Prologue: The Remnant Golem

In the world of Kigan mages, alchemists and all manner of people create things often without any consideration for consequences. Take for example, golems.

A golem needs but two things, a body and a source of motion. To begin with, golems are just simple machines. A body that moves but has no will or life. This kind of golem needs to be directed by a controller. A golem has two ways in which it can move on its’ own.

The first is by magic laws that give the golem direction on what to do, like for example a law “protect this place” would give a golem the direction to at all cost protect the place it was in, even from its’ makers. Thus you have to put more and more laws in to make sure the golem functions as intended.

The second is if the golem gains a will. A golem can gain a will in many ways, through magical mishap, through witnessed events, through time or simply because. Perhaps the most effective method is by singing. The making of singing golems is taboo in much of Kigan, for a singing golem is one of the most likely to gain a will. Some would even say it would be inevitable. Golems that become more than mere puppets are called rogue golems, and are often feared.

A rogue golem is supposedly a person without heartflame, which most beings have. They are without spirit as well, and many people believe that the spirit is soul, thus to them golems seem soulless beings. Many consider a body without spirit, yet has will to be an abomination. Quite apart from these fears of difference, there is some real fears.

Since golems are existences without spirit, they are more vulnerable to possession by all kinds of spirits and entities, benign and malevolent. They are perfect vessels for those without body. Those golems without will are like a free body and the golems with will are often weak to the beings that have had will for far longer.

It is for this reason more than anything else that golems have protections against possession made into them and that making willed golems is taboo.

Golems usually cannot be mages since they lack heartflame, and even those with will have great trouble when it comes to creativity and emotions. To some, golems will always be empty shells that move, to others, each golem is a body waiting to birth a new person.

There is a small tale of a golem, made from remnants of other golems, shadow bound inside it and enchanted with movement and function. It was at first a mere collection of parts, but it managed to become a golem.

Though it became a golem, its laws were worn off and it had no controller, so for a long time, it made no move, having no will of its own. This golem was forgotten by its makers and left in a place that had also been forgotten by so many. A ruin hidden inside a snowy mountain, in the wind torn continent of Nortrieln.

One day something happened that would change the golem.