Difference between revisions of "Constructs"

Revision as of 13:18, 30 May 2011

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A construct is either a magically animated object or and artificially constructed creature. They are rare and very expensive, as the enchantments to animate them are generally very complex. They are used for dangerous, difficult tasks, or as guardians.

A steam golem. Picture by ZomBynX aka Nksrocks and used with artist's permission. For larger version visit ZomBynX's gallery

Golems

In a world as dangerous as Felarya , Golems are very useful tools. Made of raw materials such as clay, stone, or wood, golems are not very interesting to predators who will often just completely ignore them. If they are attacked, they can respond fairly well, being strong, durable, with no vital points and few weaknesses, being basically just a lump of matter animated by powerful enchantments. Thus, golems are well suited to perform simple but dangerous tasks, such as carrying a message across the jungle, in place of humans. Most Golems don't have any intelligence to speak off, their mode of reasonning being often limited to determining if a creature is a threat or not. There are a few exceptions, but mages skilled enough to be able to create a sentient golems are incredibly rare.

Golems use the abundant background magical energy of Felarya to power up, and have a much longer autonomy than in most other worlds. Should they be exposed in area where magic is very faint or even nonexistent, they will eventually cease to function until their enchantment is renewed.

Clay Golems are the most common type of Golems in Felarya, the material for their creation being easy to find and shape. They are mostly used for combat role, to escort caravans for example. With their great weight and strength, a pack of them can be more than a match for a Kensha beast. Wood golems are more used as sentries, taking advantage of their material to conceal themselves and be hard to spot. Stone golems are much rarer and serve as shock troop or guardians. They are harder to make, as the enchantment to animate stone is much more complex than one animating clay. They are very hard to damage however, and their strength is quite formidable. Moreover, they really shine depending on the materials used to make them. A Golem made out of Scintilla, for instance, have the advantage that melee attacks could burn or set the attacker on fire. Boralite Golems are used to fight things such as Fire Elementals and Fire Mages, negating the effectiveness of their attacks on a nearby target. A skilled and crafty mage once used Actinite to make a Golem that was super-charged, and used it as a literal shock-weapon against beings normally several times too large to be effective against, turning its punches into a taser of sort!

Steam golems are a rare type of metal golems, enhanced with complex system of pistons, small steam engines and magic conductors augmented by an internal furnace placed in the torso. They possess a strength superior to that of common golems, and a better response speed as well. Their cost of fabrication and maintenance is hideously high however, and only the richest aristocrats or nobles of Negav are likely to own some, using them as bodyguards.

Living Statues

Living statues are a type of construct manufactured for a specific purpose, usually spying or assasination. They are not built for combat though, and are only armed if it was ornamentally required. These statues are often finely sculpted and composed of aesthetically appealing minerals, and also chosen for the longevity of which the material could last. Living statues are usually delivered as 'gifts' to a wide variety of individuals, usually people in a position of power. Most living statues are supposed to simply observe their surroundings and the activities around them, posing eternally as a real statue. Some would just be noticed with a slightly different position than the day before, suggesting limited movement when no one appears to be watching.

At times these 'statues' may suddenly come to life and perform a certain action, like sneaking in the appartments of a high priest and killing him in his sleep, for example. Because living statues are little known, and they are usually shaped from an important figure to the society : ancient heroes, founder of a movement, prophet of a religion etc... in some cases, the act of the 'statue' being brought to life and its aggression would be interpreted as an intervention by the will of the figure their appearance is based on, and possibly ultimately averting the action they had chosen. However, living statues actually taking action is a very rare occurrence- and some may have failed to activate when required, since the spell is a very complex one.

Much of what supports their existence are the notes of a very credible historian and archaeologist, who reported that after a long operation of excavating the ruins of an ancient civilization, they found a grand statue far beneath the ground, fully intact. It depicted one of the civilization's gods, Tuvkinyad the Apathetic. Only when they had excavated the form and were about to split it into pieces for transport did it reportedly come to life, moving a few meters away and lying exactly as it had before, leaving the entire team bewildered. They found they could not approach the mobile artifact, however- and opted to retire the operation. When next an excited party of mages arrived to study what they suspected was an actual Titan, it was gone, leaving only witnesses and an empty pit as proof.

• Credits to Fish for the living statues idea, to Nksrocks for the steam golem, And to Malahite and Jasconius to help writting the Golem description.