HS&S:WT Short
Dec. 1st, 2017 07:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabremeisterI know I've not done one of these in a while, but I had to do a whole bunch of them to make up the wordcount in NaNoWriMo. Turns out that turning a song into a story only generates about 34k words, not 50k.
Liuprand was young for a wizard developing golems. His tutors had decided he'd got a knack for it, and had encouraged him to study extensively in the schools of magic that most readily leant themselves to the construction and animation of lifeless matter - Earth Elementalism, Enchantment, Body Control, and Necromancy.
That was always a sore point with Liuprand and others who dabbled with golems; the fact that you needed a certain amount of expertise in necromantic spells. It was to do with the need to imbue the inert golem body with some sort of energy, and since the necromantinc spells regarding the re-animation of dead bodies could already accomplish that, it made sense to co-opt the spells for a less dubious purpose. Not that that made much difference to most people who found out that you had made a study of necromancy. It was as if just because you learned three, at most, spells from the Necromancy school, you were going to start killing random people with a touch of your finger and animating their corpses to serve as your eternal servants.
As if! Eternity was a really fucking long time, practically nothing lasted that long. Even if you managed to learn the spells necessary at a high enough level to ensure repeated success to give yourself a semblance of eternal life, sooner or later you would run out of raw materials, ie. people. That was really the only way it could be done, by draining the life of others and siphoning it into yourself, buying yourself more life with theirs. And undead servants? Please! Zombies fell apart after barely more than a few decades, and the skeletons they turned into were somewhat vulnerable to hard knocks. Even mummies started turning to dust after a few centuries. A golem would last much longer.
Golems were as damage-resistant as the material they were made out of - pottery was fairly tough, but had a tendency to crack or shatter if struck too hard, clay was nice and solid (if a little goopy), and golems made of rock were just as damage-resistant as the type of stone you used. Granite was the hardiest, sandstone not so much.
The thing was, the spell to animate a golem was fiendishly difficult and energy intensive. Not many wizards had access to enough Powestones to be able to cast it, which led to a concentration of golem-making wizards living near centres of magical study waiting to take their turn with the enchantment facility. Actual enchanters usually got priority though, them and their fancy weapons and armour and clothes and candlesticks and what-have-you.
But not this golem, not the one that Liuprand was enchanting right now. Liuprand had been working on it for a long time, and he had persuaded one of the Masters to loan him a large Powerstone for this casting. He wasn't casting the golem-animating spell, he was casting a completely different one. He had stumbled across the information that led him to try this when researching powerful artifacts out of boredom one afternoon. He had immediately realised the implications, and had found a small mercenary company he then hired to go and retrieve it from where it was believed to be resting. They had succeeded and now the Corpse Witch Pendant was in his hand, working its' magic on the hollow pottery body Liuprand was touching with his other hand. Well, actually, not the pottery body itself, that would be a bit pointless. His other hand was actually inside the pottery body, touching a complex web of wires, rods and levers. It was the final spell he needed to be cast, and then the golem would be ready. A few weeks ago he had persuaded another mage who specialised in Body Control to create an Omnivore Bioconverter Mana Engine for him - it was one of the absolute latest magical devices that someone had thought up, they were still so new no one had got around to regulating them properly yet. Basically, an OBME was an eating machine that, well, ate food, and generated magical power in return. It was quite small, but weighed more than he did, and it hadn't left much room in the pottery body for the control mechanisms that he was enchanting now with the Corpse Witch Pendant. In fact, he'd had to practially rebuild the whole interior when his friend had brought over the OBME in a covered wheelbarrow a couple of weeks ago. Still, as long as he fed it three square meals a day, he got free heating in his workshop.
There was a snap and Liuprand sat back, exhausted. The enchantment was complete, the golem's systems were ready to receive power. The Corpse Witch Pendant was an enchantment tool, that synchronised input from spells such as Wizard Eye or Wizard Ear and allowed them to directly manipulate physical objects. It had probably been designed for the creation of inanimate objects as sentinels, rather than breeding something like a Sirrush, or magically creating servants. But Liuprand had enchanted two large glass balls with Wizard Eye and placed them in the eye sockets of the golem, and enchanted two oyster shells with Wizard Ear and carefully mortared them to the side of the head, and enchanted a hideously complex mat of pottery linkages laced with copper wire (thanks to an artificer he'd paid to make it) with Voices, and installed it in the golem's mouth. And now all those things were ready and waiting to respond to external stimuli by activating certain of the rods, wires and levers that ran throughout the body.
