Item from Bastion by Phil Tucker
A mechanism that forces advancement through extreme duress and repeated near-death — tempering through trauma, which is exactly as ethical as it sounds.
The Murder Machine is advancement stripped of any pretense of personal growth. It forces tempering through pure survival pressure — repeated near-death experiences that push mana channels open through stress rather than understanding. It works. That's the problem. In a series that originally seemed to position advancement as tied to genuine personal development, the Murder Machine represents the dark version: yes, you can get stronger through trauma. Yes, it produces results. And yes, the people who build these things are monsters who have decided that the end justifies destroying the means. Its appearance in Book 4 kills characters (Kelona, Druanna) and forces others through advancement they weren't prepared for, establishing that Bastion's power structures will sacrifice individuals for institutional advancement without hesitation.
A gauntlet mechanism designed to push Great Souls past their limits through forced combat and near-death experiences. Its construction prioritizes results over the wellbeing of its subjects — advancement through suffering, engineered for efficiency.
Also known as: The Gauntlet Machine, The Forced Advancement Engine