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the Main Craft Ability

There is only one main Craft ability, and this ability covers the crafting of most mundane things and items. A master of the Craft ability can create most mundane and simple items, everything from mundane furniture to simple works of war. Cabinets, or a suit of Armor, both are possible for someone with enough skill in the Craft ability. All of these discrete mundane crafts are combined into a single Craft ability similar to how Melee covers the wielding of all hand-to-hand weapons and Martial Arts measures the mastery of every single mortal style and form.

While anyone with the Craft ability can perform such simple tasks, more impressive arts require further training and specialization. Full Mastery requires such arts, with the most impressive or intricate feats only being possible for those with the relevant lore. However, such specialization does not come without a price. Anyone with a Greater Art looses a single die for Craft tasks in an area he has no expertise in.

The Greater Arts

• Expression is a common art in the Second Age, though many would suggest that the other Greater Arts are more useful. Expression covers artistic creations and matters of ascetics, particularly in matters of art. The purest expression of this art include Calligraphy, Painting, Sculpture, and other actual arts. However, many of the greatest crafters dabble in this art, making it still more popular, as they add various artistic touches to their other work.
• Metallurgy is the art of a Master Smith, and is among the most common of the Greater Arts in Creation. It covers the creation of great works of metal and steel, from the crafting of masterwork weapons to suits of Articulated Plate. While lesser Crafters can work on similar projects, their work is nothing much than "common blacksmithing" and generally inferior, and few warriors trust less than the skill of a true Master Smith.
• Architecture is another common Art in Creation, and a celebrated one, for at its apex it feeds into the Creation of Manses. While any Crafter can craft a simple shack, a Architect can raise great domed palaces and massive edifaces of potency and skill. The most skilled Architects are also quite skilled at following the occultic plans of Manse builders, and such art is especially valued in the Realm.
• Landshaping is a somewhat uncommon art, and deals with the overall shaping of landscape as a whole. The landshapers are needed to work on drainage issues, plow roads through rugged terrain, create harbours and create safe tunnels underground. This art is buoyed to some large degree, similar to Architecture, by its importance in the construction of many Manses.
• Mechanics is something of a lost art, dealing with novel inventions and technological savantry unseen in Creation since the First Age or even before, as well as the Lingering Touch of the Great Maker. Largely kept alive by the Haslanti League, when most think of such crafters they think of the Haslanti, and their odd devices -- crossbows, airboats, etc. Other outposts of this art exist, touched in some way by the Great Maker.
• Clockwork is a rare and valued art among the Varang of the South, and largely unknown outside of such circles. The art covers the creation of various gearworks, timemaking devices and astrological instruments. Many of its great masters can pull off even more impressive effects and some clockworkers of the First Age used such lore in their artifice. It is rare but not unheard of for non-Varang to master such arts.
• Necrosurgery is an art pioneered first by the funerists of Sijan, and at first dealt almost exclusively with the preparation of the dead, and various matters of taxidermy. Yet while Sijan is still a great source of such knowledge, the Deathlords have taken such lore and turned it largely to their own ends, turning the lost knowledge to the creation and maintenence of their undead engine of war.
• Biotech is perhaps the rarest of arts among Creation, and exists largely in the form of lost texts and examples of the Art from the First Age and a few solitary members of the Dragon Kings who practice a limited form of this art based entirely on plants. The Twilight Caste truly perfected this art of living technology, however, and every few centuries some genius manages to make sense of their notes.

Other Greater Arts exist at the Storyteller's discretion. The ones above are included as being most relevant to the gaming experience, and cover a wide swath of crafts in addition.

The Arts of the Exalted

• Artifice is the working of potent magical items of power, including the most intricate and impressive items of the First Age. Both war tech and the more civilian items of power are covered under this umbrella, and it is an ability quite common among all Essence-wielders.
• Fate covers the weaving of Fate, from laying down new patterns of destiny to spinning the raw thread of the tapestry of creation or reworking kinks in the Loom of Fate. These arts are almost exclusively used by the Sidereal exalted, seldom practiced by any others.
• Glamour deals extensively with the weaving of the False Fate of the Wyld, laying down new patterns in the chaos and creating harvesting the energies of the chaos. It is found primarily among the Fair Folk, but some Lunars also dabble in this art.
• Phantasm covers the Arts of the Dead, ranging from Soulforging, Dreamweaving, Moliation, and other such important arts. Such arts are primarily found among the Dead, but some Abyssals dabble in such arts as well.

Apprentice, and Mastery: Unlike the Greater Arts, the Lesser Arts don't all come created equal. A character with Apprentice-level in a given Art has his Craft skill reduced by 1 when using the Art. Someone with Mastery-level uses his full Craft skill.

Defaulting: If a roll becomes necessary for a Exalted Art that the user does not have, you may choose to roll if you have a basic Craft skill of at least 3. The users Craft is treated as being two less than normal for this purpose. He also does not benefit from any specialties that might normally apply to the roll.

A Note on Artifice: Artifice is not necessary for the creation of all Artifacts, mostly the most grand and impressive workings of the First Age. Both large and impressive items such as Warstriders and intricate workings such as teleportation doorways require such knowledge, while a Daiklave, Powerbow or suit of magical Armor would not.

How To Get These Arts

A character is eligable for a single Greater Art of his choice if he has Craft as a Favored ability, though he may choose to remain a generalist if he wishes to do so. A character without Craft as a Favored Ability may specialize in a given Greater Art for 1 freebie point. Anyone wishing to learn more than one Greater Art must spend 2 freebies per Art for the privledge to do such at Character Creation.

The Exalted Arts are more expensive. Apprentice-level training in a given Exalted Art costs 2 freebies and requires a Craft score of 2. Once you have obtained Apprentice-level, you can upgrade to Mastery for 3 freebie points.

Experience Costs for Arts
Greater Art: 5xp
Apprentice-level: 4xp (min Craft 2)
Mastery-level: 6xp (requires Apprentice-level)