Monster Idea: Vitaeus Golem

[Michael Kyber]

Hello

So since I found Mizahar and started reading up on the lore, one of the things that I've really enjoyed reading about is the Animation branch of magic. It is, without a doubt, my favorite magic, and one I hope I'll be able to have my character learn sometime.

Anyway I was recently reading some old threads involving golems and the like, and came across the thread in which the ex-supervisor of Sahova Drainira escaped Sahova and set off to pursue her goal of becoming the Supervisor for the entirety of Mizahar. After reading it I had the idea of making a type of highly intelligent golem working for Drainira, Sagallius and their cause as a playable race, but since a new playable race isn't what the staff is looking for I adapted the idea into a type of monster that can be encountered across Mizahar.

The idea is that these golems, called Vitaeus Golems (Vitaeus being the Ahalean word for Lifelike), are golems created by Drainira and a skilled gadgeteer with the purpose of infiltrating cities and organisations as sleeper agents. Each one appears human (though with a few telltale signs) and is programmed to believe they are human until they hear a specific codeword, and while in sleeper mode have a subconscious desire to acquire knowledge and get themselves into positions of power. Their purpose is to feed Drainira knowledge about Mizahar and take over certain institutions so that one day Drainira can, though them, become Supervisor of the world. Some of these Vitaeus Golems also possess a gnosis mark from Sagallius to aid in their mission.

I already have a good idea of where to go with this, but if anyone has any great ideas of features to add or thoughts on this idea I'd love to hear them.

[Clyde Sullins]

I think this idea is interesting, but its somewhat problematic for various reasons. 1- First issue is making them. Last I'd heard Drainira is off world, having started some colony or such. It hasn't been up and running that long, but I doubt its got the facilities to make said golem bodies. I'm sure she puts her feelers out into Mizahar through others, but no plot I know of has progressed related to her returning long term. The only place that would likely have the resources would be Sahova, and after her last stunt I doubt it'd go unnoticed if a bunch of humanoid golems had been commissioned in any span of time. Great attention would go to any future commission for such, for fear of Drainira, and nuit have a long memory. 2- Second is cost, or cost effectiveness. While yes these would be cool, a fully functioning humanoid golem would be really, really, really expensive. Drainira isn't called the million miza golem for nothing, its probably not an entire exaggeration in terms of her cost. Even so, a humanoid golem would cost a lot however you read it. Tied into this is that Drainira does in fact have a resource at her disposal that fits this need. They are humanoid, can follow orders, be sent on tasks, can infiltrate and gather intel and all those other things. And they are relatively cheap compared to golems. That'd be people, or humans, or any of the living races of Mizahar. Heck, even some nuit surely, considering her time on Sahova. They are much cheaper, much more plentiful, and much less time consuming to use. Drainira already sees humans and other living beings as her puppets to be used, being the champion of Sagallius. So whether using marked followers of him, random people/mercs of others paid money, she's got a much more plentiful and cheap supply of what these things would be doing, with less likelihood of being caught and other inherent issues. I'm sure Drainira aleady has such agents sprinkled about, in all or most of the main cities, blending in with the main populace. So while this is a cool idea... I think it'd be somewhat problematic and unrealistic for the above reasons.

[Michael Kyber]

Hmm, you make good points.

Thank you for the input. I'll see if I can adapt this idea to have a different purpose.

[Michael Kyber]

So after considering the points brought up by Clyde I've been thinking about other reasons why a creature such as a vitaeous golem might be brought into existence, and I've come up with an idea that seem fairly plausible to me. Once again I'm putting this idea out there and would love to hear any feedback or constructive criticism anybody has.

Adaption of the Daek-Nuit
With enough skill in animation lifelike qualities can be bound to practically anything, and at its highest levels even souls can be transferred into different bodies through the daek-nuit ritual to create the race known as Nuit. However in exchange for their indefinite lifespans Nuit face a number of problems, such as the need to maintain and eventually prepare a new corpse for them to inhabit, and still have to live with the limits of the bodies they inhabit.

The Vitaeous Golem are the brainchild of a Nuit animator from Sahova who sought to overcome those limits by adapting the Daek-Nuit ritual to transfer a living soul into the body of a humanoid golem instead of corpse. The idea was that a properly made golem body would never decay and could indeed be customized with a variety of useful tools or weaponry a human body does not possess to make existence easier, but with the right care and craft could be made to look roughly like and function similarly to a human body.

And so the animation crafted a set of about a number of humanoid shaped golems (which ended up looking like eerily human sized puppets) and purchased a number of slaves, then one by one performed his adapted Daek-Nuit ritual on them, observing the results of the ritual and adjusting it accordingly with each failure until at last the ritual started to show success and a dozen of the slave's souls were successfully bound into the golem bodies.

However the process of being ripped out of their original bodies and shoved into husks with no sense of touch, taste or smell was understandably incredibly traumatic for the slaves involved, and the experience turned each and every one of them insane in some way. Seeing the loss of three senses and a high possibility of insanity as a poor trade for the benefits of a golem body the animator gave up on his project, deciding to find another way to improve the Nuit form, but decided that the successful Vitaeous Golems could still be useful specimens for animation research in the future and so instead of destroying them locked them up inside The Vault.

For many years the Vitaeous Golems were sealed down in the Vault, unable to die and with nothing but each other for company. Years of isolation broke their already damaged minds and erased any traces of their prior humanity from them, making them vicious and completely immoral killing machines.

