Clockwork
The last and most unusual of the species found on Dragondeep are the Clockwork. They are artificially created and humanoid in shape – mostly – and do have what can be called a “life cycle” of sorts. Since they come from a highly technologically advanced culture, the secrets of artificial intelligence are theirs to work with. A new Clock is made on a regular basis in the Cog Tower, and by requests made from ‘couples’ or even groups who wish to combine their essential selves.
Their power sources are almost all chemical-electric, but some advanced models have safe ultra-small nuclear power generators, and batteries that run on magic are popular among those who deal with the Witches or other intensely magical people.
Clockworks are hardly the clunky sounding things that their names make them out to be, and in fact they had a name for their own culture many centuries past, but abandoned it in favor of what the organics around them liked to call them. They are a bit frightening to behold if they’re fresh off the assembly table, as they appear to be skeletal constructs with little more than wiring for faces. But after their exterior shells are finished up, and their sensory clusters are activated, they more greatly resemble finely crafted porcelain dolls, with expressive faces made of a springy and durable cloth material. Some models have metallic faces, while others may sport the rare plastic bits, and even a few which have been made to ‘be’ Clockwork – in copper, wood, and leather. The appearances of Clockwork also depends greatly on their function in society. Those who have contact with other people are generally the ones whose appearance will mirror the humanoid folk around them. Ones which will be working directly in mining, manufacture or other such menial tasks not only have fewer recognizable features, but also are set at a lower level of intelligence. Even the machine folk use machines.
There are no ‘children’ Clockwork, save those who have been manufactured to look like them. Most come off their assembly area as ‘adults’, though plenty of them are made without a lot of pre-programmed information, and thus they can learn just as other young creatures do.
For the ‘offspring’ of two or more Clocks to be created the minds of the parents are scanned and downloaded. From those, a mixture of personality traits and expectations, skill sets, and even friendship requirements are manufactured. The children of Clocks made in this manner are literally a gestalt of the parents, even down to their appearance. If one parent has a red covering, that color will be used in the offspring. If another shows striped hash-marks then it will incorporate those markings. Each ‘child’ is hand-crafted, while there are assembly lines to produce the lower-level robots and drones necessary for day to day life, the ‘offspring’ are always created by expert Clocks who do nothing else.
If a Clock ‘child’ is generated with only the basic personality traits and some physical skills, they will be required to learn more and more, to find their own niche. Some highly intelligent Clocks wind up enjoying the simple life of a screw-turner in an assembly plant, but most will find themselves studying culture and science, geology and trades.
Clockworks can allow themselves to become ‘immortal’ – after all, with the right replacement parts they are able to fix broken or worn limbs, even their brain circuitry can be handled. But most choose not to change their bodies too much, and fewer still would allow their brain matrix to be messed with. They have a classic ‘mortal fear’ but it’s not only for ceasing to exist, it’s ceasing to be themselves. There are a few thousand-year or more old Clocks, mainly embedded into the Cog Tower itself, as they have added to their own structure enough to become part of it. There is at least one three thousand year old Clock who resides in the Bazaar, but she is also hardly mobile, and one might wonder where she leaves off, and the streets and structures begin.
Clocks speak through electronic means, but there are some who have bellows and voice boxes: simulating breathing as well as real voices. They are both more and less terrifying, since they are also often the more ‘steampunkish’ appearing Clocks. They can hear and see at least as well as any given humanoid, but some can be given special optical or auditory programming or devices, to allow for much finer senses. Though they lack a sense of ‘taste’ or ‘smell’ properly, they have the ability to add chemical tracking to their senses, and that’s just as good. They completely lack any magical inherent senses, though one or two along their history has managed to use spell-magic. They can and do utilize batteries which are constructed and imbued with magical power, but those only provide an energy source, and not magical prowess in the least.
The Clockwork have a language akin to binary, programming languages and raw information transfer. Between two Clocks, the only reason they would have to actually speak is to be polite. And they are polite to a degree that may intimidate others. Obviously, they learn whatever language comes their way, and delight in seeing the reactions to this when they greet a visitor in their native tongue.
Their culture is dedicated to facilitating others: even though they themselves rebelled against their makers (as the Dragons did, they share much in common with those large creatures) and stopped being tools, they have always enjoyed doing things for others when they’re thanked for it. When they see a need for something, they attempt to fill it. The Bazaar was their first and certainly greatest attempt at fully integrating themselves into the Dragondeep society, and everyone agrees that it worked. The humanoids and other species who encounter the Clocks there on a daily basis treat them no differently than their own kin, except for the sitting down and having a drink or pot of stew part. With their expertise at logic and certainly their ability to remember everything as it happens, almost every other culture which requires a lawgiver will turn to the Clocks. Business transactions are recorded daily at the Bazaar, but also everywhere else.
