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Created through a mixture of advanced science, alchemy, and sometimes magic, Homunculi are an understudied and under-created field of new beings. As artificial flesh and life, they are oftentimes created to emulate humans in testing, or complete tasks which more traditionally made people are assumed too important for. Homunculi are without souls, and more often than not assumed to be without connection to the world or closeness to others which defines the common idea of humanity and being. Despite this, as more morally dubious elements create Homunculi, more of them break free and seem to develop a sense of identity or independent purpose, inadvertently beginning to resemble those human urges that the world accuses them of lacking.
Methods of Creation
The creation of Homunculi is an art that is rarely commonly known. Oftentimes, the greater details of their creation are squirreled away in dusty laboratories or hidden crypts. The precise history and intent of the first created Homunculi are similarly widely unknown, and the history of them across the world is completely understudied. Beyond this, most Homunculi fit into a few creation categories.
| Alchemically Brewed |
The most common way for a Homunculus to be made is by alchemy, with various ingredients precisely measured, and oftentimes stitched together, to create the final product. The classical idea of this is something emerging from a cauldron, but in reality, even alchemical Homunculi are designed in ways that are quite tragic. |
| Magically Crafted |
Some mages use Magic to either substitute or accelerate the process in which a Homunculus is made. In practice, this has very little effect on the results. Those crafted by alchemy are very similar to those crafted by magic. However, the sort of mage who decides to create artificial life can be a much harsher creator than one who uses alchemy. |
These two means of creation can be mixed in with one another in various ways, but the result is always the same, as life and the laws around it are so complex that people can usually only reach the same skeleton. Some Arken and Dukes create Homunculi for their purposes, but the methods which they use are not understood and they do not often care to share them.
Design
Homunculi are organic and can appear like any of the organic Heritages. They are also always humanoid. This disallows appearing like Orion, Bralona, and also Slizzar, as the shapeshifting nature of Slizzar makes them impossible to replicate. Similarly, as Demons do not have bodies, Homunculi cannot be made in the image of them nor made to look like them. This does not mean Homunculi can only appear as passingly normal, though they can look nearly indistinguishable from non-Homunculi. Creators often leave marks on Homunculi, such as stitches, or distinctive features that set them apart from normal people, like horns or a tail. Homunculi themselves are as intelligent as anyone with a soul but are distinctly never childlike. A Homunculi is usually inserted with artificial memories, or given knowledge about the world from inception, enough so that there is never a point where a Homunculi is childish. They instinctively and intellectually know of the world as their creator did, so properly experiencing the world might still provoke a sense of adventure in them, but Homunculi are incapable of being children, and that includes acting as one. Homunculi through creation are usually implanted with rules or laws that prevent them from doing certain things, decided on by their creator. Magical creators tend to mind thrall their Homunculi, but there are myriad stories of a Homunculus breaking free and fleeing from or killing their creator despite this. There is one rule, however, that is implanted in the creation of Homunculi that they can never break. No Homunculus is capable of creating more of its kind. A Homunculus can only be made by something with a soul, so no artificial person can reproduce or expand in any way.
Homunculi Mechanics
Homunculi can take their mechanics from any Heritage, aside from Bralona, Orion, Slizzar or Urlan. They can be counted as half-Heritage or full, but they follow the usual creation rules relating to taking mechanics from other Heritages. Homunculi also have access to standard mechanics.
| Soulless Being |
You do not need to breathe air or eat, but still experience Water Penalty. You are immune to any diseases and illnesses, even magical ones, but can still be a carrier of them. |
| Greater Regeneration |
You are incredibly hard to kill and can, while out of combat, regenerate from even a limb or a digit within an hour. Lost limbs can be regenerated in a matter of seconds. You still feel pain. Only magically disassembling you or burning you can kill you properly. |
| Soul Dampened |
Whether due to a lack of a soul, or a soul that is well hidden or protected, mechanics that would affect your soul cannot affect you. Your emotions cannot be read or altered, your memories cannot be tampered with, and you cannot be mind-controlled or thralled by Vampires. |
Homunculi Legality
Homunculi are not accepted as people by any state. They are barely understood by Regalian bureaucracy, but even the act of creating them is considered a morally repugnant way to play god. Though it is not illegal to create Homunculi, it is always a very private and hidden act in Regalia since it’s a moral and political landmine waiting to explode. Every major entity understands that if someone starts mass producing Homunculi, they will likely be the one to make the act itself illegal. It is believed that Homunculi will never gain widespread recognition as people in Regalia, nor receive legal protection. This is primarily because it is fundamentally impossible to establish whether Homunculi possess personhood, given that they lack souls. Their absence of recognized personhood allows them to be used as test subjects without ethical concerns. Some Homunculi refuse to be seen as normal individuals, either out of pride in their superiority or because they realize that being viewed as real people reduces the chances of creating more Homunculi.
Backgrounds
Homunculi are not commonly made, but the people who make them can still be quite varied, and the different artistry necessary is widespread. Some examples of Homunculi backstories are included below, but these are suggestions and not mandatory.
Bel-Hammon Issil
“Issil” is the Altalar term for an artificial person. Bel-Hammon elves frequently create Homunculi as expendable lab assistants or creatures that exist to have spells or injections tested on them. Some of the Issil escape the laboratories they were kept in and flee to the outside world, frequently gaining a lot of trauma and hate for the Allorn as a result.
Herzog’s Guard
The Lothar Order, until very recently, was the only major Regalian organization that created Homunculi due to their generally good record in avoiding consequences. The Herzog’s Guard was a way to create expendable soldiers for the Order against their many enemies. Many of these created Homunculi either betrayed the order or were bitten by Vampires, forming the Herzoger Coven. Despite this, successes in the field have led to Homunculi and their keepers trying to expand the Herzog’s Guard into a full Lothar Chapter.
Blacksigil Testing
The Blacksigil Society has been very quietly creating Homunculi since its inception. The political landmine of creating artificial life is not lost on them, so most of these Homunculi live their lives in labs waiting for the moment to break free, or as servants to enact more dangerous jobs. The Homunculi that do escape rarely choose to speak about their creation since it means admitting to being an artificial person.
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