Automata

Proper name of the Magic: Automata
Name of mages: Automicant

Automaton magic is the magic used to create, maintain and enhance items that move and do other preprgrammed tasks using a mix of magic and technology. These are not robots (which are strictly technological) or golems (which are completely magical), but often the more sophisticated ones do the same things as robots and are actually intelligent and self-aware.¹

At its most basic levels an automaton can do simple tasks like open a door mechanically or play music. Automatons like Madog represent the height of such power and are a mix of very sophisticated technology and magic.

There were never many Automicants (the name for an automaton mage) and the magic was considered extinct until recently.² When Misha recovered and restored Madog it showed that he had the potential to become one.

At the moment there are only two truly self-aware automatons in existence: Madog and Omega. There is the possibility that others do exist hidden and lost someplace, but no one knows for sure.

Footnotes

1. Self-aware automatons cannot be created without the use of a living soul; no automicant, no matter how skilled, can create this essential spark. In ancient times the automicants would use the souls of animals to awaken their automatons; Madog, for instance, was created using the soul of a fox. The intelligence of an automaton is not necessarily limited by the intelligence of the creature it was made from; Madog's technomagical brain has much more processing power than the brain of a fox, and Madog's intelligence has grown to near-human levels inn the centuries since his creation.

2. The use of this magic did persist in the xenophobic Lom Shi'Un Dynasty long after it died out elsewhere. The Lothanasi outlawed the use of souls in automaton magic when they came to power in western Galendor, which greatly limited the usefulness of automata; in Lom Shi'Un, which is dominated by the church of Lilith, the religious establishment never had any moral compunctions about using this sort of magic, provided that it was done with proper supervision by Lilith's priesthood.