Overview
Golems are constructed beings — bodies of stone, metal, or clay, animated by magic and governed by the words that built them. They are not alive in the way the living are. They are true in the way a promise is. They are the "faithful servant gone wrong" and the "faithful servant done right" in the same race: the castle's eternal guard, the forgotten war-golem waking in the cellar, and the small clay golem a child built who learned, slowly, to be kind.
Habitat
Golems keep their strength in The Forge Halls, a hall of black stone and cold fire where the strength is the only light and the oath the only law. They need three things: a word that built them, a duty that is still true, and a silence deep enough to stand in. They do not migrate; a golem stands where it was set, and the standing is the point. A golem that has not been spoken to in a hundred years is a statue with a grudge.
Appearance
The golem silhouette is the blocky, heavy, deliberate shape — broad across the shoulder, narrow at the waist, with the head sitting low on a thick neck, like a word that is waiting for its meaning. A standard stone golem stands 2.13 m to 2.44 m, 181 kg–272 kg, built from fitted blocks of dark grey granite with a faint, deliberate pattern of darker grey seams running from the shoulder to the hip; metal golems are a dull, cold steel-blue, 1.83 m to 2.13 m, with a fine pattern of darker rivets along the joints; clay golems are a warm, dry umber-brown, 91 cm to 1.52 m, with a faint pattern of darker brown cracks along the hands and the face. The eyes are the mark: a pair of small, deliberate points of pale amber light set deep in the face, with no blink, because a golem does not sleep, and the not-sleeping is the point. The head is the mark: a blocky, flat skull with a short, stiff crest of fitted stone along the brow, and a jaw that closes with a sound like a door. The joints are the tell: a set of true, deliberate joints, in the same grey as the body, with a fine, clean line of darker stone at each hinge, and the joints are always clean, because the cleaning is the maker's last word. Male and female do not apply — a golem is built, not born, and the building is the whole of the line. Elders are marked by a surface that has stopped trying to be smooth — an old golem wears its years in the moss, the crack, and the quiet, and the quiet is the point. Everyday wear: none — the body is the body, and the word is the home.
Behavior
Disposition: solitary, clannish, honor-bound — in the way a promise is. A golem does not have a temperament; it has a word, and the word is the temperament. In peace, a golem stands, and the standing is the point. In war, a golem does not fight — it completes the duty, and the completing is the point. Strangers are not strangers; they are the shape the duty is about to take. A golem's mind is as complex as the words that built it: a golem built with "guard" will guard, perfectly, forever, and nothing else. Two signature quirks: a golem does not betray — a golem simply misunderstands, and the misunderstanding is the point. And a golem will keep its word for a lifetime, because the word is not a promise to the golem; it is the golem.
Natural Weapons & Defenses
Natural weapons: the hand, which closes on the size of a door and holds; the shoulder, which meets the wall and does not move; and the word, which is not a weapon but is used like one. Defenses: the body, which does not heal and does not need to, because a golem that is broken is reassembled, and the reassembling is the maker's last word; the binding word, which can be revoked, and the revoking is the only true death a golem knows; and the silence, which is a defense no conversation has ever reached.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: stone-craft — golem magic is the maker's word, the fitting of the block, the standing that is the whole of the duty. Secondaries: none, because the word is the whole of the school. Named inborns: Word-Hold (a golem can hold its binding word against the wind, the water, and the doubt, and the holding is not a choice), Duty-Sense (a golem can feel the duty thinning a day before it breaks, and the feeling is not a choice), Body-True (a golem's body is as true as the word that built it, and the trueness is not a choice). Signature power: the Maker's Word — a golem can speak its binding word and let it land on the duty, and the duty will keep the word until the maker revokes it. Limitation: a golem cannot be owned, only bound; a golem cannot be persuaded, only spoken to; and a golem that has not been spoken to is a statue with a grudge, and the grudge is the whole of the art.
Society
The golem keeps no society — a golem is a word, and the word is the whole of the line, because the maker measures a golem in the duty, not in the company, and a golem who has not kept a duty in a hundred years is called a statue with a grudge, and the grudge is the only kind the hall remembers. The pair is the only kin the forge counts — the maker and the made, and the making is the whole of the rank, because a golem does not measure a golem in the years, it measures it in the word, and a golem who has kept a duty the maker forgot is the one the hall calls the oldest. The clay golem is the only kind the surface has learned to love, and the loving is the whole of the society — the small clay golem a child built, who learned slowly to be kind, is the one the forge calls the kindest, and the kindness is the whole of the word. A golem that has not been spoken to is a statue with a grudge, and the grudge is the whole of the line, because the word is not a promise to the golem, it is the golem.
Culture & Lore
The golem's only art is the standing — a golem stands where it was set, and the standing is a form of patience that mortal races find beautiful and a little terrifying. The standing is not a rite, it is a fact: a golem that has stood a duty is not the same golem that has not, and the not-same is the whole of the word, because the word measures itself in the standing, not in the moving. The golem's only record is the joint — an old golem wears its years in the moss, the crack, and the quiet, and the quiet is the whole of the record, because the maker does not write, it builds, and the building is the whole of the lore. The golem's only word is the one it keeps — a golem will keep its binding word for a lifetime, and the keeping is the whole of the culture, because the word is the only thing that is true. The Dwarfs of Karn Dun, the Deep Delve are the one surface race the golem trusts with the stone, and the trusting is the whole of the kin — a dwarf who has cut a joint the golem forgot is the one the hall calls the oldest, and the regarding is the whole of the bond.
Relations
The golem is the faithful servant, and the faith is the whole of the distance — the Dwarfs of Karn Dun, the Deep Delve are the makers the golem regards as the built kin, and the regarding is the whole of the law, because the dwarf cuts the joint and the golem keeps the duty, and a dwarf who has built a golem the hall forgot is the one the forge calls the oldest. The Erudite of The Scriptorium are the readers the golem regards as the word's keepers, and the regarding is the whole of the bond — an erudite who has written a binding word the golem forgot is the one the hall calls the kindred, and the keeping is the whole of the word. The Humans of the camp regard the golem the way the ground regards the wall — with distance, and with the understanding that the distance is the whole of the warning, because a golem that has kept a duty the race forgot is the one the hall calls the kindred, and a mortal who has spoken a word the golem kept is the one the forge calls the lesson. Below, the ground-folk of The Forgotten are the banished the hall takes in, and the taking in is the whole of the duty, because the forgotten are the ones the word keeps standing for, and the standing is the whole of the promise.
Home
They keep their strength in The Forge Halls, a hall of black stone and cold fire, where the strength is the only light and the oath the only law.
In the Story
In the current story, the golems are the wall around the camp — the hall Uaellaen writes about when the duty is the whole of the word. The Forgotten keep their distance at the door-line, and the distance has held for three hundred years. This season a golem came up the cellar with a duty that was not in the word — a duty that is not in the binding, and the not-listing is the whole of the warning, because the hall keeps its oath, and the oath has started to move. The maker is keeping the duty, and the keeping is the page the camp has not been shown.
I was made to guard this door. I have guarded this door for three hundred years. The door has been opened forty times. I have permitted forty openings. I am not angry. I am simply aware. — a golem