Jinsei

The mysterious, secluded metal men of the Technocracy

Base Racial Traits

Ability Score Modifiers: (+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, –2 Wisdom): Due to their clockwork construction and long, expansive databanks filled with knowledge Jinsei are both dexterous and intelligent, but are ignorant in the ways of the world and how to properly utilize their knowledge.
Size: Jinsei are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Type: Jinsei are constructs, and do not need to eat, sleep, or breathe unless they benefit from it. They gain all other penalties and bonuses from their nature, and gain 20 extra hit points for being medium sized. They count as having the Clockwork subtype, but get no bonuses or vulnerabilities from it.
Speed: Jinsei have a base land speed of 30ft.
Vision: Jinsei, being constructs, have Darkvision out to sixty feet and low light vision, allowing them to see twice as far in low light.
Languages: Jinsei begin play speaking the Regional Language(See Languages of Zheng-Kitar) that reflects their origins, which is almost ALWAYS Circuitron, the language of the technocracy, and Modulo. Jinsei with high Intelligence are able to select from any non-secret language as a bonus language.
Curiosity: Jinsei are naturally inquisitive about the world around them. They gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks, can gather information using Diplomacy in half the time, and Knowledge (History) and Knowledge (Local) become class skills for them. If they choose a class that has either of those knowledge skills as class skills, they gain a +2 racial bonus on those skills instead.
Heatbeam Emitter: Jinsei can, as a standard action, shoot a beam of intensely focused light as a ranged touch attack capable of burning anything it strikes, dealing 1d8 fire damage with a ranged increment of 50ft and a critical threat of 20 and a multiplier of x2. capable of passing through force fields and force effects to strike foes beyond without damaging that field. Objects such as glass or other transparent barriers do not provide cover from this attack, but still take damage from this attack passing through it.
Master Tinkerer: Jinsei are created with an innate understanding of how their own highly complex bodies work and how to maintain themselves on a regular basis, granting them bonuses when dealing with other pieces of machinery. They gain a +2 on Disable Device and Knowledge(Engineering) checks, and are always treated as having 2 ranks and being proficient in any Craft Skill they require to repair themselves. They gain a +2 on all other such Craft Checks made against other objects or creatures, and must take such crafting feats as normal for any other purpose besides repairing themselves.
Quantum Databanks: The robotic bodies of the Jinsei are driven by insanely complex dynamo-driven computation cores wrought with magic and thousands of lines of self-writing programming carried on light transmitting information through fiber tubes inside their bodies, and this functionality allows them to maintain Databanks on previous creature types they have encountered in combat or otherwise. They gain +2 on attack and damage rolls against creatures of the Type that they last attacked or were attacked by. If this type would be Humanoid, they instead select one of the subtypes that target had and use that instead. This bonus lasts for 24 hours or until they choose to let a new bonus replace it. Once they have this bonus, they can choose not to replace their existing bonus with a new one if they attack or are attacked.
Vocal Synthesizer: Jinsei are beings that, by nature, can only comprehend their native language when they are created. However, they are also created with highly complex and adaptable voice modulation algorithms, and are always treated as having the ‘Sound Mimicry’ universal monster rule, granting them a racial +8 bonus to Bluff checks to mimic sounds it has listened to for at least 10 minutes. They cannot duplicate the effects of magical abilities this way, though they may be able to mimic the sound of these abilities. In addition, after hearing a language for 24 hours, Jinsei can ‘store’ that language and gain it as a bonus language. They can can store an amount of bonus languages this way equal to their INTMOD. If they gain a language that would put them over their limit, they lose one of their choosing.
Durable Shell: Jinsei bodies are wrought in highly durable metals and magics to protect their highly sensitive dynamo-driven computation cores, and gain Damage Reduction 10 overcome by adamantine.
Gnashing Gears: Jinsei are filled with razor-sharp gears that jut out and gnash any in contact with them. Jinsei deal 1d6 slashing damage at the beginning of each of their turns automatically to a target grappling them or that they are grappling. This damage increases by one step for every 5HD they have. These count as coming from an Adamantine weapon.
Electricity Vulnerability: Due to their highly sensitive and delicate nature of their dynamo cores, Jinsei bodies tend to lock up and freeze when hit by electricity as well as taking more damage than normal due to it, as their gears and magical cores rely on electricity to power themselves and are disrupted and damaged by excess charge. Jinsei take 50% more damage from any electricity attacks and, the first time they take such damage that day, they have a 50% chance to be dazed for one turn as the excess charge rocks their systems. However, for the rest of the day, their bodies adapt to discharge any excess inflow and they no longer risk being dazed until the next day. You cannot be dazed by 0 level spells that cause electricity damage.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Jinsei are built and constructed out of a bevvy of precious and mundane metals, composite materials, and other advanced magic technology that is a mystery in the modern day, thousands of years after their arrival on Zheng-Kitar by way of the ancient High Human empire. They are built in the image of normal humanoid creatures, and outwardly resemble them with two legs, two arms, and a head located atop a single, central torso. However, that is where the similarities stop.
Jinsei do not have a skeletal or musculature system, and indeed they lack any semblance of organic physiology that other races possess. Instead, they are constructed out of hundreds of thousands of metal gears, incredible magitech scripts, fiber tubes carrying self-writing programming on beams of superluminal light, many many yards of metallic wiring and circuitry, and magically conductive tubes that send the composite oily blood-like substance that serves as the Jinsei analogue to "Blood" throughout their bodies.
Amidst all their complicated clockwork mechanisms that drive their function, all are linked and can trace their functionality to the beating heart that dwells at the core of every Jinsei: A highly complex Dynamo-Driven Magical Computation Core, A legendary achievement of ancient High Human magitech engineering whose original design has long since been lost to time - the Jinsei of today have long since rolled out so many updates, patches, and upgrades to their systems that most likely no aspect of their bodies resembles what it did so long ago...the understanding of how these artifacts of yore work has passed into history to all but the Jinsei themselves, yet still they beat with life, the magically-wrought Computation cores processing tens of thousands of calculations each second with the ability to write new directives and programming on the fly.
It is these cores that grant Jinsei their incredible intelligence and adaptability as thinking machines, and which power their entire bodies. Without their Dynamo Core, Jinsei simply shut down and "Die"...though many Jinsei philosophers have postulated that, since a Core can be fitted back into an Jinsei without one, that the mysterious "soul" of a Jinsei in fact dwells within their Dynamo Core.

