The Birth of the Warforged

Technological achievement

House Cannith finally perfected the creation of modern-era warforged in 965 YK, giving birth to a new generation of living constructs designed to fight the Last 148 War using lore recovered from quori ruins in Xen'drik decades before. Built as mindless machines to fight in the Last War, the warforged had developed sentience as a side effect of the arcane experiments that sought to make them the ultimate weapons of destruction. With each successive model that emerged from the creation forges of House Cannith, the warforged evolved until they became a new kind of intelligent beings—living, free-willed constructs. Warforged are renowned for their combat prowess, their size, and their single-minded focus. They make steadfast allies and fearsome enemies. Earlier warforged models had been true constructs, such as the warforged titan used for decades before the creation of the first true living warforged thirty-three years ago. Before the death of King Jarot and the start of the Last War, the master crafters of House Cannith had turned their creation forges to the task of churning out new constructs for a new age. Constructs designed for labor and industry soon led to experiments with models developed for exploration and defense. When King Jarot saw the possibilities inherent in the work of House Cannith, he began to outline his plan to protect Galifar from the threats he imagined were gathering all around the kingdom. For an unknown reason, King Jarot was growing more and more paranoid about the dangers he believed were posed to Galifar by the monster hordes of the western reaches, the mysterious elves of Aerenal, the Seren barbarians of Argonnessen, and others from beyond his realm. At the king's urging, House Cannith began to experiment with constructs designed for war. Merrix d'Cannith, one of the lords of the house, developed the first version of the warforged. It was a remarkable achievement, but Merrix believed he could create an even better soldier. When King Jarot died and his scions divided the kingdom, each faction had a complement of warforged fighters devoted to its cause. By the second decade of the conflict, Merrix had introduced near­sentience into his created warriors. It was Merrix's son, Aarren d'Cannith, who made the breakthrough that resulted in the warforged becoming truly living, self-aware constructs. Aarren had studied documents recovered from an expedition to the continent of Xen'drik for House Cannith undertaken by his ancestor Kedran d'Cannith decades before. Kedran had discovered the secrets of creating true warforged among the quori ruins left behind from the Quori-Giant War of over forty millennia before. Aarren d'Cannith put this knowledge to use and the first warforged that were truly alive and sentient emerged from the Cannith creation forges thirty-three years ago. House Cannith sold warforged fighters throughout the last thirty years of the war to anyone who could afford them. Breland, Thrane, and Cyre boasted the largest armies of warforged on the continent, and most of the various competing factions had at least a token force of warforged fighting for them. By the final years of the war, the warforged had become thoroughly associated with the ever-escalating conflict. The warforged were made to fight in the Last War, and they continue to fulfill their military purpose with distinction. They fight fiercely and usually without remorse, displaying adaptability impossible for mindless arcane constructs. After the war ended, the warforged sought to adapt to life in this era of relative peace. Some settled easily into new roles as artisans or laborers, while others wandered as adventurers or even continued fighting the Last War despite the return of peace. Warforged appear as massive humanoids molded from a composite of materials—obsidian, iron, stone, darkwood, silver, and organic material—though they move with a surprising grace and flexibility. Flexible plates connected by fibrous bundles make up the body of a warforged, topped by a mostly featureless head. Warforged have no physical distinction of gender; all of them have a basically muscular, sexless body shape. In personality, some warforged seem more masculine or feminine, but different people might judge the same warforged in different ways. The warforged themselves seem unconcerned with matters of gender. They do not age naturally, though their bodies do decay slowly even as their minds improve through learning and experience. Unique among constructs, warforged have learned to modify their bodies through magic and training. Many warforged are adorned with heavier metal plates than those their creator originally endowed them with. This customized armor, built-in weaponry, and other enhancements to their physical form help to differentiate one warforged from another. As the warforged strive to find a place in society for themselves after the Last War, they simultaneously struggle to find ways to relate to the races that created them. In general, the humanoid races of Khorvaire regard the warforged as an unpleasant reminder of the brutality of the Last War and avoid dealing with them when possible. In Thrane and Karrnath, the warforged are still seen as the property of the military forces that paid to have them built, and most warforged in those nations serve as slave labor, often used to repair buildings and roads damaged or destroyed in the war. Throughout the rest of Khorvaire, they have freedom but sometimes find themselves the victims of discrimination, hard-pressed to find work or any kind of acceptance. Most warforged, not being particularly emotional creatures, accept their struggles and servitude with equanimity, but others seethe with resentment against all other races as well as those warforged whose only desire is to please their “masters.” Warforged originated in Cyre at House Cannith's primary forgehold of Whitehearth in the city of Eston before its destruction during the Day of Mourning and have no homeland of their own. Most of them have dispersed across Khorvaire, laboring as indentured servants in the cities of Korth, Atur, and Flamekeep, or struggling to find work and acceptance in Sham or Korranberg. A few congregate in the Mournland, attempting to build a new warforged society free from the prejudice and mistrust of the older races. Just as most warforged are not inclined to align themselves with any particular moral or ethical philosophy, few show much interest in religion. Some warforged have found a kind of answer to the questions of their existence by taking up the cause of one religion or another, but these remain a small (if rather vocal) minority among their kind. A larger number gravitate to a messianic figure called the Lord of Blades. This powerful leader gathered a cult-like following of disaffected warforged by preaching a return to the Mournland and rebellion against the “fleshborn” races. Warforged speak Common, since they were designed to communicate with their (mostly human) creators and owners. Warforged do not name themselves and only recently have begun to understand the need of other races to have names for everything. Many accept whatever names others see fit to give them, and warforged traveling with humans often are referred to by nicknames. Some warforged, however, have come to see having a name as a defining moment of their new existence, and thus search long and hard for the perfect name to attach to themselves.