Inanimate

The Inanimate, also known as the Lifeless, are not living beings in the traditional sense. Those that can move, are typically made to move (or "animated") by some external impulse; this could be magic, or an otherwise-limited spirit, or some other subtle puppeteer.

There are a few broad categories of Inanimate:

• Rocks and furniture are inanimate, of course. Trees and bushes are not inanimate, despite their Immobility.
• Many specimens of Undead are inanimate. These are typically the kind "Reanimated" by Enchantments:
  • A Longdead (a skeleton) is inanimate. A Soulless (zombie) is inanimate, too.
  • A Ghost is not inanimate, presumably because of its spiritual body.
  • A Ghoul is not inanimate, nor is a Vampire. Their bodies haven't fully died on them yet.
  • A Revenant is inanimate, and so is a Lich, but a Wight is not.
• The various Constructs are all inanimate.
  • This includes the vine-propelled Manikins, including those of Asphodel.
  • The various Animated Statues (such as Gargoyles) are inanimate as well, including those in Agartha.
• A bunch of Pretender God forms are inanimate; virtually all of the inanimate ones are giant, hard-to-destroy Idols.
  • Most of these are Immobile and incapable of attacking, but they can all cast spells.
  • Two nations, Nazca and Na'Ba, have non-divine imitations of these sorts:
    • Nazca has the Mallquis, bone piles carried around on palanquins.
    • Na'Ba has the Jinn Blocks, heavy stones inhabited by half-asleep genies.
• Last-but-not-least, some Magic Beings are simple or raw enough to be inanimate, a bit like the Constructs:
  • Generic Elementals are inanimate, though special ones like the Flame Spirit are not.
  • Illusions are also inanimate.

Being inanimate gives you a wide array of immunities to certain traits and Afflictions, both positive and negative:

• Luck (since you don't have a life it can save)
• Profuse Bleeding (since you don't need blood)
• Regeneration
• Desiccation (since you don't need water)
• Sleep (since you don't need sleep)
• Disease
• Rage

The inanimate are also immune to a bunch of combat magic:

• A bunch of Blood spells
  • The notable exceptions are the buffing spells and the Banishers, including Banish Demon.
  • Crosspaths are a mixed bag; Blood Boil (11) won't work, but Hellfire (12) will.
• All combat healing magic (except for healing from Drain damage)
• All Fatigue-removing magic (except for Jomon's Meditation Sign, for some reason)
• All spells that deal Drain damage (though partial Drain from weapons will still have an effect)
• All spells that result in a change of form, except for Life after Death (which is temporary)
• Haste (Nature)
• Touch of Madness (Nature)
• Stream of Life (Nature)
• Steal Breath (Air)
• Sailors' Death (Water)
• Frozen Heart (Water)
• Drain Life (Death)
• Claim Life (Holy, from a Blood faith)
• Word of Bewilderment (Holy, from a Glamour faith)

Shatter Damage (such as from the Shatter spell, an 3 Alteration) only affects the Inanimate, however.