Poppet
Poppets are small, basic constructs that typically help their owners with simple tasks. Occasionally, poppets gain sapience, independence, and a spark of life. Elevated beyond mere helpers or playthings, these poppets are free to chart their own destinies.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Living poppets are both humanoids and constructs, which gives them some of the benefits and drawbacks of each category. Their bodies are usually made of wood and wicker, but they can be made of cloth, leather, tin, stuffing, or delicate clockwork. Either way, poppets burn or melt quickly and must take care to avoid fire. They virtually never look alike, as each is created from unique and unusual circumstances.
Poppets are fully alert and self-aware when they awaken to sentience; although they might not know much at first, they instantly gain intelligence and consciousness. They must breathe and sleep, and they must consume food and water each day; through a sort of magical digestion they can restore rips, tears, or scuffs in their physical form. Poppets don't age the same way fleshy creatures do, but they slowly wear down in physical form as well as in mental acuity. A poppet that tends to their body and mind (and takes care to avoid fire) can live up to 30 years.
Behaviour
Ordinary poppets are built as helpers and companions, and awakened poppets tend to retain this drive to aid others. They're therefore generally good, and more poppets are lawful than chaotic. Some spend their time trying to uncover secrets of their creation, find others like them, or keep out of trouble; these poppets are generally neutral in alignment.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Free-willed poppets are so rare that almost no such poppet has met another. Poppets normally live with larger creatures, though not always their creators, and tend to get along well in societies sized for larger creatures. Most live in cities because that's where toy makers, clockwork crafters, and other specialists have their shops, but poppets created by lonely hermits or reclusive inventors might prefer a life in the wilderness.
Poppets often stay on the lookout for other creatures who, like them, have stumbled into self-awareness. They might have regular conversations with animated objects, golems, houseplants, statues, or toys, in which they're deeply polite out of a desire to leave a good impression for the time when the object “wakes up.”
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Poppets generally choose their own names, usually descriptive nicknames based on their materials, patterns, size, or demeanor. They tend to pick up and shed nicknames throughout their lives, and they happily adopt nicknames given to them by people they like. A poppet fashioned to look like a particular person, such as a doll sewn to resemble a deceased child, might proudly take the name of that person.
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Common
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