The Golems call themselves the Durakorr. They are stone beings created by the Golem King, an ancient being from the Dragon Era who was woken by the Crimson Convergence and then founded the Nikolem Kingdom, making Golems to live in it and guard it. Every Golem is made by the Golem King himself. Golems cannot reproduce, and no other being can create a truly sentient Golem. They are immortal unless destroyed, stand eight to nine feet tall, and have massive, rocky bodies. They are made of Korrite, a nearly indestructible stone found only beneath the Kingstone, the largest mountain on the continent, in whose great hall the Golem King sits. The stone is extremely hard to mine, and no one knows how the Golem King mined it in the first place. Its supply is now running out, and very few new Golems are being made, though no one knows why.
Every Golem has a rune on its back that powers it. As long as that rune remains, the Golem can always regenerate, and through it the Golem King can speak to every Golem and see through their eyes. Each fist also carries a rune, chosen by the Golem King when he creates the Golem; the two can be the same or different. One example absorbs energy and, after several hits, blasts it back out, the same rune used in the Crimson Greatsword of the Crimson Knight, founder of the Crimson Rooks. All Golems are Runestones, magic users who can only use their power through a runestone, weapon, or item, and they have a strong affinity for rune magic. They act as living batteries for enchanted gear, powering both their own and other people’s. In battle they are slow but overwhelming, fighting with their natural stone armor and rune-powered fists.
New runes are made only in the rune forges, special magic forges hidden underground and beneath mountains that only Golems can use. No one knows how many exist, but three are fully known: one under Mount Baraketh, the second-largest mountain on the continent, one under the capital, Suudon, and one under Phaaross. Golems forge new runes with deep chants and other mysterious practices, and no one who is not a Golem has ever seen the ritual. The Nikolem Kingdom is also rich in ordinary forges, where rune users train, acquire Runestones, and craft enchanted gear. The Golem King also placed runes far beyond his kingdom, including deep in the Darkmane forest; after he stopped maintaining them, they became the unstable corrupted runes the Darkmane Elves draw on today.
Golem culture is duty-bound and values utility, craftsmanship, and legacy. Golems worship the Golem King and have no belief in an afterlife, since a Golem’s legacy lives on in crafted stone. They see the Golem King often, though no outsider has seen him since the Convergence, and the kingdom runs entirely by his will, with Golems patrolling all of Nikolem as both sentries and enforcers. Nikolem’s cities include Suudon, a mist-shrouded swamp capital; Cridbury, a mining town in the foothills of the Jagged Mountains; Klosdon, a quiet forest town; and Phaaross, a bridge city with a heavy Golem military presence. Every once in a while a Golem defects from the Golem King, for reasons no one knows; some of these defectors live in Adlens, a peaceful port in the Darkmane Realm.
Golems are mostly neutral toward other races and are respected for it, but they do not mix well with others, because they live to serve the Golem King and complete a task no one else knows. Phaaross sits on the border facing Klanron in the Kingdom of Vacron, the continent’s main gathering place for magic users. During the Wizard Uprising (880–890 ACC), when magic users of every type tried to wipe out all non-magical people, the Golems built a stone wall there to keep hostile wizards out; the rune forge beneath the city is another reason for the wall. Golems distrust anyone who exploits rune artifacts and are especially hostile to rune hunters, thieves who steal runes from across the kingdoms and are best known for killing Golems to take their powerful runes and sell them.
They use Karthrun, a written and signed language of chiseled glyphs, which runestone scholars also study. The most notable Golem is the Golem King himself. The Golems are stable as a people, but the shortage of the stone they are made from and the threat of rune hunters both endanger them.