Warforged
No nation — a created people Intentionally outside the Sigil system — see The Sigil Houses document.
Origins — built for the Long War: The Warforged were made as soldiers during the Long War, and the Forge school made them. It is the school's greatest achievement: centuries spent trying to replicate what the Artisan Sigil does by birth, finally producing something no Sigil ever has — a person. It is also the achievement the school least likes to discuss.
Set free. When the war ended, every Warforged was relieved of service and set free. None serve as soldiers now, at least not on anyone's official rolls.
No new ones are made. Building a Warforged now would be read as an act of war — the same reason no new Warcaster armor is built. Against whom is a question nobody wants answered. The population is fixed and slowly shrinking. Every Warforged alive is a veteran of the Long War, or a relic from it.
Body¶
Materials: Iron and hardwood, joined with magitech workings — the same flintlock-era craft as the rest of the world's magitech, not polished stone or steel plate. Seams, rivets, and grain show. No two were ever quite alike, and decades of repair have made each one less alike still.
What they don't need: Food, drink, and air. Poison and disease find nothing to take hold of.
Shutdown: A Warforged doesn't sleep, but it does have to shut down. Running builds up strain in the workings, and only a period of shutdown relieves it. To anyone watching it looks like sleep; to a Warforged it's closer to cooling. A Warforged wakes from shutdown the way anyone wakes from sleep — at a noise, a touch, or when it means to.
Repaired, not healed: A Warforged's body doesn't heal the way flesh does. Medicine does nothing for it, and neither does healing magic — but a smith, carpenter, or Mechanik with tools and time can put it right. In a world where real healing is scarce, a body any competent craftsman can mend is a quiet advantage, and the price is that a Warforged far from tools and hands stays broken.
Merging — the slow mend: Replaced parts don't stay foreign. Over long shutdowns, old and new parts slowly grow together — grain and iron settling into one another until the seam is gone. It is the closest a Warforged comes to healing on its own. A Warforged left shut down long enough will eventually mend itself completely, though "long enough" is measured in years.
No magic of their own. A Warforged can't cast spells or work Arts of any kind. Whatever lets a living body channel magic, a built one doesn't have. They can carry runes and use magic items like anyone else.
Souls: Unknown, and argued. The Unbroken Chain says they sit outside the chain entirely, having no bloodline. Others insist that whatever made a soldier into a person must be a soul. Nobody has settled it, and the Warforged themselves don't agree.
Origin Focus — Warforged¶
Taken like any other Origin Focus, with a normal Focus pick. No bonus skill.
Level 1: - Built Body. You don't eat, drink, or breathe, and you're immune to poison and disease. - Shutdown. You don't sleep, but you need a night's shutdown to recover Effort and System Strain as others do from rest. You're as unaware during shutdown as a sleeper, and you wake as easily as one. - Repaired, Not Healed. You don't regain hit points from resting, and the Heal skill and healing magic don't work on you. Instead, anyone with tools and time can repair you with Craft, restoring hit points as a Heal check would for a living creature, and stabilizing you with Craft when you're Mortally Wounded. - No Magic. You can't take any Mage class or spellcasting tradition, cast spells, or use Arts. - The Slow Mend. An unbroken long-term shutdown repairs you on its own: 1% of your maximum hit points per week, or a full mend in about two years.
Level 2 — Runebearer: Your body counts as a piece of equipment for runes and other modifications. It can be fitted under the same rules as any other item, once the rune rules are written.
Open: how each nation treats freed Warforged now; whether any still serve unofficially; whether the Forge school still holds the knowledge to make more; who building a new one would be an act of war against, to be answered in play; Level 2's exact rune capacity, pending the rune rules.