Golems

Golems are a group of artificially created, often semi-autonomous (sometimes even sentient) creatures that are fabricated from a mixture of technology and magic, sometimes pure magic. Golems can be made from a veriety of materials, the most common ones being stone, steel and gold. The rarest type of golems - Diamond Golems - is a special case, products of long-lost technology, often sentient.

Traditionally, most body parts of the golem are fabricated from one material of choice (stone, metal, diamond), playing the role of both skin and bone. These beings are then animated either purely by magic, or are animated by a mixture of clockwork, fake muscles and magic. Afterwards, the golems are "programmed" by their creators: this is an action done purely by magic, and can only be done by the golem's creator: most golems have very limited amount of autonomy, and are programmed explicitly for one purpose, usually being bodyguards, litter-carriers, rickshaw-pullers, haulers, or meat-shields. It's a commonly recited legend, that when a golem is made, its creator breathes a part of his soul into the golem - ironically enough, the only people who consider this myth to be true are the very same Gnomes who pride themselves in their rationalism and outgrowth of silly superstitions, while the other "more superstitious" races are the ones who are ironically skeptical of this myth.

There are two special kinds of golems that deserve mention: Diamond Golems and Dragon Golems. The earlier are made with a long-lost technology, and had souls of dead warriors bound to the golems, allowing them to take the fight to the enemy once again. The latter are special not only because of their non-humanoid shape, but also because of the fact that rather than being semi-autonomous and programmable, most of them are manned and controlled by a person, a "driver". Additionally, Dragon Golems also couple as chariots, as they often house one or two archers, crossbowmen, battlemages or pikemen.

Golems are typically built by Gnomes or Dwarves, and have become part of Etrand's military ever since the Dwarven clans accepted Etrandish suzerainty.