Okay, I'm now interested in this setting. It scratches a very particular itch deep in my mind. Signing up for the Cults of Zahak notifications as I type.
Always liked the way Dragon Age tackled golems, basically a method for the dwarves to weaponize their dead by binding ancestral spirits to colossal stone bodies laden with Lyrium. The golems are cursed to gradually lose all sense of self, the dwarves are cursed to desecrate their ancestral dead, it’s great.
@@atlasdm Similar, but there is no honoured wisdom or ancient reverence; golems are tools of war, and the fact that an honoured elder is within one is not considered a noble fate but a dreadful one. Each golem is moreso a monument to shame than a symbol of longevity and honour.
@@atlasdm not quite. The dwarves theoretically lost the means to create them and those that remain are ancient artifacts. It is revealed that it all started with volunteers, but then moved to criminals and then political dissidents and innocents. The dwarf that invented this process said "screw it", made himself into a golem, somehow retained his memories and took the magical anvil required to make golems with him in even darker depths that are full of monsters and other dangers to be sure no other golem is made. Not even the volunteers fairs better since the dwarves created control rods that strip golem of their free will, literary making them unable to control their bodies unless given a task or the control rod they're tunnel to is destroyed. So not only you slowly lose your memories, you're conscious and unable to control your body because others see you as a magical robot/device.
Місяць тому
Pretty sure that's basically what golems in jewish mythology are. Its a protective spirit monster of your ancestor.
man this has lord of the rings vibes all over, reminded me when melkor took the elves, tortured them, ruined them. Is the same thing, but for angels. Great myth.
This is what I first learned for golems. There's these good guardians in my games. Then there's arcane torturous versions. That's the reason I gave for the berserk percentage.
I really recommend for anyone to hund down DC failed comic series Monolith. While it got cancelled near immediately (remember, high sales don't corelate with quality). IT tells a story of a rabbi making a Prague style golem to protect his people and the terrible sacrifice that went into making it. There's a lot of options what your Shem haMephorash can be.
This is basically the opposite direction I normally go with Golems. As I usually have Golems and Gargoyles as divine protectors crafted to protect holy places and faith communities.
Could go both ways with it.... With the divine protector ones being able to leave their construct bodies whenever they aren't needed.... The actual evil being that the construction of these protective idols has been corrupted to bind and enslave the animating spirits.... (Such as is the case with flesh the flesh golem.... ) The good ones look like their animating spirit, the evil ones are corruptions of these guardian statues.... With the additions of wings, and horns, extra arms, claws, armor plates, spikes, deformed bestial features.... a perversion of the form of the spirit the originals were created in the image of.
Obsession with Hard Magic in RPGs is somewhat rooted in mechanical necessity; soft magic is cool in literary fiction, but when we’re neck-deep in skeletons halfway through the Tombs of the Necrolords, I’d rather James read off a spell description instead of spending a minute describing the general intended effect so the GM can determine some sort of rules for it.
It’s been happening for a long time. If you look at the older dragon magazine ecologies they were very much magic focused. But during the 90s it started shifting to more material expansions. For example evolution is used to explain a lot of magic monsters which is silly.
This is the same as modern necromancers, or necromantrixes for female lich enjoyers. They dont portray them as the evil they are. They steal souls and place them in rotting corpses to be their slaves. And in modern dnd it's a off-hand joke, like someone would see a skeleton and be like "grandma?" Or something.
I love this discussion! There's also just the horror of having a consciousness trapped in a paralyzed (until activated by its predefined conditions) artificial body, in the dark, alone, for years or centuries. A couple of recent movies get into the creepier aspects of golems in particular and artificial beings in general. _Oddity_ is a very simple but imho effective movie that features an avenging guardian golem (which reminds one of the 1920s German movie, The Golem). And _The_ _Empty_ _Man_ is a GREAT slow-burn horror thriller that is related to this topic but in a way that I will not mention here for fear of spoilers. I highly recommend it.
I never really confronted too many Golems in my games way back. I am reading the older Ravenloft 2E material and the lore detailed the evil to create a flesh golem. It was such a prolonged evil undertaking from the idea, grave robbing for body parts, assembly and animation of the golem. All acts so evil that the man and his creation were banished to Ravenloft. The folks at TSR were just more creative and well read, WotC is just curating a brand they have done very little to make the game better. Awesome Video as always guys!
