World of Aserra

Homunculi

In the simplest of terms, a homunculus is an artificial being capable of operating and sustaining itself. It is a being created outside of any natural birth. They are incredibly rare and very difficult to make. Due to this, there is no unified homunculi culture or even standard form of creation. Thus, results can be incredibly varied across every aspect of a homunculus, from appearance to ability to agency.

Homunculi are magically powered and built to the specifications of their makers. Thus, there is no standard homunculus. However, characteristics that are common across all designs are that they are self-sustaining, they do not carry sentient souls of their own, and can be made of almost any combination of materials.

Location and Abodes
There is no standard location or living situation.

Appearance and Garb
Homunculi can have a great variety of appearances. It is more common for a homunculus to be made to appear human or similar to another common race. It is just as possible, however, that the creator will craft their homunculus to appear monstrous or an impossible amalgamation of different beings. An example of this might be that of a man whose legs are that of a spider’s. Generally speaking, a homunculus is not a perfect recreation. Usually, there is a sign somewhere that it is not naturally born no matter how hard the creator tries. That sign most commonly has to do with the materials used.

For the same reason that a homunculus’s appearance can vary widely, so too does the garb.

Lifespan and Reproduction
Lifespan is largely dependent on design and maintenance. A homunculus does not age. A homunculus’s body, however, is capable of wearing out. Theoretically, a homunculus could live forever if the body is maintained endlessly. A homunculus is also capable of running out of energy if there is not a consistent power source for the body.

A homunculus cannot reproduce with each other or with other beings.

Diet, Agriculture, and Hunting
A homunculus does not require food. It simply requires power. Often, this means the one time implanting of an animal’s soul. Other methods of powering a homunculus can include the harvesting of mana or the draining of other sentient beings of soul energy. Homunculi carrying animal souls simply need to recharge with sleeping. The only other substances that a homunculus can use are to repair or maintain their own bodies. It can be any material from mud to the flesh of living beings.

Religion
The homunculi have no religion or faith native to their race.

Magic and Abilities
The homunculi, depending on their construction, can have a variety of abilities. Most creators desiring to have them cast magic must design them with this in mind, including providing for a strong intellect and a regenerating source of magic (like the soul of a strong animal). Other than magical abilities, homunculi are capable of what they are made of providing that their bodies are maintained enough to continue performing that function.

Personality
A homunculus’s personality is programmed by its maker and can vary greatly. It normally depends on the amount of agency allotted to the homunculus. A homunculus can have next to no personality and operate much like a mindless zombie if it has no agency of its own and simply follows orders. On the other side of things, a homunculus with a complex personality is designed to have more free will and independence.

Play-ability
A homunculus can be a playable character.

Stats
Stats are largely dependent on construction.

Ok, Rory and I went through this, revised a bit, and now we have a proper entry. Some things are changed a bit, but your character should still work.

Here's the official entry: http://www.forum.aserra-rpg.com/viewtop ... f=13&t=676

And I'm going to move this to the graveyard now.

If you have any questions or comments on Homunculi please post them here.

Example Characters

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(Grammatical note: homunculus in the singular, homunculi in the plural.)
In the simplest of terms, a homunculus is an artificial being capable of operating and sustaining itself. It is a being created outside of any natural birth. They are incredibly rare, and very difficult to make. Due to this, there is no unified homunculi culture, or even standard form of creation, thus the results can be varied across every aspect of a homunculus—from appearance to ability to agency.

They can be created by sorcerers, gods, and other powerful beings, but the methods for creating them are exceptionally complex. Sorcerers have only begun to explore the possibilities in the creation of homunculi, thus most human created homunculi are rather simplistic. Homunculi are not independent beings, they are slaves to their creator, typically created for certain tasks or duties, such as bodyguards, intermediaries between the creator and other people, or an attempt to bring back a loved one from the dead. They do not inherently possess souls, but souls can be bound to a homunculus (often against their will, and leaving the soul a slave to the whims of the homunculus’s master). It is also possible for a sorcerer to create a homunculi to which their soul could be bound after death allowing them to live on, but this has a very small chance of success.

The creation of homunculi falls in the school of Necromancy, a school of sorcery that is often shunned by most circles of sorcerers and practiced in secret, making homunculi even rarer.
Locations and Abodes
There is no standard location or living situation for homunculi. They are native to wherever their creator resides.

Appearance and Garb
Homunculi can have a great variety of appearances. Most homunculi are humanoid in form, but often monstrous and created for superior strength combined with total loyalty. Some homunculi are created as an amalgamation of features, sometimes mimicking certain animal traits—though they are not to be confused with chimeras, which are actual amalgamations of different creatures. Many sorcerers strive to make their homunculi appear truly human, but this is the hardest task of all, and most human-like homunculi are not a perfect recreation, and inspection will reveal unnatural flaws. The more human-like a homunculus’s creator strives for it to be, the more difficult the task.

Lifespan and Reproduction
The lifespan of a homunculus is largely dependent on design and maintenance. They do not age, but their bodies can wear out out due to sustained damage or lack of maintenance, but with proper regenerative abilities, a homunculus could live forever. However, some homunculi do not have this potential, either due to the inadequacies of their construction, or their master’s design. Those that do have regenerative capabilities are those that consume raw mana, or can consume food of some sort to fuel their regeneration.

Homunculi are created solely by the hand of more powerful beings in order to serve them, and cannot reproduce. There is potential for homunculi to be capable of reproducing with other races, but this is far beyond the capabilities of even the most skilled sorcerer, and would likely take considerable advances in the human understanding of the science of reproduction for sorcerers to even begin to create homunculi capable of biological reproduction. At current, homunculi capable of reproduction should be considered non-existent.

Diet, Agriculture, and Hunting
Homunculi with the ability to regenerate and maintain themselves require subsistence of some sort. Some homunculi can consume human food, but their appetite would seem inhuman as they would require copious amounts of food that no normal person could handle. These are usually the most human-like (and hardest to create).

Depending on the materials used to create a homunculus, it could consume non-food items such as metal, rock, or other in organic materials to replenish elements it was created with, or sustain unique traits.

Religion
The creator of a homunculus is as good as their god. Homunculi are typically mindless slaves created to carry out the will of their master. Incredibly, inconceivably, rare are homunculi who do not require a master, and operate as sentient beings—to an extent, as they might still take orders from a master. A homunculi of this capacity may not exist as the creation of a sorcerer, but of a higher being such as a god or a dragon.

Magic and Abilities
Homunculi are often created with unique traits such as super-strength, agility, dexterity, imperviousness, and other physical abilities that allow them to serve as bodyguards, soldiers, assassins, or laborers for their master. Other homunculi may be granted the capability for magic, able to learn, remember, and cast spells, which requires a soul or the ability to absorb mana to fuel magic. Various abilities can be granted to a homunculus depending on the skill and need of their creator.

Personality
As many homunculi are mind-slaves of their master, they are extensions of their master and exist only to serve a purpose, leaving them to be little more than mindless dolls or automatons. Depending on the design, some homunculi may have a semblance of a personality to serve a purpose—such as being an intermediary for the sorcerer, or a recreation of a loved one. The exceptionally rare homunculus with free agency and an amount of free will may have more depth to their personality, but fail to express normal emotion or possess creativity.

Play-Ability
Homunculi should not typically be considered playable characters. Most homunculi are extensions of their master, and therefore would be NPCs. The average sorcerer/necromancer would not be able to create a homunculus, and those who are able would likely be exceptionally experienced, powerful, and intelligent. Such a sorcerer may ideally be a moderator-controlled NPC, as would their homunculi. As normal, such characters will be judged on a case-by-case basis.