Warforged
Of the Eberron Wastelands
The warforged were primarily built to fight in the Last War. The first warforged were mindless automatons, but House Cannith devoted vast resources to improving these steel soldiers. An unexpected breakthrough produced fully sentient soldiers, blending organic and inorganic materials. Warforged are made from wood and metal, but they can feel pain and emotion. Built as weapons, they must now find a purpose beyond the war. A warforged can be a steadfast ally, a cold-hearted killing machine, or a visionary in search of purpose and meaning.Warforged were physically impressive humanoids made up of magically enchanted materials. The "skin" of a warforged was made of hardened materials such as metal or stone. Beneath this lay the skeleton, made up of similar materials, and the "musculature" of the warforged, made up of leather, wooden fibers, or any leather-like material. Throughout the warforged's body were vessels resembling the circulatory system of organic creatures, complete with a blood-like fluid. The arms of a warforged ended in hands with two fingers and a thumb while the feet of the constructs were likewise two-toed.
The faces of warforged were simple and vague in their features, with beak-like jaws, heavy brows, glowing eyes, runic markings and little else. The most important marking for any warforged was their ghulra, the primordial word for "truth", a rune distinctive to each warforged which was placed upon their forehead.
Warforged were completely sexless—though some did "adopt" genders—and were incapable of reproduction. Each warforged was individually created through ritual, like any other construct. The warforged's artificial nature also gave the race a unique relationship to pain, which seemed limited to actual injury. This allowed warforged to modify themselves with some ease, giving them a varied appearance in spite of their lack of inherent biological diversity. Warforged's artificial nature also meant they did not need to eat, drink, or breathe. Likewise, warforged did not need to sleep but did nonetheless require rest in a fully-aware state for a period of at least four hours.
Warforged took their name from their original purpose, as soldiers, and many had a dutiful attitude towards life, taking pleasure from fulfilling commands. Warforged as a whole had a strong work ethic and shared an aversion to failure. Warforged were capable of fear, often of death or pain, as much as other races and could come to hate the sources of these fears just as easily. Warforged were also capable of loyalty and joy, particularly in relations to friends and allies and could be driven to anger when their loves or goals were threatened. However, warforged as a whole exhibited a simple-minded and reserved approach to life with straightforward goals and reactionary passions.
Since warforged were created in a state of physical maturity, many exhibited a childlike perspective that was often mistaken as naïve or emotionally crippled; this was not necessarily true. Some warforged, in fact, developed a particularly sophisticated view of the world, ever curious about its mysteries in part due to the odd nature of their creation. Many wondered where they might go in death and if they even have souls. Some created deeply ordered philosophies to govern themselves or maintained a perpetual list of tasks to occupy themselves with. Others fell in with the religions and mindsets of other races. Some warforged even lived long enough to develop a deep and weathered personality as tempered by time as that of other races.
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