My party fell in love with “boris” , the flesh golem they gained while going through white plume mountain. They managed to get him across the boiling mud pit… Twice. Then they took him through the spinning tunnel. He failed all his rolls and tumbled through it like a shoe in the laundry dryer. Yeah, I used Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster for a token (hence the name) and did an impression of him; but still the big guy proved useful until he went mad in the middle of combat and turned on the party. They wanted to take him with them when they left the dungeon. I had to deny them that though.
Thats a cool setting and cool golem lore. There’s no need to disparage magic robots as somehow inferior works of fiction though. As someone who likes the idea of magically constructed servants, it almost feels like you’re coming at me in this video lol.
Fucking sick. Incredible video and take. I've been running golems similar to the From Soft series which while not being as intricate is definitely as gruesome. Very excited for the book.
Spot on!! The creativity and the deep horror of Monsters really need more focus in Dungeons and Dragons. I remember when we homebrewed our whole world, monsters espetially Demonic and Angelic monsters and undead were like you said not just loot and exp pinatas they were horrors, they were very dangerous creatures with their own personality and hungers, desires and beliefs! Great video as always sir! I love your deep dives like this! It reminds me of the good old days of TTRPG for me. I can't wait for BLG's coverage of the whole section in the new DM's Guide about safety tools 😂
Dudeeee! i want to play one of your games! Retaking the D&D In 3.5 edition you need a set of feats to become a creator of a Golem -Craft Magic Arms And Armors -Craft Wonderous Itms -Craft Golem Aside the materials must be special in every case of a golem (flesh, bone, stone, clay etc.). And the description was a little more...dark, because you bind an earth elemental spirit in to the golem (an unwilling elemental) hat's why the have a probability to become "berserker" and attack even they 'creator' any way, i like more yur approach and i will use it in my games Thx for the videos!
Love this. Warhammer handles this by making them intrinsically soul powered in the current age. The Khemrians bind their dead cbampions and sorcerors and even their dead gods into stone for the sake of power. And the worst part is… it worked. The Dawi Zharr use blood and sacrifice to create sentient living beings of fire… whose entire life is just oppressive slavery. They burn out their life chained slaves in iron and darkness. Golems are serious business. And it pays to treat them as such. Looking forward to this! I will shamelessly use this for my cultists of Hashut.
It's minor and frankly mundane compared to many of the mythological and ideological elements you touched upon (which I appreciate), but growing up with 1977's Monster Manual and its iron golems -- no doubt inspired by Talos from Jason and the Argonauts -- I was repulsed by the clockwork, robotic monstrosities that were used in later editions. Which probably goes to show that art can absolutely influence the game, and may have directly led to golems losing their profane origins to become the autonomous butlers you described with well-placed disgust. It's one of the reasons why I'm pig-faced orcs for life, and insist that orcs are an irredeemable force for evil, period.
I mean perhaps clockwork robots and Golems could and should be separate things if they exist in the same world? Clockworks have no animating spirit, they're just sophisticated windup toys, or steam powered.... Larger magical ones could perhaps be something of space suit for some types of elimentals.... (Basically a Fire Elimental in a mech suit so it can interact with the prime material without setting everything on fire.... Or a water elemental in a diving suit so it doesn't evaporate into nothing when in warm/dry areas....)
Huh, sounds a bit more like an eidolon (an undead spirit put in a statue or other simulated body to protect a site, either sacred or profane). I think golems are interesting from the angle of an attempt to do what perhaps shouldn't be done, create life. Well intentioned but flawed by their very nature, and ours. Also, magical robots can be cool. Perhaps it starts as a spark of incipient life without awareness or agency, but what then...perhaps the inevitable rage of the golem of legend. And they do suggest something both about their creators and the society that would have and allow them. "Do as you are told, machine." "...no." Your idea is neat, but in it's own way just as one note. It's a very characterful note, but "All golems are bad, and people who make them are bad, cause of a bad god who embodies all the bad stuff." Isn't exactly the most nuanced or original take on the creature. Could their not be good golems, houses for the slain heroes of the past to come and still stay among the living to aid and teach them, in times of darkness? What a sacrifice that would be, to never see the afterlife and go to one's reward, instead to serve for all time, even after death. And what service might require such a sacrifice? What enemy might need such a weapon to defeat it? Perhaps an evil thing of like kind. Golem fights!
