What is a ‘Soul Cage’?
It is known the souls of men and the spirits of the supernaturals are magical forms of energy; once our physical housing expires, all that remains is this energy. It cannot be destroyed, only transformed. Through fae magic and human ingenuity, we have devised a way to capture this essence using a variety of mechanisms given the collective term “soul cage”.
These cages, which are both mechanical and magical, allow for transference of energy to power the machines which support our civilization. Both Augments and Automatons rely heavily on this technology.
That magic is one of the ingredients for their creation is known. However, the runes themselves are hidden to all but those with the training to use them. Only the members of the Soul Casters Guild are sanctioned to use the binding runes, which are protected with powerful wards. If others attempt the spell, well …then they will do harm to themselves and to the bound spirits. And, if captured, would suffer the direst of consequences.
The Augments
Augments all begin as living creatures that incorporate clockwerk parts into their bodies. Some resort to this technology out of need, others follow fashion, while still others are driven by the desire to “perfect” themselves through cog and gear.
Over the generations, there have been fashion trends that revolved around what some call the “cult of the clockwerks”; young people (usually human, though the trends have swept through all the races) would augment themselves, sometimes having organic parts replaced with prosthetic bits, though most would only play at this game, wearing elaborate creations that appeared to replace their natural eyes with magical orbs, arms with wings, legs with wheels.
However, there is a smaller sect of citizens who strive to become fully clockwerk. These aesthetics believe the logic of machines and the predictability of clockwerk is the apex of human/sidhe creativity. Over time, they seek to have as much of their physical bodies replaced by cybernetics as their spirits will allow.
Many venerate the supernaturals caged beneath the Cathedrals with almost religious zeal, considering the joining of the supernatural with the mechanicals of the Cathedral the ultimate perfection.
The Automatons
Automatons are mechanical dolls, powered by clockwerk and magic, which house conscious living souls. Automatons are exceedingly rare and require powerful sorcery. Only the Chief Necromancers of the Soul Casters Guild know the rune-craft to create and maintain their complex soul cages.
The great Leonardo di Vinci designed the original automaton and his was the first consciousness to be transferred to a clockwerk body. He worked from that shell for centuries, eventually perfecting the smooth skinned, subtle forms we know today.
Regarding Keys
The earliest automatons were powered by an internal spiral mainspring which moved gears that, in turn, controlled the limbs. However, this spring lost energy as the gears ran, and so needed to be wound periodically to provide the energy to run the shell. The early automatons often sported elaborate keys and had to be wound each day, like parlor clocks. The most recent models have abandoned the mainspring in favor of micro-generators whose spinning produces electrical energy.
It should also be noted that transferring the conscious spirit to a new housing is most dangerous, often resulting in the release of the soul. This being known, automatons rarely opt to be transferred to new vessels. This is why we see all the generations of automatons still in use today.
The Strand Constructs
The Strand worlds held abundance beyond imagining, planets that were engines of food production as well as one planet which contained all the mineral and metal resources necessary to build a war machine that challenged the Empire’s hegemony.
Populated mainly by humans and renegade Sidhe, the Strand artisans created the first generations of self-aware machines.
Some were crafted to resemble humanoids; some were amazingly life-like animals; while still others were machine-like in their design and could be the size of football fields! In form, they might mimic their living models, having skeletons and sinews crafted of metal, skins and pelts that to eye and touch were indistinguishable from the real creatures.
There are no new Strand golems: the magic, technology and resources needed to create them were diverted during the long reconstruction that followed the terrible Strand wars. Those which remain are legacies of that long-ago conflict.
[To learn more about the Strand worlds, join our community website and read the Strand War Concordance.]
Conclusion
In the Sidhe Empire we find three kinds of mecha.
- Augments (living creatures with clockwerk parts),
- Automatons (clockwerk dolls housing conscious souls),
- and Strand Constructs (golems of pure machine consciousness).
Augments
Created when living tissue is replaced by clockwerk mechanisms.
~ May have great physical strength, if limbs are replaced.
~ May conceal weaponry within the body in natural-seeming prosthetics.
~ May have augmented senses (sight, smell, taste).
Automatons
Created when a living soul is transferred into a clockwerk body.
~ Depending on the model, may have enhanced strength and augmented senses.
~ If undamaged, can continue for thousands of years.
Constructs
Developed during the Strand Wars, these golems house a complexity which affords them consciousness.
~ Depending on the model, may have enhanced strength and augmented senses.
~ Rely on locomotion essence as their energy source.
~ May only be destroyed if their flask is compromised.
~ Are maintained by tiny independent machines called “motes”.
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