Golems

**Golems**, also known as **artificial mages** or **mindless mages**, are the most complex artifacts a mage can craft, born from Forgemastering, Warden magic, and sometimes Alchemy. The Forgemastering process bonds them with magic crystals that fuel their magical properties, while Warden magic is required to "program" them, giving them a purpose and even teaching them battle strategies. They have no life force.

If their master has enough magic crystals to invest in their creations, Golems can even act as walking arrays. Alchemy, instead, can provide Golems with an extra number of abilities that doesn't affect their power cores. Due to their enormous power, Golems also consume an enormous amount of energy, more than what any number of mana crystals might provide. Once the output of their power cores drops below a certain amount, they return to their recharging arrays. If not for such a weak spot, Golems would be considered perfect killer machines.

Golems are mostly used as house defense due to their lack of a brain. Though they can be taught a few patterns, there are too many variables - allies, enemies, hostages, not falling for traps, and other things that require specific instructions - on top of anything a decent opponent can use to render a golem useless. Golems' greatest weakness is the fact that they are limited to the tactics their maker imbues into their core's array. However, to circumvent that, the Odi created Flesh Golems that used living beings, hence being able to learn, be trained, and in turn be enslaved. The problem of mana poisoning for living beings was solved by removing the victims' mana cores.

The Earth Root is a precious material in golem crafting, as it allows the creation of the mana circulatory system in advance, allowing not only the mana to flow evenly throughout the artifact, but also granting complete freedom in positioning the rune patterns. The Earth Root basically gives to a construct the same mana conductivity they would have if they were made out of Davross.

## Traits

Golems can self-repair, are immune to most spells, and have no vitals, making it almost impossible to destroy them. Fire inflicts no damage since it would take a prolonged exposure to a flame thousands of degrees hot enough to vaporize their bodies, and a Golem never stands still. The same applies to water, air, and darkness magic. Stone and metal just grounds lightning bolts, ignores the cold just like they do for the heat, but most of all, they are darkness magic's bane. Darkness' strongest suit is its ability to bypass protections and attack the vitals of its target, but a Golem has none.

When encountering their enchanted bodies, darkness magic eats at their magic first and then at the matter the Golems are made of. Turning stone into dust requires an enormous amount of energy, to the point that even Tier 5 darkness spells barely scratch its surface. The Golems' only weakness is indirect attacks performed by using earth magic. Once their movements are restricted, one only has to wait for their battery to run out. Time is a Golem's worst enemy. Golemsmiths are aware of the limits constructs have, so there is no Forgemaster that wouldn't give them the ability to manipulate earth.

There is no way to destroy a golem in one hit unless one knows where their core is and manage to damage it, though this is made difficult since golems can move their power cores freely within their bodies. Golems cannot be stored inside a dimensional artifact unless their owner deactivates them first.

Golems that have the same energy signature cannot have their spells be reused to damage the others, it only strengthens them. Golems can use element blocking arrays to seal specific elements, though they require a lot of mana to affect such a wide area. The longer the Golems use them, the faster they will run out of energy. It also limits both the golems' and the enemies' attack options, making them predictable.

Putting a power core inside a crystal powering an artifact makes it vulnerable to any ability that affects the world energy. Unlike a common artifact where runes, crystals, and the power core are separate, a golem has them all in the same place.

## Lith's Golems

Lith's solution to the weakness of his Demons - that being their limited usefulness in battle due to their power being derived from Lith and as such not as effective when he can't use Invigoration or isn't near a mana geyser. Instead of raising unreliable undead with free will or creating an artificial body for a Demon to possess, Lith opts to create golems using the corpses of Trouble the Balor and Iskha the Vagrash. He makes use of the Earth Roots ingredients he received from Ryssa and altered white crystals turned into memory crystals. The Earth Root makes the mana conductivity of the corpses on par with Davross, also giving complete freedom in placing the runes and the crystals. The Spirit Crystal is grafted into their bodies so that they share his energy signature.

Lith is able to use the power core of the golems to fuel his Demons without it affecting his strength. They act as both his lieutenants and as the energy source for the Demons that he can recharge with Abyssal Gaze whenever he gets a moment of respite from a battle.

