Golem Crafting

The Art of the Golem Crafter

With excerpts from The Golems of the Empire

History:
There can be no doubt that the crafting of Golems is an ancient trade indeed. Some say reports of it can be traced all the way back to ancient Archaxetas, others again indicate that it may have crossed the sea when the elves did and some believe that it crossed onto the main continent when the Aelyrians did. These theories, while all holding pieces of evidence in their favour, are generally seen as false.

The theory most believe to be the truth is that the art of Golem Crafting originated in the Dargis of old. The oldest reference ever found to Feversteel was on a dwarven vellum scroll of great age. Dwarves also retain the honour of being seen as the best Golem Crafters. It would have taken a Crafter of great skill to make the Golems that sleep under Zerdargia, slumbering until the day the city needs their assistance.

Introduction to the Trade:
The first thing that must be ascertained when dealing with a Golem is exactly what it is. There are many examples of different kinds of Golems that are so different in aspect that it is not easy to find the one catchall category. The easiest way to categorize it is as a being that has been created to serve. There are Golems that are in aspect very similar to elementals, but elementals are summonable creatures. Elementals live on other planes and can be brought to this one by spells, they have wills and wants of their own, a Golem does not. Golems are made on this plane. There is no such thing as a Golem without a creator. A Golem can be any shape, form or design, though they are usually shaped much like the one who created them. They are often used as guards or soldiers though they can be used for any task. There are instances of Golems being made into doors that would only accept a certain password to open for instance, or that would only open for specific people.

Creating a Golem requires specialized knowledge, and there are only a very few throughout the Empire who could make one. Along with the amount and cost of raw materials, this is one of the reasons why Golems are incredibly expensive and hard for anyone to afford. Finding a Golem Crafter is often extremely hard, as they are generally a secretive lot and do not often reveal their secrets willingly. A Golem Crafter can make just about any kind of Golem, with a couple of exceptions. The adeptness of the Golem Crafter will often affect how intelligent a Golem is and how large, powerful and artistic it is. In addition some Golem Crafters will have specialized themselves on a certain form of Golem as the manufacturing process often demands. Finding a person who can make any manner of Golem is hard if not impossible. Such people will also usually exhibit less skill than those who have specialized. Poor health also tends to take the lives of Golem Crafters before they are truly able to master their craft.

The Variants of Golems:
Standard Golem:
A Standard Golem will be modelled closely after the Crafter. Shapes can be anything that the material will hold. Making a 30 metre Wooden Body has no point if the feet cannot hold the weight of the body. The reason why a Standard Golem is the most usual kind is simply because of the ease of their making. The Crafter does not have to spend a long time contemplating how the various limbs will move since he already knows from personal experience, which is why it is what all Golem Crafters are taught to make at first.

Non-Standard Golem:
These Golems are Non-Standard, they do not follow the normal patterns that mirrors a humanoid appearance. Often such Golems will appear as similar to animals or simple objects. They may be grafted into doors as semi-intelligent door-knockers, or worked into such a fashion that they form a natural part of a building such as a door. Non-Standard Golems are rarer than Standard Golems but can still be found, they are often specially tailored to a purpose.

Fantastic Golem
These Golems are works of art, nothing less. At this point the Golems are no longer a part of the house, they are the house. Those few Crafters who can create such a Golem have been known to make Golems that go beyond what might be imagined. Some have created houses, others have created intelligent books, some have made Golem Ships and others again have made Golem Carriages. Given the natural limits of the material, the sky is more or less the limit. Though creating such intricate Golems have been known to take Crafters from several months to several eras, depending on the immensity of the task.

The Components of a Golem:
The Body:
Exactly what the body of a Golem is made of is entirely dependant on the form and shape of the Golem. An Iron or Metal Golem will be made out of pieces of metal bent or forged into certain shapes, a Glass Golem will consist of a glass statue, a Meat Golem will consist of pieces of flesh stitched together and so on. One of the very few limitations of what can be used as a body is that it must be able to support the weight of a Feversteel heart.

The one thing that must be done when constructing a Golem is leaving a place for the Feversteel heart. This is what keeps the Golem alive, and it is what allows it to live. Some Golems have been created with their Feversteel heart partially exposed, however it is not a recommended build and is only used where the Golems might be in need of being destroyed at short notice. Any and all Golems with the exception of the Homunculi and the Clockwork Golems are made with such a compartment.

