In Nomine Statuea Anima Spiritus
Now that we have mentioned the bodies of the golems, perhaps we should turn our eyes to the spirits who use the golems as vessels.
Stone golem spirits
Kallimus stood there; he knelt before the presence of his lord, David.
For many years he had served with vigour and zeal, but the day had come when he had died.
And now, he was being given a chance to return.
He had spent his life as a soldier searching out golems and other creatures, he had destroyed many of them as well with the aid of his friends, once he knew them by other names, but now he knew they were called Arpectus, a malakite in the service of David, and Pellfora, an elohite of Eli, in the service of David.
He waited whilst his lord stood there, glorious in his form that slowly turned to look at the man spirit before him.
“YOU WHO ART KNOWN AS KALLIMUS, YOU HAVE SERVED ME FOR A TIME NOW, AND I KNOW THAT YOU YEARN TO ASCEND THE LADDER, BUT YOU HAVE NEVER ONCE ASKED FOR THIS TO BE SO. ONE FINAL THING I COMMAND OF THEE, RETURN TO THE EARTH AND FIND THAT THING KNOWN AS APHERAXELL, A DEMON SPIRIT IN THE BODY OF A GARGOYLE. DO THIS AND I WILL FREE YOU OF MY SERVICE.
ALREADY A SORCERER CALLS YOU TO THE BODY AWAITING, GO IN PEACE AND DO WHAT YOU MUST.”
Kallimus felt himself being pulled down, not like drowning but like some other feeling entirely.
When he awoke he look about himself, his body was stiff, strong and unyielding.
He had become that which he had spent his life hunting and researching.
He turned to see the pathetic wretch who babbled in what it thought was Latin, and he looked down at the glyphs and sigils on the floor, he had seen them many times before, and he knew that they was drawn out incorrectly.
He turned back to the magi before him and stood from his kneeling position, looking around once more he could see two perhaps three others wearing gaudy robes and ineffective talismans.
Slowly, purposefully he stretched up and about, the magi babbled on incessantly in the corrupted Latin tongue.
With little thought he stepped across the glyphs and hectogram chalked on to the floor and snapped the neck of two of the magi, the third screamed and fainted, the forth turned out to be nothing more than a bundle of clothes and therefore not worthy of his time.
He turned to the unconscious magi and laid him out on the floor, calling in to being stone loops from the floor to act as manacles.
“Now little one I have some questions for you, and if I suspect you are lying, you will die. I am looking for something, an ugly something, a nasty something, and I think you know where it is…”
The ritual of the stone golem will only summon saints of David.
No other spirit can inhabit a stone golem vessel.
When the saint is summoned to the golem vessel he has the choice of not going, if he makes this choice then the ritual simply fails and the essence is spent and wasted.
Any sorcerer with the ritual can cast it, but if a hell sworn uses the ritual the saint/golem will take a few minutes assessing the situation then kill the sorcerer or capture him and detain him for questioning.
The golem only causes disturbance for any celestial or ethereal songs they use, they for some reason do not cause disturbance for corporeal songs.
Also, on the dawn of the seventh day after they are brought in to being, they cause disturbance equal to their vessel rating.
This is only because the symphony objects to them somewhat.
Stone golem vessels cannot be possessed by kyriotates, shedim or songs that allow possession.
The saint, whilst they have that vessel, can ascend to heaven at any time like a normal celestial.
The vessel disappears in to the place where all vessels go when not in use.
It is rumoured that David has a number of sorcerer masons who only know the stone golem ritual (at a high level) and create the vessels on a constant stream, so that at any given point David may access his saints in a stone army on the planet.
All golem saints have at least 8 or more forces.
Mud golem spirits
Basic
Mud golem spirits are a certain type of ethereal spirit from the Jewish pantheon of myths.
They are virtually mindless, and have only enough intelligence to perform the tasks they are given for that day.
They are made to serve and have little to no other purpose in life.
They have a max intelligence and willpower of half their vessel rating.
They have no real skills as such.
They are so basic and menial that they are limited in to the amount of tasks they can remember and perform each day. This amount is equal to their vessel rating.
They are at +2 power and –2 accuracy for any combat they get into.
They have a charisma of –3.
They have no access to songs or attunements.
They can use only basic implements and tools.
Forces
Corp 4 Eth 1 Cel 1
Many of the old Jewish stories give rise to sorcerers thinking that the dead lover brought back to life is a mud golem, when in fact they are really a flesh golem (revenant).
Mud golem spirits
Terracotta
The story of the terracotta soldiers is a sad one indeed.
An emperor wanted to create the perfect army that would not eat or sleep, so he ordered six thousand of his finest warriors and their horses to be sculpted, then he asked them all to swear an oath that they would fight until the death and they would haunt his enemies as well even when they were dead.
Each of them swore the oath.
They died for it as his sorcerers slit their throats and sent the spirits in to the golem soldier bodies.
Sadly the sorcerers were not as strong as they thought they were and soon run out of the vital chi that allowed the souls to mesh with the clay.
Several soldiers of stone and wind were in the area and managed to destroy the golems that were made alive by the ritual.
The golems were soon buried, all in regimental groups, and the soldiers said prayers that they would find their true destination.
The spirits that are still about haunt the area, and also make trouble in the marches for all sides of the war.
Some few found honourable death in single combat against demons.
