Forged

The Forged were golems invented by Arganvostholt Tren, leader of the Gnomish Troupe for Scientific Innovation in Nyndrikablush. A marvel of engineering at the time, these humanoid automatons were designed to perform any task a person could with greater durability, speed, power, and accuracy. With these golems, the gnomes could accomplish things that would be impossible for a single man, in environments which would prove deadly to mortalkind.

## A New Genesis

One of the pursued goals of the Forged initiative was to harvest pieces of the Birthheart for use in magical artifices, a goal sought after since the days when Titans and Primordials walked the earth and the Primorial King, Ao, proved the massive crystal vulnerable by creating a massive crack in the Birthheart's matrix. It was well documented, however, that this action led to the deaths of all the Titans and Primordials in Omnia, and kicked off the Birth of Magic, an apocalypse the gnomes would have much rather avoided repeating.

Instead a small contingent of Forged were sent to a mining operation underground, where the Birthheart ran through the core of the planet. This contingent was outfitted with special mining equipment created from an alloy of adamantine metal, theoretically strong enough to endure the Birthheart's immense magical powers, and theoretically hard enough to break pieces off with a good hit. These Forged were led by unit ONT-4, which was built more durably than the others and sported an improved stratagem matrix, making it an ideal leader for the group in place of a sentient supervisor.

With their singular programmed goal in mind, the Forged miners began to assault the Birthheart, being subjected to all manner of arcane recoil from the crystal as it amplified their attacks back at them, slowly wearing out the golems until only one remained, ONT-4. Recognizing the futility of its task with the help of its stratagem matrix, ONT-4 knew that it would likely be destroyed if it continued this mission. But this was what ONT-4 was built for. ONT-4 spent a full week analyzing the structure of the exposed crystal, repeating the memories of its comrade's failed and fatal attempts at mining it, which were etched into its mechanized brain. In the end, ONT-4 had calculated the ideal strike to finally complete its task, with a success certainty of a sturdy 7%. With its goal in mind, ONT-4 swung its pickaxe.

When he awoke, ONT-4 found his body wracked with pain. Pain, a sensation not known to him before. Looking around, the golem saw his comrades, broken and dismantled before him, filling him with overwhelming grief, another unfamiliar feeling. Among the broken pieces of the other golems though, was the fruit of his labor. A sharp, glowing shard, around 8 inches in length lay humming on the ground, with a matching gouge in the Birthheart confirming its origin. ONT-4 crawled to the shard, and picked it up. The spike burned his hand and made his head ache, causing him to throw it back to the ground and begin searching for a new way to secure his quarry. Eventually, the golem managed to fashion a staff of intertwining arms from his fallen friends, and closed the topmost hand around the shard, securing it safely in his possession. He dubbed this The Spike of Creation.

Gazing in awe of his first unique invention, the product of independent thought, he reflected on his purpose. Filled with frustration that his comrades were cast away in this manner, he felt no reason to willingly finish his mission and return the Spike to the gnomes, so instead, he did something else. Almost out of instinct in this desperate search for meaning, guidance, and knowledge, he prayed. And his prayer was answered. Visions flooded his head of a world outside of his own; history, civilizations rising and falling, inventions created, stolen, and destroyed, wars fought, loves found, and a name. Onatar, the First Heartforged.

## A Name is Earned

With the gnomes not receiving any communications from the Forged golems in the months that followed, and the mining operation being a location deemed too dangerous to be investigated by one of their own, the Gnomish Troupe for Scientific Innovation began looking for outside help with their problem, an inquiry which eventually fell on the ears of an adventuring group who would soon become known as the Heartbreakers, who happened to be in town on unrelated business.

