Warforged

Creation by the Magisterium
The first true warforged were created by artificers in the Magisterium in the late days of the crusade, just a year before the armistice. Scholars have speculated that it was the pressure exerted by the unleashed warforged battalions that forced the Court of Seasons to contemplate the A'mirielle tor, The Severance. Prior attempts had been made to craft autonomous construct soldiers using some of the rare materials found in abundance in the Feywild. However these early creatures were little more than golems, lacking the creativity and ingenuity of true sentience. Eventually however the first true intelligent constructs were unleashed on the front lines to devastating effect. The methods ultimately employed to create the warforged is perhaps the most closely guarded secret of the legendarily secretive magisterium.

Use in the Crusade
Although the warforged battalions were only employed in combat over the course of a few months at the end of the war, their fearsome performance remains a thing of legend. Tough, strong, rigorously disciplined and seemingly fearless, these soldiers were single minded in their bloody pursuit of victory over the Elven Alliance. At first they were led into battle by human commanders, but it was soon considered unnecessary. As more were created, the integration of warforged specialists into regular units became typical, and it quickly became the case that most church soldiers knew at least once warforged personally. The forces of the crusade benefited from a dramatic increase in morale, worn down as they had been by a war that had, at that point, stretched on for nearly ten years. The prospect of manufactured super-soldiers engaging in combat alongside them, or on their behalf, was obviously appealing, and in those last years of the war and for several years following the armistice warforged heroes were held in high regard.

The Moratorium
It's widely known that one of the conditions of the negotiated armistice was that the Magisterium immediately cease manufacture of any warforged. This moratorium continues to be observed to this day, meaning that any warforged who survive are veterans of the crusade, although very few flesh and blood veterans are still alive who served alongside them. This has resulted in a cooling of feelings toward the warforged, who are held by many of the younger generation to be little more that servile machines. While some warforged have retained an honorary rank within the Church Militant, few remain on active duty. Some have retired to civilian life, though many have departed for the frontier rather than face the diminishing attitudes of their fellow citizens. They are sometimes employed as guards or skilled specialists, and many free-lance as explorers or treasure hunters. Warforged are considered to be incompatible with the practice of the arcane and therefore are not employed within the Citadel of the Magisterium. Church doctrine is unresolved on their status as Children of the Light, although some warforged have pursued an interest in worship within the church.