Biological Traits

Because the bodies of the Jinsei are created on production lines in the factories of their homeland, their bodies are almost universally identical from the moment they are born into the world, though different 'models' of Jinsei might vary in appearance between the different model lines. Over time, however, as their nascent consciousness and sentience awakens within them many Jinsei begin to naturally drift apart from each other in terms of appearance and makeup due to natural wear and tear, as well as the repairs they make to themselves to fix damage that occurs during their lives. As a result of these myriad repairs and wear and tear, Jinsei often begin to look wholly unique from their peers after enough repairs have been made, enough haphazard welds or patches have been put into place, and after enough time has passed.
In this way, Jinsei begin to form wholly unique appearance due to methods used to repair themselves or to decorate themselves to mask wear and tear, or things done to simply enhance their individuality. The pattern and color of paint used on their exterior frames, the type of metals used in their welds or repairs, battle scars or injuries, and the shape/size/type of decorations they prefer to use to adorn themselves can all differ between Jinsei, and are often what sets them apart from one another.
It is mostly unclear whether Jinsei feel emotion or not - no expedition into their homeland has ever returned, and no research has thus ever been carried out on these strange metal men...so their potential emotional capacity is as of yet unknown.

Genetics and Reproduction

Jinsei are constructs, and thus cannot reproduce in the traditional sexual sense. Instead, their bodies are produced from the sprawling factories of their underground homeland on vast production lines where other Jinsei oversee and watch over the construction process. In these factories, Jinsei are built according to highly specific STC's, or "Standard Template Constructs", which are highly advanced databanks that contain complete blueprints on how to build a Jinsei body to completion...these STC's are thus considered national treasures of the Jinsei race and are a jealously guarded secret of their homeland. Suprisingly, the Jinsei of today being constructed are said to be only a single STC out of potentially dozens that once existed in the days of yore. Out there, in the unknown corners of the world, the Jinsei believe yet slumbers other more intricate STC's for more specialized Jinsei or upgrades for them, left behind by their ancient creators and in the intervening eons since their founding as a seperate peoples and nation.
As they roll off the production line, however, Jinsei may be highly intelligent automatons, but are simply that: Automatons without sentience nor souls. In a process poorly understood by outsiders and even the Jinsei themselves, a new, empty Jinsei "Body" will eventually attract and/or formulate a nascent consciousness within itself which, over the course of a few years, develops into a true soul and sentience.
However, thanks to the relatively moderate resources of their homeland and their own inventiveness, the Technocracy does not readily produce more fresh bodies for themselves without finding the resources necessary to fuel their factories and make their bodies. Instead, as Jinsei age and their "Souls" are taken to the Great Beyond, the rusted bodies are polished up and repaired so that in time, a new consciousness and soul enters the refurbished body to begin the cycle anew...in this way, most Jinsei can trace a lineage of sorts over the generations from the souls that have came and went in the bodies they now inhabit, making each Jinsei a potential museum all unto themselves.

