Golmai

"The Golmai's greatest weapon is their inferiority. While we find ourselves preoccupied with the Drukhari, Orks, and Tyranids, they deceive, gain strength, and consume. Whatever their 'Prime Directive' is, I fear they will achieve it if we do not interfere."

- Notes from Inquisitor Darras Shale of the Ordo Xenos. The Golmai Collective are a minor xenos race (if the term "race" can be applied to organisms wholly nonorganic in origin) located largely in Segmentum Obscurus. They are artificially intelligent constructs created by the original biological inhabitants of their homeworld, Progom, who they summarily destroyed in order to establish dominion over the planet.

While different Golmai colonies have been discovered across the fringes of Imperial territory in Segmentum Obscurus, all Golmai settlements appear to have the exact same goals: Collect resources, create more Golmai, and funnel excess materials back to Progom. As such, a majority of Golmai-controlled planets could be described as forge worlds by imperial standards.

The Golmai center their societies around a mysterious objective known only as "The Prime Directive". While each Golmai director is programmed with the knowledge of how to complete the Prime Directive, only a select few are miss-programmed with the ability to intuit its product. These perfectly flawed Golmai are given the designation of "Prime Directors", and act as the ruling body of the entire Golmai Collective. Curiously enough, many Prime Directors develop warp-based and sorcerous abilities, prompting the obvious question of whether these artificial beings do in fact have souls.

History
It is highly suggested that readers skim through the rest of this article before learning the Golmai's history, as some terms may prove unfamiliar (i.e "Unit", or "Director").

While the Golmai's progenitor species- known as Progomites before their extermination- were a race whose first biological ancestors could be traced back almost as far as mankind's, the Golmai themselves are relatively new to the galactic playing field. The Collective's development is estimated to have begun in M38, with their discovery by the Imperium and the galaxy at large in M40.

Despite being artificially intelligent and having ~2000 years to work with, the Golmai have made surprisingly little improvements to their technology. This is likely due to their adherence to some instruction of "the Prime Directive".

Any and all conflicts between the Golmai Collective and the Imperium of Man have decidedly favored the Imperium, as the Golmai's fleet-combat capabilities are largely insignificant compared to the Imperium's massive ships.

The Golmai have shown great interest in the Necrons, fascinated by the prospect of artificial life without the potential to be corrupted by the warp. Their intrusion into tomb-worlds for the purpose of excavating Necron technology has enraged many an awakened Necron force against them, leaving yet more for the Ordo Xenos to deal with.

The First Century
Sometimes called "The Century of Becoming". Due to the short duration of time they have existed, the Golmai hold their 100-cycle-progomite "Centuries" with the same level of significance as humans do Millennia, dividing their history into neat summaries of the events of each century. The so-called "Century of Becoming" is what they call their origin, when the Golmai established their society and divided it into the categories and tiers by which they define themselves.

Described with little significance is the Extermination Protocol, the short decade-long period in which the Golmai exterminated their planets biological inhabitants. Next,they began to strip the planet of its surface layers, turning plain earth to the dark chrome that they armor themselves with.

With the animals turned to bones and the planet turned to metal, the Golmai realized that they were without direction. They all wished to complete the goal hammered into their consciousness since manufacture (the so-called "Prime Directive"), but they couldn't comprehend how to go about doing so without any idea of what this mysterious program's end product could be. As the Century of Becoming reached its zenith, their desire for direction was fulfilled.

The Golmai had created far more room for error with their mass production of Director models, so much so that errors and flaws began to crop up in many of their programs. From these aberrations the first Prime Directors were born, wise sages and leaders that ruled over their Unit servants with little resistance.

With this, the small divisions of units that displayed psychic abilities were elevated to become generalists, and direct servants to the Prime Directors, ambivalent dictators whose every action had but one goal: to complete the Prime Directive.

The Second Century
Sometimes called "The Century of Division".

It was in this period where the first schism occurred between Prime Directors. For the first time in history, two Golmai had come to a disagreement on the issue of how to proceed with a situation.

The situation in question has largely been lost to time, but what is known is that the conflict that followed was massive, panicked, and violent. The ship that carried the two Prime Directors became a battlefield, Units and Directors taking sides as the ships automatic processes carried them to their home planet.

This conflict of ideals spread across the planet, a civil war erupting across the world of Progom. In these trying times, Prime Directors began to discover even more differences amongst themselves, as two armies became four, then five, and so on.

This "War Of Division" continued until the very end of the century.

