Literature / Factory of the Gods

Fantasy tech vs. gods

"Remember when I asked you if the Godcore could bind to a mind that wasn’t actually alive? Well, this is why I asked. It’s a cellphone. You can use it to do a lot of things, including talking to people who are anywhere on the world if they have one of their own. At least, on my world. It won’t work here. But it also has a computer, which is a kind of...very complex mechanical adding device. And apparently, if an adding device gets complex enough, it counts as a brain."

— Julian

Factory of the Gods is a series of novels written by Alex Raizman, aka Hydrael. It stars Julian, a down on his luck inventor who is summoned to a fantasy world. He was supposed to pick up a Godcore to gain divine power. Instead, the magic rock got stuck to his phone. He uses his now enchanted phone, which operates on video game logic, to build a factory to aid the people of the wastes in their battle against a whole pantheon of gods and adventurers.

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Factory of the Gods contains examples of:

• Ace Custom: Julian starts turning out dozens of Mk I Power Armor with the Mk II and Mk III taking more resources. He starts making custom versions for the heroes and gods he is allied with, giving them unique equipment that plays to their special abilities.
• Aerith and Bob: Grem'ta's annoying cousin is named Frank.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: For all his threats and posturing, Grahn still tries to surrender when it's painfully clear he is going to lose this fight. Too bad Julian doesn't have time for it.
• And I Must Scream: Making a mana core is such a taboo on Kaldora that if they catch you doing it a death god will trap your soul in a gem, rendering you unable to do anything but watch the world go by. You can't even blink.
• And the Adventure Continues: The final volume ends with them cleaning up the aftermath of the final battle and needing to once again expand the Factory to feed its resource demands. We are then treated to a note promising Julian and others will return in Dinosaur Dungeon 3.
• Arbitrary Weapon Range: The turrets in the series operate on their ability to sense people and target them. Their exact range isn't stated, but it's close enough Julian was able to have a full conversation with people on the other side of that range.
• An Arm and a Leg: Kurli loses an eye, Pholma loses a leg, and Julian loses an arm. Then he loses the other arm.
• Artificial Limbs: After some trial and error Julian gets a pair of mechanical arms.
• Artificial Stupidity: Julian eventually starts producing drones, but they aren't very good at interpreting his orders and will attack anyone else by default. He has to give them a list of orders and has to carefully chose ones they will understand. Some can only follow one order and will try to attack people even when he didn't give them any weapons or arms.
• Bag of Holding: Julian is given an inventory belt that has individual pockets that function as bags of holding, only limited to one type of object, making them function more like inventory slots in a video game.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Given that the entire story is essentially Factorio, but in a fantasy world, the Hive serves this role throughout the series.
• Car Fu: The climax of book 2 involves Car Fu, but with a train.
• Cool Train: When Julian unlocks the ability to create trains, they are explicitly stated to be steam powered but look more like modern diesel engines. Julian weaponizes one of them to run over an antagonist.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Many of the items Julian can create, such as Godseyes and Grasping Hands, are color coded to make it clear what their function is. Red Godseyes detect heat, Blue Godseyes detect movement, etc.
• Class and Level System: The godcores and herocores have different specialties but share the same sort of leveling classifications. Six tiers from tin to platinum and nine ranks per tier. A god's class and recharge method are determined by their core but a hero seems to be able to pick whatever class they want.
• Combat Medic: Aside from Kurli, all of Julian's first team of heroes have some sort of healing ability. Even before that, Calli had a background in medicine but was one of Cast Off's top three fighters.
• Combat Tentacles: To counter the extra arms on Julian's power armor, Symmetry sprouts four tentacles from their back.
• Construct Additional Pylons: When Julian becomes a dungeon core he must make more pylons and soulless dungeon cores for some of his abilities and to increase his Arbitrary Headcount Limit.
• Cruelty Is the Only Option: Julian knows that the factory is producing massive amounts of pollution, but the short term strength it offers is too good to pass up.
• Death Seeker: In a matter of speaking. Amanda wants to get back to Earth so she can grow old and permanently die. She is in no hurry to meet her final end but still wants the option.
• Diesel Punk / Steampunk: The series straddles the line between these with steam engines that look like diesel engines, boilers that power steam engines, and large factory segments.
• A Dungeon Is You: A mana core that comes into contact with a soul will become a dungeon core. They will then be tasked with building a dungeon and spawning mobs and loot for it. Adventurers and dungeons are great sources of EXP for each other. However, they were wiped out in the Great Offscreen War. When Pholma died he became the first new dungeon Kaldora had seen in over a millennia, which causes all sorts of problems. Unfortunately, he lost most of his memories.