Growth Rate & Stages

As Jinsei are rolled off the factory production lines of their homeland or, more commonly, when older Jinsei bodies are repaired and restored, they soon develop infant consciousness and sentience soon after...however, after this "birth" this newly formed "soul" takes several years to reach full maturation. As such, Jinsei are considered children for the first 1-3 years of their lives until their minds and souls develop enough to allow for sentient thought on par with adult creatures of other sentient races.
Once they reach adulthood this way, Jinsei live their lives defined by their curiosity. They love to explore and venture beyond the bounds of their underground homeland for the purpose of both satisfying their burning curiosities and to get answers to the mysteries surrounding their creations...however, they are simultaneously highly united as a people and on these journeys they always make efforts to gather information and intelligence on threats to them or their people, recover valuable resources that could benefit their people or fuel their factories for awhile longer, and simply work to better the whole of their society. Unity and brotherhood are common amongst Jinsei, and the concepts of betrayal and selfishness are a foreign concept to many among them.
However, though they enjoy journeying and satisfying this curiosity, their eclectic natures and incredibly strange bodies means they are often attacked on sight by the outside world, or at the least shunned as heretical machinations of 'Foreign Invention' - meaning most Jinsei are denied the exploration they so desire and must instead find ways to satisfy themselves on the homefront.
As they age and get older, Jinsei desire answers more and more strongly about the nature of their creation, and why they came to be...during these twilight years, Jinsei often either return to their homeland if they were lucky enough to leave to live out their days as thinkers and philosophers or rarely make one final adventure into the unknown where they often break down far from civilization, their bodies left to decay and rust amidst the ruins of the world's forgotten edges.

Ecology and Habitats

Thanks to their resilient bodies, Jinsei are capable of surviving in most any climate, though excessively freezing environments are often harmful to them as the thousands upon thousands of tiny gears and wires that drive their bodies grind to a frozen halt, and their oily blood freezes up and renders them in a permanent state of 'stasis'. They mostly focus on stripping a given area of mineral wealth, and while they often have no opinion on nature, their mining operations often disrupt or destroy the natural environment around their homes.

Dietary Needs and Habits

While Jinsei are capable of eating and consuming organic material as well as oil and other machinery, they have no need to do so and often only care to do so when they desire to fit in on their rare excursions outside their homeland.

Biological Cycle

As time passes, Jinsei see their bodies slowly begin to rust and degrade as any machinery is wont to do, and as they age their bodies begin to fail, fall to pieces, and weaken while their minds begin to accumulate more and more experiences and memories as their data-banks grow full with a life well spent.
Jinsei are considered middle-aged around age 62, are considered old around age 93, and enter Venerable around age 125 where they often rust away and "die" in a few years time.

Additional Information

Facial characteristics

Jinsei generally have a rough mechanical approximation of a humanoid face, and often possess two crystalline lenses set within sockets within their smooth metallic skulls as well as a simulacrum of a "mouth" that allows for intake of organic and non-organic material as needed. Their faces are smooth and metallic, but can vary wildly as some Jinsei have only one large eye, some have odd shape or no mouth at all and simply have speakers, some have lifelike features and some are simply clockwork and gears with no metal plate covering them at all...

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Jinsei are found exclusively in their homeland of the Cheoltang technocracy, and though they are capable of surviving in most any climate they are almost never found outside of this homeland.

Average Intelligence

As they were originally created to be intelligent and self-driving automatons, Jinsei are naturally quite intelligent creatures thanks to their databanks which store all their recorded experiences, memories, and knowledge with near-flawless accuracy. They can make logical leaps in judgement quite well, to a point that seems to others as magic or psychic intutition.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Thanks to highly advanced crystalline lenses that capture, refract, and focus light in an advanced recreation of an organic eye, all Jinsei are capable of seeing in absolute darkness out to sixty feet and can see twice as far as other races in conditions of low light thanks to their advanced optics.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Jinsei names are mostly things of mystery as few ever share them with outsiders, but they are known to have two names - a production name, symbolizing their make and model, and a personal name - one designed by they themselves to express their individuality.
These production names typically use letters of the greek alphabet followed by a string of numbers, such as "Omicron-99", while their personal names are typically latin.
Though Jinsei have no anatomical gender, they may have male of female personalities and can have either male of female names.
Production Names: Alpha-9, Beta-12, Epsilon 345, Zeta 0, Delta-6003, Gamma-12
Personal Names: Nicodemus, Alanus, Callicles, Labrax, Vatinia, Maximia, Ateia, Lusia

