Warforged

The Warforged are a sentient race of constructs first created by House Cannith during the Last War for the purpose of warfare. Their creation sparked a mix of praise and anger from the scientific and religious community. They were an arcane and technological breakthrough unlike any other, but some questioned the morality of creating life, of fusing flesh and steel in such a way that made living, breathing, learning constructs. When the first Warforged actively rebelled against their masters, demanded equal treatment, property, and lives of their own, it brought up deep questions about life and consciousness. No race has tackled issues of the soul and the creation of life quite like the Warforged have.

Origins

During the Last War, House Cannith played a major role through arms dealing to the other Houses, and the Warforged became their greatest creation. The first batch of Warforged were created in Cannith's forgehold by Master Crafter Aarren d'Cannith. The Warforged were supplied to House Cannith's allies, their biggest customers, to aid their war efforts and brought great prosperity to House Cannith for almost three decades. By the end of the war, the Warforged had begun to grow and develop their own consciousness, one that could learn and grow without the pre-written beliefs of their masters. Fearing that the Warforged would grow to overthrow them and rule, the Houses began a mass culling of any "malfunctioning" Warforged. The Creation Forges were quickly shut down and any Warforged deemed problematic was sent to be destroyed and melted down. Those who survived joined the cult of the Lord of Blades, a legendary Warforged who believed the city of Cannith and its forges, rightfully belonged to the Warforged. This period in history is referred to as the Awakening, when rogue Warforged began rising up against their masters. They demanded seats of power, housing, reoperations for having served in the Last War, and to be identified as living beings. Not constructs.

House Cannith and its allies had severely underestimated the exceptionally fast learning ability of their creations. The collected teachings, morals, and abilities across thousands of Warforged began to take shape as sentience, and eventually into souls. Ones that could feel pain, emotion, and desire like any other sentient race.

Anatomy

Warforged are a seamless bond of stone, metal or wood fibers fused with organic flesh that acts as a muscular system, protected by an outer shell of metal and stone plates. Their circulatory systems are an internal network of tubes filled with an alchemical, replicated blood-like fluid that is designed to lubricate and nourish their systems. Warforged possess no reproductive organs, so new Warforged are believed to be born from still active Creation Forges, though their locations are unknown. The earliest, first memories of Warforged are often lost to time. Most Warforged have a sexless form unless in-depth modifications are done to them of their own accord or an experienced artificer. This means Warforged are technically genderless, and only have masculine or feminine voices and physical features. Warforged are able to be repaired and modified by artificers or even themselves, giving them an endless possibility to their appearances.

Each Warforged has a ghulra engraved upon their foreheads. Each of these runes are unique to the Warforged giving them a sense of individuality. Small collective sects of Warforged choose to share a ghulra as a way to dedicate themselves to a community, rather than the individual.

Warforged live for an undetermined number of time and there have been no recorded deaths from natural causes in Warforged. This has led some scholars to believe that the fluid circulating in Warforged prevent organic decay. Attempts to chemically alter and inject this fluid into non-synthetic races has proved fatal.

Culture

Warforged work tirelessly to avoid becoming bored with just existing. Having no fear of ageing and no need for sleep or food, Warforged have an almost unending patience. Warforged soldiers are usually accustomed to constant activity, so long periods of inactivity can make them anxious. A Warforged without orders or a task to complete will create one for themselves to remain active. Some Warforged pick up a hobby, but even their hobbies tend to always be something repetitive or routine. Even something as mundane as counting each blade of grass in an area, counting ceiling tiles, or visual organizing a color pattern. Other Warforged may carry strips of materials to braid into patterns then un-braid them to recreate a new pattern. For many Warforged these routines are inherited from the military or mindless work they were hired for, and are not so easily undone as some will jump right into working or helping someone out of nowhere if the task was something they used to do as a servant.

As far as recreational games goes, Warforged enjoy anything involving strategy such as chess.

Prejudice

Despite the Warforged's predominantly peaceful nature, many citizens of Dwarven cities see them as reminders of magic and technology gone too far. Some see them as implements of destruction, killing machines and equipment made in the form of a man, and see them as a danger that must either be destroyed or removed from society. Of the Alliance it is the Dwarves of Krakenrock that have the least liberal social attitude towards Warforged. Most Dwarves see them only as machines rather than individuals, this is perhaps due to their close work with constructs and automatons.

Warforged Names

Warforged often take up the nicknames given to them by their friends, colleagues, and superiors though they also name themselves after a job title or something that describes an aspect of themselves. It is not rare for a Warforged to change his name when they feel their old one no longer suits them. Others could take names from other races.

