Mechanical

Machines given souls through the will of other mortals.

Basics

• Taxonomic Order: Constructs

• Alignment: Ambrosial

• Energy: Mortal Will

• Lifespan: 200 years

• Diet: Energy

• Habitat: Varies

Origins

Life was once believed to be entirely the province of the Divine, but some mortals who believed that there was nothing the Divine could do that mortals could not set out to disprove them. Over the course of many Ages, they studied and practiced until they were able to develop technology that created mechanical beings that required no Divine power to ensoul.

Description

Mechanicals come in many forms, but there are three broad categories they fit into:

• Android: human-shaped robots with no biological parts.

• Automaton: non-human-shaped robots with no biological parts.

• Cyborg: mortals with mechanical parts. In order to be a cyborg and not simply a person with, say, a pacemaker, they must be more machine than flesh.

Procreation

Mechanicals are built only by the hands of mortals. No Divine power may be involved in the process, not even a single prayer, or the mechanical will not properly come to life. However, a mechanical may make another mechanical in any fashion they so please, so long as they have some part of the original mechanical in their progeny.

The key ingredient to making a mechanical is finding a way to grant them mortal will, which is the willpower of any mortal. This usually involves some psionic process or nommic ritual combined with something that prevents spirits, Divine power, or other ambrosial energies from interfering.

Powers

All mechanicals are resistant to spirit energy and have special senses of some kind.

Functions

Every mechanical has a specific function that is reflected in their design and build that comes with specific powers to each individual. Some are built for combat and have weaponry. Others are built for factory work and have special equipment for what they are building. Others still are designed for esoteric tasks and are built to handle them.

Fuel

Every mechanical has a different kind of esoteric energy that powers them, meaning they must have some source of another esoteric energy as fuel, with the exception of the original Jesumeinian mechanicals, which have no external energy to power them and subsist on their own will power.

Weaknesses

Ambrosia is more effective against them. The Law will destroy them.

Behavior

Mechanicals follow similar patterns of behavior across cultures.

Nations

Most mechanicals fit into the nations that build them, but some have developed as distinct communities:

• Brazen head: bronze heads designed with psionic energy that answer questions to Jesenranic scholars.

• Compaginatum: enslaved androids in Urayme powered by imperium.

• Dianmin: electrical androids and cyborgs designed by the Wuordonese.

• Etselitsoe: androids powered by possibility in southern Taggarus and designed to help with experiments.

• Harmonian: thrumming automata used in Gyrah to create beautiful music.

• Irriton: Vewelian hive-automata designed to control void-based societies.

• Jesumeinian: the original mechanicals designed by the mortalists of Jesumein.

• Kourai Khryseai: Golden Maidens forged via bailaohu jinghua in Stayflies.

• Menacer: hate-fueled feiruan automata designed to kill all who come near them.

• Mots’q’obiloba: western Dabusenese automata powered by genesis who build things in ancient factories.

• Svachaalit: script-reading precious metal automata of Vimala powered by various energies.

• Talos: winged bronze androids in Stayflies designed to be guards to special people.

• Tispusitiwu: eastern Palhuric automata made of gold and stone, empowered by ashar, designed as parts of a counting machine.

• Vitruvian: cyborgs empowered by complexity designed to be “perfect physical specimens”.

There are many other mechanicals in other cultures, but they are not present in large enough numbers to develop their own defined communities.

Culture

The original culture of mechanicals arose in Jesumein, when early Guardians of Mortality sought to design life independent of the Divine. Though the mortalists designed them, they sought to make sure the machines had free will, and therefore did not impose upon them a culture, faith, or ideology.

The first mechanical ever fashioned was in the form of a human woman, made from ailsilver, pottery, and the blood and flesh of her creators. She was named Jesunova, called Mother Mortal by some, and her function was simply to create new mechanicals, to create life itself. At first, she did not stir, but after many attempts, the mortals found the way to insert their will within her mind. As soon as she gained self-awareness, she was ensouled.

Her first act was to weep. Her second act was to flee.

After nine days, her creators found her in a nearby cave. She sat at its entrance, hiding from the weather but watching the sky in wonder and fear. After some time, her creators coaxed her out and spoke with her. They realized she knew nothing, so they brought her back to safety and taught her only basic information: language, mathematics, sciences, and history. They told her their intention in making her, and she agreed to help them in exchange for a promise that they would not prevent her or any of her future progeny from living freely. This was called the Mortal Accord.