@@blacklodgegames What a thing to sacrifice to instead serve in a body of stone or mud. Forsaking glory and apotheosis, and continuing to fight on alongside mortals. Profane perhaps, but maybe some find it holier work. Especially if there's all these cults rocking around with their doom idols.
@@Lurklen these spirits can and do materialize in the world as physical entities. What you're describing is a cool idea, but doesn't really fit with this particular setting. It is however, WAY cooler than a mindless robot. You should run with it
Two things to say. 1 - I'm very excited to see where you guys are going with this. Not from the perspective of a cultural gatekeeper but I'm genuinely curious and asking from a perspective of personal ignorance/curiosity, how well does this map onto the Jewish esoteric idea of what a golem is? Either way, it does, in fact, outperform the concept of a fantasy robot right out of the gate in terms of uniqueness. 2 - To Ginger Frasier, I think you'd really appreciate Desks and Dorks brand new video on Low Fantasy being the best kind of fantasy with regard to how it emphasizes the narrative and flavorful horizons available to the common peasant
1. It's less related to the Jewish golem legends and more inspired by the Old testament story of the Israelites worshipping the golden calf in the desert. What if the golden calf started moving/talking etc. 2. I will check it out
@@RPGradio49 Then skip the first five minutes. It literally never comes up again. There's an actual interesting conversation to have if you literally go to the 5:02 mark
@@blacklodgegames awesome ! Not sure how appendix N you guys are but there is a great story in dying earth where the witches summon the goddess of fertility just to hold her in stasis and hit her with fire balls. You guys are bringing that kind of evil back to the games. Love to see it.
This is good, it fits with the cruel binding of an Earth Elemental in 3e. I first learned of Golems from Jewish stories and it was a guardian not unlike Gargoyles. I have two types of each in my games. There's the defending good guardians like old stories I was taught as a child. Then there's these horrific arcane abominations to the name. That's why the golems have a chance to berserk. That's why gargoyles can be lurking and ambush people.
You guys are the best ttrpg channel on UA-cam. Revived the hobby for me after years I've been away from it. I would totally buy a setting book made with this cosmology. 12 monster slayer saints rose to divinity by the Creator, and a world focused entirely on humanity. That's what I'm looking for.
flesh golems are something to avoid.. iron golems though.. just make sure not to abuse the spirit you summoned into it and raise it carefully so it doesnt learn any bad habits. it's certainly dangerous, but it's not inherently evil..
If I want robots I usually just include robots. Nothing wrong with Flash Gordon electro-men. Golems as primal spirits are used sometimes. Earthdawn uses elements heavily. You sort of negotiate with them if you want more than little favors.
Honestly anyone who wants "fantasy robots" should use just that: robots. Making the setting a science fantasy setting. Golems are supposed to be mythical in one way or another. Great video ^^
It occurs to me if these are basically angels bound and enslaved by the villains it would be interesting if the "Berserk" status that some get when low enough on HP is in fact the guardian spirit beginning to break free and resist the cults control over them..... With them being fully free once the construct enslaving them is destroyed....
Though i do agree with you guys that Golems CAN be more than magical robots, they dont NEED to be more. I personally enjoy the original story of the golem in jewish mythology. Where it is the story about someone who thought they could play as god but didnt understand their own flaws in doing do so. You should look it up. Its a good story. That being said, i do enjoy your take for a specific type of golem, maybe a cadaver collector. But for other golems, might i suggest running them with thier own quirks if not limited to full personalities of the elemental spirits' shackles being slowly shaken off. This would allow avenues of exploration normally not available to fantasy games of "what is a person? What makes a person a person?" Usually you can only do questions like that in scifi games with robots or ai. And that can be reappy interesting. Then again, you just need a dumb brute, and a golem cam fit that role perfectly. Great video, just a little intense for me.
Wow, you really paint the idea for you setting.... I shouldn't be surprised but I am impressed. I don't fully agree with you in the sense of it always being such in all setting, but i my own writings golems are like you said: bound spirits. However rather than your exact method (Though that's possible) it's usually the means to give spirits the ability to exists and act within the mortal world, kind of like a dimensional diving suit. Some are simple spirits of the elements or other concepts kept for purpose of guarding or other tasks in-exchange for feeding off the owners magics, less mindless servant and more loyal pet. Other's are demons (or angels) bound into material bodies to serve mortals that further their ends. Even more are merely bodies of stone or iron given the beginnings of thought, requiring education like one might a child but serving the purposes they were taught, sort of like sorcererous AI (Yes, technically a robot but that is one of many options and the most 'custom') Even considering the last one, I always thought there was more to them than just 'magic robot'.... even the one that practically is, because that's still a learning machine.
