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The Smithcraft is one of the crafts represented on Harper's Tale, an online roleplaying game simulating the world of Pern as created by Anne McCaffrey in the "Dragonriders of Pern" novels. The Smithcraft developed mainly from the need to recreate the processes and techniques lost over the Turns. Their motto, “If it has been done, it can be done again,” is indicative of the enthusiasm with which the members of the craft approach their work. Smiths work mainly with their minds and their hands on things of an engineering nature -- large or small. They might design and craft a huge tool for excavation or the spring-driven mechanism for a tiny music box. Smiths are interested in knowing how things work and how to make them work more efficiently. It is this never-ending search for efficiency that makes the Smithcraft one of the most progressive crafts on Pern. The Smithcraft consists of many specialties from metalworking and mechanics to glasscrafting or woodworking. Journeymen work at their specialties doing much of the uncomplicated and heavy work to allow the masters freedom to practice their skills, while apprentices usually start by sorting ore and working the bellows for the metalsmiths. Journeymen smiths specializing in Glasscraft can be found working in everything from ceramics to lead crystal to porcelain.. The Glasscraft will make everything from flasks and bottles to window panes and lenses. Woodcrafters usually start by learning simple tasks like whittling and then move on to working with chisels and saws. The Woodcraft is responsible, among other things, for creating furniture, toys and jewelry. The new invention, paper, is also the creation of the Woodcraft. Those with an ability for chemistry may choose to formulate the various stains, dyes, varnishes and cleaning compounds used by the Craft. In these disciplines, the apprentices will spend a great deal of their time washing pots and retorts, sifting sand, and sweeping. The Smithcraft and the Minecraft work closely together. One supplies raw materials while the other supplies the tools with which the first can do its job. A Smithcraft apprenticeship is one of the longest, but at its end the graduate journeyman is a practicing member of one of the most respected Crafts on Pern. |