Warforged

ON WARFORGED

"They say that warforged don't have no emotions. Bloody hell, that must be a mess of a way to go through life."- Randal Smark, human farmer, what he thinks about warforged.

"Warforged understand the meaning of loyalty, of following orders. Sure they're a little odd, but aren't most taller folk?"- Clangadin Stoneface, dwarf soldier, on if he's bothered to have a warforged guarding his back.

"They give me the willies, honestly. Those metal faces. I heard they weren't even supposed to be here."- Horsire, wandering halfling merchant, on why he seemed weary of the warforged guard.

"They are an abomination against nature! Against our very world! They must be destroyed!"- Grur Hillmark, a radical human druid, in a sermon to like-minded friends.

Soldiers, killers, constructs. Warforged are all these things and so much more. A race of "living constructs," metal men animated by sorcery and alchemy, the Warforged stick out like a sore thumb on Apia. Legend says they were originally from a different place, another realm all together, where they were constructed for war alone. Yet now they find themselves on Apian soil where many continue the warforged tradition of serving as soldiers. Others, however, try to find their own way, discovering what it is exactly to be "living."

Appearance: Superficially, warforged resemble stone or iron golems, standing between six to six and a half feet with the outer layer of their bodies mostly constructed of the aforementioned materials. Beneath this layer rests a skeleton, made up of similar materials, and "musculature", made up of leather, wooden fibers, or any leather-like material. Warforged armes ended in hands with two fingers and a thumb while their feet were likewise two-toed. The faces of warforged were simple and vague in their features, with beak-like jaws, heavy brows, glowing eyes, runic markings and little else. The most important marking for any warforged was their ghulra, the primordial word for "truth", a rune distinctive to each warforged which was placed upon their forehead. The ghulra, similar to a human fingerprint, was completely unique to each individual warforged. While the traditional roudish heads were common, cubical heads, metal skulls or other, even grislier shapes were not unknown. While warforged have no need for clothing (and couldn't even wear armor) some chose to dress to create a unique aesthetic settings itself apart from the others. While their metallic bodies make tattoos or piercings impossible, some paint their skin to achieve a similar effect. The advantage being that, if the warforged decides it doesn't care for the look after all it can simply wash it away.

History: Warforged are not from Apia. They've never claimed otherwise. Long after Latrell's rebellion, during what the Umgarans called "the Night of Lightning and Fire," a strange rift in the very planes of existence tore the sky asunder and out walked legions of the strange metal men. A series of skirmishes between the newly arrived warforged and the barbarians of Umgar made it clear, these newly arrived creatures had no intention of leaving their new home. Other nations sent emissaries to the metallic army and tried to determine where they were from and what they wanted. The self appointed leader of these warforged, a masculine unit who called himself Chaperon, stated they were from another world and had no intention of returning. They were sick of fighting in wars they had no stock and wanted to live on their own terms. The strange storm on their home plane, which they didn't identify by name, provided the opportunity. The Church of Machancus, the Clockwork God, saw their arrival as a glorious omen, seeing the warforged as perfect beings, treating them with reverence and inviting them into their strange empire of stream and clockwork. Many warforged took them up on this offer, integrating into Proto-Machanacus with the closest thing resembling glee. Others adopted the barbarian way of life, drawn to the strength of Umgar and forming the "Ironskin" tribe a unusual but respected band of barbarians. Others scattered throughout the continent, finding work as adventurers and mercenaries, while entire companies were hired to fight in the armies of Taskanda, Vitteodel and Latrellus. Most unnervingly of all were those warforged who fled entirely into the wilderness to form "The Anti-Meat League" a radical group dedicated to the destruction of all non-constructions, a dangerous terrorist group continuing to plague many nations.
The arrival of the warforged has led to many wizards, artificers and scholars attempting to replicate the process to create new warforged though none have succeeded. Only the clockwork monks were willingly given the secret of new warforged and they will not share it with outsiders. Any doubts about the quality of the strange warriors were thrown aside however during the Apian Blood War. Many warforged fought and died in defense of their newly adopted home, earning the respect of many "fleshy" comrades. Today, while warforged are rare, they are not an unknown sight and few villagers treat them as little more than a strange oddity, similar to a dragonborn or other exotic race.

Geography: The largest concentration of warforged are found in Proto-Machancus where they have several of their own cities, as well as integration into the others. The Iron Skins in Umgar remain in control of the original warforged arrival sight, land granted to them by the High Chief, and guarded with reverence approaching zealotry. Taskanda and Vittiodel also seem to have higher than average warforged populations. A few warforged cities are actually built on the edge of The Dead Lands, territory that most are happy to give to them.