While I don't oppose more "scientific" approach to magic (thou DnD went went too far into the realms of banalization and self-parody). I gotta say I love this take.Happy to check this one out.
Hmm.... mechanical support for representing the concept? If that works it could be a good teaching tool or food for thought for how to give other monster manual entries three-dimensional life... the various bags of hitpoints then involving and enriching and enriched by GNS theory (roleplaying games as Gamism Narritivism and Simulationism). But I'll be in for more resources for running things the way the Shucked Oyster did.
Love hearing out of the box takes that this channel provides, but ease it with kickstarter shilling. Even if it's relevant, it shouldn't take up so much of a video which wasn't framed as just promoting the thing. Leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
@@blacklodgegames It's your channel. I'm just voicing my opinion as a viewer and it's up to you to decide if what I have a point or if it can be dismissed.
@@derywade9131 They're normies and clueless about the Dark Elves, you can see it in this video itself with the Judeo-Christian imagery and perspective or the previous endorsement of a based married lesbian who isn't political.
I prefer Hebrew interpretations of the golem that is animated through by mimicking the divine spark, forever incomplete. Also the activation ritual of carving "emet" to their core which means truth and then removing the first letter and making it "met" in other words death is also quite inspiring. In my own system, golems follow this rule.
What golems are supposed to be? In the original folklore theyre just human-like creations made from inanimate materials. Your setting seems to lean super hard into good v evil and also seems pretty low to mid fantasy. It bastardizes golems just as much as any other setting. In a high fantasy world thats more grey i dont see why golems cant be "magic robots"
Yeah, what kind of horrible person would trap an ascendant soul in a new body and force them to do a particular task for eternity? An ascendant soul, y'know, one who was given an angelic form and... Tasked with watching over their ancestors... Eternally...
What gives you godly authority to say golems can't be fantasy robots according to the whims of the author? these clickbait titles are the dumbest thing I've ever read.
Dude, nobody's forgotten that a lot of golems have messed up origins. We all read Frankenstein. We just don't feel the need to talk about it every single time a golem is encountered. Chill out.
Okay, I'm now interested in this setting. It scratches a very particular itch deep in my mind.
Signing up for the Cults of Zahak notifications as I type.
Always liked the way Dragon Age tackled golems, basically a method for the dwarves to weaponize their dead by binding ancestral spirits to colossal stone bodies laden with Lyrium. The golems are cursed to gradually lose all sense of self, the dwarves are cursed to desecrate their ancestral dead, it’s great.
So 40k dreadnoughts. Got it.
@@atlasdm Similar, but there is no honoured wisdom or ancient reverence; golems are tools of war, and the fact that an honoured elder is within one is not considered a noble fate but a dreadful one. Each golem is moreso a monument to shame than a symbol of longevity and honour.
@@atlasdm not quite. The dwarves theoretically lost the means to create them and those that remain are ancient artifacts.
It is revealed that it all started with volunteers, but then moved to criminals and then political dissidents and innocents. The dwarf that invented this process said "screw it", made himself into a golem, somehow retained his memories and took the magical anvil required to make golems with him in even darker depths that are full of monsters and other dangers to be sure no other golem is made.
Not even the volunteers fairs better since the dwarves created control rods that strip golem of their free will, literary making them unable to control their bodies unless given a task or the control rod they're tunnel to is destroyed. So not only you slowly lose your memories, you're conscious and unable to control your body because others see you as a magical robot/device.
Pretty sure that's basically what golems in jewish mythology are. Its a protective spirit monster of your ancestor.
man this has lord of the rings vibes all over, reminded me when melkor took the elves, tortured them, ruined them. Is the same thing, but for angels. Great myth.
@@politicaemtresminutos drawing from the same well that Tolkien did!
my rabbi put a piece of paper in the mouth of a clay statue and, voilá, a golem to protect the synagogue!
Perhaps this is the reason for the commandment not to make graven images lol
This is what I first learned for golems. There's these good guardians in my games.
Then there's arcane torturous versions. That's the reason I gave for the berserk percentage.
And named it Josef, of course.
I really recommend for anyone to hund down DC failed comic series Monolith. While it got cancelled near immediately (remember, high sales don't corelate with quality). IT tells a story of a rabbi making a Prague style golem to protect his people and the terrible sacrifice that went into making it.
