Illumineering

It’s been a minute since I’ve had a question! (This one has been bouncing around in my head for months and could have been posted a while ago. Who knows why I didn’t…)

Could we learn a little more about illumineering? There was a blurb I found on the wiki as follows:

"Avaria also boasts some sophisticated and fantasy-tinged clockwork technology, as well as the even more potentially powerful innovations derived by illumineering -- capturing the energy of the sun, moons, and stars to power a range of devices."

On top of just being curious about this technology in general, I’m very interested in knowing how illumineering factors into life in Avaria. Where are these technologies being studied and developed? How much of this is considered "magical" versus scientifically based? Is illumineering still very novel and mostly being developed/kept private within academic circles, or are there avenues by which it is being disseminated to public or visible use? How much would a "normal" person know about this in general?

Thank you!!

Illumineering is a technology that has been the subject of philosophical speculation since fairly ancient times, but it has not come to any great fruition in the lands of the Sirdabi Caliphate, nor in any other lands familiar to the people living there. It is considered a mechanical art rather than a magical one, and is a matter largely for advanced specialists in engineering and various theorists in natural philosophy. These types argue among themselves whether it is in fact possible, if it actually has been achieved by any other people past or present, and, if it really is feasible after all, just what materials and methods might be involved. It's a pretty arcane field of research, where "research" means at best only marginally successful experiments and a whole lot more pie-in-the-sky theorizing.

Many people have never heard of illumineering, while others know of it only as a vague idea, or a weird obsession of especially impractical engineers. Most who have heard of it treat the possibility rather skeptically. Presently illumineering is like the nuclear fusion of Avaria: it is the energy of the future, and it always will be.

Buuuut, with all that said, there are Story Things looming on the horizon along with Omrazir, so people may start to become more familiar with it soon.....