Age: 5
Race: Homunculus
Height: 154 cm
Weight: 260 kg
Physical Description: Marina has a traditionally made ceramic body, resembling that of a human girl in the middle teens. She (technically "it") can pass for a dark-skinned human at a distance, but upon closer inspection it becomes apparent that she's a stylised clay doll. Her standard attire consists of a navy blue, knee-long gothic dress, with a frilly white gown peeking out from underneath her collar, sleeves and skirt. She also wears black dress shoes and opaque white stockings.
Possessions:
- Large platinum medallion with an image of the Justice Hall engraved on it. It is a symbol of allegiance to the Judges. It appears to be hanging on a chain around her neck, but the chain actually goes through her neck, mainly to prevent the medallion from being lost or palmed.
- Signed document that lists her as a familiar of a certain battlemage named Lucullus. The document is intended to be shown to the Guard in case of any misunderstandings. She doesn't carry it around on her person, but has a small rune printed on her forearm that allows her to summon and dismiss it at will.
Powers or Strengths:
- Ceramic Body: Marina has all the properties of a non-organic creature. She doesn't eat or sleep, doesn't get tired, and doesn't fall ill. Her body also has a number of advantages particular to clay: it doesn't burn in fire, it doesn't conduct lightning and it doesn't mind freezing temperatures, which makes Marina resistant to many forms of elemental magic and environmental hazards. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she can take a swim in a pit of magma and then walk away as if nothing happened. Moreover, even if her body gets smashed, she can still use her voice and magic so long as her phylactery is intact.
- Pleasant Personality: Marina is cheerful, friendly and optimistic on a level that humans are incapable of reaching. She interprets everything favorably, trusts everyone, is always honest, and always agrees when asked for help. She is also completely unaffected by insults and provocation, and can maintain a good-natured conversation with the most spiteful and unsocial of people. Anger and hatred are not in her spectrum of emotions.
- Space Manipulation Magic: Marina can levitate her body and float around at walking speed, which is her preferred method of locomotion. She has also a powerful teleporting ability - she can teleport to any place on Pal Tahrenor that she knows the geographic coordinates of (latitude and longitude). However, she needs to know the coordinates of the place she's teleporting to very precisely. Teleporting somewhere using incorrect coordinates can make her appear in the wrong place at best and completely vanish at worst. Below is a list of locations she currently knows and can safely use.
- Marn - In front of Justice Hall
- Marn - In front of northern bridge
- Shim - Inside of Foreign Project workshop
- Shim - In front of Red Chalice
- Ji - Inside of Terracotta Warrior Hall (for emergency escapes)
- Terracotta Warrior Hall: Like all traditionally made, non-combatant homunculi, Marina has access to the Terracotta Warrior Hall for purposes of self-defense. She can summon up to two non-sentient terracotta warriors from the Hall to any location in her view. The warriors fight like professional human soldiers and are equipped with a variety of eastern melee weapons, bows or even firearms, making them rather formidable. Marina's algorithms tend to make her lean away from violence, so she will only summon the defenders when she is in actual or potential danger.
- Powerful Masters: Marina is the pet project of some very influential people in Marn. Should someone do something bad to her, the masters will come into the picture and correct the situation. And they're not likely to be pretty about it.
Weaknesses:
- Ceramic Body: While otherwise quite sturdy, clay is very susceptible to any kind of blunt trauma. Simply bumping into a solid object can cause cracks; being struck by a blunt weapon is certain to do considerable damage. It's not intended for any serious physical tasks - lifting anything heavier than around twenty kilograms will cause her arms to break off, and running can make her feet crack. Since her joints are also made of clay and move in small jerks because of the friction, Marina has trouble with performing fine movements, and is generally stiff and clumsy. It's also best to watch your feet around her, because if a stoneware statue accidentally steps on your toes...
