Petricite Golems

Petricite Golems are the fiercest and most powerful weapon in the Spellbreaker arsenal. For a golem to appear in a location means a spellcaster or group of spellcasters there has drawn the gaze of one of the esteemed Generals, and perhaps of the Divine herself. Whilst their types vary - Greater Golems, Lesser Golems, and Replicant Golems - all pose a significant threat to unprepared (and often foolish) adversaries of the Chantry.
  Greater and Lesser golems originate from the Rune Wars, having been created specifically to combat the threat of the hyper-powerful mages that warred over the world. The construction of both is a lost art, with Replicant golems being far inferior though by no means a pushover. This is due to the manner of their construction - Greater Golems are imbued with the entire soul of a mage, placed within its petricite frame. This accounts for why they are able to cast a small array of spells despite their material. Lesser Golems are still imbued with a small part of the soul of a mage, but not enough to fully access their magical ability. Replicant golems lack both and are simply animated slabs of petricite fashioned roughly into the shape of a Lesser Golem.
  All three types of golem require charging with magical energies to function fully, although Greater Golems are sometimes used as wards due to their sheer concentration of antimagic. Against mages this means a golem can theoretically last an indefinite period of time; however, in conventional battles, golems will usually require recharging a few times over the course of a campaign, and extended engagements away from locations where the golems can be recharged often have to be cut short.
  No Greater Golem has been destroyed since the Rune Wars, although three Lesser Golems have been lost from the initial surviving batch of fifteen. One was lost during the Spellbreaker-Staldor War, which is what prompted the Divine at the time to authorise the use of Greater Golems, and what created the stalemate as the Staldors could not at all surpass Greater Golems, but did not have enough latent magics to sustain one in an engagement either. Another was destroyed in Ewrorin by the Abyssal Twelve in their efforts to overthrow Archmage Elaria.
 

Soul-Extraction

The most complicated and feared of uses for Spellbreaker Golems is the extraction of all magickry, and the soul, of a mage. Reserved as a punishment only for especially malign magic users, this process is one for which documentation is shoddy at best. Regularly carried out during the Rune Wars, it has since become something of a rare novelty due to the amount of work it takes to make the ritual function. Using old runes that are practically not understood and spells for which translations are basic, a procession of College mages will gather and begin to assign the rites and spells that are necessary. Then, three golems will be gathered - one Greater Petricite Golem, and two Lesser. Forming an inwards wedge in front of the bound magic user, the ritual will see the Greater Golem's anti-magic beam fired directly at the individual. The runes and spells will enhance it to such an extent that it breaks through the physical reality of the world and into the realm of soul and spirit, striking not only the mage's body but their very core of essence. Then, the Lesser golems will utilise their own magics to pull the soul from that realm and into this world, and it will travel along the anti-magic beam until it is absorbed by the Greater Golem, and converted into magical energy. Such a process powers all the golems involved for a significant period of time - in times of relative peace, Greater Golems have been sustained for years or even decades by the magical energy given by such an extraction.
  However, the process is not without risk. Obviously, the individual being extracted from dies in practically all cases (though given it is an execution, this is not a "risk", persay). Especially weak mages, however, or poorly-attuned magic users like Wizards or Warlocks will generally have their souls simply burnt up in the process due to their weakness of essence, and there will be no gain for the golems taking part. Meanwhile, especially in regards to Warlocks, those individuals whose souls are no longer entirely their property - signed off to a demon or other abyssal patron - present a significant threat to all those taking part in the process. One of the three lesser golems lost since the Rune Wars was destroyed this way, when a malignant warlock running blood sacrifices in a relatively large area North of the Neck was executed this way. However, his soul was entirely the property of a Blood-Grinder Greater Demon, and extracting it led to the Demon manifesting in this realm in the body of one of the two Lesser Golems. Nearly all the mages present were killed, and the other two Golems were forced to destroy their possessed brethren. The surviving Lesser Golem was heavily damaged, whilst the Greater Golem, even, suffered some permanent scarring from the event. As a result, Spellbreakers no longer extract the souls of any individual besides pure mages, and extensive work is taken by Priests of the Chantry to ensure the soul of the individual is entirely their own.