Inanimate
To be inanimate is to be lifeless – either you've died before, or you've stashed your life elsewhere, or maybe you had no life within you to begin with, but you now move with strong magic instead of any life force or biological functions. Inanimates are essentially robots.
Inanimates have a few random details that make them functionally different from living beings:
They are considered "Constructs", and get a Max Age bonus from having
Earth Magic instead of
Nature Magic. They also don't have their Max Age reduced by having
Fire Magic. This does make them vulnerable to the
Shatter spell & some
weapons, however.
They don't have any life energy that can be drained, making them immune to "pure" Life Drain damage (the kind without a cap, which is typically found from spells such as Drain Life). They can still use life energy in a "psychic" form, however, such as from Soul Drain.
They don't need to be awake to move, making them effectively immune to the Sleep spell and other sleep effects, though they can still dream and are thus still vulnerable to Vengeance of the Dead.
They're immune to form-changing magic such as
Transformation and
Polymorph, since these spells only turn living things into other living things. They're also unable to take advantage of
Twiceborn, which requires a life force in order to work.
They don't have any life energy that can be stoked or bolstered by magic, making them immune to Heal, Regeneration, Haste, Rage, Touch of Madness, and other similar spells.
They don't have Blood, a heart, or a set of lungs (or at least they don't need those things), making them immune to all spells that interact with these things (such as Bleed, Blood Burst, Desiccation, Frozen Heart, Steal Breath, & Sailors' Death).
They can't feel pain, making them immune to Agony.
They don't have a life that can be saved, so they can't benefit from
Luck or
Stygian Skin. On the other hand, this fact makes them immune to both
Claim Life &
Life for a Life, since they don't have a life that can be traded for or claimed.
Last but not least, they can't catch any
Diseases, be they
Seven Year Fever,
Leprosy, or even the rabies that causes
Hydrophobia.
Constructs, Phantasms, standard Elementals, & Undead that you've used Enchantment or Construction Rituals to make are inanimate.