- Eerie Appearance: Besides the technical problems her body brings about, it also makes her stand out in a negative way. Even someone with no knowledge on the subject can tell that she's a magical construct, and anyone who can sense magic will instantly recognise her as undead. Neither of these qualities is much appreciated in Puradynic communities such as Marn. Magophobia aside, homunculi can be unnerving to Eyropans, since western wizards don't usually create artificial minions with pleasant intentions.
- No Common Sense: Marina is still a product in development, and her thought process is not very polished. She sometimes makes irrational mistakes, misinterprets obvious situations and reacts to events inappropriately. This is normal for a young homunculus, and residents of Tian Xia have a lot of tolerance for this kind of behavior. However, Marn is not in Tian Xia; people here aren't familiar with the issue and can therefore easily take offense. For some reason, she often leaves out pronouns when speaking, which can make her hard to understand.
- Naive: She tends not to suspect, even when there are clear reasons to do so. Instead of preparing for a worst-case scenario, she naturally expects the best-case scenario, and becomes surprised when it doesn't happen. While she certainly knows how to doubt (it's all there in the algorithms), she doesn't see the need to be cautious nearly as much as is sensible. She trusts even the most shady people unconditionally, and only put up her guard when they say something that contradicts with her memories (i. e. something she certainly knows to be a lie). This also has to do with her mind being a work in progress.
- No Fighting Abilities: Like most traditional homunculi, Marina is not capable of personal combat. Since she weights a quarter of a tonne, her tackle can break bones; but if someone allows themselves to be hit by something like that, it's solely their own fault.
History:
Entry: March 3, 127 PW
I've received a letter from an alchemist, inviting me to work on a homunculus project. It's going to be one of those anonymous ones I've heard about. We'll set up a specific workshop and lay down a boundary field that will distort our voices and appearances. Not only does that greatly increase the security of the project, but it also prevents personal relations from getting in the way and ruining everything, like what happened last time. I like the idea, but I've yet to find out where the project will be based.
Entry: March 9, 127 PW
He made contact again. Or is it a she? The alias is ambiguous. Anyway, the workshop will be set up in Marn, which is beyond the border. He said he has connections there, but I'm not sure how much that'll help against the Puradynic magophobes they have for a government. I was assured that there'll be no problem and our work will be undisturbed. According to him, both funding and security are already assured. If that's the case, this will be the first ever seriously attempted foreign homunculus project. Someone out there must really want a new toy.
Entry: March 11, 127 PW
We've decided to call the foreign project Foreign Project. We've also designated an anonymous title system. He's sir Alpha, and I'm sir Beta. The project group is "the Gentlemen". All very nice and simple, just the way I like it.
Entry: March 23, 127 PW
I was informed that the workshop is ready. I have the exact location, it's in the basement of a house in a village near Marn. We are to begin individual preparations to leave.
Entry: April 5, 127 PW
We've met at the workshop and made ourselves comfortable. Sir Alpha has prepared a stationary teleportation rune for future ease of access. With it, we can warp in and out of the workshop at long distances, so that our identities are safe and unnecessary attention to the house is not attracted.
Entry: April 6, 127 PW
I was introduced to sir Gamma. He's not a mage, but a good mathematician. A rather self-important fellow, though; I hope his ego won't get in the way of work.
Entry: April 7, 127 PW
I've prepared a phylactery, as well as everything I need for an active soul beacon. Since the beacon takes a bit of time to work, I'll try to save us some time and begin tomorrow. Asked sir Alpha to set up some additional isolation barriers around the workshop so that the process won't attract the attention of any magic-sensitive villagers.
Entry: April 8, 127 PW
I've set up the beacon. It should attract a random soul from the astral plane within a few days.
Entry: April 9, 127 PW
We've already got a catch. It's the soul of some hard-to-identify monster from Tzalxochitl. This beacon sure pulls in some strange stuff sometimes. Not that it matters much it this case; we'll begin the purging ritual tomorrow.