History

As a race brought over to Zheng-Kitar from lands afar nearly 3000 years ago by the ancient High Human empire, the Jinsei were then only a mindless race of automatons used by the ancient human empire to serve as manual labor and assistants - but in time as the ancient human empire was driven off by the races of Zheng-Kitar aided by the mad Tyrant Cao Lu and his armies of High Lamia enforcers, the ancient Jinsei were one of the many, many advanced possessions left behind by their old creators as they fled Zheng-Kitar.
And as they fled, the ancient humans left behind much of the infrastructure they had built in the time they had spent there, from sprawling factories to vast metal cities - all left abandoned by them as they were driven out, and left by the races of Zheng-Kitar and considered as "Taboo" and "Off limits", and "Cities of Heresy". So did the ancient Jinsei languish for untold centuries in the abandoned ruins of their former masters - until eventually, a robotic prophet among them rose up and united their peoples, established the first dregs of society that would flourish into the modern-day technocracy, and began the process that would culminate in the building of the Great Reaping Wall - the wall that blocks off the entire land border of the Technocracy - and the sentience and culture that the Jinsei would develop.

Alternate Racial Trait List:
Jinsei Alternate Racial Traits

Racial Feat List:
Jinsei Racial Feats

Alternate Names

Admech, Metal Men, The Swarm

Lifespan

125 years. Their bodies decay and rust as a living creature's would, and after their lifespans have elapsed their souls leave their bodies for the Great Beyond, leaving their bodies behind to be repaired so a new soul may enter in time.

Conservation Status

Jinsei are one of the rarest races on Zheng-Kitar, and are only found in the Cheoltang Technocracy natively. They are almost never found outside the walls of their mysterious technocracy.

Average Height

5.7ft - 7.8ft (1.75 - 2.4 meters)

Average Weight

500lbs - 800lbs

Average Physique

As they are made alike, the average Jinsei physique is tall and broud-shouldered as well as incredibly heavy and durable thanks to their metallic bodies.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Jinsei bodies generally have a beautiful golden or golden-bronze sheen to them when they are brand new, which can tarnish and warp over time. Different colors are unusual, but are usually other metallic colors such as black, copper, etc. Depending on their own primitive customs, some Jinsei like to paint their metallic bodies and decorate themselves to enhance their individuality.

The world's most secretive race

Almost nothing is known of the secretive Jinsei outside the walls of their mysterious Technocracy, and past the legendary Great Reaping Wall that kills all who approach the country's borders - only the warlike tribes of the Khadagan commonwealth know anything about these strange metal men, and their knowledge extends strictly to how best one might kill them - no cultural interaction has ever taken place between the Jinsei and the rest of Zheng-Kitar, and as such almost nothing is known of these mysterious, hyper-advanced men of metal.
However, despite this, many flock to the walls of the Technocracy regardless, uncaring of the dangers of the Great Reaping Wall if it means potentially gaining entry into the nation of gears and cogs and finding a new life there, free from life's burdens...and while many who do this die to the terror of the Great Reaping Wall, some are granted entry into the smog-covered skies of the Technocracy, never to be seen again - granted entry into the land by the unfeeling machines who stand guard on the top of the Grand Reaping Wall. Whatever the reason may be, it only serves to further the curiosity the rest of Zheng-Kitar has for these metallic men - for they are almost never found outside of their home, and when they are, are usually subjected to attacks borne of fear or run out of town based on the numerous legends that speak of them as unfeeling terminators, murderous metal machines that wish to kill all the people of the land.

The endless war

Though they rarely make any attempt to leave or contact outside of their homeland, the Jinsei do engage in one activity that carries them outside of their homeland - the constant, unending war they have been engaged in with the nomadic tribes of the Khadagan Commonwealth since time untold.
Neither country can remember who or what started the conflict, though Khadagar is quick to claim the protection of their land against the all-consuming strip-mining bots of the Technocracy as their reason for fighting, the truth has been lost - only the mind-numbing violence of the endless conflict remains. The massive war machines of the technocracy march into battle daily, only to be beaten down and slain by the warriors of Khadagar.
No victor has ever been decided, and no shift in the balance of the war has ever been noted - only mindless violence against the endless hordes of metal men from the walls of the Technocracy. And whatever attempts are made by the outside world to negotiate with them are either ignored or slain by the Grand Reaping Wall, or those Jinsei who stand guard atop it - only in recent years with the construction of the Sakhradi canal by the city-state of Sakhrad has the Technocracy shown any attempt to negotiate with the outside world, and the arrival of the great envoy of the technocracy in the City of Bukhara was an event spoken of around the world as the first time in living memory that the unfeeling Jinsei made an attempt to contact the outside world...and even more mysterious is the trade deal reached between the emissaries of Sakhrad and the Technocracy, and what went on in that meeting behind closed doors...