Mystery: Time Travelers of the Fourth Era

Chapter 563 The Enlighteners

The artisan church suppresses the development of mechanical creations that can replace ordinary artisans... It's almost bizarrely logical.

That's a really lame joke.

Klein was slightly amused and exasperated. This was very medieval. Hundreds of years ago, or even earlier, the core of the Craftsmen's Church consisted of small artisans and craftsmen. Anything that might shake the core was simply dismissed as a strange skill and killed off.

What kind of craftsmanship is this?!

Klein used to think that Emperor Roselle must have had a smooth career in the Craftsmen's Church when he was young. After all, with his modern, ahead-of-his-time knowledge and wisdom, he should have been invincible. No matter what, he should have had a relatively easy time, just like he did in the Church of the Night.

However, if the core of the artisan church at that time came from handicraft workshops and small artisans, then those who could become extraordinary and occupy a certain high position in the artisan church were probably the artisans among artisans, a group of old-fashioned people who were dedicated to studying techniques and making things by hand, striving for perfection.

Someone like the Great Emperor is mixed in there...

No wonder the Craftsmen's Church's external affairs fell so easily into the Emperor's hands later on.

Klein understood a little. Before Emperor Roselle, the living standards and technological development of the northern and southern continents were so backward. In fact, this world had always been in a state of discontinuity. The civilization above may never have been interrupted, but the people below just didn't have flush toilets and toilet paper.

The fact that the artisans taught the artisans did not mean they were ignorant of the technology or the importance of knowledge transmission.

They understood things very well. Back then, the internal system was probably still based on apprenticeships and teacher-student relationships, with orderly inheritance. Each lineage was a school of thought, a technique, and a branch of a field. Knowledge was indeed wealth, but skills were even more like mystery, something that didn't need to be known by everyone.

They understood the steam engine, but had absolutely no idea of ​​improving it. In fact, the first steam engine's pitiful efficiency was laughable. Why waste time improving the steam engine? Wouldn't it have been better to cultivate their own technology within their school and advance to the next level sooner?

The Craftsmen's Church indeed looked down on the potential societal changes that improvements to the steam engine might bring.

Because of these terrifying tech geeks, these extraordinary individuals, their handcrafting skills are simply amazing. What they create is not only ahead of its time, a crystallization of skill and wisdom, but may even truly possess a soul, bringing their creations to life. This feeling is indescribably wonderful. To truly create a work that can be passed down through generations, a work with a soul, may be the lifelong pursuit of a craftsman.

The steam engine, such an inanimate object, such a simple thing whose principles are obvious at a glance, is something that these real technologists would just skim through in their minds and then leave it at that. Why waste time improving such a thing? What a decadence it would be to invest energy in such an inanimate object.

The Industrial Revolution's trend of standardizing, regulating, and mass-producing traditional skills was almost like rigid, formulaic thinking, and a desecration of craftsmen, skills, and even the gods!

It's heresy! It's killing off the future of artisans! It's evil that binds the souls of artisans!

In the Fifth Era, the Iron Age, the basic facilities that were necessary for convenient living existed for people above a certain social class. As for the vast number of facilities that ordinary people couldn't access, nobody cared about them, especially the high and mighty extraordinary families.

Even some ordinary people who were lucky enough to get the opportunity to join the church didn't care.

Russell made a mistake back then.

The Craftsmen's Church—this name isn't old-fashioned, nor is it some third-rate church from a game.

On the contrary, "craftsman" is a highly respected term, almost synonymous with "aristocrat" or "scholar."

In the Fifth Era, the consensus among the gods that separated the extraordinary from reality was executed too perfectly in the Northern Continent.

Extraordinary beings are becoming increasingly difficult for ordinary people to access.

Mysterious, it gradually faded from the sight of ordinary people.

Knowledge, within a certain scope, is equivalent to mystery.

Therefore, knowledge is no longer free, unlike in the Fourth Age when there were many public channels to access it.

Knowledge is closed to the common people.

The Perfect One Path, Sequence 6, Craftsman, possesses the ability to create magical items.

This "mystery" of combining knowledge and skill is no longer open to ordinary people. Long before the White Emperor died, the open-source, free, one-click alchemy array had already disappeared. However, in the Fourth Age, the Morse Ascetic Society began to spread knowledge to the general public.

At that time, the Craftsmen's School, a school within the Morse Order, was also following the general direction of the Morse Order and was willing to actively and freely spread some skills and recruit some apprentices from ordinary backgrounds but with talent.

Even in the true Middle Ages, which did not contain anything extraordinary, artisans served the nobility, and were akin to a term for scholars.

In this world where extraordinary beings truly exist, during the Fifth Era, the status of artisans even surpasses that of some ordinary nobles who do not possess extraordinary abilities. The Artisan Church, in the eyes of the common people, can even be translated as the Noble Church.

However, neither Roselle at that time nor Klein before them actually had this understanding.

Xia Er was actually quite familiar with these things. He closed his eyes, leaned back in his chair, and smiled faintly.

He found it very interesting.

Stefania, the "Goddess of Craftsmen," is the creation of the Hermit. The Goddess of Craftsmen ascends to the divine position of the Perfect One by forging herself.

However, to fully digest the three characteristics of the Enlightenment Civilization, civilization needs to be enlightened.

In the upper echelons of society, the extraordinary nobles do not need enlightenment. Civilization has never been interrupted for them. In fact, at the end of the Fourth Age, the whole world did not need enlightenment, because the Hermits had already completed this step. It would be more difficult for the God of Crafts to enlighten human civilization.

The simple things have already been open-sourced. The simplest way is actually to regress civilization to before the Hermit opened it up, and then the God of Craftsmen can play the role of the enlightener of civilization, or rather, drive the process forward again.

It is now the Iron Age, year 1350.

The Fourth Age took two thousand years to enlighten the entire world. In the Fifth Age, the gods took a thousand years to successfully ruin the garden of civilization. During this period, any secular "wise men with a vision for the times" were defeated by the seven churches and the four royal families.

The God of Craftsmen waited for over a thousand years before finally getting his chance, receiving the signal from the Source Castle, and encountering a new young man named Roselle.