[3.5] What gives a warforged life?

[Primal Fury]

I suppose I'm asking more about what makes a creature with the "living construct" subtype alive where a regular construct is not. Why is a max-level Renegade Master Maker alive but a Green Star Adept is not? What is a warforged doing to itself to become a full construct when it's becoming a Warforged Juggernaut?

[GrayDeath]

Wood.

And getting rid of it.

[el minster]

Magic, it's a construct

[Grim Portent]

What exactly makes a warforged alive in the way they are is left purposefully vague, they're supposed to draw on themes relating to the ambiguity relating to when something that isn't traditionally seen as a person becomes a person, like in many sci-fi stories featuring androids.

The mechanical effects of them being living constructs is mostly attributed to the use of Livewood in their construction, along with the methods of creating them being different from conventional golems. Livewood IIRC stays alive even after being chopped down, carved and used to make something, it makes up a lot of the core of the warforged and makes them more akin to an organic living being than a clay or iron golem. The livewood heals damage inflicted on it and makes them susceptible to energies that normal golems wouldn't be affected by.

That said warforged might also have a soul, which could be the source of at least some of their unique properties, physical and mental.

[sktarq]

Whatever gives you useful worldbuilding, adventure, or thematic materials to build with for YOUR game.

There is no one right answer.

you can even change it between campaigns set in the same world if you wish if the tone or BBEG is different and it is relevant in some way....

For example... if there are going to be lots of Quori they could have some "dream given life" basis and that is bound to the physical body the same way elemental spirits drive golems...assuming you want involve the Warforged in some way...and what dreams could even be important...if they are "Dreams of the dragon Ebberon" or "dreams of nature" that are given life they would have a different thematic feel (and may promote the 3.5 Stormhold Warforged Druid prestige class for example as opposed to if they are from the same plane as the Quori themselves could give them a different thematic feel (natural defenders vs invader spirits type things)

or they could be a Frankenstein like creation of spirit that needs their body to maintain functionality to continue to mimic a truly living thing. While something like a Green star adept has moved beyond the concept of "living" and thus no longer counts.

They could be any number of things.

pick what helps you out and then figure out what interesting consequences that makes

[LibraryOgre]

They don't know.

To my mind, warforged are kind of like the geth... they're sort of accidentally people. They weren't necessarily designed to be fully sentient with free will, but now they have it, and no one is really sure of the implications of that.

[Primal Fury]

So it's left up to interpretation intentionally. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing some kind of... Taxonomy of Eberron book where it's explained. This is good though; I can work with this.

Thanks you guys.

[GrayDeath]

Well, no.

There are 3 more or less "sure facts" that are put out in severyal books.

1.: Their Core is made of Livewood. Without it, no Warforged.
2.: The Creation Forges do "something" to the area/its Magic/free flying souls. Without them, no Warforged (except somehow the renegade Mastermaker).
3.: Some times Dead peoples Souls are reawakened/bound to Warforged (my source states that as mostly theory).

But if you are looking for a clear, mechanically reproducable explanation....sorry.
After all, they didnt even conclusively answer if they have souls (something my newest Warforged Character is trying toi find out atm, as he is stranded on a high tech world and plans to make more of his kind....).

Maybe that one Xendrik Adventure Collection has it? Dont have them myself....

[Nifft]

They get life from the patron of Artifice and Trickery: the Traveler.

This is 100% unsupported but only because the Traveler destroyed all records which could confirm this as truth.

[Psyren]

I suppose I'm asking more about what makes a creature with the "living construct" subtype alive where a regular construct is not.

A Con score

Why is a max-level Renegade Master Maker alive but a Green Star Adept is not?

Quite honestly, I think if "living construct" had been conceived back then, they would have used that for the GSA.

What is a warforged doing to itself to become a full construct when it's becoming a Warforged Juggernaut?

Unclear; they "distance themselves from living creatures" and "embrace the construct parts of their heritage" and that's as clear as it gets.

[KillianHawkeye]

They don't know.

To my mind, warforged are kind of like the geth... they're sort of accidentally people. They weren't necessarily designed to be fully sentient with free will, but now they have it, and no one is really sure of the implications of that.

"Does this unit have a soul?"

[Chauncymancer]

I suppose I'm asking more about what makes a creature with the "living construct" subtype alive where a regular construct is not. Why is a max-level Renegade Master Maker alive but a Green Star Adept is not? What is a warforged doing to itself to become a full construct when it's becoming a Warforged Juggernaut?

There is actually a canonical answer to this question, but its the twist ending of a WotC adventure path surrounding the mystery of how Creation Forges work.
Unfortunately I don't remember how that one ends, but most people didn't play that adventure so just make up what you want it'll be fine.

[Imbalance]

Would "livewood" be pronounced with a long or short "i" sound?

[GrayDeath]

Long methinks.

[chainer1216]

Eberron is the setting that doesn't have answers and each game has it's own "canon" I believe the "most canon" explanation is that the original warforged were built in Xen'drik during the age of giants, their purpose was to house Quori spirits fleeing the dream realm to escape the turning of ages into a nightmare era. And if I'm remembering correctly a novel hinted at modern warforged are inhabited by the souls of dead people pulled from the afterlife.

Basically they're all robocops.

[Pleh]

In a game where trains and floating airships are created through the binding of elementals with khyber crystals, I halfway figured they were probably binding some kind of soul to the warforged's livewood core.