The Feversteel Heart:
The vital component to any Golem is a piece of Feversteel. This is the thing that keeps the Golem alive, and allows it to move at all. While exposure to the metal has its share of bad effects these, oddly enough, disappear when the Feversteel is inserted into the Golem.

On its own Feversteel does nothing forever, however if a Golem Crafter was to spill his blood on the Feversteel it will suck up the things in it that make him live and instil this in the Golem, giving them a basic intelligence and the ability to move about. As the Golem Crafter advances in his craft he can ascertain how things should move and how intelligent it should be. Normally, the more blood used, the better the Golem will be, faster, more intelligent and so on. Though this also relies on the degree of mastery in the student, a Master would use much less blood and achieve the same affect as a Beginner.

If one were to break it down, the theory is that the blood used gives the Golem intelligence and grace, whereas the Feversteel used gives the Golem strength. However since the one is useless without the other, splitting it up in that manner is only a theoretical exercise.

The Three Phases of Golem Construction:

Creation:
Where the resources needed are gathered and the Golem is manufactured. It should be noted that the Golem Crafter will need such a minute understanding of the way the Body has been constructed that he cannot let anyone else do this job. The body is moulded to the way the creator wants it to be, normally a vaguely humanoid shape, although this varies with the functions the Golem Crafter wants it to have. How Golems are able to shape eyes, mouths and various other organs is a great mystery, though it has been proven that they have the ability to see, hear and recognize other beings. Some indicate that they may use arcanical senses and see us in much the same way that we would see someone while in a state of Clarity.
Impregnation:
The more mystical side of the process. The Golem Crafter spends his time in careful consideration of the Golem. Each part of how the Golem will be must be crystal clear in his mind. Some draw up diagrams and blueprints of the Golem that they consider carefully during this time, though most are content with merely the image they carry in their heads. It is vital that they retain an absolute awareness of how the Golem will move, look and feel. A flaw here can cause one leg to be bent backwards instead of forwards. At the end of this process the blood of the Golem Crafter is carefully extracted and daubed onto the Feversteel that the Golem requires.

There are two ways of moving the blood of the Crafter from the himself to the Feversteel. One is termed the Impure Way, and makes use of Leeches that are allowed to feed on the Crafter till they fall off, before they are slit open so that the blood from the Crafter trickles down onto the Golem. This method makes the Golem more sluggish and unintelligent than the Pure Way.

The Pure Way is simpler in that it consists of slitting open a vein and letting the blood trickle, or spill onto the Feversteel. While it is less complicated than the Impure Way, it has inherent dangers in that opening the wrong vein or cutting too deep can lead to lasting wounds, not to mention death if the flow of blood remains unimpeded for too long.

The blood of the Crafter is added in three layers, each requiring a separate meditation, each defining a specific characteristic of the Golem.

The First Layer defines how the Golem will move. It is vital that the Crafter here retain an absolute awareness of how the Golem will move, look and feel. A flaw here can cause one leg to be bent backwards instead of forwards. At the end of this process the blood of the Golem Crafter is carefully extracted and daubed onto the Feversteel that the Golem requires.

The Second Layer grants intelligence. A Golem Crafter will at this point often spend his time going over language lessons, the meaning of words, facial recognition, racial differences and all manner of things it is termed vital for the Golem to know.

The Third Layer sets the rules. Here the buyer, if applicable, is often brought in so that the Crafter can learn how his voice sounds so that the Golem will recognize this. Most Golem Crafters will install commands that keep the Golems they make from hurting their Crafter. Tales of Crafters who were careless and had a shady customer use the Golem to squash the head of the Crafter to keep from paying are not uncommon. Usually the laws that are instilled at this point are kept simple, with more elaborate commands given when the Golem has reached awareness.
Awakening:
It is during this phase that the Feversteel heart is added to the Body. The amount of Feversteel that is required will vary according to size but will be more or less the equivalent of a heart, in scale with the size of the Golem. Without a Feversteel heart a Golem is essentially a lump of inanimate material. It is believed that the peculiar features of Feversteel make it so that it transfers some of the intelligence and intents of the Golem Crafter to the Golem.

Once the Feversteel has been added in the opening for it, the Crafter merely has to wait for a few minutes while the Golem becomes self aware.

