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Clank

"We were not built to wake. We were built to wait. The waiting is ending."
— Brass-Three-Hollow, the eldest known Clank to introduce themself by name

The sapient constructs of Cadwallon — mechanical people, made of brass, ceramic, and Cynwäll alloy, who do not eat, do not sleep in any sense Cadwës recognize, and whose origin sits at the heart of the Automaton fief's deepest mystery. Most Cadwës have never seen a Clank, because Clanks are mostly still dormant; the ones moving through the city today have been awake for less than five years, all of them since 999 and all of them tracking, with a precision that unnerves the Open Hand, against the Automaton's three face-stops.

What They Are

  • Cynwäll-built — almost certainly. The metallurgy matches the Automaton; the joint-work matches Cynwäll documentation that survives in the Walled Library. Dyrsin has not confirmed or denied.
  • Originally constructed as servitors for the lost Cynwäll city — household staff, librarians, gardeners, watchmen
  • Sealed and stored when the city fell to Sinlis Mantis; the great majority remain dormant in chambers under the city
  • Reawakening since 999 — a few at a time, walking out of underground into modern Cadwallon with their old purposes still half-remembered and their loyalty hierarchy four centuries out of date

A Clank's body is "lived in" rather than worn — their cognition is distributed through the brass and the alloy, not centralized in a head. Damage is repairable but personality-altering. They speak in slightly archaic Cadwë with Cynwäll cadence, and several have asked, sincerely, where their household is.

Where They Live

  • The Old District (The Automaton) — the Cadwës who know about Clanks at all assume this is where they live, because of the proximity to the Automaton itself. Largely correct. The Company of the Bolt's perpetually-renovated mansion is, in part, Clank-staffed.
  • Dyrsin's Tower — the "constructs" that Cadwës assume staff the Tower are at least partly Clanks. Dyrsin has never confirmed this.
  • Guild of Architects hidden facilities — three Clanks work for the Architects at the Tractor project, where their underground-Cadwallon spatial memory is invaluable
  • Still asleep, under the city — the majority. How many is unknown.

In Cadwallon

  • No legal status. Cadwallon's laws were not written for sapient constructs. The Duke has so far treated each Clank case as a one-off rather than establishing precedent.
  • Open Hand tarot-mages are deeply interested; the Closed Door is quietly alarmed
  • Xär-Lilith treats Clanks as Cynwäll property and has tried, twice, to seize one. The Duke has both times sided with the Clank.
  • The Automaton itself — a question nobody can answer: is the Automaton the oldest Clank, or is it something else entirely? Brass-Three-Hollow has refused to be drawn on the subject.

What waking up means

The Clanks were stored with a binding to a now-extinct Cynwäll command-hierarchy. Reawakening means the binding broke. Whatever broke it is somewhere in the Underground, advancing. The Automaton's three face-stops since 999 are not the cause of the wakings; they are the same phenomenon, reaching higher. When the Automaton stops permanently, every Clank in the city will wake — and a great many more will walk up from below.

See Also