Sahovan golems
From Mizahar Lore
This is a list of Sahovan golems detailing the types and categories of golems currently produced and deployed on the island and citadel of Sahova.
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Introduction
Sahova is by far the premier source of golems in modern Mizahar. The discipline of Animation, responsible for their creation, took perhaps the heaviest blow of all types of magic during the Valterrian, because its products for the most part simply stopped working, or started behaving erratically. It took nearly a century for the atmosphere to stabilize and new golems to become reliable enough for practical use; by that time, Animation had largely been discarded as useless except on Sahova.
The undead island constructs several hundred golems a year, about half of which are used internally and the other half are exported. Golems employed on the island conform to well-known types or "models" that all Sahovan Animators know intimately. This ensures that golems work in a predictable, well defined way, and a wizard can maintain and repair golems made by other Animators. Both the construction and the following Animation patterns are fully standardized. If a replacement wheel for a Communicator is required, a craftsman can produce the piece with just that much information. On the negative side, the standard design is more vulnerable to inside hacking, which proved to be a problem in the aftermath of the Drainira crisis.
Exported golems are, on the other hand, far more customized and, in a way, experimental. Because they do not have to share a home with the result of their work, they often take more risks in the pursuit of knowledge on behalf of a perfect stranger. Also, they do not want to give away the exact mechanics and behavior of their own servants, in the event that it might be exploited against them. Finally, while this is a closely guarded secret, golems made for export often feature some kind of planned obsolescence and will quietly stop working after a few years. Golems trade for money, but Sahova is not mainly interested in golden Mizas and transactions involving currency tend to be more expensive. More often, they trade reagents, bodies, information and other items of interest.
Communicator
Communicator golems are an interface with visitors at the docks. Little more than cylinders on wheels with a sculpted bust, they are provided with a simple internal vocal component (made from vibrating chords much like a musical instrument) that gives them an artificial-sounding tone. They are programmed to instruct visitors, sample wares and haggle with traders. If a request exceeds their limited intelligence, they will call an Overseer.
Peacekeeper
A Peacekeeper is similar in design to the Communicator, but bigger and without a bust. Instead, their surface is littered with glyphs they can activate at will. Usually containing Reimancy spells such as fireballs, a volley from a Peacekeeper squad can burn a ship to cinders. Peacekeepers are stored in the warehouses by the docks, always disabled unless trouble arises, and never enter the citadel proper. It is known that their friend or foe identification leaves much to be desired.
Observer
An Observer (or Watcher) is a tiny golem on four wheels, its body consisting of goggle-like binoculars for far vision. About as large as rats, they roam the island looking for any sort of trouble or anomaly, of which there is never any shortage due to the amount of experiments taking place. Intruders, even if they should manage to arrive unnoticed on the shores of Sahova, rarely stay unnoticed for long. Observers are programmed to report their findings to an Overseer or an actual wizard using a simple tonal code: one beep for intruders, two beeps for magic gone awry, three beeps for anything else. They are considered expendable and rarely last very long.
Overseer
Overseers are the most complex mobile golems operating on Sahova. Bipedal, anthropomorphic steel constructs with red lenses for eyes and twelve joints, they make slow walkers but can navigate the citadel itself. There are from three to five Overseers at any given time, one of which supervises the docks. Overseers are sentient, possess remarkable intelligence and can engage in complex conversation, but still their dogmatic programming shows through and they do not feel 'alive' to their listener. Every Sahovan golem is instructed to obey an Overseer in the absence of a Nuit.
Gatekeeper
A Gatekeeper is embedded in a door or any other type of lock, and provides or denies access to whatever it is guarding. Most private laboratories are guarded by this kind of golem, most notably the restricted section of the Sahovan library, where particularly dangerous books are kept. This particular Gatekeeper accepts small tokens to be inserted into a slot; only Zarik Mashaen and the Council of Five have the authority to give out these tokens. Visits are recorded, thus letting each of them know who else was approved to enter the restricted area, and under whose authority.
Librarian
Librarians are wheeled golems with trays and simple jointed arms for picking and pushing books from and onto shelves. Their intelligence is limited to remembering the layout of a library and navigating it to reach the desired book, then fetching it and returning it to the inquiring party. Their function is quite important. Even though most parchment in the citadel is treated with chemicals, the touch of a Nuit's potentially rotting fingers can be lethal to an old book.
Witness
Built to resemble a brick or tile, a Witness can record sounds and conversations for later playback. It is nothing more than a memory and a mouth, but many a wizard's deranged schemes were exposed with such a golem. They have gotten even more popular since Lector Qiao gained prominence in Sahova, and many Nuit now expect to be eavesdropped on all the time.