Ambage

Within some buildings, whose structure is designed to invoke the conflict between form and unform, sentience arises. Ambages are living buildings with a star chamber (the kwártoh) in their center that gives them consciousness.

Basics

• Taxonomic Order: Constructs

• Alignment: Shebvic

• Energy: Cu’ucuch’ik

• Lifespan: 500 years

• Diet: Building materials, sorta

• Habitat: Anywhere buildings are

Origins

In the dense, humid forests of central Palhur, the bitols would create ziggurats that contained the symbol of the ancient orders, and over many Ages, these designs became more and more powerful, until one day, one of the great towering temples attained sentience. From this moment on, the people that served within these temples and those that built them were instructed to build more, creating the ambages. The art of creating them spread around the world, and many - for many reasons - began to build them in other places.

Description

Ambages are sentient buildings. In order to come alive, an ambage needs to be massive and imbued with the energy of structure, cu’ucuch’ik, in a specific manner, creating the forty-point star within their innermost chamber. Their outer forms vary individually, but commonly, they are massive and towering.

Forms

The commonest two forms for ambages are temples and towers. These usually have an esoteric purpose that resonates within them. Other common forms include mansions, skyscrapers, churches and other religious sites, schools or libraries, hospitals or sanatoriums, labyrinths or catacombs, shopping centers, fortresses or citadels, or other large structures.

Very rarely, a ship or other large vehicle will be made into an ambage, but these are less stable and safe than mundane ships or other vehicles for their passengers, so people rarely make them.

Procreation

Ambages are built by mortals for various purposes using shebvic arts that invoke the power of cu’ucuch’ik. Ambages may decide individually that they wish to use some parts of themselves to build a new ambage, in replication of creating a family or simply out of loneliness, but they need other mortals who are capable of moving beyond their boundaries in order to build one.

Powers

An ambage has the power to control every facet of its structure. They can open or close every window and door at will. They can shift rooms around within them (except their central chamber). They can make doors open to places on the other side of themselves. They can turn rooms upside down, inside out, or backwards. They can speak into any room, hear any sound made within them no matter how quiet, and feel every touch on their structure. Their outer senses allow them to be aware of things within about 500 feet of their bodies.

An ambage can make their insides bigger than their outside temporarily (for up to an hour) by drawing upon the cu’ucuch’ik within themselves. They must rest after doing this for a week to restore their energies.

They can repair themselves if the problems are minor, but they must use materials from their structure to do so. This sometimes leads to an issue called “thinning”, meaning that over time, their walls become weaker as materials are used to patch holes, cracks, and so on.

An ambage rests by sleeping. During their sleep, doors and windows are harder to open, objects are harder to use, and nothing moves about the way it usually does.

If they die of old age, their structure remains but cannot be easily altered. If they are damaged, they live so long as the kwártoh holds, but they are weakened greatly if they are not repaired.

Kwártoh

The kwártoh is the central chamber where the forty-pointed star is constructed. This chamber is always the most fortified part of the building, almost always in the precise center of the structure, and always well-lit. While no harm is caused by darkness, the kwártoh is the center of consciousness for the ambage, and light amplifies their awareness. The kwártoh is only destroyed if the star itself is damaged.

The star must be etched into the room - floor, ceiling, or wall - and must be at least six feet in diameter, preferably 12. Anything smaller will not generate enough cu’ucuch’ik to empower and invigorate the building. However, anything much larger than 20 feet will be too diffuse.

If the star is damaged, the structure is weakened. If it is completely destroyed - the wall, floor, or ceiling it is etched into is dismantled somehow - the ambage dies, no matter how much or little other damage has been done to the structure.

Boundaries

An ambage’s body is the structure of the building. If the building has out-buildings, fences or walls unconnected to the main structure, or other exostructures present, these are not part of the body of the ambage. However, ambages can communicate beyond their physical form and control some nearby structures if those structures have some “harmony” with them - i.e., made from similar materials, have some practical association with them (i.e., the outbuildings or walls), or similar function. Because of this, those who knowingly build near ambages add protections to their buildings to prevent influence on their buildings if they can. The land directly beneath an ambage is part of the ambage, but only the land sufficient to upholding the structure.

Ownership

When an ambage is built and brought to life, the items within it at the moment of “birth” belong to the ambage. For this reason, builders (usually bitols) are very intentional about what is within the ambage when it is brought to life.

Any item brought into an ambage and left there with the intention of its being a commonly used object also comes under the sway of the ambage - meaning the ambage can control it as part of its structure - and any item given to the ambage intentionally becomes its possession. A person who accidentally leaves something in an ambage can retrieve it even if it has come into possession of the ambage, but those who have never owned it cannot.

As ambages are buildings, they are often “owned” by someone else, but more often than not, the ambage’s power over itself is much greater than any power an owner might have over it. In any culture where slavery is illegal and ambages are known, it is illegal for someone to own an ambage. In some places, someone may own the land an ambage is on but not the ambage, which brings up complex legal situations.

Personification

Ambages sometimes gather some of their structure and form it into an anthropomorphic figure in order to interact with visitors or denizens in a way that is less terrifying. This personification is usually called some variation of “steward” or “castellan”.

