Flesh Golem (Spool)

The flesh golem of the story Spool is the story's viewpoint character. "Spool" is a story of its creator's life and charge into damnation.

Creation

The flesh golem was created by a man it refers to as "father", rather than master. It was made out of corpse parts its creator stole while he was pretending to be a devout priest, while actually plundering the priesthood's storehouse of lore to support his own research. Not only did "father" assemble the golem's body from parts it stole from consecrated graves on temple grounds, it used priestly lore to draw life from his world's core to animate it - thus committing a double blasphemy. "Father"'s reason for creation the golem was his early theory that souls are born from the flesh of higher lifeforms, and he might cause one to be born by building it an appropriate vessel.

Evolution

Although the flesh golem notes it did not have an independent intelligence at the time of its creation, it has perfect recall of every moment of its existence. It recounts how "father" would one day lash out at it, inflicting tortures that would have killed a living man to vent his own frustrations, then use parts from his many victims to upgrade it on another day - but was never satisfied or proud of it. Presumably it was "father"'s incessant tinkering that eventually caused the flesh golem to become something greater than it had originally been, as the story implies the golem had well surpassed him in his own fields of research by virtue of patient observation, study of the works of others, and clear thought - as opposed to "father"'s reckless experimentation and attempts to prove his grandiose theories. It never revealed its conclusions to him, however.

Morality

It seems fairly clear that the flesh golem is at the very least vindictive, if not outright evil. While it holds the key to solving its creator's Darklord's curse, it instead derives amusement from watching him scramble to avoid oblivion and acquire souls to eat. It also makes clear to the reader that once its creator's current struggles no longer provide it amusement, it plans to subject him to far greater torments than he is already suffering. The golem also says outright that it is looking forward to a time when it will actively torture its creator, not as punishment for his many sins against the people of their home world, but for the indignities and insults he inflicted upon the flesh golem itself.

Curse

It is possible that the flesh golem has become part of its "father"'s curse upon entering the Demiplane of Dread. While its "father" scrambles madly to either find or replace his lost soul, the flesh golem knows perfectly well where it is located, but is hiding its presence from him. It has attained knowledge for which its "father" has committed hideous sins, but has not shared any of it with him.