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Golems are mechanical entities baked from clay and powered by holy words in their heads. Golems are made, usually in a lumpy human shape. They used to be considered non-lifeforms, but lately, quite a few individual golems have begun to demonstrate personality and personal initiative, and get hired with a salary instead of working for free and being bought and sold as machines.

The holy words or chem usually define the behaviour and aim of the Golem. The word "Freedom" for example will make the Golem long for just that. A Golem can be ordered to show its chem. If it is removed from the Golem's head the Golem will cease to live, which usually goes along with the extinguishing of the fire-like light in the Golem's eyes. The only exception known is Dorfl who lives without a chem, but no one knows why.

Golems take orders very seriously. They will continue to follow the order until told to stop. If the owner forgets that he ordered the Golem to dig a hole in the garden he might end up with a nice view unto A'Tuin's shell. Because Golems usually follow every order without protest, without payment, and without rest, they are rather popular for dirty and dangerous jobs.

Most golems had been made centuries before the present; no new golems have been made because priests argued that the creation of life is the domain of the gods. Most golems had been made with sealed lips and no voice, but the recently freed golems have acquired the ability to speak; technical details on how this change is made are unknown. It is said on Roundworld that if a golem were made able to speak, that would give it a soul, and — because a golem cannot be made perfectly — that ability could make it very dangerous.

These days, Golems are trying to free themselves in the only way they know: by working and saving to buy themselves. To assist in this endeavor, the Golem Trust has been established. Free Golems can be hired, a service run by Adora Belle Dearheart. The proceeds go to freeing Golems.

Golems make a major appearance in Feet of Clay, Going Postal and Making Money.

Notable Golems

• Dorfl, member of the Watch
• Gladys, personal assistant of Moist von Lipwig
• Meshugah, king of the Golems
• Mr. Pump, a bodyguard in a very literal sense

Language

The language spoken by golems is written using the Enochian alphabet (see here: [1]). The Enochian characters are used for a simple cipher.

Once decoded, the Golem language reads as follows. In Making Money: on page 214 (hardback) Miss Dearheart's words transliterate as "I can speak formal golem" and on page 221 (hardback) Flead's words transliterate as "You make eternity bearable" and "Why do you care about golems? They have no passionate parts".

To underline their Jewishness, when golems write Morporkian their writing is rendered in a font which makes Roman characters look Hebrew. I am told that this is more obvious in the British edition than in the American.

Annotations

In the Roundworld, Golems are first found in early stories in the Talmud, and are most famously seen as servants to Rabbis, such as the most famous Golem of Prague, created and animated by the Rabbi Cohen. This is probably why the Golems in Discworld have Hebrew names.

There are laws that are written on a scroll inside a golem's head (mentioned in Going Postal). These laws are similar to Asimov's Laws of Robotics."A golem may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm...unless instructed to do so by duly constituted authority." In Going Postal, "duly constituted authority" meant Vetinari.

See also: Red Army