  • Julian later becomes a dungeon core while retaining most of his human body. This gives him new abilities, including controlling mobs/drones.
• Dungeon Punk: Many of Julian's inventions are explicitly magic powered or have magic as a major component.
• Deity of Human Origin: Anyone who picks up a Godcore can become this, gaining specific domains and powers.
• Drone Deployer: Devastron the Drone Carrier is an APC and mobile recharge station for warrior drones.
• Easy Logistics: Zigzagged.
  • Buildings have no maintenance, conveyer belts operate without any input, and magic items make creating robotic hands simple.
  • However, the need for materials being transported to the main factory so they can be turned into useful goods is an ongoing challenge throughout the series.
• Emergency Transformation: When Kurli is fatally wounded, they are implanted with a herocore. The resulting transformation heals the wound. They weren't happy to learn this when they woke up.
• Eye Scream: Kurli loses an eye in a climactic battle, with what's left being scooped out later. This results in an Electronic Eye.
• Fantasy Pantheon: The gods are physically present and can be anyone who picks up a Godcore. Implied to be hundreds, if not more, of them running around.
• The Fair Folk: The fay exist in this world and they hate humans from Earth as they always seem to mess everything up.
• Fairy Companion: The wisps are small fairies that help guild dungeons and give them information on what they need and are supposed to do.
• Feed the Mole: Realizing Luxathia is controlling Kurli through her pale class, Julian feeds her a decoy plan to kill her once she is back on Earth by use of a portal hidden on her ship to send a killer robot after her. In actuality he also rigged her fusion engine to disable its magnetic containment.
• Flash Step: Symmetry has Warp Step, which allows them to cover a large distance in an instant.
• Friendly Fireproof: Averted. Julian's turrets do not have a friend or foe recognition system, and will fire blindly at any moving heat source in their range.
• Healing Potion: They taste horrible and give you the shits, but as long as you don't have a hole in your stomach it will heal your wounds. If you do have a hole in your stomach it will leak out and give you magical tumors as it tries to heal wounds you don't have.
• Hero-Tracking Failure: The turrets are dumb and will shoot blindly if there is a moving heat source, causing them to be confused and target shields that were left in the sun at one point.
• I Shall Taunt You: Julian quotes Monty Python and the Holy Grail to rile up Grem'ta, who is both confused and angered by the strange insult.
• Gaia's Vengeance / Green Aesop: By Book 2, the Hive seems to be becoming this, focused on trying to destroy the factory for reasons not yet explained. To hammer that point home, the main antagonist of the second book is a Nature Goddess. The exact impacts of the pollution have only shown in crops being damaged so far.
• Glass Cannon: Lampshaded by Julian. Gold summoners can create a small army of powerful monsters, but their personal stats are about the same as a copper knight or bronze mage.
• Godzilla Threshold: A world will only spawn a warden dungeon core if there is an entity that the local dungeons can't overpower and contain it themselves. If a warden dungeon core abuses its powers it could cause catastrophic events.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: For the final battle against the Hive, Julian sends Vartain to the Green for reinforcements. He returns with Olega, grateful for him freeing her from Folas' control, and as many adventurers as the Runners could hold, motivated by greed and some self-preservation.
• Ignored Enemy: During his fight with Grahn, Julian stops to have a phone call with Ryne. Grahn gets mad that he isn't paying full attention to him but waits until the conversation is over before continuing the battle.
• Kids Love Dinosaurs: Julian went through his dinosaur-loving phase when he was a kid but had to be the weird one and picked carnotaurus as his favorite. He still has some of that spark left.
• Kill It with Fire: Julian's solution to the problem of hostile ents
• Kill the God: Julian has to do this multiple time throughout the series, because gods keep coming to kill him.
• Leaked Experience: Heroes mix their mana to form a party. After that whenever one of them gets a kill every member gains EXP. Averts Can't Catch Up by reducing the yields to higher-level members until the rest are able to catch up.
• Magic Tool: Julian's smartphone touches a Godcore and becomes this, unlocking new features as he levels up.
• Mook–Face Turn: Pholma was originally a member of Grem'ta's army. He had originally joined because Grem'ta wanted to make the Wastes a better place, but became disillusioned with his actions and desire to rule the Wastes. During the battle against the Factory, he quickly surrendered and became one of Julian's first heroes, coming to view Julian as everything he wished Grem'ta was.
• More Dakka: The turrets become a rare example using arrows instead of bullets.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ryne, in an attempt to save a friend, ends up creating the first dungeon on Keldora in 1,000 years, forcing dungeon spawning to come back online and resulting in errors across the interplanetary system. Eldritch Abomination escape before it could be brought back under control.

