Institute of Woodworks
| Training for | Tinker |
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The Institute of Woodworks is another specialty institute attended by a unique subset of Tinkers. Tinkers who acquire Powers from this Institute understand wood. Wood, one of the three Life elements among the 12 Draconic elements, is of great importance to a Tinker for many reasons, but its primary purpose is providing a structural frame for a Tinker's inventions.
A projectile weapon is exponentially more useful with a stock, a carriage is more functional with a coach, and a ship is far more seaworthy with a properly crafted hull. Wood is the most abundant and malleable building material on Otan. In the hands of a Master Tinker from the Institute of Woodworks, it can provide the strength of steel at a fraction of the weight.
Woodworks Masters are frequently pulled away from instruction to assist on high-profile projects like naval vessels or airships. While Woodworks Tinkers are assigned to build the airframe, Metalworks and Fireworks Tinkers are typically brought in to provide lift and propulsion. Without the Woodworks Tinker, however, such projects would literally never get off the ground.
Once their Powers are granted, Woodworks Tinkers can shape wood and create joins that even Shamans do not understand. To a Woodworks Tinker, wood remains a living thing, even when a Shaman can no longer detect a life force within it.
Teaching Methods
The Institute of Woodworks is run on a strict and uniform basis across all locations. Instructors have minimal time for their students outside of class, as they are perpetually overworked by their host cities or states with urgent military and civil projects. They tolerate no slack or disruptive students. The Institute program is strictly divided into one part, classroom instruction, and two parts practical field work in forests, timber mills, woodshops, ports, hangars, or any active wooden construction sites.
The course is paid for through direct tuition to the school or to the instructing Tinker. Favors or alternative tasks are rarely accepted as barter; however, the city or state in which the course is offered can sometimes be called upon to sponsor a student's tuition in exchange for a binding commitment to public service.
As with other institutes, repetition is the key to mastering a Power. Through the relentless repetition of rote work—such as extracting trees from the forest, overseeing the milling of lumber, treating and shaping wood, assisting in the assembly of full-sized structures, and safely dismantling condemned projects—the associated archetype Power eventually manifests. This grants successful students the permanent intuition required to perform these architectural rituals independently.
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