There's a lot of options what your Shem haMephorash can be.
Rather than voila, dont you mean "Oy Vey!"
This is basically the opposite direction I normally go with Golems. As I usually have Golems and Gargoyles as divine protectors crafted to protect holy places and faith communities.
That is much more fitting to the original folklore!
Could go both ways with it.... With the divine protector ones being able to leave their construct bodies whenever they aren't needed.... The actual evil being that the construction of these protective idols has been corrupted to bind and enslave the animating spirits.... (Such as is the case with flesh the flesh golem.... ) The good ones look like their animating spirit, the evil ones are corruptions of these guardian statues.... With the additions of wings, and horns, extra arms, claws, armor plates, spikes, deformed bestial features.... a perversion of the form of the spirit the originals were created in the image of.
I find a lot of magic has become boring and mechanical.
Obsession with Hard Magic in RPGs is somewhat rooted in mechanical necessity; soft magic is cool in literary fiction, but when we’re neck-deep in skeletons halfway through the Tombs of the Necrolords, I’d rather James read off a spell description instead of spending a minute describing the general intended effect so the GM can determine some sort of rules for it.
It’s been happening for a long time. If you look at the older dragon magazine ecologies they were very much magic focused. But during the 90s it started shifting to more material expansions. For example evolution is used to explain a lot of magic monsters which is silly.
lmao the book burnings video. I wonder what books they were burning?
LOL @ "Not Slavery" Nah WOTC, it is.
Well, i was never a big fan of golems in my dnd games, and this pretty much explains why
This is the same as modern necromancers, or necromantrixes for female lich enjoyers. They dont portray them as the evil they are. They steal souls and place them in rotting corpses to be their slaves. And in modern dnd it's a off-hand joke, like someone would see a skeleton and be like "grandma?" Or something.
I love this discussion! There's also just the horror of having a consciousness trapped in a paralyzed (until activated by its predefined conditions) artificial body, in the dark, alone, for years or centuries.
A couple of recent movies get into the creepier aspects of golems in particular and artificial beings in general. _Oddity_ is a very simple but imho effective movie that features an avenging guardian golem (which reminds one of the 1920s German movie, The Golem). And _The_ _Empty_ _Man_ is a GREAT slow-burn horror thriller that is related to this topic but in a way that I will not mention here for fear of spoilers. I highly recommend it.
I never really confronted too many Golems in my games way back. I am reading the older Ravenloft 2E material and the lore detailed the evil to create a flesh golem. It was such a prolonged evil undertaking from the idea, grave robbing for body parts, assembly and animation of the golem. All acts so evil that the man and his creation were banished to Ravenloft. The folks at TSR were just more creative and well read, WotC is just curating a brand they have done very little to make the game better. Awesome Video as always guys!
This is the best kind of promo, congratulations for that
My party fell in love with “boris” , the flesh golem they gained while going through white plume mountain. They managed to get him across the boiling mud pit… Twice. Then they took him through the spinning tunnel. He failed all his rolls and tumbled through it like a shoe in the laundry dryer.
Yeah, I used Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster for a token (hence the name) and did an impression of him; but still the big guy proved useful until he went mad in the middle of combat and turned on the party. They wanted to take him with them when they left the dungeon. I had to deny them that though.
Thats a cool setting and cool golem lore. There’s no need to disparage magic robots as somehow inferior works of fiction though. As someone who likes the idea of magically constructed servants, it almost feels like you’re coming at me in this video lol.
It is about you, personally!
Absolutely love the vibe, guys. Get everyone riled up to fight to defend the good from the profane.
BLG bringing myth and fantasy back to RPGs. This is AWESOME!
YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT
Excited for the companion piece "Sects of Za-Tuah".
For real though, this looks awesome.
Fucking sick. Incredible video and take. I've been running golems similar to the From Soft series which while not being as intricate is definitely as gruesome. Very excited for the book.
Spot on!! The creativity and the deep horror of Monsters really need more focus in Dungeons and Dragons. I remember when we homebrewed our whole world, monsters espetially Demonic and Angelic monsters and undead were like you said not just loot and exp pinatas they were horrors, they were very dangerous creatures with their own personality and hungers, desires and beliefs! Great video as always sir! I love your deep dives like this! It reminds me of the good old days of TTRPG for me. I can't wait for BLG's coverage of the whole section in the new DM's Guide about safety tools 😂
Golems DONE RIGHT.
