Automata

Harnessing prana or energies from the Girdle is nothing new, and skyships, warmachines, not to mention a great deal of the more intricate city plumbing and defenses all rely on this technology. One advancement that shows up in history infrequently before being squelched is the making of automata, human-seeming soldiers with machinery instead of organs. The addition of human flesh allows them to absorb prana or Girdle energies (typically the former, and the latter requires vulnerable gem matrices) and negates their need for sleep or most sustenance. They occasionally need maintenance and to replenish their flesh, but otherwise these soldiers are nearly tireless.
The horrific implications of these soldiers are manifold, however. They require flesh to be grafted onto them, and as such a large number of people are often sacrificed to these efforts; though pigs are suitable, most who make such vile creatures prefer the psychological advantage of human faces and cold, dead eyes. Flesh shaping has advanced considerably and corpses will do just fine, meaning that at times in history fallen soldiers could enjoy a second life as an automaton. The only advantage most people have against these beings is that their prana dependency keeps them in geomantically favored areas, which are often around the equator (this same restriction applies to those automata with Girdle receivers). Every kingdom worthy of the name has at least one fortress built in a prana-starved area to prevent skyships or warmachines from easy access, and this applies too to automata hordes. The shocking thing about automata is how many are produced in so little time; the last conflict in which they fought, nearly three hundred years ago, saw thousands of them produced and marching against the nascent Empire in a short span of time. Their production facilities were destroyed, but the Emperor himself fought in that war, and takes a special interest in ensuring that no automata are used again. The merest whisper of one of these being active earns the Emperor's direct and immediate attention.