Steelbound Titan

A Steelbound Titan of House Lodon, wielding a Galleon-type chassis.

*If you are looking for the mysterious, long-extinct race that once walked Rosenwelt, see Titan.*

A **Steelbound Titan** is a highly-derived form of Steelbound which is, in many ways, an early prototype of their designs. Giant machines of war and destruction, the Steelbound Titans were built primarily in the early Third Era during the Titan's Wars, a period of over a hundred years characterized by the series of numerous wars (both between polities and royal houses) that took place in southern and northern Eukitia. These giant constructs were designed with the sole purpose of mass destruction, wielding a wide range of armaments, including magic artillery and early gunpowder weaponry.

## Description

Steelbound Titans are gigantic creations that utilized a mixture of alchemy, clockwork engineering, and artificial spirit creation in order to function. Titans were usually vaguely humanoid in shape, and almost appeared like a vehicle. Typically standing well over 6 meters tall, titans were armed to the teeth with massive weaponry designed to cause as much collatoral damage as possible. Most equipped melee weapons ranging from hammers to spears to swords, some even wielding massive saws and grinders. On top of this, numerous titans also wielded some form of ranged weaponry, which could have ranged wildly based on chassis. Some included in-built cannons or ballistas, while others were equipped with massive magical artillery - essentially massive wands - on one of their arms. The armor of a titan was typically painted in the scheme of their state or house's crest.

Despite appearing like a vehicle, titans were actually relatively intelligent and self-piloting. Using techniques that would later be used to create the steelbound, alchemists were able to create artificial souls and bind them to the titans in order to pilot them. This cut down slightly on the immense cost of creating a titan, eliminating the need to train and pay soldiers to pilot the constructs, and allowed a titan to immediately be thrown into battle after it was built. Rarely, a important individual injured in battle could have their soul transferred into a titan, however this required an immense amount of Focus and skilled, careful magicians to be able to pull this off. Due to their mechanical nature, should a titan not be destroyed in combat, it could live forever and move so long as it was properly upkept.

## History

The Titan's Wars were a complex period in Eukitia's history, in which numerous political states and noble houses would raise armies to fight against one another in attempts to grow their political power. Many of these wars were fought and won by titans, and the most influential factions would often have access to the capability to produce these machinations. Most titans were built in massive crucibles known as Ares Forges, where peasants, slaves and engineers would toil away in immense heat to construct the automations.

While titans brought death and destruction to the battlefield for well over a century, a number of factors eventually lead to their downfall as war machines. As the Titan's Wars waned, political stability began to fall upon northern and southern Eukitia, primarily due to the unification of most of the noble houses into the Empire of Roshinner. On top of political reasons, titans were expensive to construct, upkeep and maintain, even outside of combat. As well, as more magic users came to hone their skills, more powerful magicians began to become more common. The rise of the battlemage largely removed the need for titans, as a well-trained one could easily cause similar amounts of destruction in a significantly less expensive package.

## Armament

As machines of war, titans were equipped with a wide array of different weapons. Early titans typically were equipped with giant versions of melee weapons, but as new technology was developed, titans began to wield more advanced and destructive forms of weapons, like magical artillery and even cannons.

### Melee Weapons

#### Simple Weapons

Most titans had some form of simple melee weapons like hammers, axes, clubs, and even spears and tridents. These were simply scaled-up weapons that these titans were able to wield.

#### Grinders

Grinders were massive saw-like weapons that replaced a titan's arm, and were used to cut through difficult materials. Early grinders were able to swipe down large swaths of enemies in front of them, and later grinders were capable of sawing through stone walls and buildings.

### Ranged Weapons

#### Magic Artillery

The term "magic artillery" refers to what were essentially oversized wands that were attached to titans. They were capable of overcharging spells to cause massive destruction, however would sometimes malfunction and explode if used improperly. Magic artillery was extremely expensive, however, due to the enchantments required to forge a wand of titanic size.

#### Bombards

Bombards were early gunpowder cannons. Usually placed on the shoulders or on arms of titans, bombards were extremely terrifying to enemies who encountered them, due to their loud sound. Bombards were usually used to destroy cover, or to slam into enemy titans in an attempt to punch through their armor. Bombards appeared much later into the Titan's Wars than other weapons, and as a result weren't particularly common.

#### Ballistas

For most of the Titan's Wars, ballistas were the go-to ranged weapon. Naught more than a gigantic crossbow, ballistas were capable of punching their giant bolts through layers of wood, stone and metal. Some ballistas were capable of firing rapidly for short burts. They were usually deployed as anti-infantry weapons, as while they could puncture through metal, they couldn't do much against the sheer resilience of titans. Some titans were equipped with massive ballistas that were used to hit opponents at extreme ranges.

#### Grenades

Towards the very end of the Titan's Wars, some smaller titans wielded early grenades - small, ceramic spheres full of gunpowder, and then lobbed at the enemy where they would explode. These grenades are a far cry from the grenades of the later Third Era, and typically weighed many hundreds of pounds and were the size of a human's torso. Grenades would not be shortened down to infantry-carryable size until many centuries later.

### Exotic Armaments

#### Gas Grenades and Fire Bombs

Gas grenades were much like normal grenades, however were infused with the *toxic cloud* spell. Upon hitting the ground, they would explode in a wide radius with poisonous, deadly magical gas. Other gas grenades used less magical and more physical means to generate their gases, such as the infamous Scarlet Scourge bombs used by House Featherster. Other titans were equipped with fire bombs, grenades in all but their contents, which would explode and cause massive blazes. Both of these weapons were used to devastating effect as both assault and area denial weaponry.

## Chassis Models

While titans reigned supreme on the battlefield, numerous different "chassis" designs were invented. These chassis were used as standardized platforms in order to construct titans in Ares Forges. Typically, different chassis wielded different weapons and sometimes had different battlefield roles. The following category will outline some of the more common titan chassis.

### Galleon-type Chassis

The Galleon-type chassis was a larger type of titan, which was notable for equipping one of the earliest gunpowder cannons. All Galleon-types wielded six cannons on their chests, which would fire volleys at their distant opponents, as they closed in wielding their devastating melee weapons. While the right arm of the Galleon was commonly interchangable, the left arm wielded a massive grinding saw that was effective at cutting through armor.

### Revelator-type Chassis

Commonly wielded by crusaders from the early elven Inverhond, the Revelator-type chassis wielded various weapons that were infused with holy magic. Two massive flame cannons were equipped on the back of the Revelator-type, magical artillery capable of casting *fireball* at a large distance, as well as two chest-mounted magical artillery pieces used to cast *firebolt* at closer enemies. The Revelator-type encompassed the Inverhond idea of burning the heretic, and was used to deadly effect against human forces.

### Brute-type Chassis

The earliest titan, the Brute-type chassis stood at a mere 3 meters tall, tiny compared to the titans that would appear later in the Titan's Wars. Built with brass armor and equipped with a hammer on one arm and axe on the other, the Brute-type was used as powerful shock troops rather than adopting the more destructive arts that later titans used. It served as a early development platform for later mini-titans that were used throughout the war, smaller titans that were deployed in urban environments or as shock troops on the battlefield, or by factions that could not afford larger titans.