Factory Cathedral
From Flight From Darkness
Wonder upon wonder, the factory-cathedral is the ultimate workshop, filling most of the middle and inner decks of Red Plate, with most of the rest taken up by the Primary Heating System, symbiotically linked to make use of waste heat and power. Prayer powered drills, scalpels of pure adamant, jade vats for infusing precisely controlled quantities of elemental properties, moonsilver molds, orichalcum forges, and more all conducted from a central Refinery Organ, with access only through airlocks that ritually cleanse the Essence of any mortal or Exalt entering, and lock out anyone or anything they can not thus purify (see note below). At least, that's what the blueprints in the Archives say.
In truth, no one on board has yet seen the central works as of campaign start. Prism told the crew that the factory cathedral had been mothballed to prevent contamination. The airlock doors were then sealed, and only parties directly accompanied by someone with Bridge Crew clearance were to be allowed in. So far, no such person has visited it. Even Prism's sensors in this area were all offline; only those in the outer layers have been restored - and not all of them. Occasional attempts to bypass the airlocks have met with regenerative seals that, according to the Archives, were designed to repel vermin more powerful and persistent than young Solar Exalts. Genesis blueprints for these vermin were specifically excluded from the Archives.
Fortunately, said outer layers are not so sensitive, and are open - to the public, or just to Technical Corps, depending on their security. Naturally, there are clusters of terminals allowing remote access to the Archives. Joarg has claimed one of the genesis laboratories, and named it the Sanctum of Second Eden. Technical Corps HQ is nestled among workshops on the inner deck, while the extensive First Age equipment available on the middle deck counts as a flawless workshop for any Craft-related purpose (with the Crafting revisions: Perfect, since these feed into a true factory-cathedral, with a range of specialties among the workshops relating to making or repairing something useful on the ship). This is merely adequate to the immediate needs of the ship.
Most of the tools sit idle, and some have yet to be touched since the ship was reactivated. Beyond a simple lack of workers, there is very little raw magical material left, and even mundane materials can be in short supply, so it is often more practical to recycle existing equipment than to make new things. Fortunately for the tools, many of them are so specialized as to preclude easy cannibalization in this manner - and the ever-present Technical Corps would take a dim view of such scavenging anyway.
A note on the purification: according to the blueprints, for the Cathedral to function properly, all workers must both pray there four times each day and refrain from any activities which might corrupt their Essence for a full day before they set foot inside, and while they are inside. (The emphasis on this entry suggests the author had some experience with someone attempting said activity inside.) This includes drug use, the consumption of large amounts of meat, sexual activity of any kind, infection, disease, or deforming injury. The airlocks are programmed to lock out anyone whose Essence has been corrupted this way, as a safety measure - for instance, if a would-be worker has an as-yet-uncaught corrupting infection. It is not known what other, if any, conditions the airlocks are intended to screen for, though it seems likely that they would lock out Abyssals (and Infernals, were any to be present) as a matter of course.
The Cathedral was recently returned to functionality during the Exaltations of Dokukinoko Momo and Lady of the Pale Gaze. It has not been put into general use yet.
