Forged in battle, built to serve

[Numinous]

Alright, this is my work in progress for a new setting of mine.  An honest attempt to include Warforged in a more traditional fantasy setting.  My original intent was to create an isolationist society ehich had closed it's doors for hundreds of years after being convinced of it's own superiority, then has to catch up when the world has passed it by(Think China and Japan).  I want to end up with a reasonable explanation for the origin, survival, and continued creation of Warforged, and possibly a reason they would still be 1st level after so many years of existence.

An ancient kingdom of the past housed a mighty cabal of wizards.  Not necessarily of malicious intent, these wizards sought a path to immortality.  After much research and experimentation, they discovered that by binding their souls to a construct instead of an elemental spirit, they could inhabit an artificial body and extend their lives by hundreds of years, if not more.  So, the cabal eventually transformed all of it's members into the first living constructs.  To perfect their craft, they began abducting citizens from a nearby village, experimenting with new models and new spells.  After a short time, these missing people came to the attention of the king, who summoned the cabal to his court.  By falsely accusing a nearby nation of the disappearances, a war erupted between the two countries.  Offering their services to the crown, this cabal improved the army by building new constructs and transferring the souls of the fallen into more durbale bodies to fight again.  Eventually, the vast majority of the army was formed of constructs, who used their superior nature to best the defeated nation.

Now trapped in bodies of stone, metal, and wood, many of these "warforged" sought their mortality from their creators.  Upon being denied the pleasures of the flesh forever, they turned upon their own lands, overthrowing their leaders.  They sought out and destroyed the creations pells of the cabal and exiled or executed the remaing mortal citizens.  Seeing themselves as innately alien to the surrounding populace and sensing hostility, they crafted a great walled kingdom within which they would spend their eternal lives in isolation.

400 years later, adventurers pursuing legends of a lost kingdom and the gold it contained stumbled upon this prosperous land and drew the world's attention.  Diplomats were sent, and the walls came down.  Now, the immortal souls are struggling to retain their identity and still adapt to the new world which surrounds them.  Many of the second-generation warforged have embarked on quests to see the world and abandoned their ancestral lands, rights, and society.  Others now seek to rebuild the walls and restore the stability of their once peaceful land.

So, what do you think?

EDIT: Fixed some holes in logic.

[Wensleydale]

*nods* Sort of story I'm developing for the Ironborn... it's good.

[Xathan]

Awesome stuff, man. You definatly captured the isolationist feel you were going for. How far are you going to extend the Asian feel? Are warforged going to be masters of ToB manuvers and martial arts? I want more!!!

[Numinous]

How far are you going to extend the Asian feel? Are warforged going to be masters of ToB manuvers and martial arts? I want more!!!

I'm definitely thinking about allowing some WF monks, due to the nature of their isolation, but I'm not sure about ToB feats.  Really, I wasn't trying to make it asian, just to capture the idea of having to adapt to the world that passed them by.  I find the irony in the fact that "machines are trying to catch up very amusing.

Thanks for the feedback.  If anyone wants to point out any gaps in the story, please do it considerately, but I want to know.  I'd like this idea to be fairly logical and to avoid challenging the sauspension of disbelief when I'm done with it.

[Tybalt]

I like the idea, I like legends coming to life and how it is dealt with. I can't help but think of David Gemmel's "Hero in the Shadows" and his use of the idea of the clay soldiers in the Imperial Tomb.

[Numinous]

I like the idea, I like legends coming to life and how it is dealt with. I can't help but think of David Gemmel's "Hero in the Shadows" and his use of the idea of the clay soldiers in the Imperial Tomb.

I've never read the book, and that's why I feel my idea is original...  If I don't read, then I can't subconciously borrow as easily.  Glad you like it though!

[Túrin]

Good work. I like this idea. One question: how exactly is this (or will this become) a seting? It seems like it's a semi-isolated idea that could easily be put into an existing setting (Godswalk and Cebegia: My Way come to mind). Why not take that route? Why hang a world on this idea?

If I don't read,

at all[/i]? That would be a shame...

Túrin

[Numinous]

I currently read WotC supplements, and forums, along with the books assigned by my highschool curriculum.  I'm trying to write in a vacuum to ensure the original nature of my ideas.