Making the body had been both fairly simple, and fairly complex. He'd baked the body, head and limbs seperately - no point making it all as one piece like in a regular golem. In a regular golem, the magic would animate the body perfectly, but this golem would only be indirectly powered by magic. He'd then used Shape Earth to form joints in the relevant places, and, after installing the control mechanisms in each individual piece, had snapped them all into place. Then more spells had been required to glaze and laminate the outer surface for protection, and even more spells to place hair on the head and shape the whole thing so it looked more-or-less like a teenaged girl. One that would, when finished, weigh half a ton and be able to punch through wooden doors. Fitting the eyelids had been a fucking nightmare.
So, all that was left now was to put the OBME in the power distribution cage, put that in the body, make sure it could access the food receiving tray and had a clear access to the mouth, then make the last hookups so the power distribution cage could actually distribute power to the various control mechanisms, and close the rear panel.
Liuprand looked round at the fleshy blob that was the OBME and decided he would do it tomorrow. He was tired from the spell he had just woven, and was in no mood to get the winch so he could lift the bloody thing right now. He fixed it some dinner, and went out for his own evening meal.
The next day, Liuprand switched on his golem. It immediately screamed and leapt about, thrashing partly in panic and partly in accustomisation. He was grateful he had given the OBME breakfast before installing it, otherwise it would be pretty tired by now.
"Can you understand me?" he asked it when it had come to rest.
"What? Yes, I can, of course I can." The voice sounded incongrously deep from a body that looked almost uncannily like a naked fourteen year-old girl.
"Oh good. My name is Liuprand, I created you."
"What am I?"
"You are a golem - an inanimate creature made animate by magic."
"Oh. What else?"
"I shaped you like a young woman so people would not be afraid of you, and so you would be easier to make. You will need clothes; I have left a selection on the table in the corner."
"Ah. Yes. Very well." The golem turned, still a little shakily, and went towards the table. It began sorting through the clothes.
"Do you know how to put them on?"
"They seem simple enough."
"Good. Do you have a name?"
"I am Golem."
"No you're not. You are a golem - golem is your species, if you like. You need a name to help you interact with others. For example, I am Liuprand, and my species is human."
"I have no name. Please supply me with one."
Liuprand thought for a few moments. "Hanne. Would you like to be called Hanne?"
"I do not know. If you wish to call me Hanne, then I will be Hanne."
"Very well. Your name is Hanne."
Hanne finished dressing, then returned to the centre of the room. "What is my purpose?"
"You are a demonstration of the possibilities of the craft of golem-making. Do you understand what I mean by that?"
"Yes."
"And are you content with that?"
"You created me. I am content with whatever purpose you assign me."
Liuprand sighed. He'd hoped using the Corpse Witch Pendant would have imbued something of a personality to the golem. Still, not bad for the first of something new. "Very well. I think you may need some acclimatisation before I take you to the College so the other mages can see you. We will be walking to somewhere not far away where you can get sustenance. Do you know why you need it?"
"No."
"All living things need to eat. You, like all golems, are not strictly speaking 'alive', but the magic that powers you simulates life well enough for most purposes. You will need to eat in order to keep yourself at optimum energy levels for activity."
"Very well. I am ready to leave."
"Good. If you experience any problems on the way, please let me know immediately."
"Acknowledged."
Liuprand opened the door to his workshop and led Hanne out into the world. After securing the door, he headed off to his favourite caupona. He knew that as a wizard, cauponas really should be beneath him, but it hadn't been so long ago that he'd been a student wizard, and cauponas were cheap. Since he'd moved into his workshop three month ago, he'd found a new favourite caupona that was nearer than his old favourite one. And since this one had a really pretty girl who worked there, he was inclined to keep going there. She may not have been the brightest girl, but she was really very pretty.
Liuprand went in first, Hanne following closely. He smiled when he saw that the pretty girl, who went by the name of Raven, was working at the moment. He went straight up to the counter and greeted her. "Hi, Raven."
"Well, hello, mister three-eggs-and-a-mead!"
"Hello," Hanne said.
"And hello to you too? Are you Liuprand's little sister?"
Liuprand laughed. "No! She's-"
Raven cut him off. "Your daughter?"
Liuprand was used to conversations with Raven going strange places. "Do I look old enough to have a daughter her apparent age?"
"Actually, I am less then half an hour old," Hanne supplied.
Liuprand looked at the golem. "You're a golem-"
Before he could finish correcting Hanne's mis-conceptualisation, Raven cut in again. "You got a golem pregnant?"
