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A pinata golem with endlessly-regenerable candy organs and a piss-poor attitude.
Hoja's world hosts free-floating spirits/souls that are not bound to any object at first. They're not very distinct and they don't exercise a lot of influence on the outside world, but it's a known fact that they exist. Activity on the part of these spirits causes occasional flare-ups which make them briefly tangible--this is how they were discovered in the first place and how they came to be studied and manipulated after. The supply of this energy seems limitless and growing, the whole extent of it has probably not yet been properly conceptualized, but small parts can be "tapped" from this stream to be utilized by those who know what they're doing. This energy will generally let itself be guided pretty easily, though it's always just that, guiding it were it needs to go. Forcing them to travel one way or another is impossible.
By way of magic, a spirit can be bound to an object or concept and take on a physical, anthropomorphic form that matches that object/concept. However, by changing from a free-floating spirit to something physically bound, they also lose some of their free will and become what's come to be called a "golem". The creator/owner of a golem can steer their behavior to a certain extent if they wish, and the physical traits of the golem exercise a certain influence over their thoughts and actions, giving them a kind of purpose that they have a powerful innate drive to follow. Hoja is a spirit bonded to candy and wrappers and paper and thus takes shape as a pinata.
By taking on this form, he's also given a primary purpose/drive of being hit and beaten and broken for the sake of others' enjoyment. Some golems will fight their purpose, but Hoja is one of the ones who embrace it.
His (previously childless) parents had wanted to bond a soul to candy in the hopes of producing someone sweet and childlike to help them create a family--it's not commonly done and in some circles it's looked down upon, but it does happen from time to time that people try to create golems for this purpose. (Usually, they're created with no purpose in mind other than to mitigate a flare-up, and are then integrated into society based on the drive theyre born with.) But since souls aren't really anything discrete but rather something plucked from a continuous and fluid stream, this couple who wanted a sweet kid got Hoja instead (they still love him, and to be fair he loves them too).
So long as the magic keeping soul and object bonded is present, a golem is almost immortal, as they're made of inorganic matter. If this bond is broken, the spirit inhabiting it is freed again and the physical "host" disintegrates instantly. Otherwise, a golem like Hoja, when broken apart, can reassemble itself on its own power when given enough time, or it can borrow the energy of a living, non-golem entity to speed up the process. Destroying the entire physical host by chemical means will also break the bond--Hoja is deathly afraid of fire for this reason, as his skin is very flammable.
Separating the spirit from the body has a different effect than trying to rip the body away from the spirit. Most often, the spirit is anchored to a certain object within the golem. For Hoja, the most convenient anchor point is in his brain. His brain resembles gelatin mostly, but there are sugary "calcifications" inside, near the cranium, where his soul is anchored. All of him is edible technically, but anyone who tried to eat this part of him would have a really, really bad time, since breaking down the host would release the spirit inside the living person's body, after which it would begin to desperately search for another anchor point in whats left of Hoja's body. Thats not a good thing.
He's still a relatively recently-made golem, all things considered, so hes still protective over the contents of his skull. but as long as these pieces remain intact in the general area as the rest of his body, no matter how broken-up or mangled, he can put himself back together.
There are zero organic processes taking place inside his body. He *can* eat and drink, if he wants to, and he can "digest" food by voluntarily secreting a powerful acid in his stomach, but these are all things he has to do consciously, as he has no nervous system. None of it is a matter of "need to", and he'll often just eat candy to assimilate the sugars into his own body to help replenish what he might've lost.
As the object defines the general characteristics of the golem, whereas the spirit can determine how the object manifests into a "living" being, Hoja is able to shift at will between a feral donkey form, an anthropomorphic form, and a humanoid form. The bigger the changes, the more time-consuming. All changes are usually paired with the sound of crumpling, ripping paper and cellophane.
He's also a massive jerk who likes provoking people, go figure.