This is a semi-isolated idea, and it's a piece of a world I'm building.  I had to write it out to solidify the concept.  I'm going to be crafting an expansive setting that incorporates many of the concepts I find interesting, mainly for my entertainment and as a meaningful world to run campaigns in.  The whole world doesn't necessarily hinge on this region, it just happened to be developed first.

[Túrin]

Fair enough. On both accounts.

[Lmns Crn]

I like the fact that so much of this history hangs on the negative aspects of immortality. It's a strong angle to play towards: the unintended consequences of a questionable ambition, perhaps even the sense that mortality is unavoidable after all, even if the soul can be preserved in these metal shells. After all, if a person thinks and exists, but cannot feel, is that living at all?

It's plausible, from this vantage point, why these warforged felt compelled to kill, and then to withdraw from the rest of the world. Clearly, immortality is not all it's cracked up to be. I bet the philosophers of your world have a field day with this.

I'd like to see a little more followup on the "dehumanization" of previously human (or humanoid) souls, because of the process of making them warforged, or the centuries of existence in warforged shells. What does it do to their thought processes? Personalities and emotions? Memories of mortality?

[Numinous]

It's plausible, from this vantage point, why these warforged felt compelled to kill, and then to withdraw from the rest of the world. Clearly, immortality is not all it's cracked up to be. I bet the philosophers of your world have a field day with this.

I'd like to see a little more followup on the "dehumanization" of previously human (or humanoid) souls, because of the process of making them warforged, or the centuries of existence in warforged shells. What does it do to their thought processes? Personalities and emotions? Memories of mortality?[/quote]  I'm thinking their thought processs would have advanced to a level alien in comparison to others, due to the amount of time every Wf has had to contemplate their predicament.  I see them being very distant due to their isolation, perhaps having to struggle internally when they begin to interact with the world again, as feelings rise up again.  I'm not really sure how I'm going to work out everything, but as of now the idea has a good base to lean on.

Thanks for the feedback folks!

[Lmns Crn]

Okay, a few more ideas and questions to stoke the mental fires:

These warforged engineered their transformation in an attempt to gain immortality. From their point of view, what was the bargain, really? Was it worth it?

Do they feel pain? What about the other needs of life? Just because they can't eat or sleep doesn't make them proof against hunger or weariness.

What about emotion? Do warforged feel it at all? (This is also an interesting commentary on the nature of the soul. If emotion and personality are part of the soul, warforged might feel them similarly to the way they did in life. If emotion and personality are phisiological (glands!), warforged without the required "parts" might have difficulty feeling them at all.)

How about sensory input? Do warforged have a sense of touch? Of smell? If not, what's the outlook for a person (or indeed, an entire race) who can remember what a cool breeze feels like, or what a tulip smells like, but can't experience those sensations anymore?

What about family? Obviously, a non-organic race cannot mate and procreate. Do warforged cling to the familial ties they forged in life (assuming their family was also transformed?) Do they become distant and individualistic? Do they form entirely new sorts of family ties based on who they "added" to the warforged ranks and why and how, forming ties reminiscent of parent-child bonds. Of course, all this has to do with emotive and cognitive patterns, and should logically grow from those decisions, when you make them.

Remember that if warforged think in patterns similar to humans, long lives don't necessarily lead to great wisdom or ponderous intellect. Think of the old people you know: some of them are pretty wise, but others...?

Even so, maybe warforged brains work differently. Maybe they don't store and manage information the way humans do. (This might even be your gimmick way of explaining why they are not all epic-level characters after 400 years of isolated contemplation.) Perhaps mages who first invented warforged bodies as a way of extending their research time and preserving their knowledge are now realizing, to their horror, that the transfer has plagued them with creeping loss of memory.

[Numinous]

Thanks for the ideas LC, and I'll think them over.  It's kinda hard to instantly respond to these big questions, and know intuitively how everyone reacts.  I think the best option here is that amny warforged respond differently to their change, as humans are diverse, so shall they be after changing bodies.  some might have grown mad over time, others depressingly practical, and still others hasty and impatient for any change.  You've give me a lot to think on, and I'll develop this element of the world more thoroughly in preparation of it's use in play.

If anyone else has comments on this idea which have not already been covered, post away.  I, however, consider this thread to have served it's prpose already, and I am content to let it pass on into obscurity now.  Thank you for the help everyone.