Liuprand sighed. It was going to be a long morning at this rate.
A New Kind of Golem
Liuprand was young for a wizard developing golems. His tutors had decided he'd got a knack for it, and had encouraged him to study extensively in the schools of magic that most readily leant themselves to the construction and animation of lifeless matter - Earth Elementalism, Enchantment, Body Control, and Necromancy.
That was always a sore point with Liuprand and others who dabbled with golems; the fact that you needed a certain amount of expertise in necromantic spells. It was to do with the need to imbue the inert golem body with some sort of energy, and since the necromantinc spells regarding the re-animation of dead bodies could already accomplish that, it made sense to co-opt the spells for a less dubious purpose. Not that that made much difference to most people who found out that you had made a study of necromancy. It was as if just because you learned three, at most, spells from the Necromancy school, you were going to start killing random people with a touch of your finger and animating their corpses to serve as your eternal servants.
As if! Eternity was a really fucking long time, practically nothing lasted that long. Even if you managed to learn the spells necessary at a high enough level to ensure repeated success to give yourself a semblance of eternal life, sooner or later you would run out of raw materials, ie. people. That was really the only way it could be done, by draining the life of others and siphoning it into yourself, buying yourself more life with theirs. And undead servants? Please! Zombies fell apart after barely more than a few decades, and the skeletons they turned into were somewhat vulnerable to hard knocks. Even mummies started turning to dust after a few centuries. A golem would last much longer.
Golems were as damage-resistant as the material they were made out of - pottery was fairly tough, but had a tendency to crack or shatter if struck too hard, clay was nice and solid (if a little goopy), and golems made of rock were just as damage-resistant as the type of stone you used. Granite was the hardiest, sandstone not so much.
The thing was, the spell to animate a golem was fiendishly difficult and energy intensive. Not many wizards had access to enough Powestones to be able to cast it, which led to a concentration of golem-making wizards living near centres of magical study waiting to take their turn with the enchantment facility. Actual enchanters usually got priority though, them and their fancy weapons and armour and clothes and candlesticks and what-have-you.
But not this golem, not the one that Liuprand was enchanting right now. Liuprand had been working on it for a long time, and he had persuaded one of the Masters to loan him a large Powerstone for this casting. He wasn't casting the golem-animating spell, he was casting a completely different one. He had stumbled across the information that led him to try this when researching powerful artifacts out of boredom one afternoon. He had immediately realised the implications, and had found a small mercenary company he then hired to go and retrieve it from where it was believed to be resting. They had succeeded and now the Corpse Witch Pendant was in his hand, working its' magic on the hollow pottery body Liuprand was touching with his other hand. Well, actually, not the pottery body itself, that would be a bit pointless. His other hand was actually inside the pottery body, touching a complex web of wires, rods and levers. It was the final spell he needed to be cast, and then the golem would be ready. A few weeks ago he had persuaded another mage who specialised in Body Control to create an Omnivore Bioconverter Mana Engine for him - it was one of the absolute latest magical devices that someone had thought up, they were still so new no one had got around to regulating them properly yet. Basically, an OBME was an eating machine that, well, ate food, and generated magical power in return. It was quite small, but weighed more than he did, and it hadn't left much room in the pottery body for the control mechanisms that he was enchanting now with the Corpse Witch Pendant. In fact, he'd had to practially rebuild the whole interior when his friend had brought over the OBME in a covered wheelbarrow a couple of weeks ago. Still, as long as he fed it three square meals a day, he got free heating in his workshop.
There was a snap and Liuprand sat back, exhausted. The enchantment was complete, the golem's systems were ready to receive power. The Corpse Witch Pendant was an enchantment tool, that synchronised input from spells such as Wizard Eye or Wizard Ear and allowed them to directly manipulate physical objects. It had probably been designed for the creation of inanimate objects as sentinels, rather than breeding something like a Sirrush, or magically creating servants. But Liuprand had enchanted two large glass balls with Wizard Eye and placed them in the eye sockets of the golem, and enchanted two oyster shells with Wizard Ear and carefully mortared them to the side of the head, and enchanted a hideously complex mat of pottery linkages laced with copper wire (thanks to an artificer he'd paid to make it) with Voices, and installed it in the golem's mouth. And now all those things were ready and waiting to respond to external stimuli by activating certain of the rods, wires and levers that ran throughout the body.
