[Playable] Golems

[Dizzy771 900]

-=+ Golem Lore +=-

-=Scroll to the third post for new stuff=-

 

-=+ What is a Golem? +=-

Golems are sentient constructs, comprised of a stone body animated by a magical core.

Golems can be created using Enchanting or Runesmithing. They also require one skilled in the use of the material from which they are made to make all of the parts. Usually two are required to make a golem, as it is incredibly difficult to make the part and apply the magic to it simultaneously.

 

-=+ Behaviour +=-

Golems obey the every command of the being they view as their “Impera”. Impera appears to mean “master” at first glance, but there appears to be far more to its meaning. Impera is a word ingrained into the golem. It is incapable of referring to anyone as Impera save its Impera, and cannot view itself as its own Impera (if it did, it would become locked in an eternal loop of waiting for orders from itself.)

A golem’s first Impera tends to be the first person it sees upon its creation. While people tend to view the golem’s Impera as some sort of specific magical attachment, the concept is entirely in the golem’s mind. If a golem’s Impera dies, goes missing, or consistently  fails to command the golem, the golem will seek out a new Impera. The only other way to change a golem’s Impera is for the current Impera to command the golem does such.

 

A new golem knows very little apart from how to operate its body and the concept of Impera. Occasionally they also seem to possess a very basic vocabulary, but often they know no words beyond “Impera.” Golems usually need to be taught almost everything, but, like a child, they are capable of learning very quickly when they are new. In the first few days of their existence, a golem is capable of understanding an Impera’s meaning even if it cannot understand their speech. This could be how they are capable of picking up the Impera’s language so quickly.

 

A golem mind is a simple one. A golem takes what is said literally, metaphors and implications is beyond its comprehension. If ordered to carry out a task, it is not unheard of for them to continue to do so until told to stop. They are not creative. If ordered, for example, to build a house, a golem will either attempt to badly copy something it views as a house or simply pile materials on top of each other. It is incapable of designing.

 

Golem speech is slow, monotonous, and devoid of harmony. They are incapable of intonation. ((The convention for golem speech is to never use exclamation or question marks, capitalize every word and separate syllables with hyphens. An Ex-am-ple Is This. Sometimes full stops are used for every word. An. Ex-am-ple. Is. This.))

 

Research into golems has defined two primary personality stereotypes, known as Blue and Red, from which golems seem to deviate surprisingly little. A Blue Golem is one that seemscontent to serve, and carries out commands to the best of its ability. A Red Golem is one that seems compelled to serve. While they are very similar in mannerisms, a red golem is likely to willfully misinterpret commands to their Impera’s detriment. Red golems are also far more likely to go beserk.

 

-=+ The Body +=-

The body is composed of several parts, held together with magic rather than mechanical interfaces. Motion is achieved by pairs of runes or enchantments within the material which operate in a similar manner to muscles, and allow the golem to move its limbs.

 

The most complicated part of a golem limb is the hand, as it involves so many parts. Unlike the larger joints, golem hands do tend to have some physical interlocking, and exterior runes are worked into the fingers to give the golem a rudimentary sense of touch. While the golem seems to manage without these touch runes on the rest of its body, it seems to need them on its fingers or it crushes anything it attempts to hold.

 

While in theory any material could be used to create a golem, there are limitations. Any metal seems to cause problems for the runes or enchantments, and the golem will either not animate at all or the core will shatter. Obsidian is too heavy for the golem enchantments or runes to move.

 

Golem size is limited by the strength of the core. While a golem is very strong, golem cores cannot effectively animate a golem larger than a common uruk orc (7 to 7.5ft). 9 foot tall golems are possible but suffer from defects such as arms dropping off without warning.

 

The golem head contains many complex runes required for the golem to sense and speak. The eyes of a golem are one of the few runes that need to be exposed, and they glow brightly when the golem uses them.

 

The core of a golem is a complex runic artifact made of inscribed arcaurum. A golem core is almost invariably a cube. Five of the six faces are inscribed with the intricate runes and symbols that that power the golem, the sixth is always completely blank. It is believed that the golem's memories are written upon the sixth face, in words invisible to mortals.

 

 

-=+ Creation +=-

Creating the body involves creating all of the requisite parts and the core. Each part of the golem is forged individually by the smith, and the magic user works the necessary enchantment or runes into the parts as they are made, meaning the runes are safely within the stone. This usually means that two people are required to make a golem, as a single smith or mage cannot make the parts and enchant them at the same time.

