Industrial Mage

The only real qualifications for being an industrial mage are the ability to cast magic and a willingness to follow orders. The different advancements require specific training, which is provided by whoever owns the factory, but the entry level Generator position is the magical equivalent of grunt work. Due to the ease of gaining arcane power, this first requirement is a low bar to cross

The lowest level of industrial mage are the Infusers. These mages pump their magic into arcane generators, turning the magical energy of their spells into the motion that powers the factory. The details vary based on the type of generator, but the principle is the same. Some are powered by electricity, forcing the infusers to shoot lightning at the generator. Others work like steam engines, making fire magic needed to evaporate the water inside. Some have been developed that work on raw arcane energy, both increasing the infuser's production and allowing for raw Mana to be poured into the generator.

Infusers who prove themselves have a handful of promotion paths ahead of them. One option is that of the Golemancer. Simple constructs have been created to do manual labor, but they need mechanics to repair them and make more when needed. That is the duty of the golemancers. They create and maintain the workforce that mans the various machines that actually do the work in the factories.

Those who show an affinity for fire magic might go on as Smelters, who use their magic to get a precise control over flames for industrial scale metalwork. They precisely control the temperature of their furnaces to melt down large quantities of ore, which then gets poured into molds or hammered into whatever shape is required.

Runemenders have a similar but distinct job to the golemancers. Where the golemancers maintain the workforce, runemenders maintain the equipment. Industrial machines need lots of maintenance from their heavy workloads, so when they need fixing the runemenders leap into action.

Warpwardens have a job that rarely applies, but they need to be on top of it when it does happen. They are the disaster response team, trained to contain and diffuse wild magic. The large amount of raw mana needed to run these factories means a wild magic incident can spiral, doing a lot of damage to anything in the surroundings. To minimize these incidents, all factories have at least a couple Warpwardens on the payroll, there to ensure that the factory doesn't randomly explode.

Infuser's main tool is a specialized staff called a Channeling Staff, designed to help them focus their magic and allows the mana they channel into generators to go further. This staff is made of wood carved and inlaid with metal in runic patterns.

Golemancer's tools are much more specific. They have a whole toolbox filled with tinkers tools designed for repairing the clockwork laborers. They always seem to have a pocket of spare parts as well. Golemancers have iconic coats they keep various tools in, from wands to wrenches to screwdrivers, and these coats have pockets where many golemancers keep extra cogs, loose strands of wire, crystal shards and any other miscellaneous junk. Newer, less experienced golemancers will try to keep these pockets organized, but the best simply know where everything is and almost magically pull out whatever they need.

Smelters rely on fire magic for their work, though they have much more protective equipment than other industrial mages. Their frequent interactions with molten metal mean they wear fireproof gear: thick gloves, aprons with fire resistance enchantments, goggles to protect their eyes, and long sleeve shirts and pants to cover any exposed skin.

Runemenders, much like golemancers, have a whole set of tools they use. These are much the same tools that more mundane machinist would use: screwdrivers, wrenches, hammers, and so on. However, due to the magical nature of their repairs they also have more magical implements as well. Jars of enchanted ink to fix drawn wires, a scraper to remove excess ink, chisels to etch the correct runes, wands to detect the strength of the enchantments, and more.

Warpwardens primarily use arcane charms used to detect and contain arcane surges. Their detectors are styled like pocketwatches, with a dial on the front that shows the stability of ambient magic. They are attuned to stable fields of magic, and the dial on the front will move according to how far the ambient field is from that baseline. If they detect magic that gets too far from a stable baseline, they have two tools: the Accumulator and the Balancer. The Balancer is a small mechanism with a pair of tuning forks on either end, which reads the flux of magic on one side then counters it with the other. Like waves canceling amplitude, this reversal returns the magic to a neutral state, though it can take several minutes to nullify an aberration so it is best used early before any wild magic gets out of control. If the Balancer fails and magic goes wild, the Accumulator is brought out. Warpwardens wear glass tanks on their back, hooked up to the Accumulator: a device designed to suck up loose magic like a vaccum and store it in these tanks.

As is to be expected, most Industrial Mages find work in arcane factories. These buildings are generally cramped places, with the owners trying to squeeze productivity out of every foot of floor space. They are also fairly loud as the machines constantly work, though the rhythmic banging and whirring has been described as almost musical by many workers.

Industrial Mages are the workers powering the industrialization of Savinaru. While mechanized labor is common, the technology has not progressed enough to be fully self sufficient. Thus humanoid supervisors are needed to order the golems around, fix any broken machines, and calm any wild magic surges.

There are two main hazards inherent in arcane factories: large machines and wild magic. The inherent dangers of large machines are obvious: they are unthinking machines that exert a lot of power in order to do their job, and if you are in the way they exert that pressure on you. Plus if something goes wrong, you have large chunks of metal doing unexpected things like snapping or going in unexpected directions with a lot of force. The magic is also a danger of these buildings. Mana has the potential to become unstable very easily, and by their nature these factories contain large amount of arcane energy. If that mana starts going wild, it can cause a cascade which unleashes a wild magic storm. Given that many of these factories are inside cities, such an outburst can be devastating if it breaches containment. Warpwardens are specially trained to deal with these rare events, and there are numerous safety precautions to avoid such an event in the first place, but no amount of planning can protect from bad luck.