Kumashin

"They say that they're like the monsters from the old ruins, but they can masquerade as people. Keep your guard up for anyone acting strange."

In the wake of the Zokukuni Schism, many of the advanced automatons of Fuukansei went haywire, acting in bizarre and often violent ways. They became a scourge on the land, considered monsters by the local population - and worse, ones that could not be reasoned with or placated, unlike the youkai. Some machines, however, had an even stranger experience after the Schism. Based on the humanoid form, these automatons gained sentience and a semblance of life, and began to wander out of the inhospitable ruins they awoke in.
Due to the superstitions of the Zokukunese, however, their reception was anything but warm. Believed to be like the monstrosities roaming the ruins or some sort of possessed dolls, they were driven off from most towns they wandered near, if not destroyed or damaged. They were labeled 'Kumashin' by the locals, demonic, unsettling entities crudely masquerading as mortals. Over time, this name became universal, used even by the Kumashin themselves as they learned more about the culture of Zokukuni. Eventually, they began to pose as wanderers, wearing wide-brimmed hats and flowing robes to hide their mechanical natures.
While some used any opportunity they could to flee their xenophobic homeland, many Kumashin still remain on Zokukuni, avoiding the notice of the population with mixed success. Some are overlooked due to their skills - as warriors, craftsmen, or even assassins - while others simply keep to themselves or move from place to place too often to be discovered. Those who have left are often treated as a curiosity at worst on the other continents, and their relative rarity means that many less worldly individuals are unlikely to have even heard of them unless they met one themselves. Similarly to Elves, however, a few of them can be found almost anywhere on The Eye.

Racial Modifiers

• Characteristics: Kumashin gain a +1 bonus to INT and CON, but suffer a -1 to POW. While their physiology gives them an advantage in processing and retaining information as much as withstanding harsh environments, it leaves them socially ill-equipped.
• Construct: As constructs, Kumashin do not and cannot spend fatigue for physical actions, nor do they heal naturally (having a Regeneration of 0). They also lack the need or ability to eat, drink, or breathe, and are immune to natural diseases and poisons. However, most supernatural healing effects will still affect them.
• Living Soul: The living soul of a Kumashin allows them to use fatigue to boost their Ki or Magic Accumulation, with the same subsequent penalties and recovery rates as a living being. It also, perhaps unfortunately, leaves them capable of feeling pain, and requiring rest periods of roughly four hours a night.
• Repairs: While unable to heal, Kumashin are skilled in self-maintenance. They may use the Forge skill in place of Medicine for the sake of repairing damage with no limitations on the damage that can be recovered per wound, but with the same time modifiers as forging. Critical penalties are also recovered in this way, at a rate equal to half of the Life Points recovered by the check. Kumashin are always considered proficient in Forging for this purpose, and additionally gain a +20 to Forge. Other characters may also use their Forge skills to repair a Kumashin, but without special training or being a Kumashin themself, this results in a -80 penalty. Similar rules apply while using medicine to graft a prosthetic on to a body (as per Prometheum Exxet table 11), including the fact that significantly longer can be taken than any ordinary medical operation if necessary.
• Metallic Body: Kumashin are not completely metallic in nature, but their bodies are sturdy enough and composed of enough metal to have various effects. They are considered to be wearing metallic armor or using a metallic weapon when fighting unarmed for the purpose of any spells with magnetic effects, and their unarmed strikes are always considered to be performed with heavy padding. In addition, they receive 2 AT to all armor types except Energy and an equal bonus to their Fortitude for unarmed blocking. If they take the Natural Armor Advantage, these increase to 4 AT.
• Clockwork Joints: As it is very difficult for a Kumashin's joints to become completely silent, they suffer a -20 penalty to Stealth. If they wear any armor that can audibly impact their hard bodies, such as chainmail or most hard armors, their natural penalties to Stealth are also doubled (though they can still be fully removed with sufficient points in Wear Armor).
• Inappropriate Advantages and Disadvantages: Due to their natures, Kumashin cannot take Regeneration, Sickly, Slow Healer, or Susceptible to Poisons. Others can potentially be reflavored as needed (a Blood Legacy being a variant design or a Serious Illness being a complicated defect that is steadily weakening the character, for instance) at the GM's discretion.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Despite what rumors might spread, typical Kumashin have two eyes, two arms, two legs, and are generally humanoid, able to pass as a human, elf, orc, or so on with the right clothing. Their size and build varies, as does the level of exposure their outer plating gives to the gears and pistons that make up their inner workings. While their mouths may or may not have functional jaws, their faces are typically designed to at least appear humanoid as well, though not unsettlingly so. Due to custom-made variances and the ability to modify themselves over time, however, their appearances can vary wildly.

Civilization and Culture

Culture and Cultural Heritage

As beings abandoned by their creators by death and shunned by their closest neighbors out of superstition, Kumashin may not have what can necessarily be called a shared culture, but they certainly have a shared experience. This experience has lead many of them to feelings of isolation and purposelessness, and filling this gap leads many of them to make decisions other mortal races may find confusing - remaining in Zokukuni being chief among them. While some have a perhaps unhealthy obsession with 'feeling useful', other life philosophies among them vary as heavily as any other race's might. Some consider their mere ability to experience the world as a miracle and try to explore everything they can, while others find faith in The Maiden in White or The Bearer of the Burden.

Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals

Due to the differences in their natures compared to organic races, Kumashin sometimes have to be creative in how they observe local customs. One example is birthdays - few if any remember the day they woke up or the specific number of days they had been wandering by the time they realize that mortals consider these dates important, so they will often just pick a day to celebrate on. Many learn to become adept in pretending to eat or drink as well, either to avoid revealing their natures in Zokukuni or simply to seem polite. As a result of such deficiencies, however, Kumashin sometimes take a remarkable interest in fashion over other forms of expression, choosing their outfits and accessories with great care and perhaps unsurprising precision.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Humans

Humans that are not from Zokukuni often treat Kumashin with a considerable curiosity about their nature. This can be flattering at first, but Kumashin often tire of answering the same string of questions every time they meet such individuals, if the attention isn't off-putting in its own right. Those from Zokukuni, of course, can be anywhere from the most hostile and closed-off individuals they ever meet, to surprisingly open-minded if they discover their true nature.

Dwarves

For the rare Kumashin that finds themself in the Dwarven Peaks, they can often find a kindred spirit in Dwarves. Excellent at craftsmenship, hardworking, and efficient, the two get along very well. The only issue is that the machines have no way to participate in the prevalent local drinking culture. Zokukunese Dwarves, on the other hand, are practically more than an object of terror to local Kumashin than they are to the locals. Some Kumashin even believe a dwarf can see through one's disguise just by walking past them...

Elves

Of all the races of Zokukuni, Elves tend to be the most open-minded about the supernatural nature of the Kumashin, for obvious reasons. In some towns in the superstitious continent, after all, even they suffer a degree of discrimination. Both frequent wanderers, it is often elves that help the wayward beings find their way to better lives, and for that, the Kumashin tend to be grateful to them, at least on a personal level. Some Elves, however, see them as a walking reminder of the dangers of artifact use run wild, and give them a wide berth.

Orcs

Due to their rarity in Zokukuni, Orcs scarcely interact with Kumashin (and even less civilized races do so even less). Many Kumashin desire to keep things this way, as they fear the superstitious tribes will treat them much like they were treated in their homeland. Those with a more warlike disposition can fit in for a time, but their lack of natural healing can be a dangerous liability in the violent and hardy culture of orcs. By the same token, the difficulties a Kumashin faces in recovering from battle can seem utterly foreign and difficult to adjust to for the fast-healing race.