Golems are said to be remnants of Empyrean magic, left behind as guardians for their strongholds, both above and below ground. Now that the Empyrean have vanished, however, they have become mindless automatons, attacking anything that comes near. They stand seven to eight feet tall, and are made of many materials, including earth, wood, water, ice, stone and metal. They bash with their club-like limbs, and some also attack with magic.
The animating seed placed in the head of each golem is a mote of pure pyreal and can sometimes be successfully extracted for myriad other uses. A few golems are made of materials so recalcitrant that the seed must be abnormally large, a sliver or even nugget in size. Another useful organ that can occasionally be removed intact is the heart of the golem, a favorite medium for carvers and whittlers for use in making keyrings, tools, and scarabs, among other items.
By their nature, most golems do crushing, bludgeoning damage in melee combat. Many have been endowed with powerful war magics and can use life magic to make their opponent more vulnerable. The force that coheres their corporal form is almost universally susceptible to disincorporation by blunt damage. The few exceptions being those golems made of ethereal substances such as vapor, plasma, and mist.