Golem

IF conditions_for_pogrom=true THEN goto stomping antisemites to death.

GOLEM MUST WORK. GOLEM MUST HAVE A MASTER.

— Dorfl, Feet of Clay

The Golem is a creature from Jewish folklore which was a figure animated by a holy man. It was generally unable to speak, lacked a soul, and followed orders like an automaton. The original Hebrew word can mean "an unshaped form" or figuratively "a stupid person".

The creature originated in the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah, which holds that those who study the holy books and are strong in the ways of the Lord may create imitations of His miracles, but only imperfect ones. As God made Adam from clay, so may a holy man create an imitation of a man, albeit one lacking a soul. Clay remains the favored building material, but alternatives, such as wood, are no objection.

In some versions of the legend, the golem always obeyed its creator but could act as a Literal Genie; the idea of the golem deliberately rebelling was only introduced later. Note that even in the early versions, the Golem usually had to be destroyed for causing destruction or taking meaning from people's lives by making work too easy.

The most famous golem story is that of Rabbi Loew, said to have created the Prague golem in the 16th century to protect the Jewish community. In German-speaking countries, the bestselling novel The Golem (1915) by Gustav Meyrink brought it back to public consciousness and led to a series of silent films; the third film, a prequel from 1920 which shows the origin of the golem (who has the worst case of helmet hair in existence), survives today.

In some versions the golem was animated by writing the Hebrew word for "truth" (אֱמֶת ʼĕméth) on its forehead, and made inert again by erasing the first letter, converting it into the word for "dead" (מֵת mēth). However, other versions included using a "Shem", literally meaning a name and referring to one of the secret names of God. This could be put on its forehead or in the mouth.

Golem means cocoon or pupa in modern Hebrew. Both words are derived of the same linguistic root which means "holding a hidden meaning or potential". This is actually part of the original Kabbalistic aesop behind the Golem tale: the danger of creating a Golem is in its unknown nature. A human could never control or understand another mortal being the way God can.

Golems are usually created when a non-living vessel is magically imbued with life and consciousness. Depictions vary whether the golem requires magic to continue functioning after being made. The entry of the golem into popular culture as a fantasy monster is probably Dungeons & Dragons, which calls the classic version a "clay golem", and included other types such as Stone, Iron, or the Frankenstein's Monster-like "Flesh Golem". Other fantasy worlds have expanded into substances such as Lead, Wood, Lava, Blood, Mithril, and even more unlikely substances, like Glass, Paper, Wax, Junk and Maggots. And don't even get us started on the ones made of dirty laundry.

Generally, a golem's makeup is indicative of both their strength and the nature of their builder. An iron, steel or adamantine golem will likely be ungodly tough, a glass golem a literal Glass Cannon, and a flesh, blood or bone golem likely built by less than savory types.

More loosely the term can be applied to any robot that is explicitly run on magic rather than technology. Talos, a mythical Greek giant made out of forged bronze, is a good example. Do note it's not without controversy to use the term "golem" outside of its Jewish context and some works go with other terms for the general concept instead, like the aforementioned "robot", "homunculus" (which more or less are the Christian equivalent of the golem anyway), or the broader meaning of "simulacrum"/"simulacre".

Specific subtropes, distinguished by the materials or methods used to make them, include Flesh Golem, Improvised Golems and Snowlems.

See Rock Monster, Living Statue, Frankenstein's Monster, and Artificial Human. Usually a Perpetual-Motion Monster. Sentient Golems may be Nature Loving Robots, doubly so if whatever they are made of has a natural theme to it.

Not to be confused with the other Golem. Or Gollum. Or even the game of the same name.

See also Improvised Golems, for when you don't have time to make a proper golem.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Broken Blade: Humongous Mecha are called golems, and most (but not the titular one) live up to the name, being made of special stone and moving with the help of "magic".
• In Rune Soldier Louie, Louie summons a golem to guard Merrill's gold, with Merrill ordering it to "not let anyone touch my darling jar". The golem then acts as a Literal Genie and steals the jar.
• Slayers: The golems. Zelgadis is also considered part golem due to a curse. This is a bit odd, since Naga (the Serpent) makes and discards golems with impunity. They are occasionally implied to have free will to a degree (one of them even falls in love with the magical construct it was supposed to be fighting), which only increases the oddness. Then again, this is Slayers.
• RahXephon from RahXephon is in fact one of these, as are the monsters it fights, the Dolems.
• Monster Soul: Touran, a sand golem. She's a Half-Human Hybrid due to having a human mother and a golem father.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid: Corona, one of Vivio's two friends, can create these in an instant.
• Blessing of the Campanella: A golem named Golem is one of the secondary characters. Even if he is made of stone, he's owned by the comic relief Tortilla sisters, and gets into as many hijinks as they do. Witness him fall prey to gravity, wear an apron and blush over Leicester.
• Anpanman: The titular character is an artificial person made out of bread filled with bean paste (his head is made of bread, anyway... the rest of him is never explicitly explained).
• Fairy Tail: In a filler saga, the villain Daphne uses Lizardman-like monsters which are stated to be some kind of Golem by Wendy.
• Berserk: Golems are figures made out of mud. They look cute, but they're very resilient and will regenerate any damage done to them until the little clay figurine within them is destroyed. They're used by the witch, Flora, to safeguard her home as well as to carry out domestic chores.
• The Golem girls in Deadline Summoner and 12 Beast share similar traits, in that they resemble little girls with massive robotic hands with built-in cannons, headphones, and facial piercings. In the latter, they can also pilot Humongous Mecha. They seem to be made of Magitek.
• The Digimon franchise has Golemon. Of course, whatever the theme of a Digimon is, all Digimon are living data, but the first Golemon we met was one of many artificial Monster of the Week mon created from control spires by Arukenimon, and a few seasons later more were created from dirt by Grumblemon. As such, the ones we met really were golems, though it needn't go for the whole species. That said, the species itself is an emotionless Digimon that only attacks when ordered to, so the whole "obeying its master/creator" aspect is usually always intact.
• In Hunter × Hunter, things created through the ability Order Stamp have a lot of similarities to the golem: The user can create or find something at least vaguely humanoid in shape, and then use the Order Stamp to mark the signifier for "human" on its head to allow it to move on its own. Beings animated in this way do not have souls or personalities but will follow simple commands from the stamp's wielder.
• Ushio and Tora: a Golem is the most powerful homunculus residing in the "House of Whispers", the headquarters of the mad former monk Inasa. It is a huge earthen humanoid with two beaked heads on his shoulders able to shoot out energy waves and seemingly created following Eleazar of Worms' method. It also has the traditional "emeth" weakness, though the author messes up in having Nadare claim that the writing is in latin rather than jew.
• The deutrogonist of A Certain Scientific Accelerator, Esther Rosenthal, is a Jewish mage who specializes in manufacturing golems. She's accompanied by one (made from the flesh of a dead woman) throughout much of the story and her plot arc revolves around her family's ancient mission to create a "perfect golem" that would imitate God's creation of mankind.

Card Games

• Magic: The Gathering numbers quite a few golems among its artifact creatures. (Which is a bit of Retcon for some of the older ones since artifact creatures originally didn't have creature types of their own.) Possibly the most famous of them is Karn, the pacifist silver golem who eventually became a planeswalker in his own right.
• Munchkin has the Stoned Golem, who has the munchies and thinks halflings look tasty.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Rock creature type consists of essentially any living creatures made of non-metallic parts (their robotic, technological counterpart being the Machine creature type).