 

-=+ Destruction +=-

Golems are incredibly hardy, being made of rock, and sledgehammers and warhammers are usually needed to damage them (pickaxes are far too unwieldy for fighting a moving target). However, the core is very fragile, like glass. Damage to the core can turn a golem red and leads to it going berserk and insane. If the core is destroyed while in the golem, the body turns to dust. The golem is destroyed. While this is usually a permakill (the golem player technically should PK if this happens through RP but cannot be forced to), golem characters are all very similar, and thus the character can be “resurrected” by building a new golem. The setback is the loss of all memories.

 

-=+ OOC Notes +=-

Golems can only be created by those who have acquired the knowledge of golemancy IC, and have an accepted Magic Application for doing so. While those wishing to play golems can approach golemancers OOC, the identities of golemancers are something you should learn through IC means.

 

Edited November 12, 2015 by Dizzy771

[Dizzy771 900]

-=+ Bound Beyond Death +=-

 

 

-=+ Background +=-

A golem core is both power core and mind to a golem. A golem's body is little more than a rune-operated puppet and periscope for the core. The core itself is a relic of a bygone age. Knowledge of the principles of operation are long gone: golem core forging is simply following a set of instructions handed down from golemancer to student perfectly. A golemancer understands the mechanics of the core no more than an orc understands the molecular chemistry within the boar he's roasting on a stick.

 

Golem cores are made of perfect arcaurum, heated to molten and then cooled through a very precise process involving runic magics such as to create a solid cube of pure arcaurum without defects. Basic alchemy is often involved in the process. Damage to cores introducts defects to the golem core, impeding its function irreversibly, and severe damage can drive a golem beserk or cause it to creatively misinterpret instructions to destructive effect.

 

In a thanhic golem, at the heart of the core is a blue crystal of the magical material thanhium. Thanhium coverts heat into an internalised form of mana and serves the magical power source of the golem.

 

Before thanhium was rediscovered by the modern descendants in Anthos there was another way to power golems. With a few slight alterations to the forging process and the omission of thanhium (often instead incorporating some of the red stone material known as eruthium) a golem core can be made into a soulbind core. If in physical contact with (usually by being hammered into the chest of) a Descendant or Kharajyr when they die the soul is unable to pass on to the next world and is intercepted by the core and trapped within. The soul's link to the Void and the realms beyond serves as a mana source for the golem much as thanhium does, powering its body and mind.

 

The unnatural process is excruciating for the soul. Sometimes the individuality, personality and mind is completely annihilated by the process, resulting in a creature very similar to a thanhic golem, if a little more unstable. This not, however, always the case.

 

 

-=+ The Soulbound Golem +=-

A soul bound to a golem core remains conscious. Thanhic golems appear to form their own consciousness or at least respond as if they are sentient: soulbound golems retain the consciousness of those killed to create them. The experience is hellish: the consciousness can submit to the oblivion and its personality and memories be completely annihilated in the process. Those who survive the binding process often remember very little of it: those soulbound golems that fully recall the agony of the binding go insane and usually must be destroyed.

 

The forging process of making a golem core changes the nature of arcaurum: it ceases to behave as a metal and becomes much more glasslike. A normal golem core appears as a brilliant translucent golden cube with intricate runic carvings both on the sides of and somehow within the material, with a crystal of thanhium elegantly fused into its centre. A soulbound core lacks the crystal. When empty it appears as a thanhic core would without a crystal, but when filled the core is filled with a murky red mist, like blood suspended in water.

 

An individual with the will or luck to suffer through the soulbinding retains their memory and personality. Deprived of all sensory input while trapped in the core they enter a sleep state, and the longer they are in it the more their memories fade away like forgotten dreams.

 

Upon being placed into a golem core the first thing a soulbound golem usually does is scream. The second thing they usually do is try to move and fall over. Used to having a mortal body, the clunkly movements of a golem form take a lot of getting used to. Upon realising what has happened to them a soulbound golem can also go insane in horror and it usually has to be broken to them carefully. It cannot be kept from them however. An awakened soulbound golem knows something is wrong: they feel completely numb and have no sense of temperature: deprived of the sensations of a mortal body everything feels wrong.

 

Soulbound golems, like normal golems, cannot feel pleasure or pain. Their emotions are dulled, they have no concept of adrenaline, they can only sense touch where touch runes are fitted (usually fingers) and they lack the senses of smell and taste. (Keep these in mind when roleplaying them: you are not playing your old character completely intact). This total numbness combined with the strength of the golem combined with its clunkly, nonfluid movements take some getting used to and soulbound golems often take a few elven days to become fully in control of their bodies.