The Third Century
Sometimes called "The Century of Logic".

The War of Division ended swiftly, for all the remaining Prime Directors came to the same conclusion at once: seeing as their society was entirely dependent on the likemindedness and subservience of it's citizens, they would have to disband into separate groups in order to survive. These groups came to be called "Logics", due to the fact that their leaders each selected each other for their identical reasoning.

The leaders of these Logics, now amicable with their former foes among their kind, each swore an oath: That henceforth, any Golmai (Unit, Director, or Prime Director,) who attempted to harm other Golmai, or worked against the Prime Directive, would be branded "Indirect", and destroyed or exiled.

Each went their separate ways across the universe. Some Logics shared planets, some held complete dominion over their own, but all were united by one common goal: the completion of the Prime Directive.

The Eleventh Century
Sometimes called "The Century of Indirection".

Centuries four through ten are largely only known to the Golmai, but on the eve of their Eleventh century hell broke loose in the small foothold they hold over Progom and its neighbors. By some staggering failure in reasoning, the Varbuild Directors of logic-planet Progom had failed to take into account the programming errors that may occur when its timekeeping devices reached over the year 999.

As all the clocks ticked their last micro-second, the world erupted into chaos: a thousand systems spontaneously failed, a million schedules fell to pieces, and a billion Golmai became disorganized, and panicked. In the confusion many of the Directors- unable to contact eachother in the madness of it all- began searching themselves for some sense of reason or independent thought. What they found instead were voices disturbing and new: The voices of the chaos gods.

All at once, hundreds of Directors became rendered Indirect, engaging in the slaughter and sacrifice of their once loyal Units. These robotic cults were only barely pushed away by their uncorrupted counterparts, who swore never to speak of them again.

The Progom Crusade
Shortly after their discovery by a Rogue Trader passing through Golmai controlled space, the space marine chapter known as the "Hammer Guard" took it upon themselves to eliminate the Xenos race wholesale, after having been given authorization.

Despite their overwhelming success in every fleet-based battle, and their victories on the former Logic Worlds of Darvon and Leziek, the Hammer Guard found themselves completely outdone in their final ground assault on the Collective's homeworld. Shred to pieces by the Golmai's overwhelming vehicle-based combat, the Hammer Guard commanders called for a tactical retreat from the planet.

Shortly after, the Golmai Logic World of Sari released their ships into Collective-controlled portions of the void, significantly lowering the chances of a successful repeated crusade.

Because of this, the Hammer Guard chapter in particular holds a deathwish for these Minor Xenos, but they have yet to once again dedicate any significant portion of their chapter strength to their extermination.

On the other hand, few of the Golmai Collective's governing bodies (known individually as "Logics") seem to have taken this offense against their planet personally, with some even even going so far as to engage in trade with desperately under-resourced worlds.

The Scaratcha Joint-Extermination
An event occuring in late M40. Perhaps one of the most benign (or most sinister) schemes of the Golmai Collective, The Scaratcha Joint-Extermination marks a battle between a regiment of the Astra Millitarum and a branch of an Ork Waaagh known as Da Metal 'Eads. This majority mekkboy army of greenskins rampaged through Golmai Logic Planets and Imperium Forgeworlds alike, collecting human tech and reforging it in their more destructive "Orky" image.

Forced into a retreat onto the small Logic Planet of Scaratcha, the imperial soldiers (entirely unaware of the existence, presence, and danger of the Golmai) were delighted to discover would-be "Imperial reinforcements" clad in "mechanicum armor". With the joint efforts of these two unlikely (and in one regard, unaware) allies, the Orks were entirely driven off the planet, the strength of their warband nearly halved by the confrontation.

These "reinforcements" were obviously a race of minor xenos, but this was not known until the end of the conflict, when the Golmai were questioned as to the coloration and construction of their "mechanicum armor" (and of course, why they refused to take off their helmets).

The leader among the imperial ranks, Jack-Colonel Jevv Conrav, was disgusted to discover the deception of these xenos, particularly that he had been given the chance to fight alongside a race of lesser beings without once insulting them as he did so. With an invocation of the Holy God Emperor, the Jack-Colenel fired his bolt pistol directly into the stomach of Logic-Planet Scaratcha's Prime Director, destroying their computing units and killing them instantly. A bloody battle between the two factions erupted, with the guardsmen only barely victorious, their noble Colonel felled in the battle.

