Essence Circuit
Description
If there is one element which an artificer can expect to encounter across the full length and breadth of magitech artifice, it is the essence circuit.
An Essence circuit consists of three basic components common to all its variants: a thin plate or sheet of alchemically-treated Adamantine Glass, thin wire (mostly of Orichalcum, with smaller amounts of other materials such as Soulsteel or Majestrum, though certain circuits will switch the ratios to achieve different effects), and small Starmetal anchor plugs, along with various nodules of Moonsilver and all five colours of Jade. The glass plate is treated so as to be non-conductive to essence, while the orichalcum wire is suited for ‘perfected conduction’, carrying essence without gain or loss in a perfectly regulated flow. The plugs allow integration of additional components, or attachment to other essence circuits or artifacts.
Exotic Component
Essence Circuits have no use on their own, though they are equivalent to 1-dot artifacts which can be used as Exotic Components in magitech Artifact Creation (though they are of no use in non-magitech artifice)... indeed, essence circuits are a mandatory part of magitech artifacts.
Construction
The construction of essence circuits is understood relatively well by the savants of the present age, but their actual production is limited. The difficulty with an essence circuit in this fallen Age is not in understanding, for the imprinting of wires and components is (relatively) simple, but in the production of appropriate glass plates and their manipulation. Mundane tools CAN cut and drill them, but such marks disrupt the purity of the plate and render it unstable, unfit for use in magitech. The only way to produce a new plate is through the tools found in the workshops of the rare Factory Cathedrals (Photolithographic Brushes to layer glass and traces of Adamant into plates, Theonuminal Transduction Engines to bore pinholes and channel grooves with necessary perfection, Focusing Motonoscopes to allow the technician to observe their work as it is carried out, et cetera)... a properly-treated plate of adamantine glass built in such a Cathedral counts as one Exotic Component for an Essence Circuit, and every Circuit MUST have such a component.
Glass plates for essence circuits are a common item found by Scavenger Lords uncovering the ruins of the First Age, for they were produced in massive quantities and distributed across Creation for use in various projects. However, these are not immediately useful to the modern artificer, nor do set plans exist to speed construction of the circuits further, for essence circuits must be crafted both with standard components and with a layout specifically tailored to their intended purpose, including a second Exotic Component to provide aspect and motive for the essence flowing through the circuit. As this customized nature also requires varying shapes of plate, a would-be magitech engineer of the present age must often sift through dozens or even hundreds of plates to find one fit for her purposes (though some manipulation is possible for those who have access to rare tools such as the Heptagram's Crepuscular Transduction Engine). However, regardless of shape or exotic component, a magitechnician’s familiarity with essence circuits means even if the artifact is alien or not understood they can still easily perform maintenance and repairs on the circuits.
