Androids are artificial humans created through a combination of advanced alchemy and magic. Their bodies are grown in labs and imbued with living souls. They do not operate properly alone, however, and a residual magic remains within them to manage their organic processes. They have logical, inquiring natures but lack an inherent understanding of others and their emotions. The Android ancestry can be found in Pathfinder Lost Omens Ancestry Guide.
Basic Information
Androids tend to resemble humans, but can be made in the image of any humanoid species. Normally, the only visual distinction between an android and a human is their eyes, which lack irises. The pupil expands and contracts on its own. Some androids can change this to blend in more with humanoids, although it is still possible to distinguish them on further inspection. Androids that make use of their magic cause their arteries and veins to glow, which makes it immediately obvious that they are androids.
When an android grows old, they release their soul to the afterlife, and the magic in their body slowly rebuilds it until it is in the same condition as when they first came out of the lab where they were born. This is the only way androids can reproduce, as they are infertile, and they greatly value it.
Androids are created fully grown and fluent in their creator's language, but otherwise lacking knowledge of the world. As they age, their bodies deteriorate slightly, though slower than a human ages. They lose function only slightly over time.
Additional Information
Androids can all see in low-light conditions, and some are designed to see in complete darkness, or to have some other special sense such as an alertness to danger.
Civilization and Culture
Androids are almost universally assigned names related to their roles, often accompanied by a number. Their humanoid associates sometimes give them nicknames derived from their assigned names.
The creation of the androids was what Emperor Cydnin considered his penultimate accomplishment, just below the artificial titans that would lead to his downfall. They came after centuries of development of the art of building constructs, aided by the Cyrdian Empire's best scholars and alchemists. Their predecessors, automatons, gave artificial bodies to already-living souls, but the invention of androids allowed the empire to produce numerous workers and soldiers in a short time, and greatly boosted the nation's military and economic might.
Most android in the Cyrdian Empire are treated as slaves, forced to fulfill a role assigned to them by their creators. The occasional distinguished android can earn their freedom, but are still second-class citizens, devoid of some of the rights that other humanoids have. Being fully-sentient beings in their own right, the androids see the unfairness in this, but the momentum required for a rebellion has yet to build.
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