Bound Familiars For Perpetual Motion - GLAUGUST
Magic allows for many opportunities that the average medieval person would not have otherwise. A handful of spells and magical practices have been used for industrial applications. In the great desert empire of Alastria, ruled by the wise and mighty Sorcerer King, many sorcerers make use of trapped spirits and bound familiars for their own purposes. It is possible to create a golem of sorts that will float, spin, or roll as you command.
Making use of Familiars
The safest and traditional way to go about this (as opposed to venturing out to hunt and trap a ghost or elemental) is to purchase a familiar. Locally, the word familiar is used in the same way we might use the word "pet" or "cattle". In the streets of Alastria, because the practice of harvesting the souls of familiars are so common, there are a handful of types that are widely available and useful for this purpose. Specially kept and purpose-bred goblins, hounds, birds, and winged cats can be found for sale in the undercity. Breeders and merchants will specially select (or purposefully mutate) these familiars for elemental affinity, magical aptitude, beauty, and physical strength.
It is very useful to "bind" a familiar to yourself, as you can more effectively subject the creature to your will, and you ensure your ownership over them in the event of their death. Master familiar owners and summoners make good use of the spells Bind Familiar and Reincarnate Familiar.
Two Spells
Bind Familiar: This spell can only be cast as a ritual. You must invest MD equal to the target creature's HD. Casting time takes a number of hours and 100 GP of materials equal to the target creature's HD. If the ritual is interrupted or fails, the magic dice and materials are lost. A willing creature becomes bound to you. A psychic link connects you to your familiar (up to your scrying range), allowing you to speak wordlessly to one another. As long as you concentrate and close your eyes you may see what your familiar sees. If out of sight, you always know what direction your familiar is in. However, for each point of damage your familiar suffers, you suffer as psychic damage. If you die, your familiar dies. If your familiar dies, their spirit leaves their body and floats around you as a faint shape of smoke. You may have as many familiars bound to you equal to your LVL.
Reincarnate Familiar: This spell can only be cast as a ritual. You must invest MD equal to the target creature's HD. Casting time takes a number of hours and 100 GP of materials equal to the target body's HD. If the ritual is interrupted, the MD is lost and the ritual fails. You bind the floating spirit of your deceased familiar to a new body. This new body can be one that you have constructed (as a golem, homunculus, or automaton), a corpse, or a living but unconscious body (hatchlings and newborn monsters are often used for this purpose). If the living body is an unwilling intelligent creature, your familiar will absorb the creature's memories and personality. The resulting familiar will also eventually mutate to show features of the previous familiar's body.
Applications
Now, how does this relate to perpetual motion? It is a well-guarded secret, the process of constructing a suitable body of stone that a familiar's spirit will not reject. By reincarnating a familiar into a carefully constructed millstone, cog, or wheel - Alastrian sorcerers have pioneered new methods to mill grain, operate large apparatus, and even fashion together self-propelling chariots. Of course, the familiar's master must remain nearby to psychically issue commands. As it stands, not even the brightest imperial sorcerer has been able to successfully create a inorganic body that will obey input from anyone other than its bound master.
Deprived of normal biological sensation, familiars reincarnated into golem bodies are known to suddenly perish. Magic-users who are well-versed in these ways find themselves in need of replacement familiars at least yearly, and at the most, monthly.