Julian: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.

• No OSHA Compliance: zigzagged. Julian mentions the risk of industrial accidents, but the factory is entirely open air and there are little-to-no precautions about approaching massive industrial drills.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: The gods of the Green are more powerful and more numerous than the gods of the Waste. However, the gods of Keldore as a whole are weaker than the gods of the the rest of universe.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Toyed with. Julian does get stabbed through the arm and ends up losing it, but still is able to fight. However, he still passes out in the end and has to be hospitalized. He even name-drops the trope and gets the same sort of response King Author gave.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Julian realizes that Kurli not worrying about her pale class or about leaving her sister with two strangers is a sign she is being mind controlled.
• Our Elves Are Different: The Aelifs on Keldora have sonar and can leap like grasshoppers.
• Our Gods Are Different: Gods are mortal beings who have found and claimed a Godcore. A Godcore grants divine powers relating to its domain, immunity to a particular energy type that instead powers the core, and access to a level-up system that allows them to gain new powers.
• Our Orcs Are Different: The Urkin on Keldora fill the Orc role, and while they are big, strong, and green, they have horns and are as smart as humans.
• Paper Tiger: Grahn sets himself up as the arc villain of Vol. 4, seeking revenge for the death his father Grem'ta. He unleashes an actual threat he has no hope of controlling and ends up getting killed by Julian shortly after meeting him.
  • Zenath tricked his followers into thinking he is a god, but he is actually an arcane mage who is still trying to reach bronze.
• Physical God: Anyone with a Godcore is this.
• Plug 'n' Play Prosthetics: Subverted. They were able to replace an eye in the field, but Julian suspected the man would get an infection. When they try to play this trope straight the body rejects it if the wound isn't fresh, as the limb tries to connect to the nerves in the skin rather than what normally controls the limbs. Attaching the limbs actually require a level of surgery not normally found on Kaldora.
• Powered Armor: Julian crafts this to get him close to on par with the gods and adventurers he's fighting against.
• Promotion to Parent: Kurli lost her mother at a young age. She had to raise her little sister Ryne from then on.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Discussed. Julian wins a battle, driving the enemy away, but the plan had gone off the rails and most of his away team was killed. After the fighting is over he laments the heavy losses and even brings up the trope.
• RPG Mechanics 'Verse: Julian notes a number of times that the world seems to operate on video game logic.
• Ramming Always Works: Julian's solution to The book 2 antagonist. He had to set her on fire to seal the kill, though.
• Revenge Before Reason: While Arina tries to advise him to seek Julian as a potential ally, Grahn seeks vengeance for his father and subjugating him in spite of Julian's track record of killing every god who tried that before.
• Ridiculously Fast Construction: All construction in this series happens at ludicious speeds, justified in part by being the product of divine power.
• Robot Master: Julian develops robot drones and is able to command them telepathically.
• Robot Soldier: While most of the drones were built for military purposes, the advance warrior drones were built to wear the power armor he built for people.
• Schizo Tech: Coal powered steam engines provide electricity to magic devices that build trains, automated turrets, swords, and robotic construction arms.
• Science Hero: Julian is an engineer and - while his power armor makes him effective in a fight - he gets the most benefit from inventing and building off the factory.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The dungeons were actually meant as prisons to contain powerful entities. With them gone the hives seem to have been reconfigured for their propose, at least until someone starts messing with them.
