The first intelligent Labori were built in the final years before the Tiagarathian Purge in one of the very few unions between dwarves and elves. Three great men and their apprentices secretly gathered in Beltar – the Archmage Romus Beltarion, the Dwarven master craftsman Fenrik Thordrukssen and the great Elvish wizard Trianna Amakiir, with the sole object of placing intelligence into the hearts and minds of the previously mindless Labori. The three laboured long and hard, barely pausing for food or sleep, but finally the first intelligent Laborus was prepared. They gave him the name of Aeschlus, beginning the tradition of giving Labori true names instead of the previous initial-number designations. After this, another six intelligent Labori were made and each was taught the method of creating their own Laborus, though they were told to do this sparingly. The Labori have spread across the world, at least partially accepted by all races, though still seen by the Tiagarathians as the mindless tools that preceded them.

Personality:

The personality of each Laborus depends largely on which Laborus served as its manufacturer and parent, though it will adopt aspects and quirks of its own. Many of them are able to adopt the personality of the mindless Labori at will, however, which allows them to avoid detection by those who may not accept a tool that can think for itself. Nearly all Labori do share some personality aspects – they will avoid battle if at all possible, but if this is unsuccessful, they will fight without mercy, adapting their plans and showing unceasing courage until either the Laborus or all her enemies lie unconscious, or dead. They are exceptionally resistant to boredom, constantly considering ways to improve their race, their lot in life, the world, or any number of other things.

Physical Description:

There ware minor variations in the appearances of all Labori, depending on the materials available to the parent Laborus, but all follow a similar pattern. While sex is irrelevant to a race which breeds by manufacturing a new version of itself, Labori build their young to loosely resemble male or female humans as a matter of personal preference. With only minor variations, all those built to resemble males are 175cm tall and all those built to resemble females are 165cm tall. They weigh around 120kg, depending on their components. A Laborus’ outer plating is nearly always polished brass, however both copper and iron are possible, as well as painted metal in various colours. They are roughly human in all proportions, though many joints feature gaps in the plating, making them far narrower, most notably in the waist and pelvis. A Laborus’ head is slightly larger than human sized and is more sharply tapered towards the chin. Often, they feature clear panels on the head for easier maintenance, but the most important variable in a Laborus’ appearance is the materials used – in poor or desperate circumstances, a parent may use anything from torn apart clocks to rubbish bin lids and industrial slag to build their ‘child’.

Relations:

The sentient Labori have good relations with everyone except the Tiagarathian government, who still believe them to be mindless despite all evidence to the contrary. They hold prejudices against mutants, whose chaotic nature annoys their order, but really they will work with anyone that they trust, or tells them to work with them loudly enough.

Alignment:

Labori tend strongly towards law rather than chaos, but have no particular opinion on the moral scale. Their alignment will usually be within one or two steps of their creators, and they rarely change the alignment they were born with.

Labori Lands:

The Labori own no lands, simply travelling the world alone searching for jobs that need doing or the ideal components to manufacture their own ‘child’. If they settle down, they most often live amongst humans rather than any other race, as they feel more comfortable with the relatives of one of their creators. They usually become skilled craftsmen and artisans, due to their great skill and experience, though in more repressed areas than just adopt the pretence of being standard Labori and perform menial tasks.

Religion:

Labori see no point in the living’s tradition and religions, living within the here and now without being concerned with the divine. Some of them make some attempts to pretend to worship, but they are not expected to and thus it is rare that they should bother. This is not to say, however, that they do not think philosophically, as Labori spend a lot of time considering the world, as previously described.

Language:

Labori speak Common and other human dialects, depending on their place of manufacture, and learn many other languages to serve as interpreters on occasion, which they are perfectly suited to doing due to an apparent lack of prejudice. There are rumours that they may speak the language of all machines, but this is but a myth encouraged by their knowledge of the machine.

Names:

A Laborus will be named whatever its parent deems appropriate, thus names range from words the parent found attractive or descriptive of the ‘child’ to human and other racial names.

Laborus Racial Traits:

• Living Construct Sub-type (Ex): Labori are constructs with the living construct sub-type. A living construct is a construct that has been given sentience and free will through the melding of advanced technology and very powerful enchantment. Labori are living constructs that combine aspects of constructs and living creatures, as described below:

Features: as a living construct a Laborus has the following features:

• A Laborus derives its Hit Dice, base attack bonus progression, saving throws and skill points from the class it selects.

Traits: A Laborus possesses the following traits.

• Unlike other constructs, a Laborus has a Constitution score

• Unlike other constructs, a Laborus does not have low-light or darkvision

• Unlike other constructs, a Laborus is not immune to mind-affecting spells and abilities.

• Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, nausea, exhaustion, effects that cause the sickened condition and energy drain
• A Laborus cannot heal damage naturally
• Unlike other constructs, Labori are subject to critical hits, non-lethal damage, stunning, ability damage, ability drain and death effects or necromancy effects.
• As living constructs, Labori can be affected by spells that target living creatures as well as by those that target constructs. Damage dealt to a Laborus can be healed by a cure light wounds spell or a repair light damage spell, for example, and a Laborus is vulnerable to both disable construct and harm. However, spells from the healing subschool and supernatural abilities that cure hit point or ability damage provide only have their normal effect to a Laborus.
• The unusual physical construction of Labori makes them vuilnerable to certain spells and effects that normally don’t affect living creatures. A Laborus takes damage from heat metal as if he were wearing metal armour. Likewise a Laborus is affected my repel metal or stone as if he were wearing metal armour. The iron in the body of a Laborus makes him vulnerable to rusting grasp. The Laborus takes 2d6 points of damage from the spell (reflex half; save DC 14 + caster’s ability modifier).
• A Laborus responds slightly differently from other living creatures when reduced to 0 hit points. A Laborus with 0 hit points is disabled, just like a living creature and can undertake a single move action or standard action in each round, but strenuous activity doesn’t risk further injury. When his hit points are less than 0 but greater than -10, a Laborus is inert and helpless and cannot perform any actions, though he or she doesn’t lose additional hit-points unless further damage is dealt to him, as a stable living creature.
• As a living construct, a Laborus can be raised or resurrected.
• A Laborus does not need to eat, sleep or breathe, but he can still benefit from the effects of consumable spells and magic items, such as potions.
• Although living constructs are not required to sleep, a Laborus wizard must rest for 8 hours before preparing spells.

• Medium: As Medium constructs, Labori have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

• Labori base land speed is 10 metres.

• Plating: The metal plating used to create a Laborus provides him with a +4 natural armour bonus, and the Laborus can also wear clothing or armour that has been specially made for him, though it costs more than standard prices. This natural armour is part of the Laborus’ body, and cannot be further enchanted without endangering the Laborus’ sentience.

• Mechanical Empathy: Labori’s great knowledge of mechanics and engineering allow her or she a Listen or Search check to notice something wrong whenever they pass within 2 meters of a broken or unusually modified machine. They also gain a +4 miscellaneous bonus on all Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering) and Mechanics checks.

• Metal Fists: A Laborus may deal 1d6 lethal damage unarmed, using his metal body as a weapon, though without training he may only treat it as a one handed weapon and can’t use it when fully laden.

• Automatic Languages: Common and a regional language.

• Favoured class: Warrior. A multiclass Laborus’ warrior class doesn’t count when determining whether he or she takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.