Golem

Sentient machines from the days of the Great Ones, the Golem are found across the realms. Though their numbers have declined steadily over the centuries, once numbering in the tens of thousands, they remain a familiar sight in urban areas and some outlying regions. Those that do remain find work and purpose where they can, be it in war, agriculture and research.

ORIGINS

Like many remnants of the Great Ones, the exact origins of the Golem are unknown in the present day. Scholars of the Great Ones and their civilisation say that sentient machines in form or another seem to have been present throughout much of the Great Ones' era. They were created in many varying forms to suit whatever purpose was required. There were construction drones, exploration robots who could venture into areas even the Great Ones could not. War Golems for when the Great Ones decided their lives too valuable to risk in conflict. Whatever the Great Ones needed, a Golem would be crafted to fulfill.

Ultimately, the Golems survived the Cataclysm that brought the Great Ones civilisation crashing down and ushered in a thousand years of chaos. That their numbers were greatly reduced cannot be denied for a great many succumbed to damage from the enviroment, fighting and lack of basic maintenance. Others succumbed to ennui, deprived of purpose with the passing of their creators. Only those Golems who could adapt to this new world survived the early post-Cataclysm days. Not all would survive entirely intact however with many suffering catastrophic mental breaks, becoming monstrous dangers to all they encounter.

PRESENT DAY

The Golems who endure to the present day are found across Caenar. Their artificial bodies mean they can thrive where organics cannot, meaning they can readily find purpose mining. Others turn their skill, honed by centuries, into engineering and crafting. A rare few become guardians of organics, adopting the role of Shepherds to outlying villages and protecting the inhabitants from harm. There are Golems who with an almost religious fervour protect the legacy of the Great Ones, ensuring their sacred sites and resting places are not plundered. Then of course are those who find themselves suited to war. A War Golem is a formidable combatant and one who survived the Cataclysm and the chaos that ensued is a lethal veteran and tactician. Several War Golems serve the Mesitorian Emperor, seeing in that tyrant a chance to bring order, which most Golem crave, to a chaotic and fractured Caenar.

ROGUES

Rogues are those Golems whose programming, or minds as some say, have become damaged over the centuries. They become feral and dangerous monsters who adorn themselves in the skins of organics and adorn their frames with bones and horns. They carve out for themselves in wilderness regions lairs festooned with broken bones and painted with gore, transforming into nightmarish beasts that great bounties are offered in exchange to eliminate the threat they pose. Others become fixated on particular tasks, such as building great towers which become more and more morbid as regular construction materials run out and the Rogue Golem uses organics instead.

There is rumours of one Rogue Golem who rules over a tribe of lost and damned as their immortal God, demanding tribute in the form of blood and worship. This Rogue bathes in the blood of the faithful and drinks it, drawing no actual sustenance but believing in the lies it has woven about itself.

SUMMARY

Most Golems are like organics in that they desire only to be left alone. The most ancient of them can remember the days when the Great Ones ruled and whilst most look back at those halcyon days with longing, a few see that they were little more than slaves created to serve often callous masters. They desire purpose and meaning to their existence, finding value in creating and teaching and a satisfaction in honing skills centuries old. Even those for whom war is a calling, the chance to guide the short lived and frail organics is a worthy endeavour.

Golems are often hesitant to form close bonds with organics, regardless of race. In their long existence too often has a Golem been the target of jealous anger or blamed for horrors not their doing. But for the organic who earns the loyalty and respect of a Golem, a bond is formed that the millennia old construct will not willingly break and often risk harm to themselves to protect.