Thanks for the thoughts and feedback, everyone!
Springboarding off my previous post, beyond just the basic themes one thing the books have continually struggled with is how to articulate just what people actually do in Autochthonia. Sure, there's always confirmation that "everyone works to live" to give things an oppressive overtone, and lip service paid to episodic or mission-based play, with the occasional system that assumes that great lengths of time will come into things (Vats refit times in 1e, Clarity gain from distancing oneself from humanity, etc).
But even taken together, its never fully presented as a coherent whole which meshes with the functional realities of Exalted as a game or Autochthonia as a setting, and more often than not the Storyteller is left shunting everyone into Creation to escape the stifling contradiction of having too much formalized structure, but no idea of what takes place inside it without making a lot of it up whole-cloth.
Now a fair warning up-front, the final bulk of this essay is going to be my own attempt to reconcile the "labor culture" of Autochthonia, breaking down some personalized hows and whys, reasons that the frequently vagued-up 'labors' demanded of the Octet and its people are a Significant Feature to the setting outside of trappings for rampant industrialism and Autochthon's health. Its about as canon as anyone else's thoughts on the subject, but I tried to stick with as many knowns as I could!
But before I get into all that, some thoughts about Autochthonia-specific session play and structure, and why it differs so sharply for Alchemicals compared to more free-wheeling Creationside games.
Solo Operators:
Although Alchemical Exalted are constructed in batches and organized into local assemblies to serve the will of the tripartite, the fact of the matter is that most Champions will work together only in the rarest and demanding of circumstances. Efficient division of resources means that as such a vital asset to the state, she goes where her unique skills are needed most. Where that overlaps with the competencies of another Champion are instances where more than a single Exalt is required to overcome, such as disaster recovery or supernatural warfare.
Most commonly an Alchemical will be working alone or alongside experienced mortals in her field, possibly both under direct command and at the head of a team working towards a set objective or mission. Taking up all other roles in the organizational hierarchy of the eight nations, it will next to always be mortals forming her logistical support, mission control and situational intelligence networks.
Any immediate authority comes in the form of a functional or honorary title, and the Champion who claims peerage to the lectors may still be vetoed by a mortal lector with a more prominent public history. She is an outside agent in many ways, lacking a storied career to give her guaranteed acceptance in an entrenched bureaucracy. Though she may be tougher, faster, smarter or stronger than her unexalted peers, the Alchemical remains at best a trusted advisor and luminary agent for the state until given enough latitude to pursue her own personal projects. Nevertheless even this operational freedom comes under the expectation her results will benefit the common good of her nation.
The Storyteller can handle this adjustment of focus away from the "Circle of Exalted" for a campaign by initially assigning a rotating role of "Champion" per session or uncompleted objective. That chosen player roleplays her Exalt to the fullest extent, meanwhile other players willing to accept a role in the mortal retinue accompanying or overseeing her actions are granted a brief narrative respite from the long-term consequences for risks, like suffering serious crippling damage or character death.
Thanks to the ambiguous and pervasive nature of artifact technology in Autochthonia, players of 'mortals' this way may still freely use existing character sheets as an abstraction for heavy equipment and swap between any powers and Charms owned, instead replacing Anima flare with more suitable visuals for comparably powerful man-portable tools. This is not to suggest that effects identical to Alchemical Charms are so plentiful, but the amount of preparation for any mortal to keep pace would lead to her being similarly loaded for bear.
This "troupe-style method" can greatly benefit new players early in a campaign, because while Alchemicals generally lack the options to play out pre-Exaltation events, briefly filling the shoes of a related but exceptional everyman gives time to grasp the basics of a character in a similar fashion, before the game demands she step into the role of an Exalt in extremely more dire circumstances. After several sessions of introductory rotations to familiarize and establish each Exalt in turn, the Storyteller may then shuffle any of these mortal cast characters off into supplemental or advisory roles as the campaign ramps up towards more sweeping and significant missions, of the sort which demand the kind of attention only a dedicated Alchemical assembly can fully address.
Mission Accompliced:
With such a broad technological base available to solve potential problems, what defines a mission more suitable to an Exalt than a handful of first-response heroic mortals? At the foremost, the scope of the obstacles and uncertainty involved. While it can be argued how wasteful it can be for an Exalt to spend her time performing routine firefighting duties, if the source of that fire is stemming from a highly pressurized fuel main which can jeopardize the operation of the entire tram system with a critical freight shipment looming, expediency insists that it is best to leave her to work.
The standard objective for an Alchemical taskload trends towards the straight-forward, such as securing a habitable zone in the Reaches for tapping a fresh conduit or ratifying an alliance with a neighboring nation. A straight-forward mission is not the same as a simple one however, and may be a complicated affair fraught with pitfalls. All that is assured is that every avenue was explored to resolve the situation normally before a Champion was called forward to meet it. Rarely a combination of prioritizing and short-handedness means any Champion will do, but whenever plausible great pains are taken to match an Exalt with an objective she has been equipped to undertake.
