What Makes Them Tick?

[Aceshot]

<p>Oh, my puns! They hurt me!</p><p>Anyway, I was thinking. The clockworks seem to have a kind of sentience. There larger and more powerful of them seem to have personality and goals. They can work togther, they can wander.</p><p>What makes them tick? How smart are they? What gives them sentinece of a sort? What is their ultimate goal and why do we not have more of them running around as our butlers!</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p>Magic.</p><p>Seriously. It's not explained how the Clockworks obtained sentience, but they realized it over the period of time that the gnomes abandoned Ak'Anon during the cataclysms. When they came back, they found the clockworks got tired of waiting.</p><p>The gnomes have always been able to incorporate magic into their machine work, but it's usually not explained just exactly how it works.</p>

[kelvmor]

<p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Magic.</p><p>Seriously. It's not explained how the Clockworks obtained sentience, but they realized it over the period of time that the gnomes abandoned Ak'Anon during the cataclysms. When they came back, they found the clockworks got tired of waiting.</p><p>The gnomes have always been able to incorporate magic into their machine work, but it's usually not explained just exactly how it works.</p></blockquote><p>It's a core.</p><p>A magical core. Like the Nogginspark Reactor from the Qeynos Gnome Mentor quests.</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p><cite>kelvmor wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Magic.</p><p>Seriously. It's not explained how the Clockworks obtained sentience, but they realized it over the period of time that the gnomes abandoned Ak'Anon during the cataclysms. When they came back, they found the clockworks got tired of waiting.</p><p>The gnomes have always been able to incorporate magic into their machine work, but it's usually not explained just exactly how it works.</p></blockquote><p>It's a core.</p><p>A magical core. Like the Nogginspark Reactor from the Qeynos Gnome Mentor quests.</p></blockquote><p>That still doesn't explain exactly how they work, which is my whole point....</p>

[Iskandar]

<p>It all begins when a PC and a Mac get together in a bar...... <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" /></p><p>Sorry, couldn't resist <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/49869fe8223507d7223db3451e5321aa.gif" border="0" /></p>

[thecynic315]

<p><cite>Iskandar wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>It all begins when a PC and a Mac get together in a bar...... <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" /></p><p>Sorry, couldn't resist <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/49869fe8223507d7223db3451e5321aa.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>What? They spawn a Child Process?</p>

[Meirril]

<p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Magic.</p><p>Seriously. It's not explained how the Clockworks obtained sentience, but they realized it over the period of time that the gnomes abandoned Ak'Anon during the cataclysms. When they came back, they found the clockworks got tired of waiting.</p><p>The gnomes have always been able to incorporate magic into their machine work, but it's usually not explained just exactly how it works.</p></blockquote><p>Have you ever noticed that dead bodies left to their own in Norrath have a very disturbing tendency to animate on their own? Also all of these elementals naturally occuring (or invading our world, different perspectives)? All sorts of inanimate objects have taken on a life of their own when exposed to high concentrations of magic. Golems of all sorts are found all over the place. A lot of them share similar traits.</p><p>I think its part of the general nature of Norrath. Simply put, its easy to pain a face on something and have it come to life.</p><p>What makes the clockworks different is that they appear to have more self will than the simpler golems. They also seem to have less self will than the undead. Even more pecular is that their personalities can be altered by re-arranging the components in their thinking parts. This particular peice of magic can be performed by anybody. Not just the living, but also by other clockworks (EQ1: the dark reflection "recruits" more members by re-programming unattended clockworks). This implies that the magic works independent of the creator and actually does have more to do with how the components are arranged than magical ritual. Well, or not. It really depends on how you want to picture tinkering. In a way, tinkering works just as much by magic as it does by physics. Maybe even more so since a lot of what it does involves magical forces, summoning stuff, and temporary effects.</p><p>So what I'm trying to say it that tinkering isn't based on science, its based on rituals, inscriptions and magic.</p>

[Jaremai]

<p>Skynet.</p>

[Uncaged]

<p><cite>Jaremai@Guk wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Skynet.</p></blockquote><p>Got your tinfoil hats on boys and girls? Do a search for department of ministry today and see what they unveiled this afternoon 0.0!</p>

[kelvmor]

<p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>kelvmor wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Magic.</p><p>Seriously. It's not explained how the Clockworks obtained sentience, but they realized it over the period of time that the gnomes abandoned Ak'Anon during the cataclysms. When they came back, they found the clockworks got tired of waiting.</p><p>The gnomes have always been able to incorporate magic into their machine work, but it's usually not explained just exactly how it works.</p></blockquote><p>It's a core.</p><p>A magical core. Like the Nogginspark Reactor from the Qeynos Gnome Mentor quests.</p></blockquote><p>That still doesn't explain exactly how they work, which is my whole point....</p></blockquote><p>True enough. But generally, all clockworks have a core that powers them and keeps their systems regulated. Their memory, I suppose, would work like a steampunk computer, you could say.</p>

[Jaranna]

<p><cite>Jaremai@Guk wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Skynet.</p></blockquote><p>Heh.  Actually, this isn't far from the truth.  Klak'anon is just a huge Terminator/Skynet homage.  You have Klakdyne (Cyberdyne) manufacturing clockworks such as the Eliminator DCCC (T-800).  They also have the hunter-seekers and seeker-destroyers (Hunter-Killers). </p><p>As far as lore goes, though, I think it has to do with a gnome technology combining machinery and magic.  I assume that is where they got the name "mechanamagica."  Clockworks aren't just machines.  in EQLive, the king of Ak'anon was a clockwork.  Of course, if you do a search now, you get an actual gnome.  But back in my day (and apparently as late as Dec. 2007), the king was a clockwork, as you can see here:</p><p><a href="http://eqplayers.station.sony.com/news_article.vm?id=50707&month=122007">http://eqplayers.station.sony.com/n...07&month=122007</a></p>

[Cusashorn]

<p><cite>Jaranna wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Heh.  Actually, this isn't far from the truth.  Klak'anon is just a huge Terminator/Skynet homage.  You have Klakdyne (Cyberdyne) manufacturing clockworks such as the Eliminator DCCC (T-800).  They also have the hunter-seekers and seeker-destroyers (Hunter-Killers). </p></blockquote><p>And to top that off, the actual leader behind it all is a parody of the big bad from Tron.</p>

[Zabjade]

<p><span style="color: #00cc00;">Here is a possibility, crystals probably wired together in a series (Probably imbued Precious/Rare Crystals) with gold and other imbued metals. </span></p>