Warforged

Warforged, as the name implies, are beings magically made to wage war. They were created in ancient times by the bizarre Intellectuals as elite troops in the revolt against the mind flayers.
Today, the warforged still value battle, especially for causes of justice and freedom, but many have explored other professions, and modern warforged are as varied in their capabilities as any humanoid.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Warforged in old times often had names that described their military roles and physical attributes, and this tradition has not died, but modern warforged sometimes take intellectual, human, kenku, or dragonborn names.

History

Long ago, the ten greatest sages of the Intellectuals--gnome and human-descended slaves of the illithids--performed a bizarre but powerful divination ritual together that allowed each of them to learn a great secret from another world.
At the time, the Intellectuals were still forced to serve the illithids, and this act was done in the hopes of finding some advantage. One intriguing secret was the instructions for building a construct with humanoid-level intelligence.
These sages, with the help of several Intellectual revolutionaries, built a hundred of these Warforged, and taught them all the secret of creation, but forbid that they teach it to their children to prevent too many from being built. A few years later there were thousands of them, and by then a massive revolt against the mind flayers had already begun.
Throughout the war more were built, and after, still more created, with some having non-military skills. The warforged have been completely free ever since, as the Intellectuals abhor the concept of slavery.
However, as the generations that new the secret of Warforged building die out, and as some of the original 100 warforged have died in accidents or mind flayer assassinations, the Warforged population has been in slow decline. If any Warforged were to find the ancient document that gave the Secret of Building, they would be considered a great hero.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Warforged are closest to the Intellectuals, without which they would not exist, and who fought alongside them in the rebellion against the mind flayers. Some warforged struggle to trust humans, who have a history of treating them as objects or slaves.