Stefan Ramirez discusses the philosophy behind the homunculus.

The official TERA website has added a new blogging feature, and the newest entry features Stefan Ramirez discussing pirvate stores, also known as the homunculus.  In short, the homunculus were designed to be stationary vendors to sell a player's goods to other players.  For those of you who might be familiar with the system, it is likely to be similiar to Final Fantasy XIV's retainers. 

The homunculus will be used to act as a shopkeeper for player-run stores.  Though this theory might sound redundant when cosidered along with broker houses and individual player trading, Stefan explains the exhilaration of running your own shop.

As a footnote, it appears that En Masse is at least considering, if not already decided, to change the name "homunculus" to the less descriptive but easier to type "pet."