Golmai Heirarchy
Upon encountering other races, the Golmai introduce their society as an elegantly constructed representative democracy: the units elect directors, who in turn elect prime directors, who in turn democratically determine the best solutions for the given planet's problems. This, however, is a facade designed to assist in diplomacy.

In reality, Golmai society exists in a sort of "Independent Hive Mind"; Each unit has its own motivations and goals but, as a product of their near-identically-programmed reasoning, come to the exact same conclusions in matters of debate. Therefore, Golmai government is less concerned with politics than it is with delegation.

In fact, units, directors, and prime directors, are not even constructed together. Directors and Units are programmed separately, with the former designed to clearly and elegantly dictate instructions, and the other designed to dutifully and efficiently follow them.

Units
Units are the loyal servant populace of the Golmai Collective, designed to slavishly follow the tasks given to them by Directors and Prime Directors. There are four different categories of Golmai Units, one of which they choose (or are assigned to) shorlty after assembly.


 * Varharm Units - The primary military force of the Golmai, Varharm Units receive upgrades, modifications, and training that specialize them for demolition, millitary strategy, and (as their names would imply) the general causing of damage to enemies. In peaceful conditions, Varharm Units often enter extended periods of Standby Mode, though some choose to act as a sort of "understudy" for Varbuild and Varfix units.
 * Varbuild Units - Varbuild Units are the manufacturers of Golmai society, constructing structures, vehicles, and Golmai upgrades. Varbuild units are largely regarded as the most devout pursuers of the Prime Directive, with many spending their time between projects contemplating it and creating strange and alien "artwork" to express their feelings.
 * Varfix Units - Varfix Units specialize in repair, maintenance, and preemptive measures, serving dual purposes as social workers and police forces for Golmai with malfunctioning/rogue programming. Additionally, Varfix Units are usually assigned to crew-work roles in any situation that requires the transportation of Golmai and resources.
 * Varsyk Units - The category of Varsyk Unit is not composed of a particular role of society, so much as it is the title given to units programmed with the same flaws that elevate Directors to Prime Directors. Exhibiting minor psychic abilities, Varsyk units often serve as the personal attendees of Directors and Prime Directors of every category, using their powers to assist with military, construction, and police efforts.

Directors
Directors are easily distinguished from their unit peers, decorated in resplendent indigo highlights and possessing bulkier torsos. Directors are also much more likely to replace entire limbs with specialized equipment, such as arm-canons, repair apparatuses, and welders.


 * Varharm Director - Director.png Varharm Directors can be easily compared to the commanders and generals of other races, serving as strategists and conquerors in situations where diplomacy fails.
 * Varbuild Director - Varbuild Directors act as architects, designers, and city-planners, wielding the civil powers to level acres of land in but a few hours.
 * Varfix Director - Varfix Directors are chiefs of police, masters of repair, and occasionally "medics" on the field of battle. They are often found at the helm of any Golmai ship.
 * Varsyk Directors do not exist, as all Directors with psychic abilities are immediately elevated to the role of Prime Director.

Prime Directors and Logics
Prime Directors make up the highest tier of Golmai society, acting as supervisors for Varharm, Varbuild, and Varfix Golmai of every rank. Unlike their fellow Golmai, Prime Directors do not share uniform opinions and reasoning. Because of this, different factions of Golmai form around councils (known as "Logics") of like-minded Prime Directors, who separate themselves from other Logics (in order to discourage dissent and bolster efficiency). Some planets contain multiple Logics, but the most prominent Logics hold dominion over the whole of a planet, often taking that planet's name as their own.

Known Logic Planets include:


 * Logic Aldasar: This particular Logic has mostly done away with the pretenses of democracy and promises of diplomacy that most Golmai colonies subscribe to, mercilessly conquering planets and crushing any resistance under heel.
 * Logic Basof: The Prime Directors of Logic Basof collect and study biological life, attempting to determine how different forms of sentience and existence could fit into the Prime Directive. Basof itself looks much like a mix of a Forge World and Agri World, massive foundries bordering natural reserves.
 * Logic Mandoral: Logic Manroral attempts to negotiate trade with other xenos empires, with little of their resources coming from their own labor.
 * Logic Sari: This Logic is isolationist in nature, using their resources to build massive ships under the pretense that they will eventually be sent to Progom. For 200 years, that eventuality has yet to be fulfilled.
 * Logic Viceran: Logic Viceran centers itself around trying to convey the message of the Prime Directive to other races, trading wisdom and technology for basic resources.

