Animated wooden crab
An animated wooden crab of mule-size is a Beast Art construct that appears briefly during a Pal military engagement in Days of Shattered Faith, deployed as a weapon by an old Beast Artist who drives it against Pal infantry, tearing soldiers apart in the course of the fighting. - ch 48 Its sole recorded appearance is singular: it is the only instance of an animate construct attested in the book's account of that battle, and the notes record nothing further regarding the identity of the Artist who controlled it or the construct's fate after the engagement. - ch 48
Though the crab itself is a passing detail in a single chapter, its presence is significant as the one explicit demonstration in the novel of the Beast Art tradition of shaping animate constructs. The source is careful to distinguish the old Artist's work from sorcery or the artificing of a sorcerer, locating the crab squarely within the Beast Art canon of shaped, living-seeming objects wielded as instruments of war. - ch 48 In that sense the creature functions less as a recurring element of the plot than as a small confirming datum: it proves that the tradition exists, that its practitioners still field constructs in open combat, and that the practitioners need not be sorcerers. - ch 48
The Object
Description
The construct is wooden and crab-shaped, approximately mule-size. - ch 48 No further markings, ornamentation, or material specifics are recorded. It is carried or fielded by its controlling Beast Artist rather than worn or carried by a soldier; the Artist directs it at the Pal infantry during the engagement. - ch 48
What It Does
The crab functions as a weapon. In the Pal engagement in which it appears, it tears Pal soldiers apart, serving as a battlefield instrument wielded by the old Beast Artist who shaped and controls it. - ch 48 Its deployment is an act of the Beast Art tradition specifically, and the source distinguishes it from sorcery or other forms of artificing; the Artist, not a sorcerer, is its operator. - ch 48 No cost of operation, duration of animation, or upper limit on the construct's combat effectiveness is recorded. The crab is the only such construct attested in the book's record of the engagement, suggesting either that the Artist wielded it alone or that no others were present. - ch 48
Provenance
The crab was shaped and is controlled by an old Beast Artist whose name and identity are not given. - ch 48 No information exists on where or when the construct was made, nor on what became of it after the Pal engagement concluded. - ch 48
History
Days of Shattered Faith
An animated wooden crab of mule-size appears during a Pal military engagement, wielded as a weapon by an old Beast Artist; it tears Pal soldiers apart in the course of the fighting - ch 48. The construct is described as wooden and crab-shaped, and its deployment is the act of the Beast Artist rather than the work of a sorcerer or other artificer, situating it within the Beast Art tradition of shaping animate constructs - ch 48. The crab is the only instance of such a construct attested in the book's record of the engagement, and the notes give no further detail on its post-battle fate or the identity of the Artist who controlled it - ch 48.
Relationships
- The old Beast Artist who deployed the crab is unnamed in the source. The relationship is purely that of maker-operator to construct: the Artist shapes and directs the crab as a weapon, and the crab acts only under that direction. - ch 48 No named character in the book is recorded as the Artist, the target, or a witness to the construct's deployment beyond the Pal soldiers it attacks.
Notable Quotes
(No verbatim dialogue or descriptive quotation pertaining to the crab appears in the source material for this entry.)
Tags
- taumachy-construct · #animated-wooden · #war-automaton