Warforged
Warforged are a sentient race of humanoid constructs that were created to fight in the Demon Wars.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Warforged are a sizable race, averaging over 6 feet tall and weighing over 300 pounds. As an artificial species, they are made out of a variety of materials, including stone, metal, and darkwood, that have been infused with magic. Though their design can vary, they share common traits of a hinged jaw and eyes made from crystal. All warforged have some built-in defenses, and many warforged wear additional armor that has been integrated into their body.
Like humanoids, warforged can be healed by magic and affected by mind-altering effects, but like constructs they do not need to sleep, eat, or breathe. They are immune or resistant to poison. To rest, they enter an inert but fully conscious state.
The warforged are made of stone, metal, and wood fibers. The core of a warforged is a skeletal frame made of metal and stone with wood fibers acting as a muscular system. Covering the warforged is an outer shell of metal and stone plates. An internal network of tubes run through the warforged's body; these tubes are filled with an alchemical blood-like fluid that is designed to lubricate and nourish their systems. Their hands have only two thick fingers and a thumb, whilst their feet only have two broad toes. Their body is sexless.
The warforged's face loosely resembles their human creators though they have a toothless jaw and heavy brow line and are lacking noses and hair. Each warforged has a ghulra engraved upon their foreheads. Each of these runes is unique to the warforged, giving them a sense of individuality.
Warforged are able to be repaired and modified by artificers or even by themselves, giving an endless possibility to their appearances.
Genetics and Reproduction
Warforged are sentient constructs that do not have sexes. They may assume a gender of their liking, or one that suits their preferred appearance.
A Warforged cannot reproduce like animals do, instead, two individuals will mate by spending a week together, each growing a "seed" from their bodies. This seed will then be taken and merged with the other seed, each parent giving some of their soul and life essence to the new warforged baby.
Growth Rate & Stages
A new Warforged grows quickly from seed to maturity, taking only 2 years to be fully mature.
Immediately upon "birth", the young Warforged can walk and talk like that of a human toddler about 4 years old.
This is the only time a warforged requires nutrients in their life, as they grow. Raw materials, such as iron and wood are "fed" to the child by pressing the materials to the chest and absorbing them.
By the second year, a fully mature Warforged no longer requires food or sleep, and will stay with the parents long enough to learn how to interact with other races, and any wisdom they can be taught.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Warforged do not require food or sleep, usually. If a Warforged is damaged greatly, they can replenish their body by taking in raw materials to their body to heal themselves.
Biological Cycle
At first, it was uncertain if warforged would age at all, or if they were effectively immortal. However, even the hardiest of substances must perish, and warforged must also. After 600 years, warforged enter into an old age of sorts, becoming more easily damaged and costing more materials to repair, or greater magics. Eventually, after 1000 years, they can no longer repair themselves and magic will no longer heal them. They die soon after this, even if taking precautions to not injure themselves.
Behaviour
Warforged can have unique personality traits, though being constructs, they are restricted in some ways. They experience anger, pain, fear, and hatred like their human creators—not all warforged are incredibly reserved and pensive, hiding an array of emotions behind their metallic face. Their faces were not designed to display facial expressions and so it can seem like they are distant to the conversation. Despite their lack of physical facial expressions, they're not completely without them as their eyes tend to brighten when experiencing strong or specific emotions.
Some warforged are incredibly naive and lack introspection; however, many others are the opposite and question their existence, wonder if they have souls, and ask what becomes of them in the afterlife. The more intelligent warforged create complex philosophies about what they perceive and learn. Though warforged can show loyalty to religions and organizations, typically they become loyal to a small group of comrades.
Warforged often have little life experience as they spent most of their time assigned to one specific duty, usually soldiering. If there is one interest all warforged share it is the love of working and many create endless lists of goals and chores. They take pride in their work and work incredibly hard, which makes them dislike idleness and failure. Warforged can excel at most tasks as they have a single-minded efficiency, especially in combat-related roles.
War and military conditioning create the foundation of warforged personalities, and they understand duty, the chain of command, and conflict. Warforged are typically sexless in body shape, so some do not bother with the concept of gender, while others adopt a gender identity. Warforged were given numerical designations as part of their manufacture and military service, but most adopt new names. Often warforged simply accept the nicknames given to them by their comrades while others seek to earn more meaningful names that best describe them.
