Van Richten's Monster Hunter's.pdf - Askadesign.com

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Just as contempt gives way to
hatred, the golem’s need to flaunt its
superiority gives way to a desire to
destroy the creator. The creature seeks
to murder its parent, thereby severing
its last tie to the living. This murder
may not take place immediately,
however. While most golems do
attempt to dispatch with their creators
posthaste, I have known of a few
creatures who purposefully delayed the
act. These golems took their time in
planning or attempting the deed,
apparently for the sheer enjoyment of
tormenting their creators. Thus, even if
a golem does not immediately succeed
at patricide, the creator will always be
in danger.
The creator is at a distinct
disadvantage in such a contest. The
golem is powerful foe against any
mortal, but the creator is especially
vulnerable. As noted earlier, the golem
boasts an extraordinary bond to the
creator’s mind-a bond which enables
it to know the creator better than the
creator knows himself. Armed with
such intimate knowledge, the golem
may anticipate every action and
reaction of its creator as it plots to
destroy the puny, insignificant wretch
who once dared to use and control it.
The information above details the
mental development and separation
process the golem experiences over
the course of its “childhood.” However,
it does not address the actual
psychology of the golem-its individual
perceptions and feelings about itself
and its new world. I shall address those
issues in the following section.
Psychology is an inexact science at
best. Even the most learned mages
and scholars do not truly understand
the inner workings of a sane man’s
mind, much less the twisted psyche of
a golem. This is not to say that a
TIE CLEATED ‘d
knowledge of psychology is worthless:
quite the contrary. Just as we would
not throw away an entire loaf of bread
simply because a few bites were
missing, so we should not dismiss the
advantage that a knowledge of our
enemy’s thought processes can give us
simply because that knowledge is
incomplete.
Since we know so little about our
own minds, readers may assume we
must know almost nothing about the
Created. That is not necessarily true.
The mind of a golem seems much less
complex than that of the Born. Perhaps
the enormous shock the Created
undergo upon their “birth” is the
source of this relative simplicity. Of
course, I do not wish to imply that
these creatures are stupid, or that one
golem’s mind is the same as the
next’s. However, the creatures do
appear limited in the scope of their
thought processes. This may explain
why many golems tend to fixate on a
single driving obsession.
With these comments in mind, let us
now turn to a brief study of the
psychology of the golem. Much of the
information I am about to share is
derived from an exchange of letters
between me and Doctor Cassien
Attenberg, a noted specialist in
nonhuman psychology, as well as an
esteemed colleague and friend. I have
included key excerpts from Doctor
Attenberg’s letters to help illustrate
each point.
views on the self
, , , As to your inquiry on the matter of
the Created and their concept of the
Self: The answer must surely be that
they do have this conception. However,
the conception of Selfpossessed by a
golem must be a terrible one, for it
seems to me the golem is similar to a
feral child-raised to maturity without
benefit of an appropriate figure with
which to identify (a parental goiem).
Thus its self concept derives from its
,.