 

A soulbound golem retains its previous personality, albeit probably broken, and any memories that survived the binding process. This mortal consciousness is not truly compatible with the golem core: soulbound golems all have a split personality between their own mind and the placid, naive and subservient thanhic golem-like persona. The mortal mind remains in control by force of will, in times of stress or distress the mortal consciousness can withdraw and the basic thanhic golem personality takes over until the mortal one can reassert itself. This persona lacks the personality and memories of the individual bound to the core and takes on the Bro-ken. For-mal. Spee-ch. Of. The. Go-lem. It is not unheard of for a soulbound golem to mimic a thanhic in order to put others at ease or in order to deceive.

 

Soulbound golems retain memories and personality but they are not the old individual "ascended" to stone form. Life as a soulbound golem is a hellish experience: they have lost their free will: they are still forced to obey commands they are given and suffer from an inability to effectively create direction of their own.

Soulbound golems still have Imperas and are compelled to obey their commands: if they resist they are overwhelmed with psychological pain until they break, the "thanhic persona" takes over and they act like a normal golem. Like thanhics it is not possible for a soulbound to successfully resist a command. Soulbounds also suffer from a lack of initiative: they require direction from their Impera and struggle to create purpose of their own. If a soulbound golem were to run from its Impera to avoid being commanded it would soon find itself not knowing what to do with itself, unable to think, and would soon find itself returning to its master as if in a trance.

 

Soulbound golems do not speak like mortals. They still speak mostly in the golem's voice and pronounce syllables as individual words (U-sing th-is t-yping con-ven-tion), but they add much more accent, colloqiual and personality to their speech. They retain their old understanding of language and can make jokes, throw insults and use sarcasm although they do so in the golem's voice and still suffer from the speech rune's inability to inflect (they cannot use ! or ? marks)

 

Like a thanhic, an soulbound cannot be its own master: it is shackled to its Impera. For the character, being a soulbound golem is an unliving hell. They have lost their free will, their body feels numb and wrong and they are doomed to this state of potential undeath for as long as their master keeps them that way: a soulbound golem cannot kill itself if its master orders it not to. This is a dark magic of enslavement and while soulbound golems may be very fun characters to play they are not happy ones.

 

A few OOC reminders about soulbound cores:

• Soulbinding requires a PK, and you can't PK a character without their player's consent.

• Soulbound golems cannot be used to convert a living character into a powerful stone form. The new soulbound golems may possess the memories and personality of who they once were but they still lack free will and initiative and remain as throughly dependant on their masters for command as their thanhic brethren.

• It is up to the player of older soulbound golems if they want to be grandfathered into this: they can RP their personality traumatically reemerging or can RP that after all these years it has been completely obliterated and nothing changes with their golem.

[Dizzy771 900]

-=+ Additions +=-

 

Recently a large amount of revisions and additions have passed through the hands of the lore team and have been accepted. However, these additions will not be handled in the traditional way. Most of these additions will actually be distributed based on the players actions. What exactly does this mean? It means it's time to get experimenting. Player are now allowed, and encouraged, to experiment with golem technology and report to Dizzy771 to hear on their findings. Eventually you may come across something new and exciting. Once enough players have discovered a particular new addition, or if one of the discoverers makes their knowledge public, this thread will be updated. Knowledge regarding the direction of experiments may also be distributed through events in the future, though that is not a guarantee. There is one thing to note; you must have prior IC knowledge of golemancy to reasonably conduct very in-depth experiments. When asking about your findings, please have proof of your IC knowledge, or an accepted MA, ready to show.

 

-=+ Before you run off to experiment +=-

there are a few other changes to note that do not require any form of discovery

 

1: Harvester Golems are now defunct. They may remain as tools for events and the like, but they are now out of player hands.

2: The restrictions on Golems behaviour are being loosened somewhat. This is to allow for a greater enjoyment while playing a Golem character, as they have been rather 1 dimensional and dry in the past. This means that Golems can now adapt and evolve as time goes by. Some may become slightly more intelligent, others may develop rudimentary personalities (bring on the sarcastic golem), and others still may become more nimble. All of these adaptations are, however, rudimentary. Even the smartest Golem is still dumb in comparison to a normal character. Even the strongest Golem is still has only a marginal advantage over a regular one. Even the nimblest of Golems still has a over-sized clumsy stone design. No matter what the adaptation, a Golem cannot defy its Impera either.

 

Credit for the base lore of course goes to the original writers of said lore (mainly Lagomorphia I believe). Have fun everyone and happy experimenting!