Toh-Rah Set
More than a mere golem, these constructs of the Ma'ab Noble Houses are ossuaries, grave markers, vessels of souls, monuments to the honored dead, and more. While the soul shards of some warriors occupy places of distinction--like a sword master in a finely crafted blade or a general in a helm--there are many more who never achieve fame in life for their martial prowess. While noble souls may simply rest within crystallized shards placed in shrines, those with such fighting spirit serve as guardians of the Houses. In times of strife, the Ma'ab nobles can bring the strength of a legion of their ancestors to bear against their enemies.
The appearance and armament of the Toh-rah Set varies significantly as they are each as much a monument to the House that created it as they are a weapon of war. Victory tokens and trophy racks decorate some while others are surprisingly simplistic, emulating the garb of a standard Ma’ab warrior. Some are even carved with the features of various creatures, in the belief that such designs create a more powerful fighter.
Regardless of the aesthetics of the design, the body of a Toh-ra Set is carved from stone and bones with heavy iron plates studded with soul shards fitted to it. The inside of the armor bears the various glyphs of binding and animation while the outside is covered in the names of those souls within and the great deeds of their Noble house.
The ancestral spirits dwell within a soul core made of melded soul shards wrapped in a barbed shell of silver as 'protection' from the Greylords, surrounded by the bones of many of the ancestors within. The soul shards visible to the casual observer are those filled with sacrificial souls that help animate the construct. Because the artificial pneuma flint 'burns up' and deteriorates over time, these shards are fixed in an exposed location for ease of replacement. Adding a new spirit to the soul core is a much more delicate, time consuming, and heavily ritualized affair.
These Living Monoliths are imperfect creations. Large sacrifices are necessary to rouse these walking engines of destruction from the Fog of Memories and to empower their forms with motion. Furthermore, a powerful necromancer or many lesser necromancers must provide the focus for the ancestral spirits, like a conductor directing a choir, so that they act with unity of purpose to perform a given task. Even so, it is with the combined memories and skills of the souls within which carry out these tasks, and it is a dangerous mistake to dismiss them as mindless automatons incapable of reacting to unexpected events of their own accord.
While most of the constructs are armed for melee combat due to the limitations imposed by the Fog of Memories, a few do feature ranged weaponry. Some Houses are beginning to consider the addition of siege engine weaponry on these ancestral golems. Theoretically, a Toh-ra Set can carry a ballista like a crossbow, moving and reloading the weapon in a fraction of the time of a siege crew, although the cost of awakening the Toh-ra Set for battle in the first place is quite high compared to most mortal siege crews.