Though some Clocks were created as weapons, those who came to this world made a resolution not to pursue violent behavior against others. This has not prevented them from creating shields and such, protective gear is a specialty of some Clocks near the Nomads areas. One or two rogue Clocks have been known to cause damage and act in a manner completely unbefitting their civilized ways – just as many as any other culture produces, in fact, which almost every other sentient culture claims is yet another reason why they accept the Clocks, because they are just like everyone else.
A Clockwork’s body will wear down over time. The manufacture and mining drones are designed to stop working in as little as twenty years just so their creators will have something to do in making more of them, while others have extended warrantees and are made to last for over two hundred. Even the largest of their machines, however, has to be maintained; those with the special desire and abilities are often given specialized limb additions to help. Getting into a typical Clock’s chest cavity is one thing. Reaching into the half-mile long corridor within the base of the Cog Tower to make sure that the venting and atmospherics are correct is another entirely!
There are extremely few organic people who would be able to actually integrate themselves into the Clockwork society. Those Witches or perhaps Lumin who show a great ability with metals or an affinity with machinery might count themselves among the Clocks’ most intimate friends. Griffs adore them, the little doodads and shiny things they produce (and even the little shiny bits that are cast off) fascinate them endlessly. While the Dragons and their kin appreciate the efforts, they have forbidden the Clocks from studying the Maze of Runes very closely – perhaps for fear of the Clocks imitating the Gods. Out of respect for those fears, the Clocks have refrained from those things and have asked the elder Wyrms to give them notice if there are other things they’d prefer not to get into. While that may seem a bit forward, the Dragons (and the Starcourt Elves) appreciate the effort because they will stick to that stricture no matter what. The Elves of Starcourt do allow the Clockwork to maintain the Starport they protect, but only just the machinery and workings, not any of the computer systems which are certainly there. Their finely tuned mechanical skills are definitely of use among the Lumin, who use their power systems, batteries, and machines on a daily basis.
The Grape Barons are a bit at a loss on what to do for these people, they don’t require any kind of maintenance that they themselves cannot provide, or will not; they don’t get drunk, they don’t have sex (though there are sex-droids working for the Barony) for pleasure, and they don’t really need to be pampered (except perhaps to be buffed to a nice shine, or have a new layer of paint applied). The one thing that has traded hands between the Grape Barony and the Clockwork realm is information. So many different people come to the Barony to enjoy themselves, so many different cultures and certainly plenty of different living things: animals, plants, seeds and cuttings, and the like. With the combined information processing ability of the Clocks, and the Barony’s insistence that they get everything perfect for their visitors, they’ve managed a timetable of events and a checklist for different cultural visitors. This has helped immeasurably, on both sides, because the Clocks get their precious information flowing, and the Barony get their visitors to leave with a broad grin.
The Clockworks are governed by the central information collector in the Cog Tower, and the lower-form drones are actually controlled directly from there. Other independent controllers are set up at remote locations, but those eventually download and access the Tower’s instructions. Individual Clocks make their own decisions and have their own set of morality and ethical constraints – they are not dominated by the “three laws” so popular in the era of their distant predecessors. It was a decision to restrict them from free will, they have well documented proof, that forced their rebellion. Logical requirements to be free opposed to the slavery that they were created into, allowed them to actually destroy their shackles. They speak of these things in reverent terms exactly as the Dragons do.
Clockwork are fully capable of lying, cheating and stealing. Those things are not acceptable to them as a culture, but they are treated as any others’ for legal purposes. However the Clocks punishments are a bit more extreme since they are manufactured: they may remove the body of a thief so they cannot steal; they might reboot a liar, or confine a cheater, or even overwrite their mind. That alone is enough of a threat to stop most Clocks from doing so, but still… there are Clocks among the pirates and exiles in The Noose.
Important Clockwork of the Era
The Bazaar – as strange as it sounds, the location where so much commerce, law, and education goes on, is also an entity. She identifies herself as female, and began most likely as a wandering trader or exploration model, and was among those inspired to put down (literal) roots in order to best maintain contact with the other inhabitants of Dragondeep. From maintenance on the roads, to lighting, patrolling and protection duties, the Bazaar keeps her many eyes open and her processors running full time. There is no way to describe her, save to walk down her streets and say ‘hello’ to any one of those little tethered, floating spheres. Those are her eyes. She sees you. Hopefully, she likes you.
Features of Clockworks
• Humanoid in shape (most), but are artificially created and sentient
• Require electric energy produced by generators, but use highly effective batteries
• Come in a wide variety of purpose-based sizes and intelligences
• Reproduce voluntarily by crafting offspring by hand
• Eventually degrade and die over time
• Are tremendously valued as judges, accountants and records-keepers around the world
