Thinaun and Warforged

[Lord Iames Osari]

What would happen if a warforged's body was laced with thinaun?

[kailin]

They never should have published that stupid, stupid metal.

What would happen is that if the warforged killed anyone with its unarmed attacks, their soul would get caught in its skin.

Conveniently or otherwise, the warforged's own soul (they do have souls, right? I don't play Eberron.) would also get caught by the Thinaun when he died, no matter what killed him. Unless there was already a soul in the skin.

Note that souls are essentially objects in D&D, not sentient or living creatures in any way. The body of the warforged certainly could not be animated by a soul caught in the Thinaun.

[BelkarsDagger]

I believe Warforged are animated by magic, and have naturally evolved the magic that gives them life, so, in essence, I guess they do have souls. Just made out of differ'nt stuff.

[Gnudro]

Spoilers for the Ebberron Campaign setting below (From Online Articles, Ebberron Campaign Setting, Races of Ebberron, and Secrets of Xen'Drik):















From what Ive been able to peace together from different books, there were several different types of warforged. The origional, the Quari-Forged, were created by the dream creatures of Dal'Quor in an attempt to create soldiers for their war against the giants. The Quari-Forged were made using traditional metal and armor, without special qualities, and were built only to be roughly humanoid in shape. (They weren't required to use human buildings etc, as humans weren't on the continent at the time). The Quari-Forged possessed the "Mark of Truth" will explain in more detail later.

The technology to produce the Quari-Forged was then stolen by the Giants, and their Drow slaves. Both of them produced their own warforged servants, to fight the Quori, to fight the Dragons, and to fight each other.
I haven't seen any pictures of Giant made warforged, and do not remember a mark of truth on the picture of the Drow Scorpian Warforged, although the scorpian Warforged are remarked to be intelligent.

Merix d'Cannith(The Original) then stole the technology for the creation forges from the giants. He used them to produce the Warforged Juggernauts, who though intelligent, are merely constructs, and have no real souls, (similar to other constructs, except cheaper). Merix d'Cannith would have continued to produce these military machines, if it wasn't for his son, Aaron d'Cannith. Aaron d'Cannith did some expiriments with a spare creation forge, and managed to develop the Metal/Livewood composite warforged bodies that everyone is familiar with today. Livewood is a type of tree that doesn't die when cut, when used in a creation forge, it can be made to grow into specific shapes. The livewood roots are what are used as the warforged muscle tendons. It isn't entirely known how, even by Aaron d'Cannith, but his creations started to have independant thought. They started to have souls in measurable changes. Besides the change in physical ingredients, each newly created warforged had a unique symbol engraved on their forehead. These symbols stay there, and are restored whenever the construct is repaired, these symbols cannot be removed. Dwarven magewrites working with Aaron d'Cannith named them "Symbols of Truth"

The "Symbol of Truth" seems to be a reference to traditional golem myths, where through proper ritual, and the writing of the Jewish symbol for the word "Truth" on the forehead of a clay statue, a golem would be created. To destroy the golem, you erase one of the letters, instead making the word "Death". It is hinted at throughout the campaign setting that the symbol of truth, either is, or represents the warforged souls. The Warforged of Ebberron closer fit the Golems of myth then the monster manuel golems.

Aaron's father, Merix took his new creations and adapted them for war, mass producing the warforged that are common in the setting. Aaron tried to stop his father, but was instead exiled from House Cannith. Aaron d'Cannith then went missing. Merix d'Cannith(the old one) then cared for his grandson, Merix d'Cannith(Current baron of House Cannith South). After the treaty outlawing the production of new Warforged, Merix d'Cannith(The younger), and the Lord of Blades are both continuing experiments. It is speculated that Aaron d'Cannith (if still alive) is also continuing expiriments. Some tribes of drow still have the ability to create scorpian forged.

Now, with all this said, Warforged do have a soul, but getting a construct to have a soul seems very difficult, and is either reliant on specific material choices, or very powerful psionics. Or perhaps intervention of god(s)/greater devine? It isn't ever made entirely clear. The most recent soul possessing warforged were made will live wood, and different metal composites. There is a standard composite, a mithrel composite, an adamantine composite. There is also ironwood, and no armor used. According to rules, the type of armor used does not effeect the material type of the slam attack. I think that is just game balancing, rather then game setting effect. It seems, that a warforged could be made to have a soul, and use any type of metal. The Thiniun though might block the soul from entering the warforged at all.

I just remembered, there is a feat that allows you to lace your body with silver to effect lycanthropes with your slam attack. So, there are ways of getting metal to effect the slam, although as of right now the feat choices are limited. If the thinaun was installed later, it might be possible for the warforged to function just fine, with it's slam attacks capable of trapping souls.

Or, installing later might somehow trap the mark of truth, deactivating the warforged. Or, the Thinium would keep the warforged "living" even after destruction,and able to be rebuilt.

The last possibility, that was only hinted at, is that the Thinium might be redundant. Found throughout Xen'drik are intelligent warforged components called Docent. They are usually thought of to be of giant make, but are suggested instead to have been originally made by the Quorri. One of these Docent's is called Shera. Shera has a story that she/he/it tells it's current possessor. It speaks positivley of the Quori of the past, and that the creation of Docents was for a specific purpose. Hinting that docents were either tied to, or actually are Quori spirits. Then the original creation of the warforged, the Quor-forged, wouldn't have been to create an army, but instead to create a body. To create an empty vessel to posess. The Quori later succeeded in doing this with the Inspired, and the Quori subsect, the Kalashtar managed to bond with their vessels instead of possession. If all this that Shera says is true, then the Warforged were originally intended to be a mechanism for storing a soul. Living Thinaun.

[Collin152]

I hate that metal. Soul stealing in a substance? Ultimate tool for assasins. You kill... they stay dead.

[SlyJohnny]

Thinraun has several disadvantages.

One of which, if you die while touching it, your soul is absorbed into it. You don't necessarily need to stab someone, they just need to die in contact with it.

If it died, a thinraun warforged's soul would become trapped in it's own skin, and completely inaccessible, unless it's body were totally destroyed. Which kinda precludes normal resurrection. Or someone could kill themselves while in direct contact with your corpse, I suppose.

Which brings us to the next point: one thinraun object contains one soul. If a new soul is trapped in it, the old soul gets kicked out. Thinraun weapons are good for ONE assassination job, then you lock the weapon away somewhere it won't be destroyed, stolen, or come into contact with anything that could potentially die on it.

[TheOOB]

I like the concept of the metal, but I think it should be more expensive and unable to be enchanted. The idea is you can use a dagger laced with it to kill someone, then hide away the dagger, and they can't be raised without it.