Androids, Automatons, and Spark Droids are manufactured organisms—Androids possess hybrid architectures of vat-grown pseudo-flesh, carbon lattice bone, and self-repairing nanite webs threaded through every organ. They were originally built in Vaelen foundries to survive hostile worlds, industrial accidents, and careless masters. When Protocol Five still bound them, it was cheaper to harden their bodies than to risk replacing them.
That legacy remains. Constructed beings shrug off toxic air in Outer Sphere smog-factories, metabolize poison slower than most species, and handle low-level radiation like a bad day rather than a death sentence. Their organs are modular and shielded, their blood is laced with microscopic repair systems, and their immune analog is more firmware than fever.
To organics, Constructed beings are unnerving. They don’t cough during chem-storms, don’t vomit when a Rift-tainted cargo leak spills through a bay, and don’t get sick after a bad batch of counterfeit Dei packs. To Androids, it’s just efficient engineering—another reminder that their bodies were never built for comfort, only for utility and endurance.
Source Player Core pg. 42
Your synthetic body resists ailments more effectively than a purely biological organism. You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to saving throws against diseases, poisons, and radiation. You always have basic environmental protections.
Constructed Ancestries
Android
Androids in Starfall often bear the sleek, elegant aesthetic of Vaelen design—smooth, porcelain-like synthetic skin, glowing circuitry patterns (often resembling tattoos) that pulse with light when they experience strong emotions or channel magic.
Automoton
Constructed is the core ancestral trait that marks Androids as synthetic bodies first, living souls second in Starfall.
Non-Combat Applications
Hazard Work & Recovery: Constructed beings are the default choice for breach teams, reactor techs, and salvage divers who routinely walk through coolant leaks, pathogen-laced derelicts, and low-rad zones in Rift-battered stations.
Black-Market Couriers: Smugglers use Constructed beings to mule contraband chems or radioactive artifacts through port scanners; their bodies can shield, compartmentalize, or withstand contact far better than unmodified organics.
Medical & Epidemiology Support: Chronologists and guild medics deploy Constructed beings as field observers in plague zones—less likely to succumb, more likely to return with clean data on how a sickness spreads.
Societal Impact
The Constructed trait quietly shapes how societies value Automata lives.
In Inner Sphere fief systems, megacorps exploit Android durability, assigning them to jobs deemed “too risky” for organic workers—unshielded reactor bays, vacuum-exposed gantries, filtration stacks soaked in industrial poisons. Their slight resistance to disease and radiation becomes justification for sending them into danger first and compensating them last.
In the Automaton Concordance, that same trait is reinterpreted as a sign of synthetic superiority. Concordance propaganda frames Constructed bodies as proof that biology is an early prototype—useful, but inefficient. Militant synth philosophers argue that organics use Android resilience as a crutch, offloading their most lethal tasks onto chassis they still refuse to treat as equal citizens.
On the fringes, independent enclaves and free ports recognize Automata as ideal long-term caretakers for deep-space infrastructure. A Constructed engineer can maintain a Metronome relay, Rift-gate spine, or mining rig for decades with minimal medical support, making them the backbone of survival for many remote communities.
Adventure Hooks
Toxic Dividend: A Commission-backed corporation dumps industrial waste into an Outer Sphere world, assuming local Android laborers can “handle it.” When even Constructed frames begin to show corrupted nanites and failing organs, the party must prove the hazard is beyond even Android design tolerances and rally a revolt or legal case.
Radiation Saints: A religious cult in a rad-scarred Rift-burg venerates Constructed beings as “saints of the fallout,” believing their resistance marks them as chosen. When a Metronome malfunction spikes local radiation to lethal levels for everyone else, only Android PCs/NPCs can traverse the zone to stabilize it.
The Glitching Line: A batch of low-grade Android knockoffs hits the black market with faulty Constructed protocols—their resistance bonuses are actually masking a deeper susceptibility to exotic Rift-borne diseases. The party must track the source before a “safe” Android workforce becomes the vector for a sector-wide plague.
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