Comic Books

• Elementals: Fantasia Faust, an iron golem under a permanent all-senses illusion (it looked like a sexy woman) was sent to attack the Elementals at one point. She later crossed over into Ironwood. She is far from the typical example, being sentient and normally indistinguishable from human.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): Knuckles, on a quest to retrieve what basically amounts to an Expy of Excalibur, encounters an antagonistic sorceror who decides to ruin Knuckles' day, apparently just for fun (it actually turns out he's got the sword Knuckles is looking for). So he casts a few spells and "brings forth a golem made of metal". Knuckles bitches about how they should leave the robots to Robotnik.
• The Other Side of Doomsday: As trying to find Supergirl, Iris and J Ean after they disappear, Flash and Atom are assailed by creatures resembling huge, muscular, blue humanoids. Said creatures lack eyes and mouth, and they crumble to dust when they are exposed to electricity. Laboratory tests reveal they are made from some alien dirt-like substance bonded by sheer electrical energy, and later the heroes learn those creatures were created and animated by a living planet at Morrow's behest.
• In The Sandman (1989), the Endless create their own golem, Eblis O'Shaughnessy, to act as emissary at Dream's death. He's basically human in most respects, but as two of the Endless are not present at his creation, he is unable to dream or destroy.
• Minder in DC's 80s Forgotten Realms comic was an unusual example even for the setting, being a clearly intelligent, speaking, and even heroic iron golem rather different from the usual (A)D&D automata. The golem body is eventually revealed to actually house the spirit of an old friend and fellow adventurer of the Realms Master's own captain (and high-level wizard), Dwalimor Omen; she even survives the destruction and reforging of her physical form near the end of the series' run.
• In Adventure Time: Candy Capers, Peppermint Butler uses dark magic to create a conjoined-twins golem to replace Finn and Jake as heroes. It goes berserk.
• In Project Superpowers, the Boy King makes use of a giant golem to compensate for his lack of superhuman abilities.
• In the comics, Drax the Destroyer was created specifically to destroy Thanos by Thanos's father and grandfather. Doubles as an Artificial Human and Our Homunculi Are Different.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Traditionally, the titular heroine is born when her mother, Hippolyta, crafts a baby out of clay and prays to the gods to give her life. This was Ret Conned in the New 52, though, where she is the natural daughter of Hippolyta and Zeus.
  • Wonder Woman (1987): In the last issue of The Contest the White Magician animates the very ground and concrete beneath Artemis and Diana as a giant humanoid fighter which dissipates and returns to dust once defeated. His giant stone golems make a reappearance later when several of them attack Widow Saiza in a failed attempt to kill the mob boss.
• Hawkman: In "The Statue that Came to Life", the villain is a sculptor named Boris Nickaloff who has invented plasm-clay. By carving it into human shape piece by piece and injecting it with adrenalin, the form comes to life and is loyal. Nickaloff names his first creation Czar and has him steal for him with the intention of financing a trip to South America where he'll create an entire army of plasm-clay men. However, Hawkman learns that the statue-man breathes and aims to choke him with a bolas. Nickaloff, protective of his creation, jumps in the weapon's path and is suffocated himself. The statue-man flees and Hawkman gives chase after retrieving the bolas. His next throw does strangle the statue-man.

Eastern European Animation

• KikoRiki: In "The Most Important Thing", Pin's robotic creation Bibi has run off. This inspires Dokko to create his own companion with a focus on the most important element: loyalty. Dokko thus reads up on how to create a golem in several old books and molds a clay form (with sticks as antlers). He inserts a photo of himself in the golem's mouth to program loyalty, but veers into Frankenstein territory by using lightning to bring the golem to life. The golem, unfortunately, is both clingy and woefully unaware of its own strength. Dokko flees to Barry's house, but the golem follows and tries to force its way in. The only thing that saves the two is the rain, which melts the golem because Dokko forgot to bake it. He is saddened by the loss and implies he'll make a new golem with a focus a better most important element: independence.

Fan Works

• The Cadanceverse: The protagonist ponies must battle and defeat a warrior golem in order to reach the Elements of Harmony. As it turns out, they already know another golem — Princess Cadance, who was created by Celestia and Luna to mediate between them.
• Dungeon Keeper Ami: Ami hates to put her minions, er, employees in danger. Thus her forces are composed mostly of Ice golems. Later, she adds the stronger and more imposeing (but also more costly) 'Reaperbots'. Basically remote-piloted mini-mecha that use magic. Ami uses a similar device in her duel with a horned reaper.
• In Moon Cats, The Further Adventures of Luna and Artemis, a Sailor Moon fanfic, there is a girl that can make golems. The senshi end up fighting some of them at one point.
• One episode of Simpson Moon R, a The Simpsons / Sailor Moon crossover, features Origami Golems as mooks.
• A grimdark My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic, Sunset, posits that Twilight Sparkle is actually an extremely lifelike golem created by Celestia specifically to defeat Nightmare Moon, and deals with Twilight's discovery and reaction to the truth of her origin.
• The Dresden Files fanfic Enemy Mine features an OC named Tam Veda. Like Harry, (s)he's a magic-user for hire. Unlike Harry, (s)he makes ultra-realistic golems for clued-in clients — No Questions Asked.
• All Things Probable Series: "A Friend in Darkness" features Maze and Monkey Fist creating an army of these creatures from statues and petrified people to take over the world.
• In Fantasy of Utter Ridiculousness, Alice Margatroid and the residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion initially mistake Megas for a gigantic puppet or a statue given life. Considering the low tech level of Gensokyo and Coop's control of Megas, it was a fair assumption to make on their part.
• Story Shuffle: "Take-Home Assignment" talks about the creation process of golems in Equestria. They can be made from a variety of materials, but volatile or formerly living ones are explicitly prohibited.
• Swords and Sorcery: The Einzberns make use of golems, most notably seven Guardian Golems based on the seven Servant classes: Saber (Siegfried), Lancer (Cú Chulainn), Archer (Karna), Rider (Lü Bu), Assassin (Brutus), Caster (Medea), and Berserker (Heracles). An eighth Golem also exists, Avenger, the rage, hatred, and bitterness of generations of Einzberns given physical form.
• Elementals of Harmony: Sideboard of Harmony: In "Fast, Fine, Fierce", when Ditzy Doo turns from a pony into a human, she references golems when describing her appearance in a Description in the Mirror scene:
  Ditzy looked up and found herself looking into a mirror. She examined her reflection. "Huh." It was her complexion more than anything. It was one thing to have grey hair. It was quite another to have grey skin. "I look like the scrawniest golem ever," she muttered. "That, or an underfed earth elemental, however that works." As she'd been warned, she seemed younger, too. Late teens if she had to guess. "Weird."
• Vow of the King: Eien-ō can summon copies of itself in shikai with an ability called Yūrei no Ken, which Ichigo can control with his mind. In bankai, he can summon up to five full duplicates of his bankai which are fully autonomous but have an unspecified cooldown before he can summon more.
• Under the Northern Lights: A mokkurkalfe, called an ice golem in Equestrian, is a type of construct created by reindeer worshippers of Luna. They’re large, powerful, mindlessly obedient, and can repair themselves by absorbing ice and snow that they walk upon. They're assembled from the butchered remains of living glaciers in a ritual involving clay from frozen rivers and the heart of an enemy. They're named after Mökkurkalfe, a giant clay man built by giants to fight Thor in Norse myth. Twilight mentions faceted golems from the Crystal Empire, although those don't require sacrificing anyone to make them.

Films — Animation

• Atlantis: The Lost Empire: Atlantis's Deflector Shields are projected by several massive golems who stand at set spots around the border of the city.
• An American Tail: The Giant Mouse of Minsk is a thinly veiled reference to the golem legend. While a machine rather than an animated statue, it was created, just as the Golem of Prague was, to protect an oppressed Jewish community.
• The Real Shlemiel: A major character is a golem created by an evil sorcerer.

Films — Live-Action

• Císařův pekař, pekařův císař (Emperor and the Golem for foreign distribution) is a 1951 Czechoslovak historical fantasy comedy where the original Loew's Golem is the Macguffin. The plot switches between the Emperor Rudolf II and his obsession with the Golem and his Identical Stranger, Matěj the baker, who is mistaken for the Emperor. Meanwhile the alchemist Magister Kelley, an agent of the Emperor's brother Matthias, tries to usurp Golem's power for himself.

• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla: King Caesar is a shisa-like kaiju-sized golem who acts as the sacred guardian of an Okinawan family. He spends most of his time sleeping in an inanimate state inside a mountain and can be awakened with a song, which the family uses just in time to wake him up so he can help Godzilla fight his mechanical double. He later reappears in Godzilla: Final Wars under the control of the Xilliens, forcing Godzilla to fight him as well as Anguirus and Rodan.
• The Golem is a silent German film from 1920, telling the story of the Prague golem.
• The Scorpion King: The fifth movie Book of Souls features an clay golem named Enkidu in ancient Mesopotamia charged with protecting the Damsel in Distress from anyone who would harm her. Its also never clarified if his creator was a Jewish rabbi.

