Elystole the Toymaker

[Hypothesis]

Real Name: Elystole Rilnieth
Known As: Elystole the Toymaker
Age: 17
Race: Tinker (Toymaker)
Tinkers are a dextrous and intelligent race that has rapidly evolved thanks to their close proximity with the powerful crystal generators. Their entire society is geared towards advancing the fusion of clockwork and magic. The following is for a standard tinker.

Great Dexterity (+2): Tinkers have developed an uncanny control over their fine muscle groups. They can accurately produce delicate movements that would drive even an elf mad. It’s a necessary trait considering the fact that a sixteenth of a twist of a screw can mean the difference between a masterpiece and a piece of split wood. It’s even more difficult when you use your toes.
Great Sight (+2): When you, your father, your father’s father, and your father’s father’s father spent their lives hunched over a desk assembling small pieces of metal, you develop a keen eye for detail.
Great Hearing (+2): The best tinkers are so keen they have learned to diagnose what is wrong with one of their inventions by the subtle noises it makes.

Woefully Ignorant (-3): Most tinkers have had no contact with the world outside Mechanus. This leaves them painfully ignorant of and vulnerable to the world around them. They are not familiar with the customs, races, politics, or even the laws of the other lands. As money, crime, and dishonesty were unheard of in the tinker society, thanks to the vigilance of the Cannoneers, this puts them in a pinch when dealing with everyone else.
Vulnerable to Magic (-2): Tinkers have been shaped by magic over the generations and are especially susceptible to its influences.
Honor Bound (-1): Tinkers are stuck in a caste system that is nearly impossible to escape except under the most pressing of circumstances.


Gender: Male
Weight: 110 lbs
Height: 5’3”
Appearance: With a little bit of work, any tinker except an auralie could pass as a slightly short and thin human. Elystole is no different. His wiry frame is wrapped in dusty grey coveralls stained with the variety of lubricants and wood finishes he uses on his creations. Over his clothes he wears a ragged leather apron, heavy gloves, worn boots, and a wide belt to hold the many tools he uses. Whenever his hair and face is not covered by dust or a magnifying glass, one can see his black tousled hair and bright blue eyes.

History: Before the Divine Guardians came, everything was as it should be. For untold generations, the denizens of Mechanus enjoyed the protection and wealth of resources provided by their home nestled in the heights of the Linmotar Eastern Mountains. No one knows the full story of how the city started except the Grandmasters who consult the Ancient, but this much was common knowledge: Long ago, the ancestors of what we will now call “tinkers” came to the mountains on an expedition of sorts. Here, they found the Ancient, that beautiful entity of unimaginable genius that rules over tinker society. With the Ancient’s help, the tinkers’ ancestors forged a new life here in what is now Mechanus by capitalizing on the wealth of new and strange resources: common and exotic ores, the elastic strands of the bungerer’s silk, and the great power of the crystal generators.

Mechanus is a city unlike any other and its citizens are equally unique. Their entire society revolves around the creation and maintenance of machines for play, for work, and for war. What started as a small expeditionary camp grew and grew into a secret metropolis of whirring gears, hissing pipes, and metal towers that reached for the clouds. To facilitate the young city’s growth, the tinkers quickly established a rigid caste system to maximize the peoples’ efficiency. Deviating from one’s caste by studying the wonders of another is punishable by death, as it takes a single rogue gear to jam the entire machine. Working one’s way from the top to the bottom, we find tinker society broken up into the mystical Auralies, the proud Cannoneers, the sturdy Laborers, and the amusing Toymakers.

The Auralies are the highest caste in tinker society for they command the most difficult, valued, and potential destructive force Mechanus knows: the crystal generators. While the simplest inventions rely on simple potential kinetic energy from bungerer threads or wound springs, the truly marvelous creations rely on the magical energy created from a properly purified and charged crystal generator. The smallest crystal, about as large as a man’s thumb, can power a clockwork bungerer that is nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. The largest crystals, which can be as large as a coffee table, power the Cannoneer’s war behemoths. Controlling the power locked in such crystals is difficult and dangerous work, for an overload would result in massive loss of life and property, and that is why the Auralies command the highest rank. Without them, Mechanus simply would not have reached the heights it has. More likely than not, it would be a smoking crater.

Beneath the Auralies are the Cannoneers. While it has been a long time since the denizens of Mechanus had to repel a truly noteworthy attack, as the local beasts quickly learned not to mess with the bizarre ‘magic’ the tinkers’ possess, the Elders found it prudent to keep that Cannoneers in tip-top shape. Their power is also the second most destructive if it were to go astray or be abused. No one wants to see an out of control behemoth storming down Main Street. It takes an incredibly amount of skill to maintain the delicate balance that keeps the Cannoneer’s devices lethal but safe and even more mental fortitude to exert control over the “brains” created for them by the Auralies from complex crystal matrices. As Auralies tend to be rather secluded, this makes the Cannoneers as the most prevalent authority in Mechanus.

In a stark contrast to most societies, the Laborers of Mechanus are not the lowest caste. The citizens of Mechanus recognize that without the raw materials and services provided by the Laborers, from mining and refining ore to harvesting bungerer thread to acquiring food, the city would quickly collapse. There can be no machines without metal. Of course, the Laborers also create their own machines to facilitate their tasks. These machines, ranging in complexity from the simple rope pulley to the grand crystal-powered elevator, are the most common machines in the city.