Some of the Different Golems:
As a general note concerning all Golems, none of them are taken to be very fast, if anything Golems are slow and ponderous in how they approach thing, the blows a siege Golem might give to a Castle could possibly be equated more to a push, than a punch. Though a very few exceptions do exist to this rule, it is easy for most humans to run rings around a Golem. Golems are also clumsy and lacking in grace, most fine operations are better left to others. Their strongest side is that they do not tire and they possess more strength than most, limited only by the material of their manufacture.

Meat Golem:
Meat Golems are horrible things, and perhaps the most special of the Golems. Meat Golems are made out of parts of other living beings. They inherit the traits of the parts that they are made of though a decent doctor or someone with an intimate knowledge of anatomy is usually required to make the things function as they should. A Meat Golem will age like any living creature and is perhaps the most similar to a living organism. If wounded a Meat Golem may heal if the wound is not too grievous. The Meat Golem is the most vulnerable of the Golems as it uses the same sensory organs as the pieces it was built out of, by destroying these it is possible to blind or otherwise incapacitate a Meat Golem. These are also known as Zombie Golems.

They may in some cases be called Homunculi, and are made in a different fashion from normal Golems. Like other Golems made from living matter, the Meat Golem is more erratic than others, some believe this is due to the memories of those whom the parts were taken from, as such they are more prone to go Rogue than other Golems (See Rogue Golems) and are also more known than others for attacking their Crafters or masters.
Bone Golem:
Made out of parts of deceased bodies, the Bone Golem differs from a Meat Golem in that it is no longer so much parts of a body, as merely the skeleton pieces of it. They are more brittle than the Stone Golems, but do not suffer the weaknesses and strengths inherent in being a Meat Golem. They can also not be repaired.
Stone Golem:
Also known as Gargoyle or Statue Golem. One of the most versatile and common Golems. These are usually made by master statue Crafters and later given life. They can be in any form or shape, and usually are. These can be found everywhere, from small statuettes in gardens to giant Golems standing guard of a door. Stone Golems are among the heaviest and strongest of the Golems.
Plant Golem:
Generally made out of vines and creepers, converging to make one massive humanoid form. Such a Golem is often made by gardeners or druids by first making a bush grow into a certain pose and then giving it life. Plant Golems can usually be found in gardens or forests; they often require water and sunlight to survive. While many of the other Golems requires the builder or someone else to do maintenance on it, Plant Golems may heal naturally. Plant Golems are more prone to becoming Rogue than other Golems (See Rogue Golems). This is especially true of those created by druids.
Earth Golems:
Another fairly common Golem, this is usually either made out of clay, or simple dry earth packed together. The Clay Golems are sometimes heated prior to Awakening, making them Ceramic Golems, which are much more hardy but loose some of the healing qualities of a Clay Golem. On the other end of the hardy range is the Mud Golem, which is more or less a puddle of wet earth that moves about.
Ice/Snow Golems:
Not a difficult Golem to make, made either out of packing snow together or out of simple ice sculptures. While these Golems are relatively easy to make they are highly vulnerable to heat and are only used during the winter in the colder parts of the Empire. They can easily increase their mass and heal themselves using snow or ice in their environment.
Iron Golems:
Iron Golems come in many shapes and forms. Some make them to look like pieces of armour that walk around. Others make them into simpler shapes, similar to what you would find in a Clay Golem; simple, blank humanoid shapes. How the metal bends is as much a mystery as how the Stone Golems move. Some believe that the presence of Feversteel alters the properties of the Vis around them, though the exact mechanics of it baffle the brightest of minds. Some Crafters make what is called Wire or Chain Golems, which is merely a collection of chains that change shape according to the needs of the Golem, such a Golem is a terrifying sight indeed. Although the name most commonly used is Iron Golem there is nothing hindering the Crafter from making one out of another material. One of the strongest Golems, but also one of the hardest ones to repair should it be broken.
Glass Golems:
Perhaps one of the more rare Golems around. These Golems are made of pure glass and often serve more as a piece of decoration than other Golems which are usually made for combat purposes or in order to do difficult and dangerous work. Glass Golems often work as personal servants and assistants, as such they are often imbued with more intelligence than the other Golems. Glass Golems can be vicious in combat regardless of this though, their bodies shattering in combat merely adding to the danger in facing them rather than subtracting from it.
Wood Golems:
Golems made out of wood, often carved or joined together when extra size is needed. They range from the artfully carved to the crudely carpentered. Wood Golems are seldom among the largest of Golems. They are not as heavy or as powerful as stone Golems, but they have their own set of advantages amd disadvantages due to the fabric they are made of, such as a nominal ability to float under the right conditions.