Gamebooks

• Blood Sword: The 3rd book has the Seven-in-one as the main boss to fight. This is a wooden statue that's initially slow and lumbering, but when killed it has a smaller statue inside. While each additional statue gets smaller and easier to kill, it's also increasingly quicker and deals progressively more damage. It takes seven kills to deal with this god-touched statue.
• Fighting Fantasy: Golems are a recurring foe in various books of the series, and they come in a variety of different flavors too.
  • The most common of the bunch are rock golems (who sometimes gets referred to as Boulder Beasts), appearing in The Citadel of Chaos, The Forest of Doom, Crypt of the Sorcerer and several others. While they're strong due to being made of stone, they are however really slow, hence usually having around 8 points in SKILL.
  • Caverns of the Snow Witch has the Ice Demon, a golem made of ice, who is responsible for the titular witch being corrupted into a villainess. The player might get to battle this golem, but it's an optional fight they can avoid.
  • Sorcery! series has wood golems created from tables and chairs, which can obey their creator to attack anything on sight. A witch in the first book summons one of these on the players, while the fourth have the player themselves creating an illusion of a wood golem to attack the Archmage of Mampang.
  • Crypt of the Sorcerer has a compulsory battle with a clay golem that can cause the player's weapons to be stuck into its body; failure to defeat the clay golem before getting stuck leads to the player being killed on the spot.
  • One of the various MacGuffin Guardian enemies in Legend of Zagor is a plant golem made of overgrown vegetation in the cursed castle's underground dungeon.
  • Masks of Mayhem has the Evil Sorceress Morgana trying to awaken an army of invincible Golems, and the player hero, the King of Arion, must prevent the awakening from even happening.
  • Bloodbones takes it to the extreme with the Treasure Golem, an animated pile of gold, silver and diamonds which comes to life and attack players in a cavern. Whatever happens, after the battle, DO NOT attempt to collect said treasure — you will turn into a pile of living treasure yourself if you do.
  • Night Dragon has the usual rock golems and other stronger, tougher golems made of granite and marble.
  • Knights of Doom has the strongest of the lot, an Iron Golem serving the forces of Chaos, which is a borderline Hopeless Boss Fight because of it's extremely high skill and life stat. Thankfully the battle can be avoided with an item collected earlier in the adventure.
• Way of the Tiger: One of your enemies is Everyman. This is the implacable golem bodyguard of the Usurper that's been sent to hunt you down. Everyman requires being killed 100 times to finally be put down.

Literature

• The Alchemy War: Golems feature prominently, where the Dutch and their Brasswork Throne rules most of the world on account of their Magitek developments from alchemy, with their control over "clakkers" (their version of golem) being a prominent part of their success.
• "Bandits in Your Grocer's Freezer": The market holds a meeting to brainstorm how to get rid of the bandits encamping in the freezer section. David recommends speaking to a rabbi to have a golem made, but Pete shoots it down. Then at the end Rabbi Levine arrives, after Pete already killed the bandits, with a golem riding in the passenger seat of his car.
• Bas-Lag Cycle: Iron Council explores a magical discipline called "golemcrafting", wherein magicians channel power into anything that isn't living. Most of the Golems created are fairly standard (blade, flesh, metal, clay, wood), However the main character of Iron Council creates increasingly more fantastic golems some of the more memorable ones being: poison, light, dark, and time.
• Bazil Broketail: Bad guys make multiple fighting golems in the series, from material such as mud or steel.
• The Changeling trilogy by Sean Williams features creatures referred to as "golems". They're Energy Beings.
• Chronicles of the Emerged World: Two large stone golems guard the shrine of Tarephen. Nihal must destroy the central letter on their foreheads in order to beat them down.
• Discworld: Golems follow the classic Jewish model closely — they're made of clay, they're animated by a shem in their heads, and they tend to have Yiddish names like Dorfl, Dibbuk and Shmata. They're Lost Technology of a sort, relics from ancient civilizations that have been repurposed by modern cultures as laborers, since golems have an innate need to serve a purpose. They can be Absurdly Dedicated Workers, too — one literally did nothing but stand in the dark and work a water pump for 240 years, while another is a messenger who has been waiting thousands of years for history to repeat so he can deliver a missive. Golems are very strong, immortal unless destroyed, can repair themselves with new clay and a kiln, originally could not speak (some carried around little chalkboards to communicate), and have glowing fiery eyes that some people find disconcerting. Narratively they serve as fantasy stand-ins for robots, complete with a version of the Three Laws of Robotics and suffering Fantastic Racism from humans who find them creepy or competition, but golems are usually nonthreatening, and at most will cause problems by following orders to the letter, which might be a mild form of rebellion. As of Feet of Clay, the golems are slowly, steadily and nonviolently emancipating themselves - one golem was declared a free citizen, who worked and saved until he could afford to buy and free another golem, then the two of them worked and saved to buy a third, and so on. Going Postal reveals there is a Golem Trust run by sympathetic humans who help the golems manage their finances, get hired as fairly-paid laborers, and locate others of their kind to emancipate.
• The Faerie Queene: Talus, the "yron page". No points for guessing his names inspiration, though unlike that one, Talus is man sized, though still capable of pushing giants off cliffs and beating down an entire castle with his Epic Flail.
• The Golem and the Jinni: Chava is a golem crafted in Poland and migrates to turn of the century New York where she befriends the djinn Ahmad.
• The Hellboy short story "Of Blood, Of Clay" by James A. Moore (published in Hellboy: Odder Jobs) features a golem created by Jewish refugees during World War II that is rampaging around modern Germany. Either it doesn't know that the Nazis were defeated decades ago, or it simply doesn't care.
• How to Sell a Haunted House: In the climax, the Big Bad causes the various dolls and puppets that make up the collection in the Haunted House of the book to come to life and combine into a living, screaming golem monster.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: In The Last Olympian, it's revealed that most of the statues in New York and quite a few elsewhere are actually golems built by Daedalus, requiring only a codephrase to turn them into an instant army.
• The Reluctant King: A tale narrated by Jorian features a king in dire need of a general being gifted a Golem general by a witch who wants to be acknowledged for her powers. Then the other army shows up with a Golem general, but both are such huge perfectionists that they stop their armies every five steps to make sure they're perfectly in order, and by the time they're about to engage in combat a sudden downpour melts the clay golems.
• In the Cory Doctorow story "Return to Pleasure Island", golems (although the actual word is never used) are a sentient race of clay giants who reproduce by breaking off parts of themselves, usually the thumb, that then grow. A right thunb child is strong, even for a golem. A left thumb child is smarter. A child of the tongue is... a mistake.
• The Sorcerer King of Destruction and the Golem of the Barbarian Queen: Golems are regularly used in-universe as weapons of warfare or guardians, and they typically come in two varieties: Heavy-Class Golems, which are massive stone giants, and Light-Class Golems, which resemble slender humanoids. The protagonist kicks off the story by creating a Light-Class Golem for a companion, and she quickly begins to display an unusual level of strength and durability for her class of golem.
• The Stormlight Archive: The thunderclasts are giant dog-like stone monsters, created by a Voidspren possessing part of the ground and just pulling itself out of the surrounding rock.
• Sweep: The Story of a Girl and her Monster: Nan's char, a palm-sized clump of soot that always stays warm, and also serves as her last momento of the Sweep, comes to life and saves her from being burned alive in a chimney. Nan deduces that the char is a golem made of soot, after reading about it in a bestiary she finds in the House of a Hundred Chimney's library.
• Tales of the Ketty Jay: Bess is a superhumanly strong golem made from a suit of armour. Originally Bess was an 11 year old, aristocrat girl who was murdered by her uncle Crake (a demonologist who had been possessed). Horrified by what he had done, Crake bound Bess's soul to the closest viable thing at hand, which was the suit of armour. Now Bess is little more than a toddler mentally and spends her days as the team muscle when not kept in storage. At the end of the series, it turns out that the ruler of the land has an army of similar but more powerful golems at his beck and call.
• Tales of MU: One of the main characters is a golem named Two. She was created from clay that was transmuted into flesh, and is indistinguishable from a human except for the three runes on her forehead. Two was declared free when her creator died, except she was created with no desire other than to do as she's told... which led to some horrific abuses before she was befriended by the rest of the cast. Part of her Character Development has been to develop her own interests and desires.
• The Wheel of Time series has the gholam, essentially vampiric T-1000s with invulnerability to magic and pretty much everything else. Yeah. They unnerved the Dark Side so much that only six were ever made, and only one is known to still exist in the present day.
• The Wolfhound Empire novels by Peter Higgins has the mudjhik. The stories are set in a fantasy analogue to the early Soviet Union, where native supernatural beings are on the wane as dead "Angels" - alien humanoids that are a 1000 feet tall and made of living stone crash to earth. It was the influence of these Angels that started the nation, the Vlast, and the Angels's stone flesh is a versatile material. Among the usage, is the creation of the mudjhik. These are large statues often the color of rust and clotted blood with the spine and brain of an animal implanted inside. Mudhjik's are untiring, as strong as giants and far more damage resistant - needing at least a mortar shell to injure. To control a mudhjik, a handler with an head implant of angel flesh establishes a telepathic rapport with its animal brain.
• Xanth: Golems are made from various things. They have different talents, and can become real. Grundy Golem is rude and Silicia can alter a bit of reality. Also Grundy had a child, Surprise.
• Threadbare: The Living Toy protagonist is technically a golem.
• In The Real Boy, Caleb discovers how to carve children out of wood from the wizard tree and magic them to life. When Oscar finds out, he thinks that his undiagnosed autism is because he's a golem. He's not, but the sick kids from Asteri are. Caleb sold over fifty golem children to rich parents, with the pitch that they would never get sick and never suffer. Unfortunately, the spells he used start to wear off and conflict with each other, causing the children to suffer a number of bizarre ailments, including blindness and deafness, the inability to eat, and Identity Amnesia. Oscar treats the children with a concoction that will help the spells work better with each other, but he doesn't know if it will eventually stop working.

