Artifact Creature is an extremely broad category, and follows the general belief that Artificers can do anything, if given enough time and resources.
And, this is technically true, but more complex designs require exotic materials, and an incalculable immaterial spirit.
Everything you do, channels mana, whether you realize it or not. Sorcerers, Scholars, Pyromancers, etc. simply are conscious of this. Other races, like Orcs, do not have magic users, because they do not need do. Orcs channel mana through their bodies to strengthen and quicken them.
When crafting, you channel mana through it. Sorcerer/Pyromancers can do something showy, like adding a fire enchantment. But other, more subtle enchantments can increase accuracy, or make a bow easier or harder to draw. If we extend this further, we could say have a flying scimitar, a weapon that has to be controlled, but does not need to be maintained in hand.
When an Artifact becomes an Artifact Creature is when it can truly move on it's own. The problem with this is that the Artificer does not know HOW the object will move on it's own. They might have a general idea, but these Artifact Creatures will have to Mature on their own. With experience making similar Artifacts, and Artificer can learn to produce Artifact Creatures with this Maturity born into them.
All Artifacts have the material body and immaterial spirit. When repaired, they need to be physically repaired from a skilled craftsman, and spiritually repaired by an Artificer.
Artifact creatures have personalities roughly equivalent to that of lesser beasts. They can be frightened easily, and communicate through noises of their type and material. Those who know learn that these noises are akin to those of animals, such as a horse or hound, and primarily express emotion.
The most common Artifact Creature, and, in fact, the only one that is universally recognizable. They are essentially horseless carriages. While in theory, they could take on the form of any carriage, their time, expense, and rarity mean that only the wealthiest can afford them, and even then a coach pulled by a couple of horses would likely be cheaper. Despite the fact it in theory could be of nearly any shape, there are so few Sedan makers that most Sedans are not only copied from existing carriage designs, they are often built with the cartwrights that build ordinary carriages.
Wood is the primary material, and this is because the primary metal that could be used, iron, doesn't just have poor magickal conductivity, but negative magickal conductivity, while wood of all varieties is naturally conductive.
A lost technology in Cynn, that is until the Summer King's glory. Even then, he created his fabled, (in his opinion overfabled), Lionwight to carry his Myrmidons into battle. The Holy Gothic Empire had Alchemical Cohorts that used them at the time.
Airships are exactly as it would seem, and like Sedans, were often patterned off of real ships, with a cabin and poop deck in the rear. They typically lack the castles of ships of the line, as there are few if any other ships to actually fight. Combat is instead typically done with boarding actions.
Being patterned after ships means that most airships can land in the water, and in truth, most cannot land. Instead, they simply moor while floating in the air.
For the record, the Summer King views the airship Pearlescence, (former Imperial Alchemical Airship), as his flagship, while the Lionwhite is more for military deployment.
A truly lost technology, until revive by the Summer King. Myrmidons are mechanical men. Iron is anti-magickal, and needs to be alloyed with things like silver, gold, and mythril. Other components needed to be made from bronze alloys. Even Thorium and Odinium were required. This was well and truly something that only the Summer King could create. He had the support of the entirety of the Kingdom of Cynn's nobility, nad the Dwarven Hold of Southwall, (who's thane that he was oath-sworn and brother-in-law to), along with various other friendly Dwarven Tribes, up to an including the Dwarven Rebellions. This also required the expertise of Gnomes.
While Gnomes had been enslaved by the Empire, and were often used as functionaries, they rarely showed any creativity, and would not volunteer any of their services not harshly forced out of them. Under the Summer King, the Kingdom of Cynn had made incredible forays into recruiting Gnomes.
The results were the Lionknights, mechanical men 12 feet tall, with swords and polearms to match. Their great Lionshields could deploy spikes and placed as pavises to draw their great Lionbows, capable of damaging a Seated Dragon.
Note: The Summer King is honestly annoyed at how everyone insists on naming everything he makes after Lions. At one point, he barely enchanted a stone before giving it to the Dwarves that can headed his call and come to aid him. It's not treated as a sacred relic, though the first Man to ask Dwarves to form a hold, (usually it is formed, extremely difficult to remove, and too economically valuable to do anything about), handing them a stone from the mountain he asked them to protect, could be treated no other way, at least with hindsight. This said, he did not object to his portal being named The Lion's Reach.
Considered the quintessential Artifact Creature, though at least only in myths and legends from long lost cultures.
The Summer King recruited a Dwarven weaver to help him craft one, (so his Dwarven wife could experience the joys of flight), and they discovered why:
It makes you vulnerable to wyverns.
The Empire's did use cohorts of carpeters, but never in an unsupported capacity, and never in the untamed mountains that typically contain wyverns.
A creation wholly of the Summer King, and in truth, partially to test the technology to produce Myrmidons. The other reason they were crafted was because he has a pair of Dwarven wives, and Dwarves are not fond of riding horses, (too tall for them to be comfortable).
One of the major creations, other than integrated Vaults of Holding, were spinning metal armatures that allow the Iron Ponies to harness far more mana than their bodies should allow.
