Heart of Artifice Temporary--Kharas Alone

"That symbol? It is my personal sigil--it is a mark I have on the back of my hand, just beneath this glove. It is the symbol of the strength of my talent as a Spark."

"You asked what it means to me. Does that mean that the symbol means something to you in your world?"
 

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"Yes. That mark doesn't appear wildly. If you are not coming from my world, one of your ancestor must have been, because this mark means a lot to our world. I don't knwo all the darks of the story linked to this mark, but I can explain what I know about.

I've talked about you of the dragonmarked house. Dragonmarks are marks linked to the Dragon of my worlds. I am not that familiar with the origin. There is twelves true dragonmark. These marks hold similars powers for all people who has it. A single true dragonmark appears only on one race. There is also another kind of mark, aberrant. These can appears on any race that can hold a dragonmark, but they can hold any type of power and they are generalyl related to evil.

The true dragonmarks are holded by the thirteen houses. Each have his own unique true dragonmark, except the elves, which have two houses that hold the same mark. I think the 13th house have spilt from the other. Each have there own trade and there mark help them to be specialist in it.

That's why my family aren't as good in trapmaking then house Kundarak. House Kundarak is teh only dwarven house, and they hold the only true dragonmark that appear on dwarves, the mark of warding. So you can guess why, with such mark, they became great merchant and banker, there mark allow them to protect there goods liek no one else, no counting on the natural craftmenship of dwarves for massonery and balcksmithings."
explains Kharas.

He then points at the mark. "This is the mark of making. The mark of making is one of the true dragonmark hold by an house of humans. House Cannith. House Cannith is the greatest house of artificer on my world... well, that's my opinion, but with reason. First, there mark help them in there craft, and they have proven it. They have made the warforged. The warforged and half-living creature and half-construct... They have created it during the Last War, a war that was waged during a century, that a whole kingdom have been blasted down, literally, in one day. During that war, the House Cannith have created huge forge that was allowing them to make the Warforged. These forge have been disabled at the end of teh war, but many warforged are still living and are now free to live life anyone else, but the creation of new warforged is now forbidden.

That bring me questions. You seems to be human, but your population seems to be partly construct. They have similarity with the warforged, but if they are, they would be a much more refine work then the warforged of my world. I might be completly wrong, but they might be warforged created with the help of Thelanium, which would explain there high quality. That might mean someone of my world, a member of the house Cannith, could have arrived times ago... well, these all are theories and I have no proof, but they could explain some coicidence, like you having the mark of Making."
 

"The difference between a few of us and the many is very subtle. I'm surprised you even noticed--it takes a sharp eye and the best you ever get is a feeling, rather than hard evidence. I don't know about these Warforged, but they sound like they look and feel like Clanks--covered in hard heavy metal that restricts movement. As you have seen, the people of my kingdom have flesh that is indistinguishable from your skin or mine, hair like ours, and everything else. They perform biological processes like you and I. For all intents and purposes, they are human, and that is how we treat one another here--they are perfect simulacra and no less than equals, at least in this kingdom. Do you think less of them as people?"
 

"Think less, not at all. I don't even think less of the warforged. It's not because they have been created that they must be considered as construct. They bleed just like a human or a dwarf, they have emotions, even if most of them are not as in touch with it then humans. House Cannith have created a crude life, but they are living creature, and no one can't tell they are animals. It is already a marvelous feat. But when I see what have been done here... now that is just incredible. There are a perfect creation of life... well, almost. For the good eye, they can see the difference in there appearance, but it's just a question of look. I've also see the islands with the animals. It is a whole ecology that have been created here, a whole society and not simply one creature.

I've always wanted to understand how house Cannith have done such marvelous thing... now I am even more interested to learn how all that could have been created. Even if I use the Thelanium to help me, I won't be able to replicate such feat for sure."
 

"That's a good thing, since my wife is one too, and thus so is my daughter," the Baron smiles and nods, as if Kharas chose the right answer, "Ah that...well, the simple answer is that those animals, those creatures...well..."

*He takes a few tools and some metal from the side--he must have left it there to fiddle around while waiting for Kharas. With incredible celerity, he constructs an impressive framework for a skeleton of some small animal, and then, pulling out some Thelanium, he concentrates. The sigil on the back of his hand glows through the glove, the Thelanium glows brightly in a harmonic response, and in the blink of an eye with rapid hand movements that Kharas can't even try to follow without a headache, the Baron is patting the head of a cute little puppy.*

"Let's just say that animals are my specialty," he says at last.
 

"Impressive!" tells Kharas, wide open. "I wonder... would you mind if I take you some Thelanium and try it too. You'll be able to witness what a young Artificer can do with Thelanium. It could help you to understand how we work and I'll be able to see what are my limits in the creation of... life." The word sounds a bit strange to him.
 

"I'm going to guess that you cannot yet. My daughter can't, and she shares my area of talent, though not my skill yet. Even the others of similar skill, the rulers of the other kingdoms, cannot do so as well as I, though the Artifex Maximus is admittedly far superior. The other rulers have their own specialties. I bet you'll be best at making locks and traps from what you've told me. Sometimes, it is best not to forcefully imitate another's specialty and fall short, but to rather focus each on our own talents and flourish, don't you think?"
 

"I suspect this Artifex Maximus must be another member of House Cannith. That would explain how he has created teh warforged. Helped with the Thelanium, he has refine his work to a point no one in my world could have done, but to do so, he must have a greater mark... or maybe a Siberys mark. The mark you have is the less powerfull of House Cannith, but there is more powerfull ones, more rare. You could devellop lesser and greater form of your mark, but the Siberys only appear on unmarked person and only late on life, when people have already vast amount of experience in there field of expertise."
 

"Siberys? I have no idea what that word means, but...it wouldn't happen to look like this, would it?"

*He sketches the following in the air with his finger, and a thin blue glow trails behind the finger, outlining the symbol:*

[SBLOCK=Symbol]It's the bottom one in this picture--
80189.jpg
[/SBLOCK]
 

"There is many Syberis mark... one for each type of mark. I'm not familiar with it, but looking at the complexity of it, yes, it looks like that." tells Kharas. "The marks are related to old powerful dragon. Khyber, Khorvaire and Syberis are three of them. The abberant dragonmark are generally told to be related to Khyber, the dragon below. True marks, least (like yours), lesser and greater are told to be related to Khorvaire I think. Syberis marks are the greatest of them."
 

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