Personality: Despite being fully sentient and capable of independent thought, warforged are still constructs. They don't need to eat, drink, sleep or even breath and, as such, lack many of the elements that help the organic races get along. Additionally, warforged lack emotions, at least in the same way other races have them. They have the magical ideas of what an emotion should be and they grasp the concept of them but they don't actually experience them. Some warforged have experimented with magic or alchemy to replicate these emotions with great success but most warforged remain wary of such an idea. Most are efficient and logical, putting priority on success before anything else. However, what is unusual about the race is the innate sense of curiosity most warforged have. Much like gnomes a warforged will take up odd hobbies or obsessions, poke its head around the corner of the building or stare at bugs for hours, just because. Many seek out new experiences all over the continent for the sheer pleasure of experiencing them. As a race that was created as warriors, with little thought given to any other end, most are somewhat baffled about their newfound freedom and individuality and are simply trying to find their place in the world. They want to discover what makes them unique. Because they do not age in the traditional sense, many warforged have witnessed ancient events first hand and can be quite introspective about life and all its twists and turns.

Society: Within their own communities, or those of Proto-Machancus, warforged are quite regimented. Everyone has its place and everyone has its own task. It's pointless to complain, just do. While efficient, these communities lack the spark that others seem to have. Within organic communities, warforged are drawn to jobs the include manual labor, military work or security. Because they don't need to sleep, many are pleased to work graveyard shift (or in actual graveyards). Warforged are solid employees who rarely complain about even the most unpleasant work (with many tragically exploited because of this). While they rarely lead in a community, many tend to become something of a mascot for their village or town. Warforged have no family unit as most lack the feelings necessary for a relationship, nor do the have the ability to produce children the normal way, they almost exclusively live alone or with others of their kind and like it that way.

Religion: Warforged are, in general, not the most religious of types, being explicitly "man-made." Those who do worship, tend to favor Machanacus above all others, seeming him as machine perfected. Others worship Moradin as a master craftsman or Nesin as the keeper of knowledge.

Alignment: Most warforged are true neutral as they try to figure out the actual eccentricities of what right and wrong even are. Few end up chaotic though it isn't unheard of. Good warforged are more common than evil (thankfully!) though those evil warforged can be terrifying in their brutal efficiency.

Relations: Warforged get along well with androids and rogue modrons who share in their mechanical outlook and lack of emotions. In a similar manner the cold-blooded lizardfolk and warforged see eye to eye on many things. They struggle with elves, orcs and fey who seem to value emotions above all other things. They get along well with gnomes however, who share their curious nature about the world.

Language: Warforged speak common.

Adventurers: Many warforged set out as adventurers, looking for a place for themselves in a world not designed for them. Because they are good at fighting, and tragically little else, they make natural adventurers. Many a party has been saved from certain death by the vigilance of a warforged solider awake in the night while others have been shielded by their mighty armored frames. The journey is what matters, those shiny coins that organic beings value so much are a nice bonus, of course but the experience is what matters.

Names: Warforge assign themselves their own names, most of which are descriptors or traits. Warforged technically have no gender though some seem to have masculine or feminine preference. Others don't understand the concept at all. All the names given are acceptable for any warforged character.
Example names: Fighter, Searcher, Etcher, Player, Reviewer, Dealer, Driver, Stitcher, Calmer, Chopper

Traits: Warforged traits are described below

Attributes: +2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
Construct (Living Construct Subtype): A living construct possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).

Unlike other constructs, a living construct has a Constitution score. A living construct does not gain bonus Hit Points by size but gains (or loses) bonus hit points through a Constitution bonus (or penalty) as with other living creatures.
Unlike other constructs, a living construct does not have Low-light vision or Darkvision unless their race grants them that as an ability.
Unlike other constructs, a living construct is not immune to mind-affecting effects.
Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, and energy drain.
Cannot heal damage on their own, but often can be repaired by exposing them to a certain kind of effect (see the creature’s description for details) or through the use of the Craft Construct feat. A living construct with the fast healing special quality still benefits from that quality.
Living constructs can be affected by spells that target living creatures as well as by those that target constructs. Damage dealt to a living construct can be healed by a cure light wounds spell or a repair light damage spell, for example, and a living construct is vulnerable to a harm spell. However, spells from the healing subschool provide only half effect to a living construct.
Unlike other constructs, living constructs are subject to critical hits, effects requiring a Fortitude save, death from massive damage, nonlethal damage, stunning, ability damage, ability drain, and death effects or necromancy effects.
Unlike other constructs, a living construct can use the run action.
A living construct responds slightly differently from other living creatures when reduced to 0 hit points. A living construct with 0 hit points is disabled, just like a living creature. He can only take a single move action or standard action in each round, but strenuous activity does not risk further injury. When his hit points are less than 0 and greater than –10, a living construct is inert. He is unconscious and helpless, and he cannot perform any actions. However, an inert living construct does not lose additional hit points unless more damage is dealt to him, as with a living creature that is stable.
Can be raised or resurrected.
Does not need to eat, sleep, or breathe, but can still benefit from the effects of consumable spells and magic items such as heroes’ feast and potions.
Does not need to sleep, but must rest for 8 hours before preparing spells.

Medium Size
Speed: 30'
Composite Plating: +2 armor bonus, 5% spell failure, cannot wear armor (must take armor feats at level one to augment AC)
Light Fortification: 25% chance to negate critical hits or sneak attacks
Slam: Unarmed attacks deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage
Automatic Languages: Common,
Favored Class: Fighter