Faction · Concept
A self-sustaining army of identical yet fiercely individual man-servants who act as the operational backbone of Temple Bastion.
The Icori constitute a unique, self-sustaining army of identical man-servants tied entirely to the infrastructure of Temple Bastion. Tasked with executing any and all manual maintenance, domestic labor, and escort duties across the fortress, they act as the operational backbone of the Lodgesworn order. Despite their uniform origins, each individual Icorus expresses their own distinct personality, wardrobe preferences, and baseline emotional capacity.
Physically, every Icorus shares an identical biological baseline characterized by a gaunt, sharply angled face, a long protruding chin, and a naturally high, proud posture. Their individual choice of attire varies wildly depending on personal style; one model might adorn himself in traditional, ruffle-necked, puffy-sleeved cotton shirts tied with a waist rope and loose brown canvas pants, while another might prefer a simple, drab gray robe topped with a fluffy, sagging red cotton hat.
Despite sharing an identical physical template, there is zero collective hive-mind behavior among the collective. Incredibly, each individual Icorus strictly claims to be the single, authentic "original" model, exhibiting a fierce personal pride in executing their appointed tasks with optimal, flawless speed.
Though engineered or spawned through anomalous means rather than born, the Icori are explicitly sentient and capable of experiencing standard biological responses. They experience acute internal stress, high anxiety, genuine sympathy, and sharp offense if their distinct individuality or humanity is openly questioned by trainees.
Beyond standard janitorial tasks, specialized Icori act as keepers of deep institutional history. Cloaked in administrative gray, these attendants carry massive, time-warped, dusty volumes to track, recite, and officially verify archaic precedents of Lodge Law before the High Council.
The Icori occupy a ubiquitous but isolated social stratum within the mountain fortress. They handle the baseline background mechanics of Temple Bastion—tending the feast halls, sweeping dirt-floored passages, and clearing out the training zones. Within the cultural hierarchy of the Lodgesworn, their labor defines the absolute baseline of corrective punishment. When high-ranking operatives or uninitiated trainees commit severe behavioral infractions, they are stripped of their active casting privileges and forced into "Icorus work"—a status of pure manual labor widely viewed by proud Aspirants as a deeply humiliating institutional penalty.