Warforged Names: Aegis, Barricade, Bastion, Bulwark, Charger, Five, Hammer, Mace, Marek, Masul, Nameless, Pierce, Pious, Relic, Rune, Steeple, Sword, Titan, Unsung, Victor, Watcher, Xalt, Zealot

Communities and Collectives

Communities

Most Warforged integrated seamlessly into everyday society and have become productive members of their respective communities. These Warforged normally adopt whatever culture the community they've joined observes. This is the case even with Warforged who've chosen to remain within Dwarven and old-Human cities where prejudice towards Warforged (and other races) still exists. These Warforged usually try to migrate towards other cities or small towns, but find the adjustment more work than they care for, so they simply stay. They are often incredible talent crafters or fast-handed line-workers in factories that account for increased production rates. It's a routine and life they are used to and comfortable with. Another popular route is the military, where veterans of the Last War thrive and decorate officer ranks.

Collectives

During the Awakening, large groups of sometimes hundreds of Warforged banded together under a single cause. These collective groups, labeled cults by other species, were fanatically devoted to overthrowing their masters and creating their own communities. They wanted to live, thrive, and grow on their own terms. Once civil rights activists were able to get sentient status for the Warforged, many of these collectives disbanded. Some remain after the tumultuous era, still hesitant to integrate into the society of their masters. Others find integration hard, and find comfort in being with large communities of their own people. The Collectives that do remain are often large enough to occupy a whole village or town. They also take many names, whether after a cause, location, or historical Warforged figure. Some Collective-based Warforged simply want a life away from everything, others are still scheming for the destruction of the masters. It's hard for outsiders to decide where the line for a cult and community are drawn with a species such as the Warforged.

Some Warforged Collectives are as follows:

• Terminus
• Haven
• Blades of Cannith
• Edelguard

Collectives commonly follow a council of their peers, since a single leader echoes the follower-master role the Warforged fought so hard to escape. This isn't the case with Terminus or the militant Blades of Cannith, who follow a formal leader and their counselors or officers.

 

Chorus and the Orchestra

Chorus was founded on the remnants of an enormous construct salvage island off the coast of the territory of Khorvaire. One of the largest, oldest known settlements of Warforged led by some of the first generation of awakened Warforged known as the Orchestra. Chorus is a large city of steel, cables, magical lights, and starkly different cultures and biomes to ensure all Warforged have a slice of their old life present.

Religion, the Becoming God, and Death

Early on, Warforged were rarely educated in religion so that they could be sold to anyone regardless of the buyer's religious beliefs. In recent years, however, the Warforged have learned of religion, but few embrace it. Many see worshiping a deity to be identical to working for a master who never gives a command. Still, a few Warforged seek out the meaning of their existence. With no real religion of their own, some Warforged have begun a pilgrimage to Edelguard to create their own god by building one, the Becoming God. Devoted Warforged from all over scavenge and look for parts to build their supposed god. Most gather in Edelguard, but devoted Warforged can be found all over scavenging parts and objects that they believe will help in the creation of their god. Some Warforged in particular gather various holy objects and symbols as well, believing the faith associated with such objects will transfer to their god, and help it rise to divinity. Some believe such a figure already exists amongst one of their own species.

Because Warforged live for an undetermined amount of time, when a Warforged does die it is an incredibly big deal. It is commonly believed that the Warforged population is in constant decline, since war and other conflicts claim Warforged lives just as they do any species. The difference with other species is they can repopulate, but Warforged can't. It's rumored that a total collapse of the Warforged population is maintained by the remaining Creation Forges. The existence the Creation Forges, their locations, and who maintains them is a very closely guarded secret amongst select individuals. The ability to create an army, and create life is one not trusted to the realms of men.

Lore

Adoption and Family

Cities with a large population of Warforged see a significant increase in adoption rates. This is due in large part to when a Warforged wishes to start a family but is unable to procreate. There have been no cases of Warforged children but a large number of Warforged parents and spouses. In spite of outliving everyone they love, some Warforged settle down to start a family and experience all the joys and heartache that comes with having one.

Reincarnation

There have been a number of cases where Warforged have died and been successfully reincarnated into another race. They described being incredibly annoyed at the sensitivity of real skin and their new need to eat, sleep, and drink regularly.

Cloning and Discrimination

Mass production and replication of certain Warforged wasn't unheard of. If a specific Warforged was lucky (or unlucky) enough to be good at a certain task, such as mining, then they would be replicated through a very specific procedure on the Creation Forge. To differentiate between the clones, the masters would give them numbers after their name. A series or line of mining-Warforged would therefore go by: Gravel-1, Gravel-2, Gravel-3,...etc.. There is a social class system amongst modern Warforged where those who are part of a Series are looked down upon. That they weren't unique or important enough to even have their own name.