Live-Action TV

• The Jews Are Coming, naturally, deals with the OG Golem (or rather, Golems) of Prague in one skit, where Rabbi Loew kills each Golem and replaces it with a less intelligent one as soon as the last Golem he made starts questioning the tenets of the Jewish faith.
• Grimm has the episode "Dyin' on a Prayer". A rabbi who happens to have clay that once belonged to the Golem of Prague prays that his sister and her son David will be protected, and is shocked when it results in the golem coming to life and attacking anyone who makes David feel threatened. Oddly, the way to defeat it was putting a scroll with "shem" written on it inside the Golem's mouth (even though traditionally this is what brought the golem to life in the first place).
• Super Sentai/Power Rangers:
  • Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger: Bandora's mooks, the Golem Soldiers, and their Elite Mook version, the Dokita Golems. They are better known as the Putty Patrol in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. They are actually a more accurate example of Golems, as they're made from clay to none-too-brightly go about the makers' bidding (of course, since the Monsters of the Week are made in the same way, it goes for them as well).
  • In GoGo Sentai Boukenger, Gaja's Mooks are stone, created from small stones that grow when thrown, and are often compared to the Golems. A Jewish style golem is the Monster of the Week for the Christmas Episode. It's even defeated in the traditional way when DaiBouken drills away the first letter on its forehead. In Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, they are referred to as Chillers and are ice-based, with still little difference to golems beyond that.
• Jack's roommate Clay in The Order is revealed to be one of these. Like the myths, golems in the show are brought to life by creating a construct from clay, mud, or metal and inscribing אֱמֶת on the forehead, and rendered inert by erasing the full word. Metal is said to be a double-edged sword, as it would be difficult to engrave but even more so to erase.
• Supernatural. Used as the One-Man Army of a Nazi Hunter organisation in "Everyone Hates Hitler", though in appearance he's a Giant Mook rather than a clay figurine. Unfortunately the Jewish college student who finds himself inheriting the golem smoked the instruction manual as rollies for his dope. The golem isn't happy about him either.
• The X-Files:
  • The Monster of the Week in "Kaddish", raised either as a Replacement Goldfish for a murdered Jewish man or to avenge him.
  • Although described as a tulpa, the Ubermenscher in "Arcadia" resembles a golem made of landfill grime.

Myths & Legends

• The Trope Namer being the golems from Jewish folklore, mentioned at the top of the page.
• The above mentioned Talos, a mythical Greek giant automaton made of bronze to protect Europa in Crete from pirates and invaders, may be the oldest example.
• From the Prose Edda: To assist their champion Hrungnir in his appointed duel with Thor, the giants of Jotunheim form an artificial giant from clay and bring him to life by putting a mare's heart into his chest (as this is the largest heart they can find). Unfortunately, the titanic creature, which is called Mökkurkalfi, is also a coward, and is dispatched by Thor's servant Thjalfi with relative ease.

Pinballs

• Magic Girl: A golem is one of the selectable player characters.

Podcasts

• Dice Funk: Something that sounds an awful lot like a golem bursts up through the ground. The party fled so fast that they don't actually know if it was one or not, although they refer to it later as such.
• Trials & Trebuchets has two types of golem employed as physical laborers and custodians by Wildcliff: stone golems known as the Jeeds who (with at least one exception) lack individual personalities and desires, and the much more uncommon clockwork golems, who have individual names and personalities.

Tabletop Games

• Ars Magica: Item Crafting rules let a Hermetic mage create "Automata" with a year-long process. They can be highly customized, but each comprises a Body that determines its physical power, an animating Impetus that determines its agility, and a Heart that houses its mind at minimum.
• AT-43: Golems are the basic troops of the Therians, only here they are made out of Nanomachines (the sci-fi clay), and have creepy doll faces.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • As mentioned in the trope description, D&D has tons of golems, from the classic clay statue to stained glass, bone, or doll golems. They and various Living Statue enemies eventually necessitated the "construct" creature type, making them immune to numerous Status Effects such as poison or paralysis. The distinguishing feature of golems is that they're animated by a bound elemental spirit that isn't necessarily happy with its situation, which means some golem types may go on berserk rampages after too many rounds of combat. As of 5th Edition, golems are innately resistant to spells, but for most of the game's history they were immune to magic with a few listed exceptions for each golem. There are also varieties of the Manual of Golems in the game's treasure tables, allowing players with the time and resources to make their own servitors.
  • The iconic four D&D golems are flesh, clay, stone and iron golems, each with its own quirks. Flesh golems are traditionally slowed by fire or cold damage, but healed by lightning damage. Clay golems can give themselves a haste effect, may deal cursed wounds with their slam attacks, heal from acid damage, but are vulnerable to spells like move earth, disintegrate or earthquake. Stone golems can hit foes with a slow effect, but are slowed and damaged by a transmute rock to mud spell, and conversely healed by transmuate mud to rock (though stone to flesh only makes them more vulnerable to physical and magical attacks). And iron golems have a Breath Weapon of poisonous gas, are slowed by electricity damage, healed by fire damage, but vulnerable to spells like rusting grasp.
  • The old Basic/Expert/etc. rules had even more of these than AD&D, with "living statues" as low-level golem equivalents, and juggernauts or iron gargoyles for when regular golems just aren't a challenge anymore. The 3.5th Edition Epic Level Handbook meanwhile went with the "bigger is better" mindset with colossi, basically golems of stone, flesh or iron that happen to be over 80 feet tall.
  • The 3rd Edition Monster Manual II introduced the "half-golem" template, allowing humanoids to replace one or more limbs with a golem equivalent. This gives them additional strengths based on the golem in question, but also the same vulnerabilities, and in a Magitek variant of Cybernetics Eat Your Soul, each golem limb requires a character to make (an increasingly high) Will save to avoid switching alignment to Neutral Evil and becoming a functional construct themself. The entire process is pure Body Horror as well, as the materials of the creature's new golem limb spread across the rest of its body like creeping vines, and its voice becomes harsh and strangled.
  • In the spirit of Frankenstein, golems in the Ravenloft setting are often animated by the sheer power of their makers' obsessions, rather than by magic. Such "dread golems" have a nasty track-record for turning on their creators, to whom they have a psychic connection. There's even a direct expy of Frankenstein and his monster as a Darklord duo.
  • Eberron introduced the warforged player race, sentient constructs who reference the golem myths by having a fingerprint-like ghulra appear on their forehead when animated (given the number of Black Boxes involved in warforged creation, no-one is sure why this happens). Unlike golems, warforged have the "living construct" subtype, so that they are actually healed somewhat by cure wounds spells, and even have souls, so they can be raised or resurrected if destroyed.
• Exalted has the Alchemical Exalted, which are clay and magical material constructs, animated with the souls of repetitive (through reincarnation) heroes who are created to serve their people and Patropolis/Metropolis. As they advance in power they receive huge bodies, and ultimately become a living city themselves.
• Harebrained Schemes has the digitally enhanced miniatures board game Golem Arcana, set in a world where Religion is Magic, magical "Knights" control golems and colossal golems and use magic by invoking Ancient Ones.
• In Nomine: Constructs, also known as homunculi, scarecrows and golems, are artificial beings made by sorcerers, created by crafting bodies out of some type of substance (potentially including flesh), imbuing them with Forces, and attaching a scrap of parchment to their bodies with the name of a living person inscribed on it; this person will be the construct's master, and the construct will be compelled to obey them. Constructs with only Corporeal Forces are the most common type, and are mindless automata; constructs with Ethereal Forces are intelligent but not self-aware, and are much rarer; constructs with Celestial Forces are nearly unheard of and self-willed, although still obedient to their masters. Most constructs are made from stone or clay; others, including most of the kind with Celestial Forces, are made from human or animal body parts. Making a construct from vegetable matter is much more difficult, but it has reportedly happened. If their attached parchment is destroyed, most constructs become inactive; ones with Celestial Forces instead become free-willed, but also very unstable.
• Pathfinder adopts the classic flesh, clay, stone, and iron golems of D&D, and adds many new ones, like fossil golems, brass golems, coral golems, wax golems, alchemical golems, and cannon golems(steel golems with a literal Arm Cannon built in). Additionally, all golem types can be alternatively created as shield guardians^note also from D&D, but considered a separate monster from golems in that game, granting them magical defensive abilities and an amulet that allows the bearer to command it.
• Princess: The Hopeful features the Golaenu, spirit-lieutenants of the Queen of Storms. In order to interact with the material world, they need a Vessel, an artificial body built of a blend of flesh and clay in varying proportions. While a mostly-clay body will look fairly inhuman, it is more able to withstand the destructive energies of its animating Golaenu, allowing more use of Reprisals.
• Promethean: The Created has the Tammuz, also known as the Golems. Like all Prometheans, they are made from corpses, not clay, but they identify the Golem of Prague as one of their ancestors. (Well, most Tammuz are made from corpses - they're the most likely Lineage to try making Constructs, actual clay Golems.) Some of them even have the Word of Life on their foreheads, which makes them easier to animate, but vulnerable to being knocked comatose if it's damaged. They're known for being slow to act, but very determined once they set themselves to a task.
• Rifts: Golems are colossal figures created by drawing a pentagram in animal blood, placing a rough humanoid clay form within it, giving it two onyxes for eyes and an iron heart, and placing a single drop of the magician's drop on its forehead to spring it to life. Golems have no will of their own and no emotions, and exist only to obey the commands of their creator; if their maker dies, they will just keep following their last command until destroyed. They're ungodly tough and entirely invulnerable to anything meant to affect something with biology or a mind — they cannot be charmed, hypnotized or sent to sleep, or harmed by most harmful spells — and are highly resistant to physical and energy damage. Even tougher stone and metal variants also exist.
• Underworld has Junkmen as golem PCs too, along with little bitty mini-golems that look like ambulatory soda cans.
• Warhammer:
  • The Ushabti, living statues carved into the likeness of the gods the Tomb Kings used to worship.
  • Anything within the Tomb King's army labeled as a "construct" falls into this. While it's implied they did use the bones of long-dead creatures, they're still largely constructed out of wood and stone. The Sphinxes are the extremes, impossibly tall animated statues, some of which are capable of flying on stone wings.
  • The Orcs have Rogue Idols, gigantic stone warriors animated by the power of Gork or Mork.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • Eldar wraith-constructs are made of psychically-sensitive wraithbone and animated by the souls of the dead. The setting being what it is, of course, they are armed with one of the more horrible BFG's ever devised.
  • Chaos has various Daemon engines which are usually clanky mechanical creations that have a daemon implanted inside to power and control the constructed husk.