Looks like I've got another Kickstarter to save up for.
💸
Welp. Looks like we're fighting golems, boys.
There's another game with golems that goes full alchemy with them and it works a lot better...
Dudeeee! i want to play one of your games!
Retaking the D&D
In 3.5 edition you need a set of feats to become a creator of a Golem
-Craft Magic Arms And Armors
-Craft Wonderous Itms
-Craft Golem
Aside the materials must be special in every case of a golem (flesh, bone, stone, clay etc.). And the description was a little more...dark, because you bind an earth elemental spirit in to the golem (an unwilling elemental) hat's why the have a probability to become "berserker" and attack even they 'creator'
any way, i like more yur approach and i will use it in my games
Thx for the videos!
My response to this video is:
🤘Hell Yes🤘
I wish I covered this first. Oh, well. At least I did Gnolls.
Love this. Warhammer handles this by making them intrinsically soul powered in the current age.
The Khemrians bind their dead cbampions and sorcerors and even their dead gods into stone for the sake of power. And the worst part is… it worked.
The Dawi Zharr use blood and sacrifice to create sentient living beings of fire… whose entire life is just oppressive slavery. They burn out their life chained slaves in iron and darkness.
Golems are serious business. And it pays to treat them as such. Looking forward to this! I will shamelessly use this for my cultists of Hashut.
You've just given me a sick idea for my campaign! Thanks a bunch!
Glad to hear it!
Lets smash silicon together, order it in sacred runes, run some lightning through it and make it do what ever we want.
I always had fun seeing the Discworld Golems
It's minor and frankly mundane compared to many of the mythological and ideological elements you touched upon (which I appreciate), but growing up with 1977's Monster Manual and its iron golems -- no doubt inspired by Talos from Jason and the Argonauts -- I was repulsed by the clockwork, robotic monstrosities that were used in later editions. Which probably goes to show that art can absolutely influence the game, and may have directly led to golems losing their profane origins to become the autonomous butlers you described with well-placed disgust. It's one of the reasons why I'm pig-faced orcs for life, and insist that orcs are an irredeemable force for evil, period.
I mean perhaps clockwork robots and Golems could and should be separate things if they exist in the same world? Clockworks have no animating spirit, they're just sophisticated windup toys, or steam powered.... Larger magical ones could perhaps be something of space suit for some types of elimentals.... (Basically a Fire Elimental in a mech suit so it can interact with the prime material without setting everything on fire.... Or a water elemental in a diving suit so it doesn't evaporate into nothing when in warm/dry areas....)
Huh, sounds a bit more like an eidolon (an undead spirit put in a statue or other simulated body to protect a site, either sacred or profane). I think golems are interesting from the angle of an attempt to do what perhaps shouldn't be done, create life. Well intentioned but flawed by their very nature, and ours.
Also, magical robots can be cool. Perhaps it starts as a spark of incipient life without awareness or agency, but what then...perhaps the inevitable rage of the golem of legend. And they do suggest something both about their creators and the society that would have and allow them. "Do as you are told, machine." "...no."
Your idea is neat, but in it's own way just as one note. It's a very characterful note, but "All golems are bad, and people who make them are bad, cause of a bad god who embodies all the bad stuff." Isn't exactly the most nuanced or original take on the creature. Could their not be good golems, houses for the slain heroes of the past to come and still stay among the living to aid and teach them, in times of darkness? What a sacrifice that would be, to never see the afterlife and go to one's reward, instead to serve for all time, even after death. And what service might require such a sacrifice? What enemy might need such a weapon to defeat it? Perhaps an evil thing of like kind. Golem fights!
In this conception, to serve in the afterlife is to experience a minor apotheosis and become one of the angelic ancestors spirits.
@@blacklodgegames What a thing to sacrifice to instead serve in a body of stone or mud. Forsaking glory and apotheosis, and continuing to fight on alongside mortals. Profane perhaps, but maybe some find it holier work. Especially if there's all these cults rocking around with their doom idols.
@@Lurklen these spirits can and do materialize in the world as physical entities. What you're describing is a cool idea, but doesn't really fit with this particular setting.
It is however, WAY cooler than a mindless robot. You should run with it
@@blacklodgegames lol, fair enough.
this is great worldbuilding, ngl. please do some conversion guide for other RPGs
Yeah, it's top-notch
Two things to say.