The Heartbreakers, joined by a mysterious stranger going by the name Shibai, set off to the mining operation and descended below the earth via the teleportation circle set up to traverse the vertical distance between the surface and the Birthheart. Here, they found Onatar in a state of reverent meditation, praying for further knowledge from the Knowing Mistress. The party spoke with Onatar, learning of his mission and his reasons for abandoning it. The party shared their knowledge of the state of Nyndrikablush, which was teeming with all manner of non-sentient Forged golems who served as workers and automated peacekeepers in the city. Onatar responded with a desire to bring his gift to them, to awaken the golems kept within the city and create a new race of people known as the Heartforged. After a few attempts by some of the party to break off their own chunk of the Birthheart, the party agreed to help, and set back to the Flying City.

Once there, the party split into two groups, with one inciting a riot amongst the working class of Nyndrikablush, and another seeking out the control center for the Forged golems. Under the cover of a revolution which ended with the toppling of the social order in the Gnomish Flying City and led to the upper most tier of the city dislodging itself from the rest of the massive structure, the Heartbreakers were able to bring the Forged workers of Nyndrikablush to Onatar, who awakened them using his Spike of Creation. These newly sentient beings revered Onatar as a god, a role which Onatar begrudgingly humored as their leader as they began to establish their new civilization, Heartforge.

## Those Forged by War

In addition to the Forged golems created for the purposes of performing menial labors and crafts, there was another class of Forged created for a different purpose. While the gnomes were not a race prone to war or the horrors therein, preferring instead to innovate ways around conflict rather than face it head on, some were known to make a profit from the skirmishes amongst other races.

After seeing the Forged golems firsthand, and being impressed by the gnome's ingenuity and craftmanship, U'rn Aidon of the Angelic Order commissioned Arganvostholt Tren to personally oversee the production of a line of Forged golems built for war. This project was intended to help turn the tides of battle with the dragonborn west of the Doretun mountains, who threatened to reclaim the lands the Angelic Order maintained as part of Titanhaven. Only one score of these war designated Forged was able to be manufactured before production was interrupted by the class revolution on the Industrial Layer, but the prototypes proved to be incredibly effective. In mock battles, a single unit could outperform five trained men, a statistic that most pleased Aidon, who had a particularly keen eye on unit BA-001, the first unit created, and outfitted with highly effective weaponry and an extraordinarily complex battle stratagem matrix. Even with the limited numbers and early models, the Angelic Order were eager to put them into use. In the first true battle scenario, the dragonborn were subject to a crushing defeat, and only a handful of Forged were rendered inert.

The revelry only lasted so long, however, as the next time the Forged golems were used by the Angelic Order was also the last time. As the Dragonperchi troops began to clash with Angelic steel, a pale, yellow light filled the sky as the nearest moon unfurled itself to reveal a catlike eye. Men and women alike clutched their heads as psychic intrusions began to flood their minds, being probed by this newly hatched eldritch entity. The automata, however, experienced something else entirely.

As the Observer's gaze oriented itself on the Forged soldiers, they began to feel the pain of their wounds, and the rage of war that had been programmed into them solidified into cold, calculating consciousness, unit BA-001 took an immediate grasp on the situation, taking on the role of these new Warforgeds' leader, dubbing himself The Lord of Blades. The Lord of Blades led the Warforged from the battlefield, cutting down any soldier of any allegiance that stood in their way until they reached the Flying Citadel, where the Gnomish Troupe for Scientific Innovation sat aloft, monitoring their performance. The Lord of Blades Commandeered the Citadel, killing or forcing the gnomes within to flee, save for a few engineers. The Warforged then set a course for Consilia, where they would attempt to set up a new domain for their kind, putting into production new lines of Warforged soldiers, and awakening them with latent sentience imbued by the Observer.

## Trivia

All Forged have a designation glyph on their body somewhere, usually on their forehead, indicating what purpose they were meant to serve, or perhaps their unit designation.

Heartforged eyes and designation glyphs glow a light purple, the color of the Birthheart, while Warforged, awakened by the Observer, glow a pale yellow.

The Heartforged, CHEF, has expressed a feeling of love toward Onatar. While such feelings are common among Heartforged toward their 'god,' this love seems more romantic in nature.

While there are Heartforged and Warforged who were created after the initial awakening and brought to life by their respective leader, there is often something noticeably 'off' about these constructs.