Institute of Steamworks
| Training for | Tinker |
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The Institute of Steamworks is the only Institute where it is a benefit for students to have attended other schools. Steam is perhaps the most magical of non-magical substances in that it likes to do work. It is particularly good at converting heat into work. Given this basic premise, Tinkers need only imagine where work needs to be done and begin inventing methods for steam to do that work.
Initiate-level Powers at the Institute of Steamworks involve a simple piston or wheel, converting steam power into motion. It does not take a Sophist to see that this type of innovation requires metalwork once the plan for the steam is determined. Through a combination of metalwork, and possibly firework or magic, steam is created and turned into work.
What work is to be done? That is up to the imagination and the power of the Tinker. They might start with pistons to power a prosthetic limb, weapons that launch heavy objects, or pumps to raise water from a well. Advanced Tinkers are already known for their ability to create vehicles, which, despite the noise, travel further and faster than most horses.
Teaching Methods
Tinker schools, including the Institute of Steamworks, are strictly and uniformly run. Instructors are always overworked by their host city or state with military and civil projects, and they will not tolerate slack students. The Institute regiment is one part classroom instruction and two parts working in the shop, hangar, or port—wherever the steamworks are being operated.
The course is paid for through tuition to the school or directly to the instructing Tinker. Favors or other tasks are rarely accepted as barter; however, the city or state in which the course is offered can sometimes be called upon to pay a student's tuition in exchange for a commitment to work.
As with other institutes, repetition is the key to Power. Through the repetition of the rote preparation of fuels, steam pistons, flywheels, escape valves, and other aspects of steam power, the archetype Power eventually comes to a successful student, granting them the intuition to safely perform these steam rituals on their own.
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