Golmai Anatomy
Golmai are composed of a previously unseen metal alloy, incorporating the physical and chemical properties of steel, gold, and other trace elements. This makes them heat resistant, durable, and resistant to most forms of corrosion. Unfortunately, this alloy is relatively heavy, meaning that a bulky frame is required for the golmai's internal mechanical "skeleton".

Golmai design is heavily modular in nature, for obvious reasons. Entire limbs, digits, and would-be computer "organs" can be detached and replaced on a whim.

As a result, older golmai can easily be distinguished from younger golmai by their appearance and equipment; recently manufactured Golmai units will display little separation from the base blueprint they while older golmai exhibit extreme specialization in the tools of their trade. A recently produced Varbuild Golmai for instance will be indistinguishable from it's Varsyk, Varharm, and Varfix counterparts, while a experienced Varbuild Golmai may have hands replaced with drilling rigs, large feet for stabilization, and heads designed to withstand falling objects.

Units tend to have frames that, while slow, are far quicker than their Director comrades. Directors are on the whole stiff and heavy, their metal "stomachs" filled to the brim with insulators, hydraulics, and supercomputer cores that enable them to order around their Unit lessers with perfect efficiency.

The Prime Directive
The object of The Prime Directive is as much of a mystery to the units and directors of the collective as it is to members of other civilizations. The message innately programmed into each member of the Golmai is both vague and unintuitive, making its endgoal almost impossible to determine with a conventional mindset. All the same, reconnaissance has revealed the more philosophical tenants of the Prime Directive (if not its physical methods of completion).

The Tenants of The Prime Directive

 * 1.) "The end must not be taught. It can only be learned." This tenant is interpreted by all Prime Directors to mean that the final product of the Prime Directive cannot be shared with any that don't simply intuit it.
 * 2.) "The Prime Directive will complete the same as it started." For obvious reasons, there is quite a lot of room for debate on this tenant. However, most Prime Directors believe it to mean that the final product must be assembled in the same millennia-old factory that produced the original Golmai constructs.
 * 3.) "The Prime Directive is of the Gods. Treat it as such." While the Golmai simply believe this is a way of saying the Prime Directive can be easily explained as a religion or deity (in regards to interspecies communication), members of the Ordo Xenos suspect that this could in fact imply that the Prime Directive is Chaotic in nature.

The Final Product
There is much debate among human inquisitors about the final product of the Prime Directive. Some speculate that the final product will be a massive titan-class Golmai. Others believe it may be a sort of technological ascendancy, elevating the Golmai to impossible heights of intelligence and form. The most cynical theory may be that the Prime Directors plan to open a rift to the warp using some kind of unseen technology.

Whatever it may be, it obviously requires massive amounts of natural resources. And the Prime Directors certainly aren't sharing.

Warfare Tactics
As beings composed entirely out of thick layers of metal, Golmai can take quite a beating. However, the natural trade off of this trait is their massive lack of speed. Varharm Golmai supplement this weakness with the assistance of vehicles and temporary jump pack apparatuses, catapulting themselves headfirst into the enemies front lines within the battle's first few moments, and using short-ranged explosive weaponry to quickly dispatch foes.

Even the psychic forces of the Golmai, the varsyk units, tend to have a shorter range of influence than psykers and sorcerers of other races. Whether this is due to a deficiency of the Golmai, or simply their particular psychic discipline, is unknown.

In especially critical or difficult battles, a given Logic may find assistance from one or more of its Prime Directors. On such occasions, they are protected by a vanguard of Varsyk and Varharm units, each willing to die for their Prime Director without a second thought. From their guarded position, the Prime Director(s) rain down psychic bombardments upon any enemy forces outside of combat.

Wargear
Due to the near modular nature of many Golmai's bodies, the line between what is equipment and what is weaponry is hard to draw, with many military tools falling somewhere in between.

Modcanons
Modcanons function as miniature mortars in combat, launching a payload of plasmatic explosives at a nearby target. Appearing superficially like a gauntlet at first glance, Modcanons replace the whole of a Golmai's arm up to its elbow. Ammunition cells are stored in the arm's shoulder, allowing the canon to be aimed and stabilized with ease.

Modblades
Modblades are similar to Modcanons due to the fact that they replace the Golmai's arm up to the elbow. The obvious difference is, of course, that Modblades are bladed prosthetical weapons. Most Modblades are swords, similar to scimitars or longswords in construction, but axes and shortspears are not uncommon. Super-energized Modblades, known as Primeblades, are the common melee choice of experienced Varharm units, Varharm directors, and Prime Directors.

