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  1. Races

Android

Humanoid

An android is a human-seeming creature that was created, not born. On Golarion, they rise from strange, alien forges that dot the ruins of Numeria.

caretUp.svgAppearance

Androids, also called "tattooed children of the stars" by Numeria's Kellid tribes, are most prominently visually distinguishable from humans by the circuits carved into their skin. The average android is 6 feet tall and weighs about 200 pounds. Their eyes bear a metallic quality, and their bodies are made of artificial oils, polymers, and nanites that mimic blood, flesh, bone, organs, and other organic systems. Androids do not naturally mimic the forms of other humanoid races, and while it might be possible to modify an android foundry to produce such cosmetically different forms, such androids would not substantially differ in function or capability from their human-like counterparts.

Personality

Androids carry no memories of their creation and have problems understanding emotions. They have keen interests in sciencespirituality, and magic as part of their innate drive for enlightenment.

caretUp.svgBiology

Android bodies are purely synthetic, yet respond to healing magic and have souls as organic creatures do. They breathe and eat much as humans do, but through artificial organs, and they circulate their healing nanites like blood through their bodies via pale fluids.[4] They are thus inexhaustible, immune to diseases and resistant to other biological effects, and fortified against mental effects, but also suffer the same maladies and vulnerabilities of constructs[4] and are susceptible to supernatural curses, including lycanthropy. Despite their nanite system, they are also as susceptible to malicious nanite infestations just as other creatures are.[5]

Nanite surge

Every 24 hours, an android can cause the nanites within her body to surge and greatly enhance her natural abilities for a very short period of time. When this happens, an android's circuitry-tattoos glow as brightly as a torch.

Sexual dimorphism and behavior

Androids exhibit the same physical sexual dimorphism of humans and enjoy sexual intercourse, though they cannot reproduce through it. Androids in the form of children are exceedingly rare, having been designed solely for the purpose of simulating child rearing for parents incapable of reproducing.

Aging

An android sheds its physical human traits and grows weaker as it ages, their self-healing abilities fading over the course of a human lifespan. An android reaches middle age at around 32 years of age and is considered old at 50, elderly by 65, and at the end of their lifespan at 85.

Death and rebirth

None—not even the Androffans who created androids—know or understand how or why souls enter android bodies. An android's soul leaves their complex, undecaying artificial body about once a century, the shell lying dormant for up to 3 weeks (often in a coffin that resembles an android foundry's incubator, though such a vessel is not required) until a new soul enters.

A deceased android's soul follows the path of other mortal souls, and through a process known as renewal, its nanites reinvigorate its body to its youthful appearance, reset its mind, and install a new soul. A renewed android effectively starts life as a new creature, though with occasional dreams from its last occupant. This reset is voluntary; androids once rebelled against their masters to classify a manual renewal as murder.

There are no unique issues in attempting to magically resurrect an android, and an android's soul can be reincarnated. However, other souls cannot reincarnate into an android body.

Androids, like other mortal soul-bearing creatures, are susceptible to undeath. For example, android zombies retain their body's natural lack of decay, undead android skeletons are largely imperceptibly different from other humanoid skeletons, and incorporeal android ghosts even retain a phantom version of their nanite systems.

caretUp.svgHistory

Originating on Androffa, androids arrived to Golarion with the Rain of Stars. Android foundries in the wreckage continue to produce androids, if sporadically, though none of their kind know where they are from or why they were created. Their lack of a history drives their actions but also seeds them with feelings of inadequacy and doubt. While they understand their alien and constructed origins, androids on Golarion have collectively forgotten the specifics and purpose of their creation.

caretUp.svgSociety

While few and scattered in number, androids share a belief that the First—the first living android—continues to live through thousands of years of rebirths and countless souls. As any of their kind could be the unknowing First, each android holds all other android life as sacrosanct. More aggressive androids who look at other mortal life with condescension consider themselves among the Constructed, a philosophy and loose organization that wants to carve an exclusive android society out for themselves and lesser constructs, whether on another planet or on Golarion.

Along with their rare and dwindling numbers, androids place a high priority on survival. In Numeria, abduction by the Technic League is a constant threat for lone androids, though less so for groups of them. Many androids who find others of their kind establish secretive enclaves small enough to avoid drawing the attention of slavers and the League.

These communities often seem cold and prosaic compared to other mortals', though androids enjoy expressing themselves naturally among their own kind.

Religion

Androids have no inherent aversion to religion, though their unique origin leads them to cast logical doubt on others' worship of creators. Those who do find a religion tend to gravitate to Brigh to embrace their artificial nature, or to Gozreh to find their place in the natural order. Some are attracted to grand faiths, such as the crusaders of Iomedae and Sarenrae, while others see their unique lives as an opportunity to pursue Iroran self-perfection.

Evil androids might fall into the congregations of NorgorberZyphus, or the Iron Gods.

Relationships with other races

Numeria's Kellids view them as robot threats in human form and the Technic League considers them lost property, and androids themselves relate poorly to other mortals' emotions. Despite this, androids hold the close few who mentor them immediately after their renewal in high esteem; despite their adult bodies, new android souls and consciousnesses are more similar to children.

They also see humans as their own templates and seek to connect with them despite the risks to understand more about who and what they are.

Some take their marooned status as a sign of their inferiority to humans, or a destiny of ill treatment at the hands of humans, for some unknown distant slight or failure. This results in some androids falling into slavery in Chesed and Starfall.

A handful of communities welcome androids, however, including Hajoth Hakados in southern Numeria[8] and Graymoor in northern Sovereign's Reach. A group of Constructed are rumored to have an underground community, Szamrak's Haven, in the western Numerian Plains. Elsewhere in the Inner Sea region, androids hide their heritage under tales of celestial ancestry or curses. Others seek blighted lands where their artificial nature protects them from conditions that are fatal to others, such as the Mana Wastes and Sodden Lands, to live free and in peace.