• See the Invisible: Rouges can turn invisible, but godseyes can still see them.
• Shout-Out: The series is one giant shout out to Factorio, and it's peppered with references to other books and video games, including Skyrim.
• Shields Are Useful: Kurmoz took Zealot, a type of Paladin, which allows him to use shield skills. This extends to the shields held by his armor's four extra robot arms. There is very little that can pierce them.
• Smart People Build Robots: Julian's robots are just arms, but given he uses them to grab and trap and throw enemies, this definitely applies.
  • In The Drones of Keldora, Julian starts building robotic drones that can follow simple commands.
• Snipe Hunt: When Grahn started becoming stronger than him, Grem'ta sent his son to collect more gods of the Wastes to serve him. This should have been an Impossible Task but then new god fragments started popping up for some reason.
• Starter Villain: Grem'ta is the villain of volume 1. He provides the motivation for Julian to develop the factory quickly and even causes Kurli to summon him in the first place. Even while he is the main threat the story makes clear there are much stronger foes out there.
• Stat-O-Vision: The yellow godseyes are able to see the name, race, stats, and skills of a person with a core. Julian adds them to the visors of the power armors and Kurli's prosthetic eye.
• Sudden Game Interface: The phone becomes this for the logic of the world. at the end of Book 2, Julian learns the whole world runs on that, but only certain things can see the interface. He finds out when he accidentally unlocks the ability to see the interface.
• Super Cell Reception: Amanda's phone can make interplanetary calls in real-time, or at least used to.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Even though they were made by a godcore, machines are still pieces of metal grinding against each other and will break down if they don't have lubricant. Depending on what kind of lubricant they are using, it will freeze during the monthly winters.
• Surveillance Drone: Overseers are quad-rotor drones that fly around and ping when they spot a structure. Julian can look through their godseyes.
• The Turret Master: Julian. Although he still needs to put ammo in them, they are his primary weapon on defense and offense.
• Utility Belt: Julian's belt of bags of holding certainly functions as one of these.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Heroes from the Green regally attack the people of the Wastes under the pretext of avenging some raid or bandit attack, punishing the savages. They are really just looking for EXP and to prevent the Wastes from organizing into a proper nation.
• Waking Up Elsewhere: It seems every volume someone passes out during a climactic battle, normally Juilain but not always. They wake up in Cast Off sometime later, sometimes days, and the others explain what they missed.
• Wrong Context Magic: Luxathia doesn't have a hero core, she has a greater hero soul. This causes the godcore to crash and reboot when trying to identify her.
• You Have Researched Breathing: It takes several attempts to design a basic stone wall the Godcore is able to produce.
• You Killed My Father: Said word for word by Grahn, which is the only way how Julian could figure out who he was.
• You Require More Vespene Gas: A frequent problem the Factory faces is getting more of certain resources. Not just metals but lumber proved very difficult to automate.
• Your Magic's No Good Here: Magic doesn't work on Earth. However, investiture does.
• Zerg Rush: The Hive, being giant alien bugs, live this trope. Symmetry gets the most of this by building up a massive hoard of drones.
  • Lampshaded by Luxathia when Folas reveals his plan to attack the Factory, going heavy with necromancers and summoners to create a large hoard of disposable minions.

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