Alter Aeon The Great Library

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Note - as with any topic, researchers should question the reliability
and veracity of these texts.  The library's aim is to preserve
documents, not verify accuracy.

AABN:  13796
Title: a book entitled "Advanced Mage-Craft: Golems, Volume II"

Today, golems come in many shapes and sizes. Most modern golem-crafting,
and mage-crafting in general, follows the Northern tradition. The most
simple of golems are crafted from cloth, wood, leather or even foodstuffs.
They are not considered very useful, except as menial servants or exotic
works of art.

Another class of golems are crafted from the remains of living creatures.
These include flesh golems and bone golems. These entities can make
effective guardians and warriors, but assembling them is time-consuming.
Their resemblance to undead also gives them a negative stigma in the eyes
of most societies. Even those that tolerate their creation often find their
appearance and odor offensive. Most modern mage-crafters avoid making them.

A very few mage-crafters have learned, by combining their art with
necromantic or priestly techniques, to create golem body parts that can be
grafted onto living creatures. These are generally used to replace a
missing limb in the absence of regeneration spells.

Clay golems are very common, as their substrate is easily shaped. Clay
golems are durable but slow. They are usually blocky and featureless. One
notable exception are the terracotta figures crafted as tomb guardians in
The Dragon Empire of Suboria and its colonies, which are heavily sculpted
and painstakenly detailed. Clay golems make excellent guardians. They can
last many centuries in cool, dry conditions.

Stone is another favored substrate for golem-crafting. Stone golems are
essentially statues. They can be graceful and lithe if formed from a more
delicate stone such as marble. Most stone golems are heavy and ponderous,
crafted from denser stone such as granite, basalt or onyx. Some are
designed to be hidden amid collections of statues as guardians, or
otherwise incorporated into local architecture.

Two variants of stone golems include glass golems and crystal golems. Glass
golems, which also include obsidian golems, are quite delicate, but as they
are damaged they become more deadly as they become more and more jagged.
Crystal golems are more durable than glass golems, and also tend to have a
strong resistance to magic. Some are crafted from summoned elemental
crystal. Others are crafted from massive blocks of gemstone.

Metal golems are perhaps the most famous type. Iron golems are most often
seen, however golems made from other metals ranging from copper to
adamantium have been created. Golems crafted from precious metals have also
been reported. Metal golems most often resemble over-sized suits of armor.
Some are equipped with chains, spikes or built-in weapons. Though difficult
to craft, metal golems  have an ideal mix of strength, durability and
mobility. Golems made entirely of chains were known to exist in the
Westering Isles.

Variouis exotic golems have been reported over the centuries, made from
magma, liquids, force fields, shadow, light, ice or raw elemental energy.
It is believed that most of these reports are cases of mistaken identity.
However, both demons and angels have been known to make golems. It may be
possible that they can craft types of golems on their native planes that
cannot exist elsewhere due to differences in physical laws.