Warforged never tire and rarely allow themselves to become bored. Having little fear of ageing and no need for sleep or food, warforged have an almost unending patience, yet a hard life as constant soldiers has accustomed them to endless toil and so long periods of inactivity can make them anxious. A warforged without orders or a task to complete will create one for themselves to keep active. Individual warforged choose different hobbies, yet these activities tend to always be repetitious or unending. Some warforged enjoy counting objects; what they count doesn't need to be interesting as warforged will count even mundane things such as counting each blade of grass in the area. Other warforged may carry strips of materials to braid into patterns then un-braid them to recreate a new pattern. For many warforged, their routines inherited from the military are not so easily undone as some will repeatedly perform weapon and equipment maintenance and checks.
Warforged also tend to take an interest in crafting though they will endlessly perform their craft. A smith may hammer and weld all day and night and if the noise disturbs anyone during the nights they take up a more silent craft such as weaving or sewing before returning to smithing during the day. Many adventuring warforged take up crafts to keep themselves busy when their allies sleep, such as carving wooden figures. Many warforged enjoy games of strategy such as chess or gambling. Few warforged actively pursue group activities though when requested to do so they participate with gusto.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Warforged will adopt whatever society they are around, integrating themselves into that society and culture.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Warforged have taken up many roles in Ghemjana and though many in Emjarren and Southland have become servants to masters again, others have become laborers in various roles, whilst others have used their military experience to become guards, escorts, and mercenaries. Not needing to eat or sleep, the warforged only desire shelter and a purpose so working is still important to them and it is common for warforged to work 20-hour shifts in laboring roles. In Emjarren and Southland, the warforged are in some cases exploited for their ability to perform multiple tasks and are used to dominate the production of goods. This has caused tension between nations and guilds and has also led to many workers despising the warforged. The warforged live as outsiders in all nations and live lives that are completely different to the rest of the populace. Surprisingly, some warforged have become bards and have even written their own songs, whilst some also have become artists, usually by mistake, and now a warforged art market exists in Bal Mordock. There are warforged who have taken an interest in their neighbors' culture and ways of life and have chosen to wear clothes and imitate their country men's accents and manners.
Facial characteristics
Warforged have a humanoid face, with a hinged jaw and crystal eyes, but they are incapable of expressing emotion through facial features.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Warforged can be found anywhere in Ghemjana, though they tend to be found more often than not in larger cities or in larger tribes.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Warforged often take up the nicknames given to them by their friends, colleagues, and superiors though they also name themselves after their rank, job title, or something that describes an aspect of themselves. It is not rare for a warforged to change their name when they feel their old one no longer suits them. Others can take names from other races, such as humans.
Example Names: Azm, Book, Bulwark, Cart, Charger, Cutter, Falchion, Graven, Hammer, I-Hammer, Mark, Morg, Nameless, Pierce, Pious, Relic, Rune, Steeple, Suitcase, Sword, Three, Titan, Unsung, Victor, Watcher, Zealot.
Common Myths and Legends
Mystery surrounds the enigmatic Warforged known as The Lord of Blades. Very little is known about his past, and yet fewer details can be discerned concerning his future plans. There are theories and conspiracies abound, but few answers have ever surfaced – and some even hold fast that this “Lord of Blades” does not exist at all.
Most authorities in the surrounding regions believe that this dangerous prophet does indeed exist, but no one, not even the elves of House Phiarlan, has been able to gather much intelligence concerning the figure himself or his activities.
What is for certain though, is that somewhere within the border of dead-gray mist, the enclave of the Lord of Blades has risen above the broken, ashen ground of the Barrier, and stands as a beacon that gathers Warforged from all over Hestoria to his cause.
Some speak of him as a scholar and philosopher, dedicated to the liberation of the Warforged race, while a majority of others perceive him to be a power-mad tyrant, hell-bent on the destruction of the “fleshborn” and the conquest of all of Hestoria. While a relatively small fraction of Warforged are attracted to his teachings, and not all of the zealots who have been charmed by his words have been able to yet reach his side, many fear that the sole reason the Lord of Blades hasn't acted on his apocalyptic campaign of conquest is because his army is still too small.
For the inhabitants of Hestoria, one thing is clear though: his mere existence spells certain doom. In battle, the Lord of Blades has few equals, yet adventurers must first contend with his followers and lieutenants, before facing the Lord of Blades directly. However, doing so is to invite death. His body is covered in blades, which forms a whirlwind of steel and blood as he charges into battle.
Rumors persist among both his followers and enemies, that the Lord of Blades either seeks to recover a creation forge and create his own Warforged, using himself as a new mold, creating an army in his image.
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