Culver Barony

I can estimate if I'll be able the imperial weapon quotas by the noise coming from the wall every day, but I have to use deaf guards because a enraged bull wouldn't be heard through the hammering of my loyal dwarf craftsmen.

-Baron Culver. Every day, his barony swallows several hundred ingots of iron and bronze to produce lamellae, helmets, blades, cannons etc, besides the exotic weaponry that the baron can dream of.

The baron Caleb Culver is an eccentric and genius inventor serving the emperor. He's responsible by the design of the Palatine Walls, arming the Palatine Bears, keeping an arsenal for the capital, as well as several innovations, tools and weapons. The barony occupies an area west of the capital Noster Amaranthi, providing an extra layer to the considerable urban defenses. Culver also commands several forts and towers in the rivers which reach hte Great Lake, covering strategic points. 

The several burn scars in the baron's body attest to his inventivity and taste for gunpowder. Sanctioned company's adventurers are frequently charged with testing machines, tools and weapons developed by Culver: some fail, other don't. Sanctioned companies also have the right to buy exotic weaponry from here, incorporating materials and parts from Kosinbia, Groria or even Scarnost.

The hydromechanical power plant is Culver's pride: the second largest and most complex machine ever built in the Northern Empire (only behind Antikythera), providing energy through networks of wooden rods to two hundred and fifty pumps, workshops, forges, sawmills and hydraulic hammers. Fourteen water wheels which not only provide power, but also feed an aqueduct of Noster Amaranthi. If necessary, the plant can pump a million gallons of water in twenty four hours, making a deafening noise in the process. Sixty workers and an equal number of soldiers ensure its maintenance and security. The baron's castle is actually such a complex and productive factory that it also became a temple of the god of work, Ourgos. Many priests and clerics are in Culver's payroll, producing blessed craftwork, from nails to forges whose temperature is ideal and never changes.

The barony also houses a scarnostian enclave, where engineers keep the starter terminal of the ironhorses which go through the imperial railway: steam locomotives imported from Scarnost. A expensive and unique technology. The enclave has workshops to fabricate spare parts, geisthane guards in mechnical armor and even pneumatic cannons to portect Technogestalt's secret technologies. Only imperial messengers, northern soldiers, important clerks and sanctioned companies are allowed to embark one of the trains. The enclave's leader is also the scarnostian ambassador.

Culver's greatest frustration is being unable to create a steam engine capable of moving the imperial trains. In the process, he realized the limits of manual craftsmanship, even if done by dwarfs, and believes that he would need scarnostian tools such as drills and lathes to reach his objective. The problem is that, not only such machines would have to be smuggled from Scarnost, they would also create a serious diplomatic incident with Technogestalt and the analogical computer which leads it, Tecnogeist.