Video Games

• NetHack borrows the Dungeons & Dragons versions. Stoneing any other type of golem will turn it into a stone golem. Also, using a wand of cancellation on a clay golem erases the word of life on its forehead, destroying it. There's a gold golem which turns into a pile of gold coins when killed and a paper golem which turns into blank scrolls when killed. The Slash'EM variant additionally has a plastic golem which turns into credit cards when killed, a wax golem which turns into candles when killed, several gemstone golems which turn into their type of gem when killed, and a glass golem which turns into worthless fake gems when killed.
• Kingdom of Loathing plays with the idea of the golem, making them out of all sorts of unusual materials: candied yams, pencils, even one made out of a collapsed mineshaft. In the theoretically endless area (Fernswarthy's Basement?) one can encounter N Bottles of Beer on a Golem, which is about what it sounds like.
• Machina of the Planet Tree -Unity Unions-: Corona gains the ability to consume magic gems to synthesize minions that appear to be made of stone and jewels. By default, she can only have 20 minions on the field, but some equipment can raise that cap.
• Melfand Stories have a Golem made of stone as the boss in the church stage, which is even named "Golem" in-game. It's also a surprisingly resilient Determinator - you fight it on top of a bridge, and halfway through the bridge collapses. Both you and the golem fell to the bottom of the stage, and while you land unharmed, the golem is reduced to half a body somewhere above his torso... and continues attacking you by hurling pieces of rocks around him on you.
• The Pokémon franchise has several creatures that could be described as golems.
  • Golett and Golurk, introduced in Pokémon Black and White, are clay statues given life through supernatural means to protect an ancient civilization, making them a direct reference to the Golem of Prague.
  • Magearna, from Pokémon Sun and Moon, resembles a clockwork robot but has more in common with a golem since its body is animated not by mechanical motion but by an artificial soul.
  • The Regi trio— Regirock, Regice, and Registeel— were created from rock, ice, and metal by Regigigas and activated through the Braille writing on their foreheads. The Crown Tundra expansion of Pokémon Sword and Shield adds two more Regi golems— Regieleki and Regidrago— who are made of electricity and draconic ore respectively.
  • Ironically, the Pokémon actually called Golem is not based on one— it looks more like a reptilian Rock Monster.
• BIONICLE: Maze of Shadows: the Energized Protodermis Entity animates some pillars in its lair to become Living Walls to attack the Toa Metru.
• The Golems from Wild ARMs, particularly 1/Alter Code F and 3. Most turn against their creators.
• Warcraft 3 had a range of golems much like Dungeons & Dragons. Mud Golems could slow enemies, while the other versions tend to be tougher and can throw rocks to damage and stun.
  • Golems also appear in World of Warcraft. They often appear in Titan ruins or alongside Dark Iron dwarfs (who have a large factory dedicated to creating golems in their capital). Blood Elfs use arcane golems, which are a Magitek version. The Drakkari Trolls construct mojo-powered stone Colossi, which are later used by the Zandalari.
  • The Burning Legion has Infernals, which are golems made out of rocks held in a humanoid shape by green Hellfire. They usually are deployed into battle in the form of flaming meteors. Warlocks can also summon Infernals when they gain enough levels.
  • After their flesh-and-blood creations turned on them, the Mogu developed methods for animating stone and terra cotta statues to act as soldiers.
• The necromancer of Diablo II can summon fighting golems made of clay, metal, blood, or fire. Clay Golems slow opponents and have HP, Metal Golems take on the properties of what they're created from, Blood Golems can steal life to heal itself and the Necromancer (prior to a certain patch, this link functioned both ways, harming the Necromancer when the golem is hit), and Fire Golems are immune to fire and grow stronger when hit by fire attacks as well as having a damaging fire aura.
• All over the place in the Castlevania series. They run the gamut from your typical clay giant to an animated pile of rocks. In Castlevania: Judgment, a golem winds up with a soul due to the unusual circumstances of the time rift, allowing it to become a playable character and set out on a quest of self-identity.
• Ohtsuchi, the Arcana of Earth in Arcana Heart, is a massive clay golem that Maori's family has been praying to for generations.
• Golems have been a Monster Rancher staple since the first game. One is even a main character in the anime.
• The Disgaea series has the Wood Golem monster class in every game after the first (Which had ones of the clay variety). They're the sentient, speaking sort of golem, and generally the most durable out of all the monsters, boasting high HP and defense on top of the ability to regenerate health after each turn.
• Dragon Quest:
  • The series features monsters named Golem (made of either bricks or clay), Gold Golem (made of gold), and Stone Golem (made of stone).
  • They all made their appearance in Dragon Quest I: the standard one as the guardian of Cantlin and thus a boss, the Gold Golem as a random encounter that gave lots of gold, and the Stone Golem as an endgame enemy.
  • Later games in the series would introduce golems made of other materials, including chocolate.
• Fairune has some variants. In 1, the sole Golem enemy type resembled a toy robot with a cylindrical head and blades in place of arms, and 2 has a total of 3 variants: the Golem in Green Fields Underground, Ice Golem as a rare encounter in White Lands, and the Metal Golem found in Sky Lands. The Knight enemies inhabiting the Tower areas of both Fairune 1 and 2 may also count, if they're not homunculi or robots.
• The second boss of the Data East arcade Beat 'em Up Night Slashers is a rock golem.
• King Of Towers features mud golems in the marshlands levels that can increase their physical defense.
• In Might and Magic universe, the wizards faction has golems made of various materials: stone, iron, steel, gold and crystal — which they use as guardians and foot soldiers (VII even has making one be the point of the quest promoting sorcerers to wizards). Its spin-off Heroes of Might and Magic adds dragon golems — in one game, dragonoids made of animated crystal, in another game, dwarves controlling draconic machines.
  • In the fourth Heroes game, during the Academy campaign, Solmyr is implied to compare golems to robots when he remarks that he heard of humans that can create golems without magic (for context, the setting, being hybrid High Fantasy/Sci-Fi, explicitly has robots. It's just that, the games being set on post-apocalyptic worlds, the various characters only ever meet the results, not anyone that has both the knowledge and the resources available).
• Ogre Battle offers golems, including one made of baldr. They become stronger when teamed with enchanters, who fight by magically controlling dolls.
• Enchanted Arms has Mons that are called Golems, but they do speak. (however, even in the English version, most speak Japanese. Leads to great confusion if you're trying to understand what they're saying. Thankfully the Devil Golems, counting the Big Bad Infinity speak the language the game is set to)
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Arena has golems of ice, iron, and stone as generic enemies.
  • Daggerfall introduces the golem-like "Atronachs" which have become ubiquitous in the series ever since. As revealed in Morrowind, Atronachs are a type of elementally aligned lesser Daedra. The Flame, Frost, and Storm Atronachs appear as creatures made of fire, ice, and lightning (typically mixed with metal or rock), respectively. Other varieties which have appeared in the series include Air, Flesh, Iron, and Stone. All varieties are at least vaguely humanoid in shape, with some much more humanoid than others. As a group, Atronachs have no particular affinity toward any Daedric Prince, though individual Atronachs may be found in their service. Atronachs are a favored summon of mortal conjurers.
