Constructs and Automata¶
"Constructed as a general purpose automata, it was especially favored by dwarven engineers for extending their own lifespan." — of the Darahlan Irondwarf (S110)
Constructs and automatons are the soulless things of Terrun: animate bodies with no connection to any plane but the ground they stand on. Most are the work of dwarven runesmiths, who build engines, golems and automatons from Machine and Logic runes; a few are stranger, like the flesh-and-metal harvesting machines a dwarven engineer of the Valyr built in the Demonlands, which have since become demons in their own right.
Soulless things¶
The scholars' fourth classification of life is the Soulless: "Animate beings that have no connection to any place other than the location of their physical form. These beings are completely destroyed without the possibility of resurrection on death. They are not reincarnated in any form and death represents an absolute end to whatever consciousness they had. Soulless creatures include most constructs, automatons, etc." (S018). The word "most" matters: the dwarves' finest automata are given a soul, and the engineers who move into Irondwarf frames keep their own.
The Darahlan frames¶
The dwarves of Kahun'Darahl built their constructs on standard frames, each defining "how many legs, arms, heads and other appendages the construct has" and housing compartments for "Power Source(s), Automata Core (soul to automata interface), Navigation Systems, Communications Modules such as Voice Processors" (S110). Six frames are recorded:
| Frame | Use |
|---|---|
| Darahlan Tunnelbore | "A heavily reinforced frame used by Kahun'Darahl for digging smaller prospecting tunnels and in small mining operations. Normally fitted with an impact hammer and drill for primary arms and a shovel hand and clasping hand for secondary arms." |
| Darahlan Rockcrusher | A large, four-armed, four-legged mining frame "Normally fitted with dual impact hammers and dual rock claws." |
| Darahlan Sentry | "A lightweight frame used primarily for scouting and light patrol duty. Normally fitted with a flame or lightning turret and dual blade hands." |
| Darahlan Sentinel | "A reinforced battle frame used for enforcement and patrol" with twin small turrets, a primary cannon or flechette turret, and long blade hands. |
| Darahlan Guardian | A large battle frame "used as a guardian and for enforcement", with twin cannon or flechette turrets, long blade hands on its large arms and shields on its medium arms "to keep targets at bay". |
| Darahlan Irondwarf | A dwarf-sized general-purpose automaton, "especially favored by dwarven engineers for extending their own lifespan." |
All the frames are immune to blight and shrug off fire better than ice (S110). The frame tables themselves, with their mounts, compartments and sizes, are rules material kept under Mechanics.
Gap
The sources do not say how an engineer's transfer into an Irondwarf is performed, what it costs, or how such engineers are regarded by other dwarves.
Golems, automatons and the runes that make them¶
Among the forms of Khardic runecasting, the Runesmith's Machine runes "can be used to build engines, machines, golems and automatons", and the Logic runes "can construct complex logic circuits (required for golems and automatons)". A logic circuit alone does not make a mind: autonomy "requires a Namakan Runebinder or Khardic Runepriest for the soul binding to make them autonomous". The same Logic runes are "commonly used to create magic items that do not require Runecraft to use" (S233).
Older stone guardians survive in the ruined temples. In the Halls of Khardas beneath Kilmarn "the guardians of the hall (3 statues) will spring to life and attack any intruders" when the hall is woken with an earthen sacrifice (S163). The Acadian prison off the coast of Acadia keeps an iron golem as its main guard (S359), and a dark elven woman of the Underdark "Lives inside an altered Infernal Construct", a misshapen thing that "Cycles her blood constantly" (S199).
The machines of Nurizak¶
In the Demonlands the Valyr dwarven engineer Nurizak built machines "which feed off the rift": living structures of flesh that grow tissue, draw demonic essence from the nearby rift to possess it, and then extract it. The Campaign Threads name four, Daennelgin, Drazannak, Vorlannem and Urzaennel; "Daennelgin rebelled, killing him and destroying Vorlannem while yet unfinished" (S329). The session records have the machine's master make "three of these Machines", of which Daennelgin "destroyed the 2nd in the mistaken belief there were only 2" (S340, S341); the count is an open question of the Artifacts domain. Drazannak describes itself as a demon: "a living structure of flesh with massive essence", a powerful spellcaster whose "host form has long since lost the ability to move in any meaningful way", though "It does have many tentacles" (S340).
Daennelgin's outpost in the old Imperial Mint at Vaal'Dunak is "building a host machine for him": a dome of green Felcore metal braced with white tubes of Aetherium, "Soul-metal: white and light grey flat metal (looks like wispy living clouds)", with a feeding tube of "pinkish green pulsating flesh" and a defense that is itself a construct, "a green metallic sphere connected by poles at top and bottom" with eight holes for tentacles or spinning blades and an essence-ward bomb inside (S360). The metals are described under Fel Magic and Mithis metals.
In Play¶
The Darahlan frames are what adventurers meet in the deep halls of Kahun'Darahl and the holds that copied it; the Sentry and Sentinel are patrol machines, the Guardian a door that fights back. A machine of Nurizak is not a construct to be switched off but a demonlord to be bargained with, and the Valyr "build systems that ensure we suffer quietly and destroy one another", as Daennelgin puts it (S341). Construct-building rules and the frame statistics are not canon for play; the ARCS wiki is.