Unless reacting to an unexpected crisis, the lengths of time necessary to properly outfit, brief and mobilize an Alchemical Exalt by the extensive infrastructure of the tripartite means that the state has much information as available and already come to a consensus on how the situation should be approached. Capabilities, deployment history and public reception of a particular Champion or assembly chosen for the task is no small part of this decision-making process, and therefore once deployed one of the chosen will be expected to practice the utmost creative problem-solving and judgement calls. Untested or less reliable Exalts are often forced to rendezvous with a preparedness team on-site, though solitary operators are given cart blanche to scrape together a support crew along the way if she believes it will aid the task at hand.
Though her Exalted status avails her little when formalizing tactical strategies or domestic policy with the most esteemed minds the tripartite has to offer, out within the Reaches even the most recently activated Champion provides an invaluable touchstone. Trained in many labors, the majority of Autochthonia's population frequently may still never leave the nation of her birth, and far fewer step foot outside the relative safety of the cities. Owing to composite lifetimes and innate understanding of Clarity, the worldliness of the Alchemical's old soul permits her some insight into the workings of the big picture.
With access to memories and experiences outstripping her mortal companions, it can often be an Exalt's wider sample size for pattern recognition which separates a routine toxic fume leak detail from identifying the early stages of a severe infestation of fungal spirits the likes of which ravaged the waste-treatment facilities of another nation mere generations prior. Additionally, ex machina spirits can feel drawn more favorably towards the Champion with her more powerful destiny and resonance to a shared patron. When the alternative would mean stumbling into a retrofit-in-progress with several agitated custodians in a sanctified access port, or traversing a pitch-black conduit teeming with oil elementals, this can be potentially life-saving.
Lastly, while all of this thought has been directed towards the life and times of Alchemicals and the ways each personally interact with the setting and vice-versa, something which the books never fully dwell on satisfactorily is what "important labors" and "humanity's service" actually mean, both in general outlook and to the average lever-puller on the factory floor. What role humanity fills in Autochthonia is shored up even less convincingly in the 2e book, sparing no word about the kind of work which happens beyond regulatory maintenance on the Alchemical cities themselves, and giving a wishy-washy handwave to the idea of simply constructing more automata to fill the workforce needs of such a titan instead.
Without the established context of "pastoral livestock and farming" which defines the majority of life in Creation outside the major city-states, Autochthonia frequently leaves open the question of just what goes on and why in the backdrop of all these tense action sequences. So to that end, hopefully this serves as a close-enough approximation:
The Answer:
"Why" is not a common inquiry in Autochthonia. Because questioning gives voice to a perceived lack of communication, information or awareness which the tripartite has sought to instill into every aspect of Octet life. Reasons and instruction are plentiful for those who need to accomplish important tasks, but asking further beyond is a challenge rather than a request. The heavy implications left unsaid, that the purpose behind one's chosen duty is unclear, makes silence and ignorance preferable than suggesting firm guidance and facts alone are not enough justification to pursue the sacred labors of station. Curiosity is a dangerous line to walk, because everything demands purpose in Autochthonia. For most common mortal workers of the eight nations, that purpose of labor is the pursuit of the Answer.
When the Great Maker fled from the lands of Creation, he took with him a vast number of unsuspecting passengers to fill out the quota of souls even the fullest sum of his devout could not meet. But while the primordial was focused on the quickest possible exodus, he did not reach out blindly. The location and secrecy of his plan meant isolation, and in the far-flung rural expanses Autochthon chose only those whose specialized knowledge would aid his vision and chosen people during his self-imposed exile. A great many of these displaced souls were seasonal farmers, provincial shamans and thaumaturges of small renown. Practitioners of simple folk arts and hedge magics, nonetheless invaluable thanks to lifelong insights into the methods the Great Maker would require on his journey, an understanding of symbiosis and measured coexistence with the natural world.
Barely any of this homespun wisdom remains intact in present-day Autochthonia, save inside the oldest recorded archives. Confusing or incongruent passages have been relentlessly weeded from or modified within the Tome of the Great Maker, making room for modernized retelling and rituals hammered out to fit the realities of an evolving artificial world. Without an annual rotation of seasons, celestial time-tables or holistic spirits to appease, the fixed rites and prayers have no lasting relevance except as theoretical curiosities. But the practical lessons about perpetuating natural processes still ring true despite having been stripped of the original contexts.
Because to an extent while Autochthon's world-body is an ideal series of enduring cycles, mechanisms driving counter-mechanisms across a legion of perfect parts, it is still a a colossal, complex machine and subject to all the earthly realities of its condition. By forming himself into the most ideal of embodiment of technology, the primordial created a world of increasingly interconnected tools slaved to serve the master purpose of his own self-perpetuation. Tools built in a desperate need of users to regulate the internal stability between each unique class of functions. But it is said that the Maker does not ply his craft with flaws in mind, only opportunities.