  • A series of Oblivion mods, the Midas Magic mods, introduce such things as the Cheese Golem and the Melon Golem, the summoning of which requires that you have a large amount of said foodstuffs beforehand.
  • With the barriers between Nirn and Oblivion restored by Martin's Heroic Sacrifice at the end of Oblivion's main quest, the elemental Atronachs are one of only two types of daedra that can be summoned in Skyrim.
• Etrian Odyssey: One of the hidden superbosses in the game is a gigantic Golem that appears to also have some mechanical parts. It's a powerful monster with strong melee attacks, and the ability to restore a part of its HP when all of it is depleted (though this only works once).
• Asura in Guild Wars create golems (in-universe, short for Genius Operated Living Enchanted Mechanisms). You can gain a golem named M.O.X. as a hero.
• Stone Man in Mega Man 5 is essentially a robot golem made of rocks, a core, and eyes. Earlier games had the Junk Golem enemy, and Mega Man 7 had Junk Man. The various Devils were golems made of shapeshifting blocks or green goo.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Many games have golems as minor enemies, and they can be made legendary metals like mythril or adamantite. There's also the Golem in Summon Magic, who creates a wall that protects the party from a certain amount of physical damage.
  • The Black Mages in Final Fantasy IX are automatons created by the villain from inert materials; however, they slowly gain a consciousness as the game progresses. In a somewhat unusual variant, their primary skill is offensive magic (eg fireballs), not physical strength. The party fights a couple of special winged models sent out as assassins. Unfortunately for Vivi, Black Mages also come with an expiration date.
  • The manikins of Dissidia Final Fantasy are essentially golems, being crystalline copies of the main characters that serve as the game's Mooks. They're failed bodies for the spirits found drifting in the Interdimensional Rift and speak with distorted voices. They're noted to be more dangerous because they'll attack relentlessly until their opponent's body is ruined to the point that it can't be repaired for the next cycle of battle (whereas the people, even the villains, tend to stop after they've landed the killing blow).
• Golems were the dwarves' ultimate weapon in the backstory of Dragon Age. However, the knowledge of how to make them was lost forever during the First Blight. The Player Character can gain one, Shale, as a party member, and later in the game can learn the truth about the lost art of creating them: they're made from living dwarves.
• TimeSplitters 2's Aztec level has wood and stone golems protecting the time crystal. Also worth mentioning is Mister Fleshcage, a Flesh Golem of sorts whose skeleton is made from the torture device its flesh donators died on.
• Jade Empire calls its magically-animated automata "golems," although they're really a better fit for the Living Statue trope, being based off of Qin Shi Huangdi's terracotta army. They're also Powered by a Forsaken Child.
• In the third game of the Exile series, the golems are a major plague destroying the planet's surface. All of them appear to be made of metal and gemstones, but they have different associated elements including fire, ice, and acid.
• GrimGrimoire has golems as an alchemy unit. They function as siege tanks because of their incredibly long attack range. Being technically mindless, they're also immune to the Homunculi's Psi Storm.
• Girl Stinky in Sam & Max: Freelance Police is a cake golem, and a very intelligent and shifty one at that. Then again, she might just be a mermaid pulling a really elaborate con.
• The colossi from Shadow of the Colossus are created from the earth itself. Their hairy bodies are actually composed of dead grass, and once they're defeated, they crumble into dirt and mold themselves into the ground.
• Browser-based game Muelsfell: Rise of the Golems is entirely based around the creation of Golems.
• Korean MMORPG Mabinogi includes golems as boss monsters. These are all simply piles of magically-animated rocks in a vaguely humanoid shape; sometimes covered with plants or snow. As of G9, player characters can get an Alchemy skill that allows them to create and control golems.
• In the Fall from Heaven II mod for Civilization IV, the Luchuirp is a civilization made up of surface-dwelling Dwarves and golems. The problem is that the crude golems they can make now are incapable of learning (i.e. gaining XP) on their own. Barnaxus is an ancient golem from the old Khrad'Ke-zun Empire, of which only the Luchuirp remain, who can teach himself new things and then pass it on to Dwarves and other golems. Their cave-dwelling Khazad cousins don't use golems.
• One boss from Sonic & Knuckles is a golem (it appears at the end of an Ancient Egyptian-themed level, but whatever). You can't actually destroy it - it just rebuilds itself - and instead have to lure it into quicksand.
• The Egg Golem boss from Sonic Adventure 2, a gigantic mecha covered with stone whose only vulnerable point (in the Hero Story) is a control device on its head. In the Dark Story, Sonic scrambles the control device and the Egg Golem turns on Dr. Eggman, who's forced to blow off its rocky armor and destroy its power cores to stop it.
• Being based on Dungeons & Dragons, it is no surprise that these show up in Baldur's Gate. The first game had flesh golems which hit hard and required +2 weapons to defeat, of which there are only a handful in the game. The second game upped it with clay-, stone-, bone-, iron-, sand-, magic- and adamantite golems, which could be Demonic Spiders depending on your level and equipment.
• Fallen London has the Clay Men. They are never called golems, but otherwise fit the description. The in-game art even shows that they have writing on their foreheads.
• Ancient Domains of Mystery features many golem types, including: flesh golems, clay golems, stone golems, stone statues, crystal statues, diamond statues, steel golems, steel zombies, steel horrors, iron golems, and eternium golems. Many of these also breathe fire. Oddly enough, most of them can be pickpocketed, even though fictional golems often don't wear clothes.
• The Vyr of Remnant: From the Ashes aren't so much robots as near-Lost Technology Magitek golems that serve the Undying King or guard ruins.
• Spyro the Dragon:
  • Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!: Earthshapers (both the original and its reignited version) are enemies that can be found in Fracture Hills and Magma Cone. In Fracture Hills, they have incased the bagpipe-playing satyrs and the temple in stone, having grown tired of them playing their bagpipes at all hours of the night. In Magma Cone, they are responsible for unplugging the volcano and ruining the faun's party. While the smaller earthshapers in Magma Cone can be killed by charging and flaming, the larger ones are immune to Spyro's attacks and can only be killed by charging them into the lava (or in Magma Cone's case, charging them into the faun's elaborate demolition traps).
  • The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon: Golems are Kaiju-sized lava monsters from below the Earth. Only one appears and it serves as The Dragon to Malefor in the game. It can regenerate by absorbing rock or rubble and the only way to permanently kill it is to destroy the Dark Gem acting as it's brain. Spyro and Cynder shatter it's brain, sending it falling off a building. The Destroyer, a planet destroying Eldritch Abomination Malefor unleashes is pretty much a mountain-sized, much more frightening one.
  • Skylanders has many playable golems such as Eruptor, Prism Break, Crusher, Hot Head, Doomstone etc. as well as enemy golems such as Crystal Golems and Gear Golems.