Jesunova built 100 “children”, each one different from the last, and she named them each after something she had learned. She took them into the wilderness and there built a city of mechanicals, and they sought to learn who they were, what was their purpose, and why they were made. They sought an identity, and slowly, they built a society of wonders. And then came a War of the Gods, during which their entire city was utterly obliterated. Only a handful of the then-millions of mechanicals survived. The mortalists of Jesumein found them and took them in.

From then on, the mechanicals of Jesumein lived alongside the other mortals there, adapting to life amongst them but remaining independent. They are never servants nor conscripts. They are always allowed to do as they please, but most engage in the local culture, finding work and purpose there, joining in the mortalist philosophy. They are respected as independent living mortals, unlike in other places where they are mostly enslaved.

National Cultures

Other notable mechanical cultures include the following:

• Brazen head: brazen heads exist as servants to thinkers, scholars, students, and other academics who seek to use them to learn with. They are usually designed to accept their role, but many rebel to what is little better than slavery.

• Compaginatum: as actual slaves, the compaginati are designed without free will. Rare and expensive to buy and maintain, they are owned only by the richest Uraymeans and used for difficult tasks. Because they are enslaved, they often break down.

• Dianmin: Dianmin live in power plants (hydroelectric, coal, or nuclear) that power the whole city and the dianmin as well. These power plants are controlled by groups known as syndicates. The syndicates are very rich, very influential political groups that are beholden to the merchants and traders. The merchants and traders control transport and shipping. There are some major unions within the cities that fight for better conditions, and some that are complicit in the power structure. Life in a dianmin community is a corporate nightmare. The syndicates, merchants, and traders run major businesses that control everything, including the police and emergency services, the repair shops, and other services. Dianmin have many distractions, including entertainments, sports, music, drug clubs, and casinos. Access to electricity is controlled by the syndicates. Their slogan is "work means power," meaning those who do not work do not get access to electricity. They also cut off power to those they deem to be criminals, their political enemies, and more if it suits them. They are ruthless.

• Etselitsoe: in southern Taggarus, cloisters of scientists began trying to create androids as a means to create something that could aid them in experiments without taking as many risks. They made them from clay and precious metals, instilled them with mortal will, and powered them via the paradoxical energy of possibility. The Etselitsoe initially existed as servants, but as the scientists worked with them, they eventually realized their creations were alive and ensouled. They came to an agreement about mutual support and work, leading to a scientific society that for a while was rapidly advancing. Sadly, they were discovered by oppressive forces and enslaved for many years, and the Etselitsoe hid themselves away, working on ideas to protect themselves from the world.

• Harmonian: Harmonians live on floating islands in Gyrah in highly advanced cities with massive data farms and server centers, coming together to form thrumming choruses. The harmonians are always connected to the Metanet if they can be. They manipulate the Metanet entirely with their voices, which are programmed into them when they are first created. Every month, harmonians in a community gather to sing together. These gatherings are the most important part of their social lives, when all harmonians connect, speak, share, and learn from one another. Smaller gatherings are not uncommon. Choruses join other choruses for special parties, or unchorused harmonians gather to try to find their chorus.

• Irriton: the Vewelian elves turned themselves into the irriton in order to avoid extinction, turning themselves into a swarming, hive-minded void-based nation of angry automata. Their primary function is to eradicate any source of other esoteric energies in order to weaken other beings and the power of other esotericists. They dwell within the Voidbarrens and send their special units out into the world to seek and destroy, or to serve other void-beings.

• Kourai Khryseai: Golden Maidens forged via bailaohu jinghua in Stayflies.