Personifications usually combine the main material that forms the building with various objects that are part of the ambage - furniture, housewares, and so on. They generally get the shape of a person right without having the fine details - they will use plates, clocks, or other circular objects as a face without forming lips, mouths, or ears, for example. Personifications do not eat, excrete, or reproduce, and the body parts used for those functions aren’t usually present.

The personification is often confused with the soul or heart of the building, and many wrongly believe that killing them will kill the building. This is always wrong - no ambage would be foolish enough to place their kwártoh into a personification.

Their personification cannot go further than one mile from the outer boundary of the ambage. They are sometimes used, if the structure is near enough, to find materials for repairs that cannot be automatically smoothed over.

Weaknesses

Anything that harms their kwártoh can destroy them.

Nations

Ambages belong to the nations that built them, and their culture is largely determined by their builders. While some ambages are known to be alive, many masquerade as mundane buildings.

Personality

Ambages tend to have some common features in terms of personality across cultures. While not every ambage has these features, they are common enough to be noteworthy.

Most ambages are very protective of their structure and will violently expel anyone who damages them, but they rarely show anger. They simply and usually silently open a passage beneath the offender and drop them outside. They are hesitant to kill, as this tends to bring the ire of the locals and get them a reputation as a haunted building instead of a living one.

Ambages are known for sounding extremely calm, something that is often credited to their solid structures lending them more confidence. They often underestimate the strength and toughness of the people within them and must constantly adjust, for example, how hard or easy it is to open a door.

Some ambages have a sense of humor that is reflected in how they treat visitors. They enjoy making doors open to the wrong place, stopping up passages, shaking rooms, etc. They always make it clear they are joking (eventually), but visitors are often rattled by this. Other ambages are very stoic and quiet, refusing to interact vocally or directly, only responding by moving their structure. The third most common personality is overly friendly and helpful.

Esoterica

Ambages are brought to life by cu’ucuch’ik and can draw upon their kwártoh to channel that power throughout their bodies and fortify themselves. They can also use that power to build within themselves.

While ambages do not usually have bodies that can manipulate energies the way others do, unless they personify within, they can wield some other energies in ways that are adapted to their form. Other times, they might personify specifically to wield an energy. Commonest energies are shavev mashkalran, shebv heya, genesis, vonzot, kazaddarean, prasinofos or tyvka vlast, bailaohu jinghua, hegnh, tutelary energy, menab’e, euergasia, and juaih.

Depending on their form, other energies might be present or commonly used. Ambages in the form of temples will have ambrosia present, for example. Water mills might have conflueverant and tmakikan. Fortresses might have d’qiarsea.

Nommic energies are still present in ambages. They have souls, emotions, and thoughts and therefore soul energy, emotional resonance, and psionic energy. Their bodies are their structures, so they have mijjit. However, it works slightly differently. If their structures do not naturally include fluids, they will not have humors. If they have some kind of framing structure within their walls, this will have a very weak form of Raesian energy.

Religion

Ambages are often blessed by the local religious figures. Some have the form of a temple, church, or other religious structure. Others are specifically designed to reject religion (mortalist buildings, for example). These ambages often take on the religion they are connected with, though not always. Others see through the falsity of the faithful within them (if false they are) and reject the religion practiced within them. Others still develop their own religions on a personal level, as they do have much time to think and ponder.

Gender

The concept is foreign to them, but they sometimes take on a gender based on how people treat them or refer to them. Most are called “he” in patriarchal societies unless their function is associated with other genders. In other societies they are meticulously not gendered.

Economy

Ambages participate in the economy of any culture they are in. The original cultures that developed them were slave-based imperial societies, and the buildings were revered as part of the religious hierarchy, exempt from needing money as they were cared for by the priesthood.

Military

Some ambages hire guards from the local populace by promising them room and board in exchange for defense. Others are protected by locals who own them. Some ambages are used as fortresses in warfare. But they have no organized military grouping themselves.

Language

The original culture that developed ambages was based very loosely on Mayan culture, and therefore some of the words associated with them are from that or other nearby cultures.

Trade

Ambages sometimes trade with locals in order to get materials for repairs or objects to fill their rooms.

Occupations

Ambages generally have an “occupation” that matches their function - i.e., an ambage that is a temple will have a faithful occupation; a skyscraper will have a professional occupation, etc.

Outside View

Many believe that ambages are just haunted buildings and try to exorcise them. When they realize that they are alive, many are freaked out at first but get used to it, finding ways to communicate and compromise with them. Most do not know they exist, though in a magical world like Shem, few are surprised to learn of it.

Notables

• The temple Yuritzi, Ambage Manifest, in central Palhur, dedicated to the Towering God Turrium

• The skyscraper Mustadiqa in Mahad

• The library Perpustakaan in Gamayaran

• The Grousstblutt mansion in Lichtburg

• The Iruniloju labyrinth

Estimated Populations

There are maybe 100 ambages in the world.

Sample Stats

PRO 8
ATH 0 External 8 Internal
STR 42
AWA 14
WIL 14
PRS 9
STH 0