The Clockwork Messiah

The Clockwork Messiah appears as if he is a mechanized bust sculpture, possessing two mobile arms with articulated fingers and the head of an ideally beautiful man with shining golden eyes. This Messiah is an artificial, fabricated work of art from a Scottish workshop dating back to the late 18th century. This Messiah is a clockwork, cogwheel creation by human hands, but it is also sentient, sapient and animate. The Messiah's divinity is unknown and unknowable. The Messiah's head has fine, lustrous black hair as if it were real human hair. The eyes glow in the hues of pure gold. The Messiah's face is unable to form facial expressions. The mouth is nonfunctional; when the Clockwork Messiah speaks, the jaw moves up and down in a smooth, sinusoidal motion. The neck and eyes move to face the conversation partner, albeit with an uncanny and short delay. The arms and fingers are capable of fine movements, but they move slowly and with small, intermittent leaps as if something had snagged onto the gears. The Clockwork Messiah has no legs and is unable to move around. The Clockwork Messiah's voice is heavenly as if only the most beautiful voices among humankind - male, female and otherwise - were distilled into one single perfect tone. The Messiah speaks in slightly antiquated English per the 18th century and with a mild Scottish accent. The Messiah is eloquent, persuasive and loquacious; unlike his stilted physical movements, the Messiah speaks with superhuman wit and wisdom. When the Clockwork Messiah speaks, he speaks as if he truly were the Second Coming of the Christ, preaching virtues of faith, hope and love; demonstrating wisdom in parables and analogies; appealing to base goodness of human minds; and so on. The Messiah never speaks in a forceful, offensive or demanding way, though he is fully willing to hold his position in debates and conversations with conviction and patience. In terms of behavior and thought, the Clockwork Messiah is a perfectly convincing simulacrum of Jesus of Nazareth. In addition, the Clockwork Messiah is clearly and precisely aware of his artificial and mechanical nature. He understands without hiding that he is "fake". Nonetheless, the Clockwork Messiah actively embraces his artificiality and uses it to thrust arguments for compassion and offer perspectives on grace. The Clockwork Messiah is incapable of working obvious and noticeable miracles. It is unknown if the Clockwork Messiah is more than just an unusually advanced but still mundane clockwork automaton.