The Plutonic Engine works as a symbol on two different levels. To the people of Syl Anagist, it is a symbol of Sylanagistine superiority and represents the pinnacle of progress and civilization. It is the result of decades of scientific and technological research and is meant to ensure unlimited, self-perpetuating energy that will bring an end to want and suffering. However, this idea is false, because Father Earth is a living thing, and like all living things would have eventually run out of magic—something the Sylanagistines’ arrogance and hubris prevent them from realizing. Furthermore, their narratives about progress and civilization obscure the horrific history of violence and oppression the engine is built upon.

Thus, to the reader, the Plutonic Engine is a symbol of the way all civilizations are built on a foundation of violence, exclusion, and exploitation, and how the idea of progress is often used as justification for the atrocities they commit. The obelisk fragments that will eventually power the Plutonic Engine during its launch are powered by the hidden-from-view, barely alive bodies of the Niess—a people that Syl Anagist not only conquered, displaced, and then systematically dehumanized, but who were philosophically opposed to everything the engine stands for.