ciedium instruments, available primarily in Elyndaar City, allow for the precise manipulation and integration of this sentient metal into technological systems, creating devices with adaptive properties previously thought impossible.