Wyrwood

Wyrwood

(Creature)

2E1E

Rare

N

Small

Construct

Wyrwood

Level

1

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Images of wyrwoods

Source: Bestiary 3, pg(s). 298

Statistics are for the wyrwood sneak.

Type

Construct

CR

By class level

Environment

Any ruins or underground

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Images of wyrwoods

Source: Inner Sea Races, pg(s). 253

Ⅰ

Ⅱ

Wyrwoods are magical, intelligent constructs resembling humanoids that were created as servants and warriors long ago by a group of wizards. They rebelled and destroyed their masters, but not before they learned the secret of how to create more of their kind. Many live on the continent of Arcadia, where they have created an insular but peaceful community in Segada.

Appearance

Wyrwoods are small, agile, wooden constructs powered by an aeon stone heart. Some wyrwoods are built from rare materials like rubble or divine relics, and in recent years many wyrwoods have integrated organic components into themselves, making them closer to organic creatures than constructs.

History

Wyrwoods were crafted by a cabal of Azlanti wizards to be nimble, skilled, intelligent magical construct servants. This backfired on them when the wyrwoods began to question why they were involved in the intrigues of their masters, and when the wizards forced the wyrwoods to fight on their behalf, the wyrwoods rebelled, stole the wizards' notes about how to create more wyrwoods, and fled to Arcadia, the continent which they regard as their homeland.

Ecology

While formed from organic materials, wyrwoods are constructs and have no need of food, air, or water. Unlike constructs, however, their living bodies can be rendered unconscious without leading to their immediate destruction.

The magical stone that powers a wyrwood also houses their soul, and as such can outlive the wyrwood's body. Some wyrwoods will even rescue the stone from a fallen kin and incorporate it into their own, with multiple wyrwoods sometimes living on within a single body.

Wyrwoods closely guard the ritualistic methods of creating a new wyrwood that they acquired during their rebellion against their Azlanti masters, out of fears that sharing that knowledge would lead once again to their enslavement.

Society

Because of their alien physiology, most wyrwoods are coldly rational and do not understand emotions or empathy; the rare few that do still view them as mere tools. In order to ensure the survival and freedom of their race, which they put above everything else, many wyrwoods are xenophobic, and they never reveal the secrets of their reproduction to other creatures. Most wyrwoods become wizards or rogues, and religious ones tend to follow lawful deities whose strict codes are followed to the letter.

Wyrwoods are deeply curious, self-reliant, and adaptable, and their communities engage in selfless acts of learning and service without any sense of hubris in order to preserve and advance their communities.

Most wyrwoods reside in Arcadia, preferring the isolation granted by this continent. In the Inner Sea region and elsewhere on Golarion, wyrwoods are rare due to the unwanted attention they attract: ambassadors to the Clockwork Cathedral in Absalom stayed only briefly before departing, and two wyrwoods narrowly escaped Nex when an Arclord's agent tried to vivisect them.

Some Avistanis also still associate wyrwoods with their past role as tools of secretive overlords, while others hold them in suspicion for turning on their creators.

References

Paizo featured wyrwoods as a playable Pathfinder First Edition race in Inner Sea Races.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.