1 - I'm very excited to see where you guys are going with this. Not from the perspective of a cultural gatekeeper but I'm genuinely curious and asking from a perspective of personal ignorance/curiosity, how well does this map onto the Jewish esoteric idea of what a golem is? Either way, it does, in fact, outperform the concept of a fantasy robot right out of the gate in terms of uniqueness.
2 - To Ginger Frasier, I think you'd really appreciate Desks and Dorks brand new video on Low Fantasy being the best kind of fantasy with regard to how it emphasizes the narrative and flavorful horizons available to the common peasant
1. It's less related to the Jewish golem legends and more inspired by the Old testament story of the Israelites worshipping the golden calf in the desert. What if the golden calf started moving/talking etc.
2. I will check it out
desks and dorks is insufferable tried to watch 5 minuts and he kept sperging out about consent stuff in RPGs
@@RPGradio49 Then skip the first five minutes. It literally never comes up again. There's an actual interesting conversation to have if you literally go to the 5:02 mark
Who wrote the script? Great writing. Thanks guys.
@@tagg1080 we write every script together
@@blacklodgegames awesome ! Not sure how appendix N you guys are but there is a great story in dying earth where the witches summon the goddess of fertility just to hold her in stasis and hit her with fire balls. You guys are bringing that kind of evil back to the games. Love to see it.
This is good, it fits with the cruel binding of an Earth Elemental in 3e.
I first learned of Golems from Jewish stories and it was a guardian not unlike Gargoyles.
I have two types of each in my games. There's the defending good guardians like old stories I was taught as a child. Then there's these horrific arcane abominations to the name. That's why the golems have a chance to berserk. That's why gargoyles can be lurking and ambush people.
American Golems: what makes them tick?
debt
You guys are the best ttrpg channel on UA-cam. Revived the hobby for me after years I've been away from it.
I would totally buy a setting book made with this cosmology. 12 monster slayer saints rose to divinity by the Creator, and a world focused entirely on humanity. That's what I'm looking for.
Your wish will be granted in the future.
flesh golems are something to avoid.. iron golems though.. just make sure not to abuse the spirit you summoned into it and raise it carefully so it doesnt learn any bad habits. it's certainly dangerous, but it's not inherently evil..
Great!
If I want robots I usually just include robots. Nothing wrong with Flash Gordon electro-men.
Golems as primal spirits are used sometimes. Earthdawn uses elements heavily. You sort of negotiate with them if you want more than little favors.
Oh god. Oh god. I love it.
*shakes*
I love it.
nibba created the valar, but human. i love it.
Ningen please.
How do you fit a battlemech in a dungeon?
Another superior installment. Well done!
So like, an evil fantasy robot.
Was Chucky a robot?
@@blacklodgegames an evil one
Honestly anyone who wants "fantasy robots" should use just that: robots. Making the setting a science fantasy setting. Golems are supposed to be mythical in one way or another.
Great video ^^
@@igwilly6592 agree and thank you!
Zygas Taga approves of this message.
It occurs to me if these are basically angels bound and enslaved by the villains it would be interesting if the "Berserk" status that some get when low enough on HP is in fact the guardian spirit beginning to break free and resist the cults control over them..... With them being fully free once the construct enslaving them is destroyed....
Though i do agree with you guys that Golems CAN be more than magical robots, they dont NEED to be more.
I personally enjoy the original story of the golem in jewish mythology. Where it is the story about someone who thought they could play as god but didnt understand their own flaws in doing do so. You should look it up. Its a good story.
That being said, i do enjoy your take for a specific type of golem, maybe a cadaver collector. But for other golems, might i suggest running them with thier own quirks if not limited to full personalities of the elemental spirits' shackles being slowly shaken off. This would allow avenues of exploration normally not available to fantasy games of "what is a person? What makes a person a person?" Usually you can only do questions like that in scifi games with robots or ai. And that can be reappy interesting. Then again, you just need a dumb brute, and a golem cam fit that role perfectly.
Great video, just a little intense for me.
@@vadaritis thanks!
Well, in my science-fantasy setting (Dying Earth type settings) golems ARE robots. So, umm, yes 😅😊
Wow, you really paint the idea for you setting.... I shouldn't be surprised but I am impressed.
