Homebrew Construct of Cogmarum Species Details

“The Constructs stand guard over the lost City of Cogmarum, waiting for the day their master awakens from his Slumber. That day will never come, and so the constructs will forever remain sentinels of the Great Clockwork City.”

“Some Constructs have gone rogue from their Original Programming, caused by defects in the Logic Plague Infection. These variations, called Metal Scouts, have periodically made contact with Civilization, being edited and altered by magic users. These Scouts develop their own personalities and become adventurers..."

— Excerpts from Kormac Quickenrun's "Notes on the Deceased God Aeturno"

The Constructs of Cogmarum were a "race" of Mechanical Constructs created by the God Aeturno in his mechanical city Cogmarum. Powered by vestiges of his essence, what would later come to be known as Magic, the constructs operated by being programmed by Matrices of carefully curated and programmed magical streams. Before the ages of the Altic Diaspora Species, the Constructs labored in Cogmarum to invent many magical practices and artifacts that have been long since lost after the disappearance of Cogmarum. Since the Diaspora, only a handful of adventurers have discovered the city, and even less have made it out to tell the tale. Those that do have advanced primordial formulas and early magic paraphernalia worth fortunes to show for their trouble.

The Constructs are formed from inorganic materials made into roughly hominid shapes. Depending on model, the constructs can be constructed of metal, stone, wood, and even rare-earth materials such as Aetherium and Cobalt. They are incredibly free-ranging in size, form, and modification. The largest Constructs, the Titan Class, were used as Construction Units to haul the large metal pre-fabs into place when the city was still under construction and expansion. The smallest units, the Mites, are the size of a small child, and handle the generic precision tasks of the city. After the departure of Aeturno, the production process became corrupted by the Logic Plague. Unique variants are now commonplace in the City, and the majority of Metal Scouts are unique variants. All models have an Aeturnic Core, a spherical vessel that contains a small amount of Aeturno's Vestiges, also known as magic. Even the incredibly minuscule amount magic encased in the Core is enough to power the largest models. 

While they’re formed from stone and steel, Constructs are still technically "living" beings. Resting, healing magic, and the Medicine skill all provide the same benefits to them that they do to other beings. A Construct can focus its mind as it rests, entering a sort of "Sleep Mode". Since a construct's neural net is technically an Artificial Intelligence, resting provides an added benefit of allowing the machine to compress its stored memory, assuring a longer life span. This simple fact assures the mortality of the Metal Scouts. Constructs in Cogmarum regularly offload memory fragments into banks to store. To accommodate the thousands of years of stored memory, the Constructs have been expanding Cogmarum downwards slowly, building layer upon layer of storage chambers. Metal Scouts without any place to offload memory will eventually reach critical overload.

Construct Personality Matrices

The Constructs were built to serve. For most of their existence, Constructs had a clearly defined function and were programmed to focus purely on that role. After the departure of Aeturno and Logic Plague, some constructs shirked their duties and became the first Metal Scouts. The majority stayed in Cogmarum, working towards the preservation of the city.

The typical construct shows little emotion. All Cogmarum based constructs embrace a concrete purpose — protecting the walls of the city, completing a construction or maintenance job, or other such tasks— and devote themselves to this task as they once did during the Pre-Altic era.. However, there are Constructs, mostly Metal Scouts, who have developed a sort of self-awareness and consciousness subroutine, manifesting as personal freedom. Most Constructs still worship their creator Aeturno, but some embrace mainstream faiths and mysticism, seeking higher purpose and deeper meaning. A Large Majority of Metal Scouts seek to unravel the mysteries of the Logic Plague and find the source of their self-awareness.

Most constructs ignore the concept of gender entirely, while others adopt a gender identity in emulation of creatures around them.

Quirks

Whether due to a remnant of the Logic Plague in their system or simple ignorance of how other creatures operate, constructs often acquire an odd personality trait or two. A Construct player can choose to roll or select a trait from the construct Quirks table.

1d10	Quirk
1	You analyze (out loud) the potential threat posed by every creature you meet.
2	You don’t understand emotions and often misread emotional cues.
3	You are fiercely protective of anyone you consider a friend.
4	You often say the things you are thinking aloud without realizing it.
5	You try to apply magical logic patterns and discipline to every situation.
6	You don’t know how to filter your feelings and are prone to dramatic emotional outbursts.
7	You don’t understand clothing or physical deformities beyond their utility and assume that what a creature appears like denotes their job and status.
8	You are obsessed with your appearance, and constantly polish and buff your body.
9	You are deeply concerned with following proper procedures and protocols.
10	Service is the only thing that makes sense to you, and you’re always looking for a job or task.

Construct Names

Constructs were assigned numerical designations for ease of identification in Cogmarum. As free individuals, some have chosen new names as a way to express their path in life. A few take on human names, often the name of a fallen friend or mentor, and others take on names given to them by other species. Some take the name of the material they are made of, especially if they are made from one of the rarer materials.

Construct Names: Anchor, Banner, Bastion, Blade, Blue, Bow, Church, Crunch, Crystal, Dagger, Dent, Five, Glaive, Hammer, Iron, Lucky, Mace, Pants, Pierce, Red, Rusty, Scout, Seven, Shield, Slash, Smith, Spike, Stone, Temple, Vault, Wall, Wood, Mercury, Aetherium, Mithril, Guardman.

 

Construct of Cogmarum Traits

Your Construct character has the following traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Intelligence and Strength score increases by 2. Your Wisdom score increases by 1. Your Charisma score decreases by 2.

Age

A typical construct is between 700 and 1300 years old. The maximum lifespan of the construct is in theory, infinite, as long as they have a way to deposit their memory fragments. A Metal Scout is technically mortal, and no known Metal Scout has reached memory overload. Maintenance must be applied to its body to keep it in tip-top condition, however.

Alignment

Most constructs take comfort in order and discipline, tending toward law and neutrality. But some have absorbed the morality — or lack thereof — of the beings with which they served.

Size

Your size is Medium. Most constructs stand between 5 and 8 1/2 feet tall. Weight and build are affected by production model.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Artificial Resilience

You were created to have remarkable fortitude, represented by the following benefits.

• You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.
• You are immune to disease.
• You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe.
• You don’t need to sleep and don’t suffer the effects of exhaustion due to lack of rest, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Sleep Mode

When you take a long rest, you must spend at least 2 hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. Your machine frame retracts into a smaller, more spherical shape, easier for transport and storage. During this time, your mechanical systems compress your memories into easier to access modes of storage. 

Integrated Protection

Your body has built-in defensive layers, which determine your armor class. You gain no benefit from wearing armor, but if you are using a shield, you apply its bonus as normal.

Defensive ratings are based upon which material you are made of. Different Materials also add other bonuses.

Material Composition	Prerequisite	Effect
Steel Coat	Light Armor proficiency	11 + your Dexterity modifier
Mithril Coat (armor)	Medium armor proficiency	13 + your Dexterity modifier; disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
Aetherium Coat (armor)	Heavy armor proficiency	15 + your Dexterity modifier + your proficiency bonus; disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Binary.