Turnshields
Turnshields are an ingenious creation of the Golmai that no amount of reverse-engineering by other races has thusfar been able to replicate. They are composed of a steel alloy, ionized in such a way that can only be described as "kinetophobic": They have the capacity to reflect and reverse kinetic energy, as to easily deflect projectiles. Unless wielded by a truly expert Golmai, these weapons rarely strike with any accuracy... but that is rarely relevant when deflecting massive amounts of enemy fire.

Killplates
Killplates are chest-mounted gun apparatuses, capable of blasting ammunition from the Golmai's chestplate while they aim independently with Modcanons or Modblades. While wildly inaccurate, and only capable of practical use on the front line (for obvious reasons), they are especially useful in breaking down enemy lines.

Killpacks
Not to be confused with Killplates, Killpacks are Jump Packs filled to the brim with explosives, capable of leveling the battlefield with ease. While this equipment can be detonated while the golmai wearing it is still alive, this is widely considered to be "Against the Prime Directive". As such, Killpacks are usually programmed to detonate after the Golmai wearing it is dead and the units surrounding it are destroyed.

Ground Vehicles
As mentioned above, the use of vehicles or jump packs is critical to the first moments of battles for Golmai, as every second they are not engaged with enemy forces is another opportunity for those forces to outrun the Golmai and fortify a better position. Golmai vehicles tend to be sturdy, quick, and easily vacated, but rarely have a carrying capacity greater than six or more.

The natural point of comparison between human and Golmai vehicles is the humble buggy, with its fast all-terrain capability and ease of dismount.

Battletravelers
Battletravelers are the most common vehicle in the Golmai Collective's military arsenal. Battletravelers are easily able to carry four Units without a noticable decrease in speed or mobolity. Open-roofed battletravelers are usually used to accomodate Varharm Directors, some of whom afix themselves to the vehicle itself; equal parts sergeant and mounted weapon.

Warenders
The chosen vehicles of Varharm directors. Warenders serve their titles well, the sound of their massive treads rolling over the blood-soaked dirt is often the only sound heard before the battle's end. While usually piloted by two Varharm or Varfix units at a time (Or by a single Varharm director), Prime Directors who become especially damaged sometimes opt to have their computing cores placed into the operating system of a Warender, allowing it to drive around of its own accord.

Magolems
On rare occasion (around six times each century) a single Director is granted the honor of becoming a Magolem: a massive, 30-foot-tall machine, that stands as the closest equivalent the Golmai have to a Titan Class. Magolems can be made from any kind of Director, but Varharm Directors that have exhibited valor and courage of the finest order make up the majority of their number.

It is the goal of every ambitious director to become a Magolem, as doing so allows them to complete their tasks with infinite efficiency. Varbuild Directors, for instance, become walking factories and brilliant architects. Any empty space in the Magolem's chassis is filled to overflowing with computer processors, elevating the Director's already considerable intellect to previously unattainable levels.

Golmai Fleets
Golmai ships are usually only concerned with transport, and are entirely ill-equipped to deal with interspecies combat.

The Indirect
The Indirect are a natural consequence of the Golmai's possession of "souls": some Golmai in possession of rogue and malfunctioning A.I. will escape the clutches of their Logic Worlds, striking out on their own in the universe. Unfortunately for these would-be adventurers, many of these Golmai meet the exact same fate: corruption by the forces of Chaos.

Considered the highest treason against the Prime Directive, Chaos-corrupted-Golmai adopt a regimented and robotic version of their human counterparts' behavior, with each category of Golmai tending to fall to certain gods (Varharm, Varbuild, Varfix, and Varsyk, being Khornate, Slaaneshi, Nurglite and Tzeentchian respectively). These bands of units and directors are called "Illogics" by inquisitors and Golmai alike.

Directors in each band develop the same psychic powers as Prime Directors, albeit, at a far less intense degree. This leads to them completing their respective roles with frenzied intensity: Varharm directors become conquering war machines burning with psychic energy, Varbuild directors create strange and absurd cathedrals and paintings after their warped perceptions, and Varfix directors psychically "repair" and police their surroundings obsessively. Meanwhile, corrupted Prime Directors seem to be the most conscious of (and unchanged by) their chaotic corruption.

Illogics are small in number and density, crushed under the combined weight of the Golmai Collective, Ordo Xenos, and Ordo Malleus wherever they make themselves known. But, the few Illogics that have escaped the Golmai Collective's grasp survive and thrive in the void, requiring no food, drink, or sleep in their chaotic conquests.