Nanotech
Instrument · Mage
Composed of miniscule, self-replicating machines, nanotechnology involves the study and design of productive engines on the molecular and atomic level. To Consensus reality, such technologies are largely theoretical; to technomancers – most especially the innovators of Iteration X and the Society of Ether – they’re an essential tool for Enlightened Procedures.
Although all groups have been holding back that level of technology from the Masses (the consensus is that the Masses can’t be trusted with it, and that’s probably correct), nanotech forms a common instrument for Life and Matter Effects… most especially those Procedures that either build or repair structures or organisms. Technocratic healing Procedures often involve nanotech patches, and machines that grow out of nowhere actually spring from high-intensity (read: vulgar) nanotech clusters that create material structures faster than the human eye can follow.
That speed, combined with the high level of energy and material resources involved (in game terms, the amount of Quintessence they consume), keep nanotech out of wider use. Although favored Technocracy personnel employ nanotech instruments in many Threat Level A responses, the risks and requirements of existing nanotech… most especially the awful potential consequences of unregulated proliferation (read: someone else using the stuff)… assure that such innovations will remain restricted to certain agents and application within the foreseeable future.