## Aylen's Golems

Aylen Nagaar has an army of magic crystal-controlled **golems**, each able to demonstrate the power of a bright violet core. They are essentially lesser undead that thanks to the power of the crystals have a fine degree of intelligence, powers on par with greater undead, but no free will. Each golem has two crystals of different colors embedded in their eye sockets, granting them control over two elements at the same time. The gemstones are programmed to be capable of working either independently to cast two Tier 3 spells at the same time or in synch with the other crystal to cast any high tiered spells that employs the elements stored in their eyes. The golems wear full suits of Adamant armor and wield powerful enchanted weapons. However, the golems are just Aylen failed creations and prototypes. They are physically weaker than an Emperor Beast, and their energy reserves also drop quickly. Moreover, they are programmed to self-destruct the moment they are incapable of fighting anymore.

The mana crystals aren't just the golems' energy source, but also their brains. This makes them susceptible to disruptions in the elemental flow surrounding the memory crystals (which can be caused by Domination) which dispel the world energy they had accumulated and depowers the weakened constructs.

Aylen had discovered the existence of the memory crystals only after one of her pets had told her about the feats of a Necromancer named Balkor. The Maker of Liches dismissed the news as a lucky shot at first, but as the fame of Balkor's undead grew year after year, so did her curiosity. Not even Aylen had the skill to raise so many powerful undead in a single year so she put her pride aside and studied the god of death's creations from a distance, even infiltrating his lab whenever he went back to his family. This led her to discover the existence of memory crystals, leading her to work on her golems.

## Gargoyles

Stone statues created by **Gestra the Maker** and replicated by Inxialot Nagaar for the Urgamakka Council test. The Gargoyles aren't actual golems, but lumps of enchanted stone covered in engraved runes. They are the weakest and oldest known type of **golem**, but they all share the same energy signature and are both fueled and controlled by the same source. This allows them to be activated all at once. The Gargoyles are small statues, barely one meter (3 feet) tall resembling demonic humanoids with short wings, horns, and a jagged tail. Unlike modern golems, their diminutive stature makes it impossible to imbue many spells inside their bodies. Their main mean of offense are their claws and talons which are great against regular humans but pointless against a good enchanted armor.

The constructs are immune to fire, but can be shattered by shockwaves and the resulting impact. Unlike regular golems, the Gargoyles completely turn into liquid once destroyed, without revealing the presence of enchanted mana crystals. However, their connection to their power source can be temporarily interrupted by Origin Flames. They are vulnerable against spells based on darkness and water. To destroy them requires completely destroying the enchantment that animates them. As the Gargoyles share a hive body and are one single construct split into many parts, Life Maelstrom is ineffective and will end up boosting their abilities instead of destroying them.

The Gargoyles are capable of merging several smaller constructs into one larger one, taking a form capable of overpowering opponents with the sheer might of a Behemoth.

The Gargoyles' energy core is comprised of several concentric Adamant spheres, each one imbued with a different enchantment. The final result looks like a silvery gym ball that allows the different pseudo cores to cooperate as if they are part of a power core.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Chapter 659: From Bad to Worse (Part 1)
2. ↑ Chapter 645: All are One (Part 1)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Chapter 1564: Discoveries and Plans (Part 1)
4. ↑ Chapter 691: Bane (Part 1)
5. ↑ Chapter 1516: Seeds of Knowledge (Part 2)
6. ↑ Chapter 660: From Bad to Worse (Part 2)
7. ↑ Chapter 1611: Origin Demons (Part 1)
8. ↑ Chapter 661: From Bad to Worse (Part 3)
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Chapter 1613: Chaos and Flames (Part 1)
10. ↑ Chapter 1610: Shadows and Crystals (Part 2)
11. ↑ Chapter 1611: Origin Demons (Part 1)
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Chapter 1498: Old but Gold (Part 2)
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Chapter 1500: Mistakes Were Made (Part 2)
14. ↑ Chapter 1501: Divided They Fall (Part 1)