STEELHOUND

STEELHOUND Alpha
the central controlling ai of the steelhound hivemind. created originally with the intent of being an automated defense drone force of partially organic golems capable of self-replication using scavenged scrapmetal, shoddy programming led to the project-much like a majority of ventures into cutting edge golem construction-quickly spiraling out of control. to this day the alpha and it's steelhounds infest the wilds of the expanse, still carrying out their flawed given mission.

some individuals trap and reprogram steelhounds to serve them for their own purposes, while others construct their own imitations known as scrapmetal trackers using salvaged damaged steelhounds repaired with spare parts. a steelhound's capability to find scrap and protect it's owner makes it a useful familiar to have in the scavenger-infested wastelands of the outer desert, and many dragons outside the relative safety of the urban zones are interested to have that kind of ability on their side.

most later golem network designs based on the technology were entirely mechanical and significantly limited in self-replication abilities, if they were given any at all, to avoid causing another self-sustaining infestation of quite the same scale.
the science of golem construction has always strived for the goal of eventually being capable of replicating an organic being entirely in mechanical parts, but when the steelhound network was created the technology for entirely inorganic lifelike animal golems simply... didn't exist yet. there were parts of nature that technology had yet to learn to imitate. the exact records of how the steelhound alpha was created with the limited golem technology of the day, are either lost to history, or a very closely guarded secret.

i used to have that green violin familiar and metalllic/hex/laced common eyes on him back during 2018-20 for some reason
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possible theme songs rules of nature i'm my own master now the war still rages within several other ones from portal and tron probably that i can't remember right now like i know there was something specific actually colelcctie consciousnessnmgith fit better given the steelhound definitely isn't themed fater freedom given it's still just mindlessly carrying out it's algorithm with do real deviation form the original flawed program because it's creators literally just didn't understand why it would be a bad idea to have the desert defended by mindless hivemnd networked automatic defense drones that can replicate tjemselves wit random scrapmetal without supervision and take no orders, so just liek chromehawk the hteme of this one is still very mcuh "oppressive dystopian cyberpunk hellscape" and "absurd government/military/capitalist/corporate/whatever/ect ovverreach stupidly mis-estimates how the technology it's carelessly abusing the hell out of even works because they can't be bothered to come up with a plan that's not absurdly oppressive and shortsightedly evil and it was thrown together with all the care for thinking through the consequences of what they're asking for and if thsi was even a good idea at all normally afforded to random soulless projects the company does just to make big money, like disney live action reboots". guess the whole self-replciatign infestation still doign exactly what it was programmed to do thign could be likened a bit to osmethign liek nanobots or grey goo, but that'sn ot really the theme, the theme of steelhound is really mostly like very specific stuff i can't rmemebr about how modern real life ai neural network type thigns work, how they tend to do exactly what you told but not what you meant and the oddly specific ways they go about "going off the rails" withotu actually going off the rails at all, and some very specific things dont rmemebr abotu somethign along the lines of like why making things run on generic neural network algorithms that constantly think "sheep" means "anything with green on it" is a bad idea. aesthetically though the steelhounds vibes have some elements of "wild and free howling wolves run against the wind no gods no masters now" even if not the actual lore, "breaking free" freedom, or conssciosu intent behind that aesthetic vibe of that freedom thing, it's just ALSO at it's coreprimarily "scary soulless dark dystopian hivemind of military robots that have become a wildly out of control infestation precisely because they have no deviated from what they were made to do in the slightest and have just kept doing it perfectly as they were designed to entirely mindlessly without thought or reason forever because the military didnt consider what an inherently a bad idea it was to have a force of mindless self-replicating via disassembling scrap for materials military drone robots that have absolutely no programming for when to actually *stop* making more of themselves was". collective consciousness probably fit the steelhound's lore and core vibes best honestly but it ALSO fits chomehawk and its confusing trying to decide which one it even similarly goes to

