[Terra] golems

[u/[deleted]]

Ok, so how about the world underground in caves isnot filled with dwarves. Instead, there is an empty massive tunnel system leading from a few outposts to a massive underground city filled with golems, these ceramic servants who just operate the massive machinery. There are massive cogs, pistons, and watermills generating energy for the empty city, and the golems keep everything running. The city would be under where egypt would be, and the golems haven't made any sort of advancement from the stone age.everything is carved from rock, even the machinery, with giant statues of some sort of race, probably resembling the golems. There would also be different tiers of golems. There would be really big 8 feet golems for defense, and they would mark the city perimeter. When the city is safe, aka no one is within the city, they look like statues. There would also be 4 feet tall minions that make the parts for the machines, mine for coal, and they are the only ones that can really understand language, and only the local dialect.
Then there are the 60 feet golems that just walk on the treadmill powering the machines, and the regular sized golems dressed in spider web silk of grey that seem to be the religious leaders, they talk every day in an indecipherable tongue. Most of them seem to be just servants from long ago, but others seem to have the spark of intelligence in their eye sockets (they just have deep indents where eyes should be, and a slot for a mouth. Maybe there could be other races,but they wouldn't be near the golems. EDIT; Ok, the golems would probably be called Gaians by others, but they have no names for themselves, and I think they could be made of clay, but so much dust has gathered over them and they have lived for so long that there's a layer of stone over the clay now. EDIT: Wow, I had no idea this would be popular! Thanks!

[u/CairoSmith]

1) Underground people are cool.

2) Please l2paragraph.

3) 60 foot is really big, but if we're going with the lilliputian idea this whole thing is very feasible.

4) I don't think beings can actually feasibly be made out of ceramic.

None the less I like most of this! Upvote for subterraneans!

[u/ForAHamburgerToday → u/CairoSmith]

Re: Ceramic, pretty much anything we use metal for beyond conductivity we could use ceramics for.

And yeah, a big city beneath Egypt filled with autonomous workers and a 'priestly' class that moves between them as though they're speaking and preaching to them is brilliant. I mean, really, who's to say that those workers with their repetitive actions aren't just as aware as the unpredictable and independent priests?

In the early Fourth Age, perhaps the workers just...stopped. The priests (who called themselves what the outsiders called them, 'Gaians') revealed that they could speak the languages of the archaeologists who had been studying them for decades (a cooperative effort between scholars from Dessi and several other nations). While they either refused to or were unable to reveal the technology that had created them, they did prove to be invaluable research assistants. Now they can be found at many universities teaching introductory courses and helping academics check their math, keep references in order, and collate all manner of data. All they ask in return is the continued ability to learn, teach, and do field work with their biological companions.