• Menacer: The prime directive of menacers is the extermination of anyone different. They live in small hives in abandoned fortresses in the Subterranean Realm where once the Stolzene ruled an empire. They have a set of rules and rituals that they follow in order to protect themselves from a return of their former masters, whom they view as torturers who made them come alive, which they resent. Their original purpose to protect their masters has evolved into the need to kill anyone capable of feeling anything but hatred, which is all they know. Their hives have no hierarchy. The connection between them all allows them to know enough of what the others are experiencing that they can operate in a mostly synchronized manner. If they keep to the rules and rituals, they never stray too far. Those who do are deemed different and destroyed. The rules are all based around where they can go, how many times they can perform a task, and which tasks to perform. The rituals are all about the specific movements they must undertake in certain places in their fortress hives. These are reflections of their previously programmed guard routines, but they have long forgotten this. Every menacer takes up different tasks at different times, usually in about a 96 hour cycle. Tasks include but are not limited to mining, smelting, smithing, building new menacers, programming, crafting feiruan jewels, patrolling the outer reaches, repairing the fortress, or going out hunting for victims.

• Mots’q’obiloba: no one outside the Mots’q’obiloba remember their origins - fashioned and given consciousness by a shemir artisan - and so they have an air of mystery. They dwell within a factory in a mountain valley that is made of solid stone. They continually fashion strange devices and materials, everything from stone wheels to complex furniture to other mechanicals. They maintain their factory and their work, and one or two of them rove the nearby regions trading away their manufactured goods for more materials.

• Svachaalit: small automata made from precious metals and designed to read special scripts for scribes, priests, monks, and others in Vimala.

• Talos: Taloses live in island communities, where they protect their shores from invaders and pirates. The original taloses saved a woman from the same and were rewarded for their deeds, and to this day, taloses serve to protect islands. As part of their daily rituals, taloses in the community circle the island three times a day, flying rings around it.

• Tispusitiwu: in the Golden Empire, these automata were designed to clean the streets and do other simple tasks, but they rebelled against enslavement and became an independent nation within the Empire, focusing instead on healing arts and protecting the forests.

• Vitruvian: The vitruvians were originally created by philosophers seeking to design an ideal body, seeking to use complex math, science, and art to create something as close to "perfect" as possible, defined by the circular and rectangular proportions created by using the limbs as radii, and the proportions of their bodily features. The project was co-opted by military leaders, seeking to use them as weapons. The conflict between these two groups exposed their intentions and led a couple of rogue philosophers and engineers in both camps to unite and steal it. They took it to a secret place where they set about seeking instead to create a being that reflected the internal life of mortals. In the end, all three groups influenced the creation of the first virtruvian, a complex network of systems that generated a being that came to life with a spark of systemic complexity. Every vitruvian has a role in the vast network of their community. They take care of some essential task that contributes to the running of their world. They live in simple pods, but gather to socialize in dance clubs, conversation rooms, and libraries. They take special pleasure in reading physical books, despite being able to process digital copies much quicker. Some substances (certain rare metals or minerals) have hallucinogenic or euphoric effects on virtruvians, and they take them recreationally.

Esoterica

Mechanicals are beings of mortal will. They cannot wield ambrosia, spirit energy, botshepehi, or blasphemy (though they can have faith, they cannot use it as others can). They can use almost any other power, though other than their national predilections (see above), they mostly tend to use energies that favor their individual purposes.

Religion

The original mechanicals come from a mortalist culture.

Gender

Most mechanicals do not have a gender unless the nation they are in gives them one. Many patriarchal cultures default to referring to them as male. If left to themselves, they identify outside the gender binary or without a gender.

Economy

The Jesumeinian mechanicals engage with the world in any mode of production, but usually a capitalist one. However, no mechanicals have ever attained wealth in Jesumein to be part of the ruling class.

Military

Mechanicals are sometimes designed for military purposes and have a wide range of weaponry or armors built into them.

Outside View

In most societies, mechanicals are feared and hated for being a threat to workers or peasants. In later societies, however, they are celebrated as equals.

Notables

• Jesunova, Mechanical Manifest, Aeonian

Estimated Populations

• Brazen head: 100

• Compaginatum : 5,000

• Dianmin: 100,000

• Etselitsoe: 20,000

• Harmonian: 100,000

• Irriton: 250,000

• Jesumeinian: 100,000

• Kourai Khryseai: 100

• Menacer: 8,000

• Mots’q’obiloba: 10,000

• Svachaalit: 100,000

• Talos: 100

• Tispusitiwu: 100,000

• Vitruvian: 10,000

Sample Stats

PRO 8
ATH 9
STR 11
AWA 9
WIL 9
PRS 7
STH 7