Jistkan artificers

From PathfinderWiki
A magus emulates a Jistkan artificer.

The artificers and magistrates were the two factions struggling for power during the middle period of the Jistka Imperium. The artificers concentrated on the manufacture of golems and other powerful war machines. As the Jistka Imperium expanded, the artificers built most of their golemwork factories in the Jistkan territories of southern Avistan while their rival faction, the magistrates, established their most prominent holdings in northern Garund.1

Jistka's artificer caste

The artificers were organized into the artificer caste system, with each caste holding different levels of influence and importance. Their caste system included:

  • the worker-artificers, who made up the lowest class of miners, forgers, and other laborers
  • the priest-artificers who were revered for their connections to the Outer Planes and their prowess with divine magic
  • the judge-artificers who commanded the legions of golem soldiers that served as northern Jistka's armies, using the Imperium's legendary ivory batons1

Priest-artificers used to bless especially powerful golems at great temple-forges with powers granted by their mysterious gods.1

Jistka's golems

Artificers' automatons and inventions were incorporated in Jistka's society. Their uses varied from miniature mechanical actors for audiences' amusement, to imperial automaton troops and black-masked executioners. The most impressive of Jistka's golems were the colossal behemoth golems. The priest-artificers infused these elephantine goliaths with fiend-tainted compounds and fueled them with the spirits of daemons, devils, and demons. Their unholy, incredible power provided the generals of the Jistka Imperium with the additional power they needed to confront the divs and necromantic elemental outsiders of Ancient Osirion.2

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.