• Soulcalibur: Astaroth was created after Rock the "White Giant" attacked a cult to rescue his adopted son. The cultists were so impressed by Rock's strength that they created Astaroth in his image. Astaroth eventually went rogue and tried to claim Soul Edge and kill Rock so that he could be a truly unique being instead of being just an Evil Knockoff. The remnants of the cult also created a feminine clockwork golem named Ashlotte to bring Astaroth back to them. In the time period between the fourth and fifth games, Astaroth was apparently Killed Off for Real by Maxi and Ashlotte retrieved his golem heart. The cultists, having failed to learn from their past mistakes, have created an entire series of Astaroth-like golems.
• Dark Souls has a fair number:
  • A huge iron golem acts as a boss. The descriptions of the weapons that can be forged from its core reveal that the gods used the remains of a dead dragon to forge the golem's core.
  • Seath the Scaleless made a whole bunch of crystal golems. They have the apparent ability to create new crystal out of nothing, though it only lasts for about a second (still just long enough for them to form a giant mace and smash your skull in with it).
  • Large Stone Knights populate the area outside the Moonlight Butterfly's perch. They are capable of casting Miracles. Likely also created by Seath.
  • Artorias of the Abyss DLC introduces the Stone Guardians, the predecessor of the aforementioned Large Stone Knights. They are golems animated by magic to protect the forest sanctuary in Oolacile.
• Dark Souls II continues with the golems:
  • King Vendrick studied the creation of golems, and his castle is guarded by Stone Soldiers and living suits of armor. However, the only things explicitly called "golems" are large statues shaped like Giants that are powered by souls. Vendrick apparently stole something from the Giants to be able to create these things, and they guard the path to the Throne of Want.
  • The Old Iron King was reputed to have the ability to imbue his iron creations with life, though the only iron golems we see are in the Brume Tower in the DLC.
  • The Ivory King used golems extensively, though his were usually made of ice rather than stone. He also used soul-powered Giant-like golems similar to those created by Vendrick, except his could actually fight rather than just manipulate simple mechanisms.
• Minecraft has iron golems and snow golems that the player can build. A snow golem looks like a snowman with a jack-o-lantern for a head, and it distracts enemies by throwing snowballs at them. Iron golems can be found in large NPC villages, where they defend villagers from zombies at night.
• Minecraft Dungeons: There's the hostile Redstone Golems, as well as friendly Iron Golems (which can only be summoned with an artifact found on Apocalypse difficulty).
• Wizard101 has these all over the spiral. The main ones are living mannequins, Clockworks, iron golems, and Homunculi.
• Neverwinter Nights, being D&D-based, had them in certain dungeons. The sequel stepped it up a notch by allowing you to recruit one as an Optional Party Member.
• In the swamp in The Witcher, there's a dormant stone golem in a clearing. A sidequest lets you reactivate it, whereupon it becomes an Optional Boss whose heart is an ingredient in a mutagen that grants a bonus to Geralt's magic.
  • A couple of other types of golems appear in the sequel.
• In Baten Kaitos Origins, major character Guillo is a golem of sorts; a magical puppet dug up in the woods near Sagi's home. It was actually created by the Children of the Earth, and was used to slay Malpercio.
• The Clay Men in Mother 3 are mass-produced clay golems used by the Pigmask army for hard labor. They're brought to life with a device that's inserted into their heads after they're sculpted, and said device needs to be recharged periodically to keep them moving.
• Golems are one of the sturdier miniboss enemies in Duel Savior Destiny, though they're also really slow. A golem is also the first fight in the game when Muriel Sheerfield pits a rampaging golem against Taiga in an effort to get his sister to leap to his defense and thus join her army. She does, but to her surprise Taiga actually destroys it on his own by calling for an Aether Relic, something men aren't supposed to be able to do.
• In Risk of Rain Rock Golems appear as enemies. They are highly resilient to damage and their smash attack can be deadly to low leveled players, however they are restricted by low mobility which makes them easy to avoid or out maneuver using hit and run tactics. The Stone Guardian boss is a massive version of this enemy.
• Shantae has a place called the Golem Mine. No points for guessing what serves as the boss of this dungeon. It fights by spewing fireballs from its mouth and attacking you with its Giant Hands of Doom, and has a Power Crystal on its head that serves as its weak point.
• Warlords Battlecry: Practically the entire fighting force of the Dark Dwarves consists on golems. Stone golems are basically sloooooow mooks with a heavy back-hand, Iron golems can summon firebombs and have an area-of-effect spinning strike while still slow, and Bronze golems are nasty pieces of work with a really heavy hand and Implacable Man levels of armor and resistance. All these, combined with some general upgrades for golems and some huge, though expensive, accumulated bonuses when researching the Armorer-Weaponsmith-Mithril upgrade line, makes them a slow, tough as hell and pretty damn dangerous fighting force. Unless they mass Flame Cannons and Hellbores.
• The DLC character for Child of Light is a stone golem named Golem. He's first found as a talking head, and Aurora must find the rest of his parts to put him back together. Once that's done, it joins the party, and acts as a Mighty Glacier with abilities that can slow, stun, or push back foes.
• Elite Beat Agents has a golem made of rock and lava. It attacks an amusement park. Fortunately for the park's patrons, the janitor is a former baseball player who sees a chance to redeem himself. It's that sort of game.
• Dragon's Crown has a giant stone Golem in the form of a gladiator that serves as the boss of the A Path in the Forgotten Sanctuary. It's extremely slow, but it has extremely high defenses and hits really hard. Thankfully, you could animate your own giant stone golem for this boss battle, and several of the Mooks you fight here carry around bombs that you could use. Completing the request to defeat the Golem boss without animating your own Golem reveals that these golems were created more than a century ago by Morgan Lisley, the shopkeeper of Morgan's Magic Item Shop, back when she was just a Child Mage.
• Clash of Clans has Golem as one of the Dark Elixir troops that you can train whose role is to provide a Damage Sponge for the enemy's defenses, allowing your other more damaging troops to freely attack your opponent's village. Upon death, it deals explosive damage and splits into two smaller Golems called Golemites.
• Dragon's Dogma has two varieties of Golem, the standard Golem and the Metal Golem. Both have glowing sigils which serve as weakpoints. Of course, to beat these, you must smash the glowing sigils to bits, but there is an added twist of magic attacks doing absolutely zero damage. The difference between the Golem and the Metal Golem is that the Golem's sigils are on its body while the Metal Golem's are scattered around the area. Oh, they also come with lasers.
• In Fallen Enchantress, if you are of the Dwarven race or a home-brew one with the ability, you can create Iron Golems. Iron Golems are expensive melee units with high armour, a number of resistances and above average attacking ability.
• Path of Exile has Golems available as a type of minion. A summoner can only have one golem active at a time, and each provides a different buff to the summoner while it's active. Fire golems provide increased damage, Ice golems provide increased accuracy and critical chance, Lightning golems provide increases attack and cast speed, Stone golems grant life regeneration, Chaos golems give physical damage resistance, and Carrion golems grant bonus damage to your other minions.
• One of the characters in Killer Instinct (2013) is Aganos, an ancient war golem that was ordered to learn how to think for itself by a Babylonian king, effectively giving it free will. Aganos is the largest character in the game, big enough for the camera to pan out so it can be fully shown and only rivalled in sheer size by the likes of Gargos, Eyedol and General RAAM, and it's playstyle revolves around loading up on rock chunks, which give it armor and access to various tools, at the cost of moving and jumping slower for each chunk loaded.
• In Legend of Mana, instead of getting a monster or an NPC to be your character's partner in battle, you can create a golem who's stats and powers are dependant on what materials they're crafted from.
• This may or may not be the true nature of the ReDeads from The Legend of Zelda, depending on the game in question. Majora's Mask implies that they are actually undead, whereas their trophy descriptions in the Super Smash Bros. games states that they are merely clay humanoid figures animated with magic.
• Golems appear in Miitopia, in which they look more or less like walls with Mii facial features. They sport both a great defense and a great attack.
• Laser Guided Games's Golem Gates is a hybrid card-collecting, real-time strategy game where you are the techno-mage "The Harbinger" who can create golems of Ash (nanites) in a world where technology is so advanced that it's Magic from Technology.
• Golems are common enemies throughout The Secret World; essentially bargain-basement copies of the gigantic Guardians of Gaia, they're normally produced by mages and put to whatever use requires brute strength. However, there's been a recent trend towards golems shaping and animating themselves, much to the consternation of your faction contacts.
• In Cauldron HQ's turn-based strategy game Spellcross, golems are a wake-up enemy after you finish the first area of the game. Prior to the golems, enemy anti-vehice units were the ineffectual Dark Elves and Ballistas. When you encounter a golem, they look nothing more than an angry stone cube with legs. However they're an effective anti-vehicle unit that can easily take on your IFVs and early tanks with their energy bolts while their stone bodies can take significant damage especially against infantry.
• In JE Software AB's Last Hope TD, 20 Minutes in the Future you control a tribe of Native Americans who are fighting zombies, bandits and other forces of evil. Your tribe make use of defensive structures, with most of them being either high-tech military or cleverly crafted Clock Punk mechanisms. The exception is the Stomper, this is a spirit drum contraption which does a Shockwave Stomp to slow foes. But with enough upgrades, the Stomper can also use magic to create a golem to attack enemies that have slowed.
• Longbow Games Golem is a 2-D platformer/puzzle game where a young girl searching for a water source in an ancient tower, discovers a shape-changing golem which she partners with.
• Golems are a unit type in Ancient Empires and its sequel. They are expensive but have the highest defence of any unit and high offence as well. Interestingly, they look different between games and also attack differently. The first game's Golems are humanoids made of rock that attack by rolling into a ball, while the second game's Golems are round boulders with a single eye that attack by slamming the ground.
• In Lara Croft GO, the Shard of Life expansion features golem versions of the enemies found elsewhere in the game — the main difference being that when the golem versions are killed, they come back to life after a few turns. This is usually a problem, but some puzzles actually rely on them reviving at the right time to do something useful.
• Luminous Plume: The Harbingers of Calamity are golems that can absorb and use aura. Their creator, Jade, used them to attack Praelia.
• There are three kind of golems in Telepath RPG:
  • There's the stone golems who are the less dangerous and who attack by punching, with the exception of Flint who can gets a flamethrower and a saw blade.
  • There's the bronze golems who can attack with an arc with their saw blades.
  • Then there's the energy golems who can't move but can attack in a straight line with unlimited range with their laser canon. One of your potential party member is an prototype energy golem called Dorgon who can move, use a melee attack and learn a burst shot move.
• Last Armageddon has a stone Golem as one of your party members. Being made of rock even gives him some properties like immunity to petrification and weakness to water.
• After Armageddon Gaiden has Dhalzam, a quiet but strong earth golem as one of the main party members.
• The Heart Pumps Clay: The party member, Bud, the golem.
• Game & Watch: Climber has brick monsters called blockmen who fill in gaps in the path you can jump or fall through, namely by deposing of themselves to become new brick path.
• Total War: Warhammer: Besides the various constructs of the Tomb Kings, such as the Ushabti, the newly created Cathayan faction has their giant Terracotta Warriors.
• A rock golem is the first boss of Undead Line, with the ability to summon rock projectiles as a ranged attack.
• Fate/Grand Order: Golems are the game's standard Berserker-class enemy, usually appearing as a Rock Monster but some variants of it include Iron Golems, Crystal Golems, Ruby Golems and Rice Golems. One Advanced Quest plays with the original idea of the golem by having you fight against a Twin Steel Golem named "emeth" with a high special defense and large health bar, but hitting it will eventually make it spawn a golem named "e" which will damage "emeth" with a passive status called "meth" if defeated.
• Terraria has quite a few golems that act as enemies: namely the Golem (a Lihzahrd-made being that serves as the boss of the Jungle Temple after defeating Plantera), the Granite Golem (an enemy found within Granite Caves that can shield itself to No-Sell attacks every now and then), the Rock Golem (rather like the Granite Golem, except found within the Cavern layer and much tougher to boot) and the Ice Golem (a tough mini-boss that only appears during a blizzard in the snow biome, and is the source of Frost Cores that can be used to craft the Frost Armour set, amongst others).