-the steelhound network did not ever "go rogue" or deviate from it's programming in the slightest-it is a purely automated process stilldoing exactly as it's creators designed, with no differences form how it was initially programmed. it hasn't pulled a skynet, it hasn't "concluded world peace requires organic extinction" or anything like that, it doesn't have the kind of intelligence to do calculations like that, it is literally just a completely functional automated defense drone program that was poorly considered to begin with. this is based on the concept of how computers always do exactly what you tell them to even if it's not what you thought you meant, and how they have no concept of when to stop doing what you technically told them to do.
-the steelhound alpha's intelligence is more or less nonsapient, highly computer-like as outlined above , as well as computerishly singleminded and paradoxically unfocused. it does not have any "goal" as humans owuld understand it, it merely continues mindlessly doignthe thing it was initially programmed to do. it cannot be reasoned with. there is no extension of it's programming for reasoning with. it can only think in the both computerish and animalistic terms of anticipating and reacting to patterns and 'troop movements' like it's automatically playing a real-time strategy game.
-the steelhound alpha cannot speak and can only recognize the most basic language, even then it's only "recognize" in the sense of having learned and recognizing which patterns of sound may be preludes to offensive actions
-the steelhound alpha does not have "decoration-y" part s on it, it's build very sort of "tacticool" for lack of a better word but in a bulky-yet-semi-streamlined near-future-ish sort of way. it's also clearly very heavy and powerful in it's "muscles" but also very fast, and it's movement and behavior is very animalistic and bounding and predatory, like an energetic tiger on the hunt, or a wild wolf running and howling with it's pack as it bounds across the sand and wind under a crystal clear blue sky and bright white sun, fast and bounding and powerful, roaring pure energy and tongue-lolling visceral primal bestial adrenaline feeling with the pack against the sky, to an outsider seemingly almost happy(certainly excited) in a way only the wild hunters running towards the wind with each heart-flying bounding step of pure intensity and raw primal *feeling* of excitement and power that can take on the world together can be
-the steelhound alpha does not have, use or in any way emit or interact in any was with magic, and it does not have or emit any "energy-y" looking parts either, the steelhoudn alpha itself and all of it's ways of interacting with the world are all very... physical. animalistic, primal. of the body. it's the sort of design that if it had any sort of long range attack or "spiritually functions as an element" at all, it would most likely be something like tiny missile launchers. which it probably doesn't have even that either. no lasers, no lightning, no anything energy-y or magic-y, if a real predatory animal couldn't do it with it's body alone than it's not likely a thing the steelhound alpha can do, though it having hidden big heavy blades or projectile weapons or like jet engine pack thrusters or something hidden partly inside it like some kind of semi-hyperrealsitic robot swiss army thing might not be entirely out of the question, but semi-unlikely especially for anything too small and lithe-elegant-sharp-tiny-skinny-detailish-y. the steelhound alpha is not ever pictured around or associated with anything "energy-y" or any lightnign imagwery eother, only deserts and stark rela heavy present natural realistic environments, animals, and similarly non-decorationly hyperrelaisitc ""tacticool"" technology and abandoned scraps, wolf stuff, clear skies, gold and red sand, never storms or lightning or anything that ta all resembles magic or energy or anything ethereal, only things that are all very physical and heavy and Present and real. "streamlined tacticool semirelasitic (like vaguely boston dynamics descendant in a slightly scifi near future way but like designed a way that still looks like something that's supposed to be realistically functional rather than cool or at all decorative?) bulk predatory wild wolf/tiger animal running with the pack in stark non-magical nonfantasy hyperreal-reality"
-the steelhound alpha is at minimum big enough that you could realistically imagine yourself see it grapple successfully dangerously with a mid-sized dragon and cause them actual definite imminent worthwhile noteworthy danger and harm
-there is a sense of wild,fast, strong, power to every one of it's movements, and a constant sense of intense heavybodied-yet-unreasonably-fast-running-hard-as-it-can-barelling-bounding-through-the-air-with-all-it's-animalsiitcally free-weighty-and-hard movement to it's very being