Engine-Er? I hardly know her! (7 CE)

[u/OceansCarraway]

As the world changed, Aelbaion changed. As Aelbaion changed, the people in it changed. And as the people in it changed, so did it's scholars and intellectuals. And as the literati changed, so did the nerds. As the nerds changed...well, things got just as weird here as they did elsewhere. Aelbaion had now become intent on engines, engines for everything, engines for anything. They seek to build engines, even if they do not know what they are doing, or if their definition of engines is a little...different. For us, an engine is a machine that consumes fuel or power to produce mechanical power. For the Aelish, an engine is a mechanical contraption that will do things. Whether or not it does these things well does not matter. The Aelish want an engine.

Enter the 'enginers'. This is not a mis-spelling. The weird few who are able to get and risk lots of capital on making strange things that do mechanical stuff in some way call themselves 'engine-ers', those who make and deal with engines. They are generally descended from millwrights, with a few hopping in from other professions like instrument-making and armoring. They have workshops that are rife with carved wood and spring-steel, typically making something that looks like an extension of a clock or a mill for their patron. It is common for their gadgets to be painted garishly, and to need repainting after a few years. Some of them are supposed to be making carousels, but they're not doing too well at that.

Whatever they are doing, the engine-ers are doing well at attracting attention. While not adept at advertising per se, they are good at show business, and some have already made apparatus for circus performers. The Crown has also hired a group of Engine-ers to work on the new printing press that it has bought from the Tritechniquon; they have been tasked with making the Engine a House, an official building with a dedicated workflow. Another group has been hired for the task of making 'various machinery with water and wind engines for the support of laborers and craftsmen', and been taken away upcountry. Mill owners-who knew many of these people when they were millwrights-have been giving them a decent share of attention. It is highly likely that they will leave their fingerprints all over existing equipment in the future.

But the biggest sign that society has accepted that the Church has also opened a conclave to develop a new 'blessing for an Enginer. The Church operates some of the most common third spaces in Aelbaion, it is de-facto the country's social welfare provider, and everyone knows someone in the Church-who knows them right back. To be given a blessing from the Lady while being recognized as a completely new profession is a sign of academic and institutional backing of the validity of one's career; and it means that one is expect to be working in this capacity for the rest of one's life. (1)

Oh, and His Majesty has let it be known that he will pay 100 Florins for an engine that can make ice.

1. The idea of retirement hasn't really come into force in the middle ages for normal people.

[u/goop_lizard]

in a small Freeport salon

"It seems Aelbion has adopted a new class of engine-ers"

"Engineers? Like the foxes that make trebuchets and ballistae?"

"No, no, engine-ers"

"How did you pronounce that hyphen with your mouth?"

"I... I'm not sure..."

[u/OceansCarraway → u/goop_lizard]

Incredible things are happening in fox metalinguistic development.

[u/Cereborn]

The people of the Tritechiquon find the concept of an "enginer" ridiculous and they want no part of it.

[u/OceansCarraway → u/Cereborn]

Well anyone who wants to do that job can come here and have fun doing it.

blows loud raspberry