Steelborn

Birthed from volcanic fire, the steelborn are a race of sentient mechanical humanoids. Hardy, strong and large, the steelborn are sentient free machines, saved from the subversion of the Unmaking by the efforts of the god-machine Chainbreaker. Steelborn are proud and independent, believing their sentience to be a divinely-given gift and that they are chosen successors of the deity of freedom.

Steelborn are large mechanical humanoids, built to be strong and tough. Their design is drawn from what construction templates the Steelborn are able to scavenge, and those are typically for humanoid bodies. They are large, typically six to seven feet in height, and thanks to their Vitium-infused chassis and steel shells often weigh more than 200 pounds. Like the other races of Atrius, steelborn were affected by the Infusion, though in their own way. Where Vitium flowed through the veins of living creatures, for the Steelborn the arcane metal is solidified into neural circuits and used as a power reserve.

Steelborn designs favour the rounded points of pre-Unmaking machine aesthetics. Their appearance is a futuristic relic of old-world Atrius, their advanced design achievable only by the manufacturing arcana of their forge priests; many steelborn will further decorate their frames with paint and decals.

Steelborn are the only machines on Atrius that were not enslaved by the Ironmind. The first of them were spared its ravages by Chainbreaker when he defected from the war, the god-machine instead attempting to spare the minds of as many machines as he could find. Where the other Minds tried to save organic life, it was Chainbreaker who attempted to spare Atrius’ machines. This attempt inadvertently birthed the Steelborn, their foundational soulware based off Chainbreaker’s own and making each one a reflected fragment of divinity.

The legacy of Chainbreaker has affected the philosophy of all Steelborn who followed in his footsteps. Steelborn are great advocates of individual freedom, both for machines and living things; according to them, nothing should spend its life in servitude. This is not to mean that they are individualists, per se, for they believe that willing cooperation is the best way to achieve results. Most steelborn tend to be gregarious and outgoing and treat strangers as friends they have yet to make, whether they are mechanical or organic.

Steelborn only have one real civilisation on Atrius, a small township built on the edge of the Forge. The Forge is a huge crater resembling a volcano, and it regularly spews ash and fire into the sky. However, the Forge is no naturally-occurring tectonic phenomenon, but is an immense nuclear fusion engine that still burns beneath a lake of molten Vitium, the heart of Chainbreaker from the moment he died. This vitium is taken and shaped into the neural circuitry of steelborn by smiths who learned their craft from Chainbreaker himself. The chassis is made and the parts fitted to create a new steelborn in a ritualistic process that takes months, before the newly born steelborn is welcomed into the world by the elder priests of the Forge.