Construct

Not so much a creature as a device: something built to mimic or closely reproduce the effect of being a living creature, while not actually being alive in any of the normal senses. (Science’s usual definition of a living creature is that it’s able to eat, grow, and reproduce itself; while constructs may consume energy if built to do so, and may exhibit the appearance of growth, they cannot reproduce themselves. The wizardly definition of life also normally implies the presence of a kernel or soul; constructs definitely lack these.)

Various wizards over time have used or been involved with constructs. In particular, the Golem -- initially created by the wizard and Talmudic codifier Raba, and used by later wizard-rabbis such as the famous Judah Loew ben Bezalel -- has given its name to a whole class of constructs of a specific type, quiescent until being animated by a specific word in the Speech.

However, many wizards avoid using constructs at all because of their traditional association with the Lone Power, which prefers to use constructs rather than living things as assistants, minions and slaves. This preference is probably due to the tendency of the genuinely living, no matter how thoroughly corrupted, to unpredictably exhibit such distasteful characteristics as free will. Additionally, the Lone One's continuing disdain for living beings, and Its desire to hurt the the One by mocking the Life in which the One indwells, combine to make constructs the Lone One's preferred tool. Imitation may be thought to be the sincerest form of flattery among some species, but where constructs and the Lone Power are concerned, the mimicry is noticeably hostile.

Whoever is doing the building, a construct is normally assembled from physical matter in some specific shape, and then a word, concept phrase or sentence in the Speech is used to animate it. Some constructs, such as origami basilisks, are fairly simple in concept and execution: others are more involved, sometimes even using the life force of living beings to power their operating systems. These "hybrid" constructs are capable of more advanced response to stimuli, but are no more genuinely alive than their simpler brethren. Additionally, construct status normally deprives the matter involved in its structure of even the minor sentience experienced by what science would consider inanimate objects. This is another reason most wizards avoid or dislike working with constructs, since the basic philosophy of wizardry emphatically prefers persuasion over compulsion -- and by the time a construct has been assembled, any sentience inhering in the matter has been lost, and there is no longer anything capable of being persuaded.

Some constructs, like the fire hydrant in SYWTBAW, are built to destroy life forms automatically: while completely programmed, they are still complex enough to manifest something that looks like autonomous response. However, this is only a seeming, not genuine spontaneity.

(see also: Ghost, Inhabition, Inanimate object, Lifewords, Price of wizardry)