Maestro Macchino: The Fifth Divine Avatar

A gnome named Guillam Mertens lived alone on a small island. He worked for years on an elaborate structure, and everyone who sailed by referred to him teasingly as Maestro Macchino, or “the machine master.” Occasionally black smoke would puff into the sky, or strange lights would flicker on the island, but otherwise it was impossible to tell what it did.

One day Guillam appeared at the Court of the Oligarchs on Bresca Island. He told everyone at court that he was a Divine Avatar and he had come to give the gnomes the gift of automation. He invited the Oligarchs to his island for a demonstration, and then vanished in a puff of steam.

Curious, they came. He showed them the great engine he had made and how it powered many useful devices around his island. He also showed them smaller versions and offered them diagrams for how to build them. There was one important difference: his big device required no fuel to turn the water into steam. He taught many gnomes secrets of engineering and science, but he never revealed how his machine produced heat. His nickname stuck, but now as one of honor.