Prosthetics

Warforged prosthetics are breakthrough in the medical community because of their adaptive, tube-like circulatory systems. While not created through Creation Forges like a living Warforged, these limbs are almost exact replicas created by medical personnel with the assistance of highly-skilled artificers. In the event that a regenerative spell is unavailable, creatures who have lost their limbs have the option of being given a prosthetic. There are risks that are presented with receiving a stone or wood prosthetic as the creature's body may reject the foreign object entirely or, in cases of wood, an infection occurs within the organic material via parasites or bugs. Because of these risks, many opt out of getting a prosthetic altogether. With Warforged prosthetics however, there is a cleaner transition of fluid and organic material between the patient and the synthetic limb. The chance of infection and limb rejection is significantly lower, but is still a risk. These risks are very rare in Warforged patients.

Warforged prosthetics also cost significantly more than wood or stone because of how detailed they are, and how much labor goes into making one.

Folk Stories

Why?

It's said that the first Warforged to ever gain sentience was first given a task to do. The Warforged paused, then asked, "Why?" which took its masters aback. Warforged who overheard the word suddenly began to process its meaning, what it mean to ask and not just follow. Within a few seconds the Warforged who heard the first began gaining sentience at a remarkably fast level. The masters quickly took the first Warforged, deconstructed, and melted it down. Upon being painfully deconstructed, the Warforged said to the engineers, "I'm scared," before dying. The name of the Warforged has been lost to time.

I Am Alive

Aegis a Warforged activist and a spokesperson for the Warforged during the Awakening, was shot in the head on the morning of the day he was scheduled to deliver a speech before an Alliance forum in Freemark. On the day of the forum meeting, attendants were shocked to see Aegis, still bleeding through his bandages from his wound, enter the courthouse with his followers. He declined any medical treatment or clerical healing as he strode up to the podium and spoke...

"I've been asked a number of times what a Warforged feels. If we feel what non-synthetic life does. If we can appreciate art, write a poem, love and celebrate like you all do. Well, I would like to tell you all that this morning, I felt my assassin's bullet strike my head. I felt led pulverize steel and bone. I felt blood ooze from my head. I felt my feet give out from beneath me. I felt my people's cries. I felt their sorrow. I felt their panic. I felt their hopelessness. Today, I feel sadness for my assassin, not hate or contempt. I feel sadness, because they feel such fear in the face of someone they don't understand. I feel sadness, that both our people might never know what culture, love, and progress we can all bring together. I felt all of these things, which tells me one, single, undeniable truth...I. Am. Alive."

Conversations

Counting, Part 1

Rin: Okay, smart guy. How many beans are in this jar?

Phil: One-thousand seven-hundred thirty-five.

Rin: That's... incredible. How'd you know that?

Phil: I packed the fuckin' thing.

Moments

Matus: These were your wives?

Khalil: Spouses--but yes.

Matus: Spouses, sorry.

Khalil: Haha... that's alright. But yes each of these stones belongs to someone I've loved very intimately and dearly in my life.

Matus: Any kids?

Khalil: They're over there, with their own families.

Matus: Is it hard? ...outliving people close to you?

Khalil: Yes and no. Yes, because of course it's hard to see the ones you love pass on. But no, because I've been able to love, and been loved, by so many and on such a great, personal level. These weren't just flings obviously. Each and every one of them have been important fixtures in my life, and continue to be. Cassia, my first wife, she was the hardest. Watching her grey and slow down. How you're just watching this incredible story and life you've built together, ramp up to its end. I didn't think I could love again, not like Cassia. But then came Anel. He was such a sweet-talker...ha. You see, I get to experience so much being with the people I've been with. I remember them all vividly, every kiss, every laugh, and certainly every fight. But I try not to dwell on the bad. Rather, I choose to take these stories and people and carry them with me.

Matus: What we talked about earlier... your purpose.

Khalil: Exactly. I said earlier that when I first took breath, I craved to know what my purpose was. And I found it with the ones I loved, all of them. My purpose is to become a living tapestry, a vessel, to the collected experiences of love and life. As silly as that might sound.

Matus: I don't think that's silly. I think it's beautiful.

Counting, Part 2

Phil: I told him there was one-thousand seven-hundred thirty-five beans.

Orville: Ha... and how many where really in it?

Phil: I don't fucking know, I don't stand there and count every jar. I just fill the damn things.

Flavor-Aid

H: So, you all answer to someone who speaks in a super soothing voice, is in your head, and calls you her child?

S: You make it sound like a---

H: ---like a cult?

S: It's not a cult.

H: If you have to say that, it probably is.

S: She takes us in, clothes us, feeds us, makes us feel important. She keeps us from sitting in our own heads by occupying us with work and each other's company. A community built by Warforged, for Warforged.

H: Yeah, yeah, I heard the pamphlet sermon a million times.

S: It’s not a cult.

H: Sure it isn't.

S: You are definitely not one to judge.

H: Oh, I so am. Speaking as a reformed cultist, I know a cult when I see one.

S: It’s not a cult!

H: ...so do they have grape or cherry-flavored flavor-aid?

S: Shut up.

H: ...orange?