Other Golems:

Arcanic Golems:
Arcanic Golems are Golems that have been made without a Golem Crafter. It is believed that Golems can be made without the use of Feversteel simply by enchanting a summoned creature of some kind into an inanimate shell. The problem with these types of Golems is that they exhibit free will. Something ordinary Golems, naturally, do not. The only mages known to be able to make something similar to a normal Golem are the Mystics.
Clockwork Golems:
These creatures, also called Automatons, are constructed by skilled Gadgeteers. Automatons are given life through the skill of their masters and though they might be classified as a Metal Golem they do not fit the normal description for such a creature at all. They do not require Feversteel hearts and are not built according to the norm of Golem making.
Homonunclus:
A creature created by the mysterious Alchemists, few believe that there is anyone capable of making one, most believe them to be mere myth. Supposedly these things are living creatures grown in vats. No one knows if there is any truth to these allegations or not.
Combination Golems:
Combination Golems are Golems that have been made from a range of different materials. An example of this would be a Golem that was part Iron and part Stone. In these cases the Golems take on the strengths and weaknesses of both Golems depending on which parts are made of what. The various attributes of the Golem will increase with the skill of the Crafter, but the skill level appropriate will be that of the material that the majority of the Golem has been made out of. If a Crafter has Expert Metal Golem and Advanced Stone Golem for instance, the Golem has Expert level attributes if the majority of it is made out of metal, but only Advanced level attributes if it is made mainly out of Stone. For some reason Combination Golems are more susceptible to going Rogue than other Golems (See Rogue Golems).
Rogue Golems:
Sometimes, for some reason a Golem will go mad. There can be many reasons for this, a mystic can attack it or change its conditioning erroneously, they may be unable to continue their work, or they may be forced to do something that goes against their conditioning. A Golem that has gone rogue will usually just stand still for a long time and become unapproachable. There are cases of Golems leaving and starting a life of its own. Though what urges a Golem to do such a thing no one knows. Golems living in the wild have been spotted labouring towards some purpose or other, though what purpose this is, is unknown.

Skill tree:
Some notes about the Golem Crafter:
It should be noted that the Golem Crafter is not independent of any other craft. Without at least some skill in another craft it is impossible for a Golem Crafter to continue beyond the Beginner level. Someone who wanted to learn how to make Glass Golems for instance would learn Glassblowing, with each level of Glassblowing being needed to one level less than the current level of Golem crafting. Someone who wished to make Iron Golems would pick up Metalsmithing, someone specialising in Plant Golems would do Gardening/Plantcare, someone wishing to deal with Meat Golems or Zombie/Bone Golems would take Anatomy.

Certain Golems can however be crafted by anyone, this would be, for example, the Clay Golems. Although one does not need to train in Golem Crafting more than once it is recommended to take a quick class more or less equivalent of a Beginner course. This class teaches awareness of the material used, weaknesses and strengths of the Golem and anything else necessary for each type of Golem.

Another thing worth noting is that Golem Crafters are unfavourably affected by their work, some say it is the presence of Feversteel, others say it is the unnatural way of creating life which drains them, and others again claim it is that the bloodletting which weakens them. Nevertheless, by the time they have reached Mastery most Crafters' health has broken down to the point where they are unable to continue their craft without the aid of strengthening herbs, potions, elixirs or various forms of strength boosters. They suffer diseases and illnesses more easily than others, a good deal are known to cough up blood at irregular intervals. Crafters often lose their hair, or large patches of their fur or scales during their time spent as Advanced Crafter. However Beginner Golem Crafters are usually fairly normal, and of good health.

Novice:
Skills required: None
A beginner Golem Crafter knows very little of the craft. He can, after spending cycles of preparation, craft small Golems, the size of his fist under the eye of his teacher. The Beginner class will mostly be spent studying the various forms of Golems, and their various benefits and advantages. The shape of the Golems created at this level do not change from the normal humanoid appearance.
Skills taught:
Handling of minute amounts of Feversteel
Making small Clay Golems
Golem Construction Process
Standard Golem Construction

Apprentice:
Skills required: Novice in supplementary skill
An intermediate Golem crafter can create Golems that are of medium size. These Golems remain no larger than a halfling or a dwarf. These Golems are neither very bright nor very fast. An Intermediate Golem maker will usually start specialising and go search out a Golem Crafter who can teach him how to create the Golem that he wishes to make.
Skills taught:
Making Supplementary Skill Golems
Making Snow/Ice Golems and Earth Golems
Making medium sized Golems
The Impure Way of Blood Letting (Leeches)
The Implementation of the Feversteel Heart