By theomachracy doctrine, order and harmony are not ends within the divine system, but a means to insure the divine system remains divine. Where an immaculate configuration of Autochthon's flesh meets another equally peerless but incompatible configuration, conflicts are bound to arise outside the experience or judgment of the Maker's own ex machina to address. Left to fester, these conflicts can and do cascade over time into sprawling blight zones, faltering mechanical wastelands of disrepair and malfunction. As an element of pliable chaos introduced into this structure of ironclad rules, struggling against these conflicts is the duty laid at the feet of all humankind. Mending the clashing natures of such processes and turning such conflict towards productive endeavors is known as the Answer.
All undertakings begin the same way, analyzing the perfect stability of the incompatible systems to find what benefits can be gleaned from the byproducts of the questionable operation, without upsetting the careful balance within each component. Wasted electrical heat might be rerouted into a makeshift water purification plant, converting that heat into useful steam before it can curdle the chemical mixtures of adjacent conduits. Special care is taken to avoid exploitation of the Great Maker's critical sequences, and conserving an idyllic stasis is paramount when misuses can be far-reaching and dire. Caustic essence voids, null zones, repurposing measures suddenly destabilizing unrelated mechanisms through sympathetic feedback, "phantom operator" errors, all these industrial disasters and more can stem from meddling too deeply with the Grand Design.
While a cadre of custodians could repair the superficial damages more quickly and thoroughly than any mortal work crew, the solution would be just that, superficial. The innate programming of a machine spirit harshly limits the creature from improvising any kind of nuanced retrofit. Remapping an entire sector of the titan's superstructure would involve coordinating dozens, potentially hundreds of divine subprocesses working in tandem. Possibly even a direct theotechnical miracle from the Divine Ministers to suspend Autochthon's life-processes from requiring the damaged organs, allowing it to be safely shut down and transplanted back once the refit is complete.
Such a massive undertaking would cause ripples through the totality of the Design, opening up the risk for other cracks in the facade to emerge into countless unseen malfunctions during the interim. This is where humanity finds a role, unburdened by the encoded scope of the Maker's manifest, alleviating both the primordial's suffering and gaining the resources to supply additional great works and expanding population centers almost indefinitely.
Small fortifications spring up around every retrofit in the technological landscape to prevent wandering custodians from tearing out these unplanned modifications as defects. The further from a designated safe route the conflict lies, the more vicious the fighting can become between man and machine spirit, particularly in areas deemed otherwise holy and inviolable. Flaccid conduits are tapped more frequently as irregular chemicals shift with the Maker's moods, while veins of useful metals require more digging to repurpose, leaving these rare errors in the primordial's nature as the only reliable assets to discover. Gradually the industrial area of a neighboring suburban region expands and layers these outposts with spirit-repelling wards, housing blocks and public thoroughfares, allowing the new district to blossom into an intermediary township of the kind which dot the fringe edges of an Alchemical civic hub.
With fits and starts in recent years, this level of marked expansionism from cities performing too efficiently can also rapidly become a beast which must be fed. Demanding urban sprawl becomes increasingly reliant on expensive forays into the Reaches to find fresher or more specialized resources to tap. In high risk cases, all-or-nothing gambits must be readied for harvesting from resonant or harmonious systems, courting spiritual disfavor and sympathetic blight zone collapse along inaccessible areas to insure a windfall surplus at a later date. As the boundaries of the Reaches are pushed, more of the nations are beginning to experience this kind of runaway parasitic growth. When there is need it falls to the Champions to help ease the strain.
By elevating herself into a new city, a veteran Alchemical provides her home with three important services. First, the loyal followers and professionals she gathers for the journey help reduce the local population down to a sustainable level, permitting a justified reduction in utilities. Secondly, the creation of a new core city exists as another foothold into the Reaches, allowing for easier detection of additional material conflicts and greater potential resource allocation.
But the most important of these lies in her inevitable location, guided by the Divine Ministers to fall within a nexus of several clashing architectures where even mortal applications of the Answer are not enough to stave off possible blight zone catastrophe. It is only by the Champion's superior will that she forcibly harmonizes these incompatible processes through herself as the medium, physically becoming a great work in the body of her god.
Recently strains of apostate dialogue have emerged within the Populat contesting the very idea of the Answer, advancing voidbringer sects with the claims that rising demands for parasitic expansion are a sign that the tools adapted by humanity are narrow and poorly chosen. That by treating the symptoms of the Great Maker's uneasy existence rather than the illness, thousands of years toil and infrastructure have been built towards ultimately wasteful ends.
Possibilities of multiple Answers to the enigmatic question of purpose posed by Autochthon, some as of yet undiscovered, still haunt the tripartite even as heretical and demoralizing cells are brought to heel and teachings expunged. But the chance of having chosen the wrong Answer, and constructed the entirety of Autochthonian civilization around a runaway course long beyond the point of stopping, remains an uncomfortably real danger moving into the years ahead.