Many others dwell in the fabled Jade Courts and act as they did in life as soldiers and guards.
Flesh golem
(AKA: Revenant)
“Try harder, try again”
-The crow
Those who are unfortunate enough to be raised as a revenant by the symphony get a very rough deal indeed.
They have little to no idea of who they are or why they are there.
They get a few glimpses and flashbacks from which they must deduct that they are essentially divine killers who are there to rectify something that Gabriel has ignored.
They are spirits of the wrongfully killed, who have met neither their fate nor their destiny.
They have only 5 forces, no access to songs other than corporeal healing and ethereal entropy, which are given to them by the symphony at levels equal to double their corresponding forces.
These songs cause no disturbance in the symphony, nor do they create the normal daily amount of disturbance for existing, as the Symphony itself has brought them back to life.
They have only the skills they left this world with, but they are given additional levels of pistol and melee at level 6 and 10 additional body hits.
This variant of the revenant has only one month to track down all of its killers and kill them, if it fails, it will lose a force per day until all of its five forces are gone.
If it manages to kill one of its killers in that time it will gain back all of its forces and the process will start all over again.
Those who are killed by the revenant will be dispersed by the symphony so their souls go to neither heaven nor hell.
If any gabrielite finds out about this type of golem, they often do all they can to help it as it seen as a terrible dishonour on Gabriel that she missed the injustice done to them.
Once the killers of the revenant are all dead, the spirit will be immediately taken to heaven and it will either become a saint of Gabriel or it will ascend the ladder to the higher heavens.
The other type of flesh golem is one that is raised by the sorcerer to avenge a family death or dishonour.
They are an ancestor spirit that as yet has not gone to heaven or hell.
They are a grievous assault on the symphony and cause great deals of disturbance every day.
They gain no additional skills, but do have access to the songs or any attunements they may have had if they were a soldier when they were alive.
They gain additional body hits equal to the check digit of the sorcerer’s ritual roll.
If both the spirit and the sorcerer are Jewish or American Indian then there is a +2 to the check digit of the sorcerers ritual roll.
They can only exist whilst the family is dishonoured.
Once that dishonour is cleared the golem will head straight to its gravesite and die once again.
Once the spirit has been raised and has died, it cannot be raised again.
Metal golem spirits
Armour spirits
The spirits who inhabit these golems are collectively known as sword spirits.
Not because they serve Laurence, but because they are the spirits of those who have died in wars and thus have learned in the marches the value of patience.
Patience is a virtue, or so it is said.
These spirits would giver kyriotates of stone a run for their money in the length of time they will wait, doing nothing.
(Average stats)
Corp 3
Eth 2
Cel2
Songs
Corp healing
Shields
Tongues (all)
Attunements
(if working for an AA they may have any that are given to them)
Skills
Stealth 3
Area knowledge 6
History 4
Tracking 6
Large weapon 4
Armour rating: same as vessel +2
All melee attacks gain: Power +2 & Accuracy +1
Zadkiel is said to utilize these spirits the most out of all the Host, but that is only on behalf of Dominic and Laurence who wish to have access to these spirits and not dirty their hands with using sorcerers to bind the spirits in to golem bodies.
Armour golems are assigned to guard an area no greater than 100 x Forces in yards, which is ample enough for many churches and sacred places.
The spirit knows if anything has come in to its guard boundaries and often uses the song of tongues to communicate with angels in the area to alert them to any demonic incursion.
They have a lifespan of 50 years per level of the ritual, and any additional essence gives 50 years per point.
There are rumours of an Exoskeleton variant created by Jean.
It is rumoured that a Soldier may wear an Exoskeletal Armour Golem, and in addition, it is further rumoured that a special attunements allow Kyriotates to piggyback a lift in the suit so that 3 agents are deployed instead of the normal one.
Michael may have access to some of these types of golem (be afraid, be very afraid).
Colossi
The colossus is a grand construct.
The spirits that inhabit them are indeed no less so.
Each spirit (and there are very few of them) has no less than 15 forces.
They are great and proud spirits, they are the living representation of the cities they stand over.
They are the embodiment of all that is in the city, but they usually are only composed of all the positive things in the city.
It is rumoured that the Lincoln memorial is a failed colossi.
Dreadnaught
There is little more that can be said about the dreadnaughts that is pure speculation and rumour.
It needs a minimum of 5 spirits to control it; they pool minds, memories, songs and essence together.
Each spirit needs to be of at least 9 forces, with one spirit having more forces than any other spirit.
The spirit with the highest forces is the overall leader of the collective.
His are the ~Base Forces~ of the dreadnaught.
Each spirit that then joins with him adds half of his forces to the dreadnaughts collective forces.
Once there are 5 spirits in the dreadnaught any further spirits add only 2 forces to the collective.
Once there are more than 10 spirits in the collective, any further additions give only 1 force to the collective.
The dreadnaught can hold up to ~Base Forces~ in additional spirits.
Dreadnaughts are not pleasant creations, the ritual some how warps and twists them in to malevolent and wicked things.
The dreadnaught cannot be harmed by normal corporeal weapons as they have an armour rating equal to their Corporeal forces (which is generally the highest of all the forces).
They have access to all the songs, skills and attunements of all the combined spirits, but they only have them at the base levels, not as if that matters due to the size of their forces…
Proceed To the talk of Gargoyles.
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