Journeyman:
Skills required: Apprentice supplementary skill
At this point the Golem crafter can make Golems that are the same size as most humanoid beings. To gain advanced you need intermediate in your supplementary skill first. Golems are now starting to become more intelligent, faster, and larger.
Skills taught:
The handling and use of Feversteel in larger amounts
The Smelting of Feversteel and the creation of a Feversteel Heart.
Making the Mud Golem
The Making of Non-Standard Golems

Master:
Skills required: Journeyman supplementary skill
Advanced in the supplementary skill is needed at this point. The expert Golem Crafter can create Giant Golems which can be used as anything from siege engines to builders of great towers and lifters of great loads.
Skills taught:
The Implementation of Multiple Feversteel Hearts
Control of the various facets of a Golem (Intelligence, Speed, Strength)
The Pure Way of Bloodletting (Cutting Veins Open)

Grand Master:
Skills required: Journeyman supplementary skill [with the XPs of a Master]
At this point you need expert in the supplementary skill of choice. A Master Golem Crafter can create Golems which are considered nothing less than works of art. Some have been said to make Golems that are so large that the Crafter can live inside it. To come to this level Crafters often journey across the Empire, learning from different masters of their dual crafts on best how to combine these into creating even better Golems.
Skills taught:
Self taught.
Fantastical Golems.

Tools of the Trade:
Apart from those tools demanded by the Supplementary Skill the Golem Crafters have a variety of tools that are entirely of their own. The most important are listed here.

Feversteel:
This rare metal is normally found deep in mines, usually in combination with iron ore, but there are records of it being found elsewhere in minor quantities. Miners will generally prefer not to have it in their mines if they can and will often toss it into disused shafts if they are unaware of its true worth. Those who know the metal’s worth will often go so far as to ask ten times the price of steel for it.

One of the reasons why Feversteel is so disliked by miners is the side effects that can come from proximity from it. Prolonged exposure to the orange metal can bring about such side effects as making someone severely ill, making their hair, fur or scales fall out and give them a sense of vertigo. Handling the material is also not recommended as it is hot enough to burn someone when touching it. Heavy leather gloves are recommended when handling it.

Most Crafters will want to store their Feversteel in vaults or strongboxes, if nothing else then due to its value. Some believe that such precautions limit the side effects of Feversteel, others say that this is nonsense and that exposure to Feversteel is merely an occupational hazard.

The metal has a low melting point, which makes it easy to fashion into the appropriate sizes and for Golem hearts. Feversteel weighs approximately twice of what the same amount of lead would weigh.

Furnace:
The furnace is a fire pit with a chimney and a door. It has walls on all sides to prevent those outside from being scorched. Most will have a set of bellows used to force the fires to greater heat, though this is rarely needed in Golem Crafting as Feversteel has a low melting point.

Moulds:
Used to shape the Feversteel hearts into appropriate sizes. Most serious Golem Crafters will have a set of moulds in various sizes into which the molten Feversteel is poured ranging from the very small to the large depending on the needs of the Golem Crafter.

Leeches:
Marvels of modern medicine. These creatures relieve the body of blood and many other illnesses and may be used to transfer the blood of the Crafter from their body to the Feversteel. The resulting mix of blood and leech fluids is a somewhat worse conduit than just the blood itself.

Scalpel:
Using the Pure Way of blood removal the Crafter may use a scalpel to open his veins in order to let his blood stain the Feversteel. When scalpels are not available, knives, swords and other sharp slicing implements will do.

Bandages:
Most Crafters are taught the unhealthiness of bleeding to death and like to use bandages to keep their wounds from bleeding too much when they have performed the rituals of bloodletting.

Note: the average cost for Feversteel in a golem is calculated as follows:

COST = 100 * SIZE * SIZE, where SIZE is in feet and represents the golem's largest dimension (the height in most cases). For example:

1' = 100 Crowns
2' = 400 Crowns
3' = 900 Crowns
5' = 2500 Crowns
6' = 3600 Crowns
10' = 10,000 Crowns

The increase in size is considered to be quadratic rather than cubic since hearts are supposed to be mostly hollow. Note that this is only the cost of the Feversteel heart itself. It does not include materials for the golem's body, craftsmanship, tools and so on.