Blackstone Vestiges
Sophontic Constructs
Living Constructs
Blackstone Vestiges were the culmination of centuries of arcane research and the combined magical knowledge of both the Manfolk and Faefolk of Haven. Unlike the unthinking tools that are golems and spriggans who were alive in their own right, Vestiges served as a refuge for a living soul. Preserving it in Blackstone.
This breakthrough came during the earliest years of The Fall and came as an unforeseen blessing as the living went to war with the dead. It quickly found widespread use in a world where every soldier lost only added to the ranks of the undead. Vestiges become the most numerous Formedfolk on Solith as hundreds are forced into shells to guard the cities of mortal man.
Vestige History
The earliest research into what would become Blackstone Vestiges began with the Udirkith of the Moorwald. They constructed autonomous works of artifice, each constructed to fulfill a singular purpose to perfection. Yet these machines could not think or feel and were constrained by their shells and the simple commands they were able to follow. They often took the most direct or literal interpretation of their commands with little room for interpretation or finesse. Still, these unthinking automatons plagued the battlefields of the War of Smoke & Steel, and their secrets were a sought after prize of the First Men.
When the Elves emerged from the twisted Wyld, they brought with them their arcane secrets and the key to the evolution of Blackstone Vestiges. The elves' own attempts at magical life were far more complex than the dwarves, but where the dwarves learned to forge life from nothing, the elves mastered the art of transferring life from one to another. Spriggans, as these constructs were known, were far more autonomous than their distant golem cousins but required an often disproportionate amount of death to bring it to life. Spriggans found little widespread use in Haven after its people discovered the simplicity offered by dwarven golemtech. Though the Spriggan's method of life transference became instrumental in the creation of the first Blackstone Vestiges. Through Udirkith expertise in artifice, the mages of Seawatch were able to construct durable bodies, and through the secrets of the Eld, they learned how to preserve a soul within that shell. The exact process for this process remains a secret to even many of their own kind, leading to great contention between free Vestiges and the leading producers of shells.
General Information
Genetic Descendants
Lifespan
10 years longer than their origin species.
Average Height
Between 5 and 9 feet tall.
Average Weight
Between 300 and 900 pounds.
Related Ethnicities
Hollow Bodies
Almost completely hollow most Steel and Marble Vestiges are far lighter than they appear upon first inspection. This was done to help them move around quicker and to not destroy structures and roads with their weight.Shell Trade
Seawatch is known for selling Steel Vestige shells to other cities, namely Ravenpeak. There has only been one instance of trading Marble, The Unseen & Marble Accord.Steelforged
Stront by Jake Siano
Steel Shells
Steelforged were the first Vestige created and then subsequently mass-produced to battle back the Unfallen hoards of The Fall. They make up the greatest portion of the Vestige population, most often seen policing the streets of Seawatch and Ravenpeak where they keep their populations in check with the harsh, everpresent vigilance of a Steelforged guard. Those not tied to the life of a city-forged now rove the countryside as wayward warriors or bandits ruled by the will of the strong. All souls forged in steel live lives fraught with danger and hardship bound to the cold, unfeeling march of the steel.Marbleborn
Marble Vessels
Marbleborn were the second Vestige created on Haven and are found only in service to the City of Marble or, in rare cases, in the remnants of the fallen Unseen Order. They make up the second-largest group of Vestiges and live comfortable lives within the marbled city where many of them are pushed into religious service to their creator, Telia. All souls reborn in marble strive to draw out the perfection hidden in all the things and work rigorously to bring about a more perfect world around them.Timbergrown
Wooden Forms
Timbergrown were the last Blackstone Vestige created in Haven yet their purpose and even their creator remains a mystery. As few as a dozen of these Vestiges exist on all of Solith making them one of the most elusive and scarsly populated races on the continent. They are found only to congregate in the depths of the Gorgewald Forest, in groves far from the reach of Manfolk and Beastfolk alike. All souls that take root in the wood are like newborn lambs, experiencing the world like a forgotten dream with only their connection to the world around them as their guide.
Description
A Vestige is composed of, at its most basic level, a Blackstone Core and an automaton shell. Though the exact method for the creation of Blackstone Cores is a closely guarded secret, it is well known that the souls "preserved" in their creation are made into shattered, broken things by the process. The shell of a Vestige is as grand a work of artifice as the core itself, requiring not just the complex, magical and mechanical infrastructure to allow the forms locomotion but also the protections required to keep the core safe and secure at its center. The minds held within cores have proven incapable of adjusting to forms they had not experienced in life (For more information please see the Collegium Disaster Report on Darkov's Man-Hound.) For this reason, few other than the city of marble have researched non-humanoid Vestiges.
Vestige Anatomy
Much to the surprise of many commonfolk in Haven, Vestiges are not made of solid steel, marble or wood. They are, in fact, predominantly hollow on the inside, making way for the magical and mechanical methods through which they move. The interior of a Vestige houses a cornucopia of constructed bones, muscles, organs, and even blood. The deconstruction of one of these sentient constructs is more akin to a dissection than a dismantling.
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