Planar Architects Guild
Location: Mechanus
Located on a cog barely visible from Yama’s Palace, the Planar Architect’s Guild is an impressive cathedral-like fortress with vaulted gothic roofs, flying buttresses, and daunting stained glass windows depicting the rotation of the gears. Within its hallowed halls, the great traditions of architecture throughout the planes are carried on in perfect imitation of how things have always been. Scholars pour over tomes in the library verifying each statue, every angle, all designs, making sure that the work is in line with all of the prevailing customs and knowledge.
The students here face harsh treatment (those who are particularly disappointing are sent on a “pilgrimage” to Yamasenda, the realm of judgment), but fact is they are some of the most well-lanned, if overly regimented, architects on the planes. Truth is, they are often so skilled that their creations can pass as true innovation when in fact they are simple calculations, incorporating the proper combinations of baroque, mediaeval, gothic, modronic, devanic, and Stygian traditions, mixing part vaulted arches with part metal gear domes decorated sparsely with swaying blades. Opponents of the Planar Architect’s Guild are often outspoken, defying the rigid definitions that the high-ups on the cog of architects would impose; none ever remains loud for long, as they sink into poverty, run over by the monolithic dominator, their careers, and indeed their dreams crushed by the powerful forces of conservative architecture.
Far more hear the praises of the Planar Architect’s Guild, how Yulindus Pratri was commissioned to design the Sensate’s embassy in Sylvania, how the deceased Tol Evon completed the restoration of the Great Sphinx in Heliopolis, and how, recently, If-Then the Expatriate discovered a new planar metal—conditionalium, a substance unique to certain remote cogs in Mechanus. Though much controversy has risen regarding If-Then’s history as a rogue modron member of the Athar faction, none can deny the potential of conditionalium; it responds to smelting in a very interesting manner, by folding in on itself when heated, and unfolding when cooled, forcing smiths to learn special crafting techniques to forge items of conditionalium. Chant is that it responds to every situation in a certain preset manner (who set these conditional, “if-then” statements, as If-Then likes to call them is unknown), and that the Planar Architect’s Guild is working to uncover its secrets. The future of the guild could very well lie in conditionalium, but of late, few have heard of what progress has been made on the research.
Services: Architects for hire, price dependent upon the desired structure, building, statue, or grounds; however, don’t expect anything innovative, all designs are strictly made according to rote and tradition.
Source: Aaron Infante-Levy