Visual Novels

• In My Magical Divorce Bureau, Lexis was created to be the guardian of a secret society, but outlived the society and is now on her own. She isn't very good at communicating what she wants to do with her life, which is why she's in a divorce bureau.

Web Animation

• DSBT InsaniT: Sand Snake transforms into a version of this at the end of "Beach Brawl". A proper golem doesn't appear until episode 7 with Bentley.

Webcomics

• Tower of God has Golems made of rock appear several times, as traps, training props and escape vehicles. They are held together by a single blue, big, thumb-tack shaped device in the middle of the chest.
• Erfworld: The comic contains golems, that true to their fantasic roots, are named after what they are made out of. As a side note, some of them are made to look like people from the genres from which they are also named, like soft rock golems, hard rock golems, acid rock golems, metal golems; and cloth golems look like stuffed animals. Oh, yeah, guess what the crap golems are made out of.
• Gwynn from Sluggy Freelance creates a golem out of all the clutter in the apartment. She dubs the creation "Clutter Monster."
• One of Beisaru's many tricks on Juathuur, shown here.
• Golems are possible to create in Dominic Deegan, but it takes a lot of effort and resources. Among others, we've seen a Golem of Law (Acibek, made from his creator's followers... whose first act was to expose his creator's crimes), a Leaf Golem (Leaflette, the (first) Forest Oracle), a Miscellaneous-Forest-Creature Golem (Dirk the Mighty), and a Flesh Golem (Quilt).
• In Impure Blood, some of the forces attacking them were machinery, but the smaller ones? Just dirt.
• Hieronymus Grubwiggler in The Order of the Stick creates flesh golems and bone golems, including one made from the corpse of Roy Greenhilt.
• In Rusty and Co., Calamitus's giant metal golem.
  Rusty: Eat statue Eat statue Eat statue Eat statue Eat statue???
• Not a strict example, but in Godslave, Heru's Blacksmiths in their true forms suggest that Golems were the inspiration for their design.
• In Reversed Star, there are robotic mindless servants called galas that seem to invoke this trope.
• In El Goonish Shive, Urteroncs are ancient golems created by Uryuoms. In fact their name is literally translated as "Algolem", as in "ALien GOLEM".
• Grrl Power: According to Dabbler, the first succubus was a "flesh golem", powered by mana, and eventually wizards/sorcerers/mages built and refine further 'models' into the race as it's known today.
• Technically, a good part of the cast consists of these, made of paper and guardian witch's magic, in Whither.

Web Original

• Whateley Universe:
  • The superpowered Charmer has several already-prepared charms she carries with her; one is a 'golem charm' that she has apparently used in self-defense class.
  • Eldritch (Caitlin Bardue, formerly Erik Mahren) is a former member of the academy's weapon range crew turned into something called an 'artificer', essentially a (still largely human-looking) golem with the potential to become the perfect magic-item crafting Emotionless Girl slave for whoever manages to get the proper tattoos on her body. Much of her story revolves around either stopping someone who was trying to enslave her, or trying to figure out how to do the job herself and thereby retain her independence, which no other Artificer had ever done. She managed to do it just before Christmas Break for 2006 (in-story); how she did it was a mystery until the story "Ashes and Steel" was published in 2016.
• Mortasheen has some very esoteric Bio Punk takes on this.

Web Videos

• Tales From My D&D Campaign features the Warforged, a race of sentient wooden golems created by the ancient Ytarrans. Also, in more modern times Vistria relies heavily on more conventional golems for defense against the evil Kua-Toa.

Western Animation

• Batman Beyond: "Golem": A geeky high school student gets mental control of a giant construction robot through Lightning.
• In Huntik: Secrets & Seekers the Golem of Prague legend is focus of the fourth episode, revealed to be a Titan called Metagolem and bonds to main character Dante Vale becoming the go to muscle for the heroes. Later we see other golem Titans, there's Ignatius, which looks to be completely composed of rocks and fire. The name could be a play on "igneous" which is volcanic stone. We also see illusionary Coral Golems as part of a test in Atlantis and the Big Bad of the season one, The Professor, has two Undergolems.
• The evil Warlords of King Arthur & the Knights of Justice were made of stone to do Queen Morgana's bidding.
• The actual Golem of myth and legend showed up in Gargoyles in the Avalon World Tour episode of the same name, with surprisingly accurate Hebrew incantations being used to both animate and control it, although the word 'Jew' is not spoken in the episode, referring only to 'our people' and the Golem as a protector of Prague.

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Do golems dream of ceramic sheep?

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