The God Learners made their foray into creating an artificial god with Zistor the Machine God.
The Clanking City was first established in God Forgot around 740. It was a God Learner idea, built by the Ingareens with assistance and resources from the Emperor of Land and Sea. The Clanking City was built on a small, heavily fortified island at the end of the Left Arm Islands surrounded by a larger island.
The Clanking City can be thought of as a factory built and operated along logical, sorcerous lines. Magical items were mass produced here using machines and laborers. Raw materials and spiritual energy came in one end, and enchanted weapons, armor, and other trolls came out the other. Furnaces, wheels, mills, and hammers were eventually able to work constantly, day and night. This process and collection of machines was deified as Zistor, the God of the Machines.
The workers of the Clanking City worshiped Zistor, which provided it with a constant supply of magical power. Zistor mass produced magic and enchantments. As more and more magic was given to Zistor, what it was able to produce became increasingly impressive – e.g., mass produced swords with Bladesharp 6, crossbows with Multimissile 6, and so on. Many even provided their own magic points!
The workers of the Clanking City came up with numerous machines and devices, such as kite parachutes, pedaled ornithopters, heated air balloons, one-man submarines, and even a mobile fortress. All of this was aided by Zistor, the only god worshiped by the inhabitants. Eventually Zistor became able to replicate unique tools and powers. All of the ancient gods howled in outrage, and all of their foes allied for this one purpose.
The Clanking City incurred the jealousy of the Mostali, a spiteful and vindictive race which plotted and worked all the world into a war to destroy their foes. Many peoples, including humans, dragonkind, trolls, and dwarves, came to tear down the city, and for years the Clanking City successfully resisted all attacks. Its final destruction is the inspiration for much epic literature. After years of war and death, the task was completed. All that was left behind were cursed ruins set with traps, diseases, and ghosts.
For those wondering how the MSE was able to fight with the EWF, the Clanking City was a key part. Now there had been several MSE allies and colonies at the edge of the EWF area:
- Slontos: This was the one of the richest and most powerful provinces in the EWF and the core MSE territory in competition with the EWF.
- Clanking City: This was located in God Forgot, and was a major MSE base and stronghold.
- Iron Fort: This was in the Right Arm Islands and was the key naval stronghold of the MSE controlling sea access to the EWF.
- Lylket: This was a MSE trade port at the mouth of the Engizi River.
- Caladraland: These were MSE allies against the Shadowlands.
The MSE made several attempts to seize Nochet, and also built a chain of small fortresses along the Heortland Plateau, but both were ultimately unsuccessful. However, it is clear that MSE contact with the EWF was significant and regular. Nochet and its important Lhankor Mhy temple was a key point of transmission.
So why build the Clanking City in the Rightarm Islands? I think it was a combination of things. First, the Ingareens – the atheists of God Forgot – bloomed upon contact with the Jrusteli and were famed throughout the MSE for their practical inventiveness and engineering. They were held in very high regard by the Jrusteli and I doubt anyone else could have constructed the Clanking City.
Additionally, the Clanking City was built in a very defensible location yet easily accessible by ship. As the the MSE ruled the oceans, this made it very attractive.
Finally, the Ingareens had no religious qualms against constructing the Machine God – quite the opposite, they embraced it thoroughly! If the Clanking City had been constructed in Slontos, it likely would have been far more controversial to the local populations allied with the MSE.
The Clanking City was more of the MSE’s most important arms factory than a military garrison – so I think the Ingareen presence outweighed everything else.
If Zistor was a god, what were it’s myths? No, as a creation within Time, its mythology is historical.
How does Leonardo the Scientist feel about the Machine Ruins? Might he want to Heroquest to bring back Zistor? Why do people always phrase it that way? I can heroquest to bring back the magic from the God Time – but it is not a resurrection, more of a returning something that always existed but we lost the path to find it.
So if I want to revive Zistor, I need to rebuild the Clanking City or something much like it. I need plenty of people to participate in this and get the factories running again. I need to find a way for us to worship this factory and offer it magic. Now that might actually be more of a really complex sorcery spell – and it might be far easier to try to find some notes of how this was done in the Second Age than to try to come up with this without having access to hundreds of other sorcerers and theoreticians working generations on this. So maybe I might commission a trip to the islands of Jrustela or to the ruins of the Big Rubble?
As to why doesn’t Leonardo do it? The original Clanking City project required thousands of people and the largesse of the Emperor of Land and Sea. Leonardo’s resources are somewhat less.