However one day their freedom appeared in the form of a thief who'd snuck into Sahova in search of powerful magical items to steal. By tricking the thief the Vitaeous Golems were able to get themselves smuggled out of Sahova, and once they were brought back to the mainland had the thief free them and promptly killed him. They fled into the wilds of Sylira and made their headquarters in a cave, then began dedicating themselves to the task of gathering as much information as they could on and teaching themselves about Animation in order to create a ritual that could put them back into living bodies. To their immoral mindsets the most reliable way to further this research would be through a lot of research on said living bodies, and since their escapes a number of travelers in the wilds of Sylira have found themselves captured by the Vitaeous Golems as test subjects for their latest experiemnts.

[Ferrin Al'Mandrikan]

I like the idea nonetheless. Though, the problem with The Vault. It's very challenging for said person to break into the vault without the Stone Guardians noticing. Since they're made of Stone, I don't they'll be easy to surpass them even with highly motivated skills such as stealth and other related skills.

The perpetrator would have to be able to pass through all of the enchantments that protect the vault. And as I stated above, the Stone Guardians are the last resort of self defense in case someone breaks through all of those enchantments and pass The Keeper would have to be surpassed as well.

If the Vitaeous Golem was found useful, the Wizards of Sahova would find them a purpose. Every Golem in Sahova have it's own purpose for Sahova. As they have said, they have listed Golems within the Compendium.

Here is an excerpt from The Vault referring to The Keeper:

It is the Keeper who commands all within the Vault. He alone has control over the Stone Guardians, and over all of the items sealed within this formidable structure. If times of war do come to Sahova, then the Keeper is responsible for arming Sahova with the items in the Vault. In the event that the Vault is breeched by the enemy, it is also the Keeper's responsibility to undo the magic that keeps the magma at bay, thus destroying the Vault and all within it. It is a heavy burden for one man to hold, yet it is a necessary burden for the safety and well being of Sahova.

Here is also another excerpt about the guardians.

Beyond the ordinary Guardians which can be found on every floor, Vaults from floor 15 to 25 also have specialized Guardians designed to better protect the contents within the vaults. It is rumored that these Guardians also have special abilities that are beyond what is seen in the normal Stone Guardian.

From what you said here.

The idea is that these golems, called Vitaeus Golems (Vitaeus being the Ahalean word for Lifelike), are golems created by Drainira and a skilled gadgeteer with the purpose of infiltrating cities and organisations as sleeper agents. Each one appears human (though with a few telltale signs) and is programmed to believe they are human until they hear a specific codeword, and while in sleeper mode have a subconscious desire to acquire knowledge and get themselves into positions of power. Their purpose is to feed Drainira knowledge about Mizahar and take over certain institutions so that one day Drainira can, though them, become Supervisor of the world. Some of these Vitaeus Golems also possess a gnosis mark from Sagallius to aid in their mission.

This sort of defeats the purpose of the work of Spies and Mercenaries. Unless your planning on making this as a playable race, I can see this happening, but their purpose seems a little too excessive. As Sahova has Listener Golems that gathers info and detail about what's happening around them and they usually report to the Council of Five.

Unless, the Vitaeus Golems only serve a purpose for Drainira and she's sent them out to gather information. All I have now is this; what kind of playing type would this Golem be? Would it be just a casual race that players can choose to play as? Or, is it a Moderated Golem like all of the other Golems in Sahova, but served for special purposes that could align with Spy/Mercenary work? I hope this helps! I really like the idea, but I think there's something missing...

[Michael Kyber]

Thank you for the input Ferrin

The first point you made about the difficulty of breaking into the vault is a very good one. It does seem like too big a challenge for all but the most exceptional thieves.

I like the idea nonetheless. Though, the problem with The Vault. It's very challenging for said person to break into the vault without the Stone Guardians noticing. Since they're made of Stone, I don't they'll be easy to surpass them even with highly motivated skills such as stealth and other related skills.

The perpetrator would have to be able to pass through all of the enchantments that protect the vault. And as I stated above, the Stone Guardians are the last resort of self defense in case someone breaks through all of those enchantments and pass The Keeper would have to be surpassed as well.

How about instead of the golems being stolen by a thief they were taken by one of Sahova's wizards? Perhaps an unscrupulous apprentice wanted to research something dark but was forbidden from doing so, and so took the golems from the vault and sold them to a merchant in order to raise his own funds to do the research himself? If it was one of Sahova's wizards they'd have a much easier time accessing the vault.

If the Vitaeous Golem was found useful, the Wizards of Sahova would find them a purpose. Every Golem in Sahova have it's own purpose for Sahova. As they have said, they have listed Golems within the Compendium.

I think you may be misunderstanding what these golems were made for. Unlike other golems, which have no souls and only follow a set of commands, the Vitaeous Golems were made to be containers for actual livings souls to inhabit. They don't follow orders like regular golems do, and so cant really be put to work like any other type of golem can. After the project that created them was shut down they were stored away in the vault because they are the products of some very complicated animation and could be useful for further study one day, but leaving them free around Sahova when they don't follow orders would be dangerous.

As for the parts regarding them working for Drainira, that's all been scrapped following Cyldes' suggestion. The golems now are just the results of a failed experiment that've been driven mad, and are now out to find a way to put their souls back into living bodies through copious amounts of human experimentation. Instead of spies and traitors the Vitaeous Golems are just a very rare type of monster an unsuspecting traveler in Sylira might stumble across and find themselves attacked by.