Making the body had been both fairly simple, and fairly complex. He'd baked the body, head and limbs seperately - no point making it all as one piece like in a regular golem. In a regular golem, the magic would animate the body perfectly, but this golem would only be indirectly powered by magic. He'd then used Shape Earth to form joints in the relevant places, and, after installing the control mechanisms in each individual piece, had snapped them all into place. Then more spells had been required to glaze and laminate the outer surface for protection, and even more spells to place hair on the head and shape the whole thing so it looked more-or-less like a teenaged girl. One that would, when finished, weigh half a ton and be able to punch through wooden doors. Fitting the eyelids had been a fucking nightmare.
So, all that was left now was to put the OBME in the power distribution cage, put that in the body, make sure it could access the food receiving tray and had a clear access to the mouth, then make the last hookups so the power distribution cage could actually distribute power to the various control mechanisms, and close the rear panel.
Liuprand looked round at the fleshy blob that was the OBME and decided he would do it tomorrow. He was tired from the spell he had just woven, and was in no mood to get the winch so he could lift the bloody thing right now. He fixed it some dinner, and went out for his own evening meal.
The next day, Liuprand switched on his golem. It immediately screamed and leapt about, thrashing partly in panic and partly in accustomisation. He was grateful he had given the OBME breakfast before installing it, otherwise it would be pretty tired by now.
"Can you understand me?" he asked it when it had come to rest.
"What? Yes, I can, of course I can." The voice sounded incongrously deep from a body that looked almost uncannily like a naked fourteen year-old girl.
"Oh good. My name is Liuprand, I created you."
"What am I?"
"You are a golem - an inanimate creature made animate by magic."
"Oh. What else?"
"I shaped you like a young woman so people would not be afraid of you, and so you would be easier to make. You will need clothes; I have left a selection on the table in the corner."
"Ah. Yes. Very well." The golem turned, still a little shakily, and went towards the table. It began sorting through the clothes.
"Do you know how to put them on?"
"They seem simple enough."
"Good. Do you have a name?"
"I am Golem."
"No you're not. You are a golem - golem is your species, if you like. You need a name to help you interact with others. For example, I am Liuprand, and my species is human."
"I have no name. Please supply me with one."
Liuprand thought for a few moments. "Hanne. Would you like to be called Hanne?"
"I do not know. If you wish to call me Hanne, then I will be Hanne."
"Very well. Your name is Hanne."
Hanne finished dressing, then returned to the centre of the room. "What is my purpose?"
"You are a demonstration of the possibilities of the craft of golem-making. Do you understand what I mean by that?"
"Yes."
"And are you content with that?"
"You created me. I am content with whatever purpose you assign me."
Liuprand sighed. He'd hoped using the Corpse Witch Pendant would have imbued something of a personality to the golem. Still, not bad for the first of something new. "Very well. I think you may need some acclimatisation before I take you to the College so the other mages can see you. We will be walking to somewhere not far away where you can get sustenance. Do you know why you need it?"
"No."
"All living things need to eat. You, like all golems, are not strictly speaking 'alive', but the magic that powers you simulates life well enough for most purposes. You will need to eat in order to keep yourself at optimum energy levels for activity."
"Very well. I am ready to leave."
"Good. If you experience any problems on the way, please let me know immediately."
"Acknowledged."
Liuprand opened the door to his workshop and led Hanne out into the world. After securing the door, he headed off to his favourite caupona. He knew that as a wizard, cauponas really should be beneath him, but it hadn't been so long ago that he'd been a student wizard, and cauponas were cheap. Since he'd moved into his workshop three month ago, he'd found a new favourite caupona that was nearer than his old favourite one. And since this one had a really pretty girl who worked there, he was inclined to keep going there. She may not have been the brightest girl, but she was really very pretty.
Liuprand went in first, Hanne following closely. He smiled when he saw that the pretty girl, who went by the name of Raven, was working at the moment. He went straight up to the counter and greeted her. "Hi, Raven."
"Well, hello, mister three-eggs-and-a-mead!"
"Hello," Hanne said.
"And hello to you too? Are you Liuprand's little sister?"
Liuprand laughed. "No! She's-"
Raven cut him off. "Your daughter?"
Liuprand was used to conversations with Raven going strange places. "Do I look old enough to have a daughter her apparent age?"
"Actually, I am less then half an hour old," Hanne supplied.
Liuprand looked at the golem. "You're a golem-"
Before he could finish correcting Hanne's mis-conceptualisation, Raven cut in again. "You got a golem pregnant?"
Liuprand sighed. It was going to be a long morning at this rate.
