Gilbert Bates

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Gilbert Bates is a major game character in the computer role-playing game, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.

He plays a vastly important role in the game world as the main supplier of steam engines, and owner of several factories relying on half-orc labour. He is portrayed as a gentleman entrepreneur, with somewhat old-fashioned and jaded views. These are expressed mainly via his hate toward half-races and the lower castes of society, which he regards as inferior and lazy. When asked about his workers, he replies with pride that: "Their working conditions are almost human". He also harbors strong contempt for the Marxist-inspired branches of organized half-orc workers that threaten to rally his work force against him. The player character will be faced with three choices on the subject: Either helping Bates, siding against him, or ignoring the problem. The player character's choice will effect the outcome of the final game epilogue.

Gilbert Bates is credited as the inventor of the steam engine, although the player character eventually learns that while Bates did make the steam engine a roaring success, the actual prototype was invented by the Black Mountain Clan Dwarves. This was a clan Gilbert Bates spent his youth with, drawn to them by his facination of machinery. He tried hard in impressing the dwarves, but they regarded his attempts at mimicking their technology amusing at best. Gilbert left the dwarves soon after gaining the friendship of Stennar Rock-Cutter, a dwarven engineer. He returned several years later to reconcile their differences, but found the clan had disappeared, leaving everything they owned behind. This included their prototype steam engine, which Bates took with him to Tarant, Arcanum's foremost industrial city. He quickly gained fame and recognition and soon acquired a large fortune, most of which he spent investigating the whereabouts of the Black Mountain Clan. He has no family, spouse or heirs, (only his loyal half-ogre bodyguard Chukka). That is because he has devoted his life to advancing technology, hoping to gain the respect of "his" clan, should they return.

There is some speculation as to whether or not his name is a play on the name "Bill Gates".