Pinkerton Bestiary Log 12: Simple Golems (Serial Novel)

For a time, we shall turn our attention to beings that are not always sentient. The subjects we shall cover here are creatures like zombies, advanced zombies/modern golems, traditional golems, simple golems, ghosts/shades, and more.

I’d like to start out with golems because when it comes to these poor creatures, the question of sentience can go either way. I’ll start with the most basic golem first. We call it a Simple Golem, although it doesn’t technically fit the category of golem in other schools of supernatural thought. We consider it a golem because the basic method of creating a simple golem is the same as creating its more advanced counterparts.

A simple golem is an inanimate object that has had a human soul trapped inside it. This is a very sinister and difficult art among the magical classes. The most typical vessel is a clay jar. But the container can be anything provided the right symbols and shapes are applied to the object in question.

Now a couple of notes as to how this is done. First of all, no one can trap a soul after it has died. The summoning arts are the exclusive realm of the demonic. Anything manifesting as the result of a summoning is nothing more than a demon mimicking the dead. Perhaps it is appropriate to have this discussion after discussing the shapeshifters because that is in large part how demons interact with humanity. They are impersonators, and summonings are one of the many ways they deceive.

I bring this up because this means the soul in question must be alive in order to be transferred. The man and woman in question must also have made his or herself vulnerable to the wizard, witch, witch doctor, etc. This black art is an act of murder if the incantation isn’t stopped in time, for once the soul is separated from the physical body, the body dies and the soul cannot reenter it. Note that I dare not say the body will die once the soul leaves its shell. Near-death experiences happen quite often, but there comes a moment—who can say when—when what is called the silver cord is cut, and once that line tethering soul and body is split, there is no rejoining the two unless God intervenes.

An elderly woman, who is now very close to me, was unknowingly hoodwinked into participating in a similar ritual. This had made her vulnerable to the witch doctor in question, and when we confronted him, he attempted to transfer her soul into a clay jar. I had to kill the man before he was finished chanting the spell, and it was a near thing. Killing the magical user in question is the only way I’ve found to stop the transition.

As to what can be done once they are inside the simple golem, I must confess there is very little. First of all, human spirits cannot interact with the simple golem unless the object is designed to be manipulated, which, oftentimes, it isn’t because the chief purpose of these receptacles is to store souls for a ceremony where a demon claims it needs to absorb a certain number of souls for power. This is nonsense, of course. A demon doesn’t eat in the way a man eats, nor can they absorb a will. However, they do feed in a sense. They draw on negative emotion the same way a wizard will pull magic from a demon. That’s the true purpose behind the murders. The demon does not and cannot absorb the soul, but it does wish to absorb the rage of that soul’s family. It also wishes to further isolate the enchanter, drawing him further away from God through a foul deed. And the wretched thing enjoys snuffing out not just a life but also the potentials that life might’ve brought about. From the perspective of the spiritual, death is not merely a crime because the body ceases to be. What is a body? It means little to the demons except as a means to commit more mischief. No. The purpose of murder for the demon is to capture the soul before it can find God and enter the Covenant and to undermine the will of the Almighty. God has a plan for each soul and a thousand potential realities that soul might enjoy, potential good deeds that soul might do. The propensity for evil is there as well, of course, but the demons enjoy snuffing the whole thing out and preventing a reality God has intended. They cannot accomplish this themselves, so they need men and their free will. Therefore, they’re always asking the enchanters in question to commit murder in some form or fashion.

This is also why the demons target children with such ferocity. Children are the closest to God. Children are innocent; therefore, their deaths are a greater perversion. And children have the most potential of any living thing. The demons’ petulant nature lusts for the death of children more than anything else.

Returning to the simple golem, it’s almost impossible to tell whether there is a soul trapped inside it—again, unless the receptacle has been designed to be manipulated. Often times, a family will bring the simple golem to you, and the best thing to do is break it. As usual, there is some debate as to what happens to the soul once the receptacle is broken. Some say the soul is taken immediately to its rightful place; others say it remains trapped in the spirit realm. I have always believed the former, but some maintain the latter, and those that do often try to create a new body for the soul and attempt another ceremony to transfer that soul from the simple golem to a standard golem. This is incredibly foolish.

To explain why, I must first briefly address the nature of golems and their purpose. Some of this might be repeated later, but I feel a need to address this now so that I make myself clear. The shell of a golem is only one part of the entire equation. The other part is creating what most enchanters call a spirit, but what we refer to as a lesser intellect. In a way, the nymphs’ enchantment reduces the women in question to lesser intellects, but that is not strictly speaking the same thing, since the fundamental aspects of what it means to be human are being repressed, which is something quite different from a lesser intellect, which could more accurately be described as a kind of program. It might be able to mimic human behavior, but the fundamental elements of a human are not present.

I will spare you the details of this philosophical nuance, at least for now. My purpose in bringing this up here is to help explain what a golem actually does. Some people will create a mask or a talking object and then, using a variety of means, place a lesser intellect inside the object. The mask or head or whatever will then serve as an advisor. In other cases, they will place one of these intellects inside a statue to serve as a guard. In the earliest traditional cases of golems, a lesser intellect was placed inside a giant, human-shaped, clay statue. Sometimes this was a family protector, sometimes it was a servant, but the lesser intellect was always serving a specific function and didn’t have the same level of sentience as a human. The most that could be said is that they are some form of animal, more akin to a parrot with thumbs than a man.

Now, when it comes to attempting to rescue a soul from a simple jar. My advice would be to break the jar and let the soul meet his or her reward, whatever it may be. But some people believe that the soul will remain trapped in the spirit realm, and family members who are aware of the situation are not too keen on that solution in any case because they do not wish to lose their loved one. So, there have been some attempts by hunters to utilize wizards who have a natural talent. They ask these wizards to make golems and try to transfer the soul or souls in question. There are some issues with this. First of all—my personal friend excluded, of course—I do not trust wizards as a rule. If the wizard knows anything about the soul that has been trapped, then it would be nothing for him to create a lesser intellect to mimic the man or woman to appease the family, and the hunter, knowing nothing about how such rituals are done, would be none the wiser. Secondly, natural talent or not, demons are attracted to the rituals themselves, not just a wizard who has made a pact to utilize their evil. And since this is the case, and since a demon tends to mimic anyway, there is a high likelihood that, even if the transfer could successfully be done, the demon would either kick out the intended soul and impersonate it or join that soul in the same receptacle, forcing the soul to share room and board with a demon. However, in my estimation, the most likely scenario is that the soul cannot make the jump since it has already practically died. I’d say the soul has already gone on to his or her reward, and the creature speaking in the golem, be it a body or a talking mask, is a demon or a lesser intellect meant to trick the family. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I find it unlikely that simple golems are effective at all. I’ve never seen any evidence that makes me believe that a soul could be trapped in a jar. Now, I should temper that by saying that I have seen souls trapped inside more standard golems, but I’ve never seen one of these jars so much as twitch, so for all I know, the ritual is wholly ineffective. For these reasons, I strongly discourage the use of such methods. I shall discuss the standard or traditional golem next time, if the Almighty allows me to do so.