"I know you said that technology isn't part of your domain, but I still don't understand
why it isn't."
Vulcan looks around from the volcanic resonance engine he was cooing over. "Really? It's a pretty simple concept. Primal concepts have the largest impact on both the arcane world and the people living in it. The latter becoming increasingly important in more recent times."
Hephaestus pours more metal into a mould. They're making another metamaterial, something heavy as
heck but super strong. "There's been lightning for as long as this world has existed. Darkness for longer."
"I know
that, it's why enchanting swords is easy but enchanting guns is hard. But isn't smithing a lot more recent than everything else?"
Vulcan pushes a couple of levers downwards, and runes on the engine start glowing fiery red. "Isn't love?"
"Maybe, but sexual reproduction is a billion years old. Tool use is nothing like that old."
Hephaestus waves a tool a little like a coat hanger over his metal, the molten liquid visibly cooling as he does so. "Tool use is older than the humans who use most of them. And that matters more than you might think."
Vulcan nods. "There's a reason why we gods all look human. Before you, there was just power without form-."
Donna doesn't look impressed. "Are you saying we
literally built gods in our own image?"
"I doubt it was a conscious process. But, in places, your ideas caused the Dreaming to… I'm not sure how you'd describe it. There was
power, but you gave it
form. Definition. That process eventually gave rise to the Titans. And because they already had powerful ties to the material world, moving from the Dreaming to the material world was
simple for them."
"I
know about the titans. I saw Oceanus this summer. Giant elemental monsters, who were really powerful because they embodied the most primal concepts."
Hephaestus shakes his head. "No. Not monsters. Not.. colossal animals, like some big elementals can be. The titans basically came from early humans, remember. And some parts of human life are so universal to your species that they
had to share those elements themselves. Like breeding, for example. Or fighting for power."
Donna nods, a little irritated at the speed of the narration. "The titans begat the gods, resulting in a worldwide supernatural war which saw the titans lose to their children and either be killed or imprisoned."
Hephaestus turns his casting out, and then picks it up to look it over. "You're missing the point. Each god is a combination of the arcane characteristics of their parents, pared with some aspect of the world as experienced by humans. Humans have been making tools for long enough that
nurturing and
commanding could combine into
crafting. It doesn't come up much these days, but flint tools are as much a part of…" He glances at Vulcan, who is hooking up his newly tested engine to an assemblage of some kind. "
Our domain as metal tools. But they've got
history. We've both
tried, but our instinct for metalworking doesn't extend to circuitry."
"On the
other hand, it can
help with novel applications. Since you-" Vulcan nods in my direction. "-shared that idea about using jovium as a heat conductor, we've been building all
sorts of things."
Hephaestus slots his casting into a rack with a dozen others like it, then pulls a chain to turn the pulleys to move it out into the middle of a clear area in the middle of the complex.
Hm.
"So… You aren't the Gods of Technology.
"
"No." Vulcan picks up something that looks like a large bore rifle. "And we can't learn to
become the Gods of Technology. But we
can learn technology."
"From what you were saying about god breeding, would it follow that one of your offspring
would be the God of Technology?
"
"Hm." Hephaestus stops pulling and frowns as he thinks about it. "He
wasn't, but at that point 'technology' wasn't much more than what was covered by my domain. And his mother…"
"Um.
"
"Probably not the right mix."
Donna frowns. "Just
one? The myths-."
"I'm a married crippled
smith who earned Zeus' disfavour. The goddesses weren't exactly lining up." He waves his right hand dismissively before clumping awkwardly back towards Vulcan. "Sometimes they named me as the father as a joke, or when they didn't want to get a mortal lover in trouble.
Trust me, the real number isn't
high."
"So who was he? And.. who was his mother?"
A
very faint smile graces his lips. "I read everything I can on science and technology. I teach anyone with a mind to learn and a will to use their knowledge. And you need to ask me who my son's mother was?"
Donna blinks, shocked. "The myths about
Erichtonius say-."
"Myths… Say a
lot of things. I wouldn't put too much store in them." He comes to a halt next to Vulcan and turns around. "Zeus
ate her mother because he feared her power. What do you think he would have done to her
son?"
"So… You're saying that she's
not a virgin?"
He shrugs. "We never married. And she couldn't acknowledge him…"
"So what
would be?
"
"What?"
"If learning and craft don't make technology, what does?
"
Vulcan lowers his gun, rolling his eyes. "Can't we leave the theoretical theologism until we're well into our cups?"
"I was just wondering-?
"
"As I said, the sort of technology that exists today wasn't a thing when Erichtonius was born. With no metaphysical source of power, he wasn't much more capable than a demigod. But… Athena is a war goddess as much as she is a patron of classical learning. I'm not sure that he'd have been technology even if he'd been born
today."
"Technology. Someone sees a problem, comes up with a way to deal with it… And then a few years later it's being put to a use they never envisaged and society has shifted around it in unplanned and uncontrollable ways…
" I smile.
"How do you feel about E-
"
"
No."
"-ris?
"
Vulcan raises his gun again. "Test seventy five, heat transfer gun mark four. Firing."
Hephaestus nods. "
Thank you.
