Golem

While building a proper body for a golem can be tricky, it is ultimately the easiest part of golem creation. The heart of the golem, and the part most difficult and expensive to make, is the animation core that allows it to move and interpret orders.

Essentially a fancy ward stone at its core, the animation core is imprinted with a multitude of animation spells that work together to give the golem a semblance of life and intelligence. The ward stone does not have to be a stone (despite the name). It’s a material object that has spell formula inscribed/carved into it, and thus serves as the source of the ward field. If it’s destroyed, the ward goes away.^[1]

The extreme amount of animation spells that have to be imprinted on such a small object means that the animation core must be constructed out of very expensive materials and designed by a specialist in golem making. These specialists must have excellent skills in both animation magics and spell formula, and tend to be reluctant to share their craft. Consequently, golem creation is a relatively rare skill, and golems themselves are an unusual sight in most places. Most people find it cheaper and easier to just hire human laborers.

Like all animation spells, golem animation is limited to skills and abilities that the caster knows how to actually perform. As such, almost every golem is humanoid in appearance, as that is the easiest form to animate for humans. Creation of non-humanoid golems typically requires that the caster spend some time shapeshifted into the target form in order to familiarize themselves with it.

Although technically capable of autonomous operation, it is typically a bad idea to leave a golem completely unsupervised for large periods of time. No matter how sophisticated their animation cores, they are still mindless constructs and often do shockingly stupid things if left on their own. Most operations that employ golems field them along with a human overseer (who doesn’t have to be a mage) who makes sure they actually do what they’re supposed to without complications.

There are two main control schemes used on golems.

The first one is simply binding the golem to a specific person right after creation. It will listen to that person, and that person only. The advantage of this is that this kind of control is hard to wrench away or subvert. The disadvantage is that if the controller dies or is otherwise unable to give the orders to the golem, it becomes useless. You’d have to take it apart and reassemble it anew in order to designate a new master for it, which is a lot of work and may not even work correctly – it’s probably cheaper/easier to make a brand new golem instead. This is the method used by golem makers when they’re making a personal golem that they don’t expect to ever trade away to anyone. Zorian is mostly using this as his control method.

The second method is using keystones. Anyone holding a keystone can command the golem. You can have as many keystones as you want, and if the golem is given conflicting orders by two keystone holders it will either get confused (if poorly made) or pick one through some criteria (usually prioritizing the latest order in preference of anything else). Keystones can have hierarchies between each other, though, and there is usually one master keystone that can override all others. Including locking them out of giving orders entirely. If someone steals your master keystone, though, you’re screwed – there is really no way to stop them from taking control of your golem, and the only advice golem makers can give you is to guard the keystone really really well. Keystone method is used in most commercial and military golems, because they are usually bought by organizations that don’t want to lose their investment if a golem controller leaves or dies.^[2]

Aside from their high cost of creation, golems are also limited by their need to consume mana to function. This means that golems need either mana-rich environments to work in, or their owner must pay extra for crystalized mana to serve as an internal battery.

Though rare in civilian environments, golems see heavy use in most countries’ militaries. Most military golems are made out of alchemically-treated metal, and have a wide variety of defensive wards imprinted onto their body and core, making them highly resilient and resistant to offensive magic.

It is possible to animate a corpse with the aid of an animation core. Using a corpse instead of an artificial puppet cuts down on the costs somewhat, and is often not outright illegal in the same way real necromancy is. On the other hand, flesh golems carry many of the same stigma that regular zombies do, regardless of what the law says, and flesh is not a terribly good material for golems. As such, flesh golems are rather rare, even by golem standards.

Particularly capable necromancers will sometimes make sophisticated flesh golems by fusing various corpses and body parts together, often drawing upon corpses of different magical creatures and incorporating non-biological parts into the construction. The resulting body is too different from its component parts to be animated with a soul, and requires an animation core to function properly. Souls may be used in the construction regardless, in order to help power the thing.

• Zorian's golems