Entry: April 10, 127 PW
I've set on the beacon with the soul on sir Alpha's purging rune. We have to wait for a whole week before the soul is completely clean, but it's bad to be impatient with things like this, so we'll wait as long as necessary.
Entry: April 11, 127 PW
I was introduced to sir Delta, the sculptor. A rather pleasant guy; apparently it's his first time working on a magical project, so he's really excited. He doesn't seem very afraid to be caught by the local authorities, though. Sir Alpha sure knows how to persuade people.
Entry: April 12, 127 PW
We've begun to look at different variants for the body while we wait for the soul purge to complete. Since sir Delta is a doll maker, we figured we should go with something humanoid. Sir Gamma said he had something particular in mind, and that he would bring a picture tomorrow. I'm a bit curious.
Entry: April 13, 127 PW
Sir Gamma brought a painting of a well-dressed human girl in her early teens. I pointed out that it would be bad to use a living person as a model for a homunculus, because there will be problems if they happen to meet each other. However, sir Gamma assured that the girl in the picture was long dead, so I suppose that's not a problem. Sir Delta was happy with the picture because it was well within the area of his sculpting expertise. Sir Alpha and myself didn't have any objections, so we all agreed to settle on the girl in the picture for a body model.
Entry: April 14, 127 PW
Sir Delta has brought his tools and materials to the workshop and started making the body. The rest of us can only wait for him and the purging rune to finish their work.
Entry: April 19, 127 PW
I've made sure that the soul is completely clean and transplanted it from the beacon to the phylactery. Sir Gamma was very eager to begin working on the mind, but I let him know that making a homunculus self-aware before giving it a body can have negative long-term consequences. We have to wait for sir Delta to finish the body.
Entry: April 30, 127 PW
The body is done and assembled. It looks to be of excellent quality and has a compartment for the phylactery, just like I asked. I've inserted the phylactery inside the pocket in the body's chest, after sir Alpha arranged a rune to make sure the crystal stays where it should be. Two eyes ignited in the eye sockets, but nothing else happened. This is a sign that the soul was purged correctly and completely. So far so good.
Entry: May 1, 127 PW
Sir Gamma can finally start working on the mind. Today, he has brought entire tomes of his writings. It appears that he has been preparing algorithms for a long time before the actual project started. I have to check the algorithms and make sure they're correctly structured. There are several thousand pages in total, so this will take time.
Entry: May 25, 127 PW
I've read through the algorithms and they appear to be functional individually, but it's impossible to say for sure if they will all work together as intended. When trying new mind patterns for homunculi, it's important to move forward formula by formula and thoroughly check for conflicts. Dumping an entire library on a clean soul will surely irreversibly tangle up the creature's thought process. I had to explain this to sir Gamma, who seems to be a bit overeager. He agreed to my argument and picked out the algorithms for rudimentary mental functions; the first that should be implemented. Sir Alpha will imprint them on the homunculus' soul tomorrow.
Entry: May 26, 127 PW
Today was a great success. We could make the homunculus move its limbs and walk around the workshop. Sir Delta had thoughtfully procured a dictionary and a sentence structure textbook, upon reading which the creature could talk in basic terms. I've had to tamper with the phylactery to change its voice pitch, so that it better corresponded to the young-looking body. We've also realised that we haven't given the homunculus a name yet. Sir Gamma proposed to name it Marina, after the girl on the painting. Nobody had any objections. So, today is the day we brought Marina to life. She even called me "grandpa". Cute.
...
Entry: December 2, 126 PW
Sir Delta has completed a set of molds for Marina's bodyparts. He said that should her body sustain damage, he can repair or even completely replace it with minimal effort using these molds.
...
Entry: January 10, 124 PW
We've gradually implemented almost all of sir Gamma's formulas, and made her read libraries of literature. Our work is starting to show results. She can now hold a coherent conversation on virtually any subject, and precisely read facial expressions and body language. However, her experience up until now has been purely theoretical, aside from sir Alpha's training with illusions. The next step in the development is getting her out of the workshop, meet real people and get into real situations. After this point, only real memories and experiences will polish and stabilise her behavior patterns.
