Essence Circuit
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 orichalcum wire, and small starmetal anchor plugs. 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.
The construction of essence circuits is understood relatively well by the savants of the present age, but their actual production is limited. They 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.
The difficulty with an essence circuit in this fallen Age is not in understanding, for the imprinting of wires and components is simple, but in the production of appropriate glass plates and their manipulation. Mundane tools CAN cut and rill 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... 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. 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.