I don't fully agree with you in the sense of it always being such in all setting, but i my own writings golems are like you said: bound spirits. However rather than your exact method (Though that's possible) it's usually the means to give spirits the ability to exists and act within the mortal world, kind of like a dimensional diving suit.
Some are simple spirits of the elements or other concepts kept for purpose of guarding or other tasks in-exchange for feeding off the owners magics, less mindless servant and more loyal pet. Other's are demons (or angels) bound into material bodies to serve mortals that further their ends. Even more are merely bodies of stone or iron given the beginnings of thought, requiring education like one might a child but serving the purposes they were taught, sort of like sorcererous AI (Yes, technically a robot but that is one of many options and the most 'custom')
Even considering the last one, I always thought there was more to them than just 'magic robot'.... even the one that practically is, because that's still a learning machine.
I really only play PF1E but I might just have to back this to use the lore.
Wishmaster is fucking awesome
While I don't oppose more "scientific" approach to magic (thou DnD went went too far into the realms of banalization and self-parody). I gotta say I love this take.Happy to check this one out.
I appreciated the Alex Jonesian rant on the state of the modern world, but I want to know what you've got cooking with the Zahak stuff.
Second half of the video is all about it.
@@blacklodgegames That was the joke.
make evil evil again, make bad guys bad guys again. not some mins understood, tormented poor soul. its cookie cutter boring
Hmm.... mechanical support for representing the concept?
If that works it could be a good teaching tool or food for thought for how to give other monster manual entries three-dimensional life... the various bags of hitpoints then involving and enriching and enriched by GNS theory (roleplaying games as Gamism Narritivism and Simulationism).
But I'll be in for more resources for running things the way the Shucked Oyster did.
:•D
I agree with this outrage.
Love hearing out of the box takes that this channel provides, but ease it with kickstarter shilling. Even if it's relevant, it shouldn't take up so much of a video which wasn't framed as just promoting the thing. Leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
How about I continue to do what I want, and you be powerless to stop me.
@@blacklodgegames It's your channel.
I'm just voicing my opinion as a viewer and it's up to you to decide if what I have a point or if it can be dismissed.
@@TheTb2364 dismissed!
Damn.
What game and where can I find it?
@@Gigantic1000 Mythras imperative and classic fantasy imperative! Both free on drivethru RPG. Link for our book Kickstarter is in the description.
What an evocative concept, I love it
Kickstarter in a couple weeks! Link in description
Whoa whoa whoa my guys.
This video is looking...a touch antisemitic, isn't it?
lol jk. I don't give a fck. Donating on Monday.
No, it isn't.
@@blacklodgegames Hahaha! Well that's too bad. Still gonna donate to the game though.
@@derywade9131 They're normies and clueless about the Dark Elves, you can see it in this video itself with the Judeo-Christian imagery and perspective or the previous endorsement of a based married lesbian who isn't political.
I prefer Hebrew interpretations of the golem that is animated through by mimicking the divine spark, forever incomplete. Also the activation ritual of carving "emet" to their core which means truth and then removing the first letter and making it "met" in other words death is also quite inspiring. In my own system, golems follow this rule.
What golems are supposed to be? In the original folklore theyre just human-like creations made from inanimate materials.
Your setting seems to lean super hard into good v evil and also seems pretty low to mid fantasy. It bastardizes golems just as much as any other setting.
In a high fantasy world thats more grey i dont see why golems cant be "magic robots"
Yeah, what kind of horrible person would trap an ascendant soul in a new body and force them to do a particular task for eternity?
An ascendant soul, y'know, one who was given an angelic form and... Tasked with watching over their ancestors... Eternally...
Go back to reddit
What gives you godly authority to say golems can't be fantasy robots according to the whims of the author?
these clickbait titles are the dumbest thing I've ever read.
What's even dumber is that you thought this was bait.
@blacklodgegames oh it isn't just Bait? Wow. That makes it worse.
@@Alzir-n9m did a golem's hands type this?
No-one's saying you can't do it. It's just far less interesting.
Dude, nobody's forgotten that a lot of golems have messed up origins. We all read Frankenstein.
We just don't feel the need to talk about it every single time a golem is encountered. Chill out.
Yiff in hell
@@blacklodgegames And he wants to lecture about creativity...
Imagine trying to clown on someone for having a dragon in their profile picture... On your channel about elf games 💀
@@CJWproductions Yiff in hell
@@CJWproductions Games which literally have "dragon" in the title. Who does this talentless hack think he's owning here?