Entry: January 11, 124 PW
I've discussed my thoughts with the others; they agree. However, before we let her out of the workshop, we must take a number of precautionary measures. Sir Delta will get her some clothes that are in fashion, and sir Gamma find a way to make sure she is not randomly apprehended by the local authorities. Additionally, I will teach her some traditional homunculus magic, including levitation and Hall Warrior conjuration.
Entry: January 14, 124 PW
Sir Gamma has procured platinum medallion and a signed document. These items apparently hold authority with the Marnian law enforcement. The document is signed by a battlemage named Lucullus, and states that Marina is his familiar. According to sir Gamma's explanation, battlemagi are legally privileged group, so the city guard will not be able to arrest Marina for breaking the Marnian magic law as long as she can show this document. The medallion is of a type worn by local nobles and officials, so the Guard, and indeed Marnians in general, will be more reluctant to confront her if she wears it. Provided that these items are genuine, sir Gamma sure has a lot of influence. When sir Alpha once mentioned that he has "connections" in Marn, I assumed he meant underground connections, but looks like I was underestimating him.
Entry: January 18, 124 PW
Sir Alpha has designed a coordinate-based teleportation spell that Marina can use to move to certain locations around the world. After discussing with me, he decided that we should limit the number of places she can teleport to, or we risk losing track of her. The workshop, as well as some convenient locations around Marn and Shim will suffice. I've also added in the coordinates of the Warrior Hall back in Ji, but she's only allowed to use this if the entire project is somehow compromised.
Entry: January 19, 124 PW
Sir Delta has procured a set of clothes for Marina. With these, she looks a little bit human. Cute.
Entry: January 23, 124 PW
We ran a test run of her magic today. She can do everything we taught her smoothly. With this, we've done everything we can to prepare her for the society. However, there's one thing I'm worried about. Her overall personality is too friendly and trusting. I'm not sure if sir Gamma did this on purpose when he constructed the algorithms, but it will have to be corrected at some point, because it's dangerous in the long run.
Entry: January 24, 124 PW
I've voiced my concerns, but sir Alpha assured me that prolonged contact with society will iron out the issue. Homunculi never repeat the same mistake twice, that much is true. What I'm worried about is how she will handle situations where you don't get a second chance. I suppose I'll just have to trust sir Alpha's judgement. We'll let her take a walk around the city tomorrow and see what happens.
...
Entry: September 6, 123 PW
Marina is developing smoothly. The security items sir Gamma provided are doing their job well; there have been no problems with the law. Furthermore, she's doing surprisingly well out in the open society. At this rate, she will accumulate enough worldly experience to be considered a complete product within just a few more years. My worries might have been unfounded, but we can't let our guard down until the very end.
NPCs
- Sir Alpha: An anonymous alchemist working for the Foreign Project. He is the leader of the Gentlemen and has responsibilities in all areas. There are no details known about him.
- Sir Beta: An anonymous necromancer working for the Foreign Project. He is responsible for maintaining and developing Marina's phylactery. He has worked on many homunculi before and has deep knowledge and experience on the subject.
- Sir Gamma: An anonymous mathematician working for the Foreign Project. He is responsible for maintaining and developing Marina's mind. He has proved himself to have much political power in Marn, so he is presumed to be a Judge or someone with comparable influence. Seems to be the most interested in the project out of all the Gentlemen.
- Sir Delta: An anonymous sculptor working for the Foreign Project. He is responsible for maintaining Marina's body and wardrobe. While not a mage, his uncannily accurate observations hint that he is a creature of supreme intuition.
- Lucullus: An obscure battlemage used as a decoy master for Marina. He has never shown himself, so his existence is debatable.