The lowest caste is that of the Toymaker. These men and women, entire families actually, are devoted to entertaining their betters with their creations. While some of the toys are beautifully wrought and marvelously complex, capable of mimicking life in almost every way, they are ultimately useless. They contribute nothing to the crucial workings of Mechanus. The fact that Toymakers reap the benefits provided by the other castes, they provide no necessary function in return.

Elystole was born into the Toymaker caste. The son of Narain Rilnieth, a Toymaker of modest skill, Elystole knew from that from the day of his birth to the day of his death he would be producing small wonders to the amusement of his betters, as would his brothers, sisters, and friends. They would all do their part to ease the minds of the other, more important castes and Mechanus would continue to grow and prosper. He knew no other way. Things would have proceeded as planned if not for two events.

The first is a testimony to the fact that the best-laid plans are vulnerable to emotion. It was an ordinary winter day in Mechanus. Heavy clumps of snow drifted down between the metal spires to fall on the rocks of the Eastern Mountains. Elystole was returning from an errand for his father, who had sent him to the upper city to acquire a crystal generator. It had taken a lot of work, a lot of petitioning and arguing with the Auralies, but Narain had finally convinced them that he had a project worthy of that significant gift: a working model of The Clockwork to be presented as a gift to the Elders. Now, Elystole had the hot little gem in his hand.

A toymaker’s son in the Auralie District was uncommon but not unheard of. Usually, the streets were dominated by the Cannoneers keeping the peace, the Laborers going about their work, and the multitude of machines helping them. This made Elystole stand out amongst the crowd, being garbed in the simple clothes of his caste and wandering around the streets as though he was thoroughly lost, and he was. He had just ducked into a small alley to try and collect his thoughts when it hit him.

A snowball, that is. This was far larger, wetter, and colder than any mere child’s snowball. It struck him in the back of the neck, where he had loosed his collar after working up a sweat running around the Auralie District. The snow melted and slid down his exposed neck to soak his underclothes and send a chill down his spine. After enduring the spastic shivers that accompanied the freezing of his back, Elystole turned his eyes skyward to see who may have done the deed.

Leaning against the rail of a balcony about a story up was an Auralie daughter in the full glory of her race. Generations of exposure to the immense magical power of the crystal generators set the Auralies apart from all other tinkers, who still looked mostly human. While Elystole’s skin was fair, as most tinkers’ are, hers was opalescent. His wet black hair clung to his forehead while her silver locks seemed to defy the weather and instead floated around her and caught the dim light. For a moment, bright blue eyes met vivid purple, and then the Toymaker’s son remembered his manners and turned his eyes away from his better.

The Auralie daughter laughed and another shiver went down Elystole’s spine. This was not from the cold, however. The power innate in every Auralie reverberated through their voice and the first thing the children learned was how to control their Great Voice to keep from frightening the other castes. Yet, here was this Auralie daughter letting her Great Voice go as she laughed at the modest Toymaker’s son. Then she called down to him in a voice just as sweet and melodic as her laugh, while she had poor Elystole still in shock.

“Hi there!” she said to him with a bright smile. “How are you?”

The poor Toymaker’s son’s mind was reeling. What kind of greeting is “Hi there!” from an Auralie to a lowly Toymaker? Was she trying to test him by asking how he was? For now, Elystole played it safe and kept silent with his eyes towards the ground.

Whump. This time another snowball collided with his head and he looked up by instinct to see her standing there with her hand upraised. The snowflakes falling in the surrounding air were sucked into the air cupped by her hand to form an ever-growing snowball.

“There we go,” she said with that same smile. “Here. I’ll start. My name’s Faelryth.” The Auralie daughter, Faelryth, smiled down at Elystole while waiting for his reply.

It took a few moments of careful deliberation concerning the consequences of a Toymaker’s son being so casual with an Auralie daughter but that was a rather large snowball in her hand. Finally, he mustered up the courage to look up and say, “Elystole.”

At that Faelryth laughed again and jumped down from her balcony to land in the soft snow before Elystole, sending a spray of the white powder over his legs. Now that she was standing before him, he had an even better idea of the disparity between the two. His clothes were simple, worn, and dirty. She was wearing a royal purple silk dress with a pattern suggesting gold gears sewn into it.

“Now then, Elystole, how about we chat? I don’t normally get to talk to anyone but Master Ruffmon…” At first, the conversation was uneasy and forced. Eventually, Elystole found his tongue loosening. The words began to flow. Before long, dusk was falling and a woman’s voice was calling for Faelyth from the open window at the balcony.

“I’ll see you soon!” was all she said before procuring a boost from Elystole to scale the wall. He touched an Auralie’s shoe! The young man’s mind was reeling as he finally made his way back to his father to deliver the precious crystal generator. Such mingling amongst the castes, much less between the highest and the lowest, was never mentioned. That is because it never happened. The castes were to socialize and ultimately marry among themselves to keep the resulting children inside the system without incident.

Over the next few months, Elystole saw more and more of Faelryth. His father’s project was coming along nicely and he sent his son to inform the Auralies of his progress. Every time, Elystole made sure to stop by Faelryth’s balcony. Sometimes, he would spend hours in the shadows of the dimly lit alleyway before she was free enough from her classes to step out and speak with him. He had no way of knowing how many times she waited by that same balcony on the nights he would never show.

Eventually, a foolish idea entered the Toymaker’s son’s head. He decided to give Faelryth a gift. Never mind the fact that only the best toys made their ways to the Auralies. In his mind, his feelings towards the young woman more than made up for whatever skill he was lacking and so, with no time to waste, he set out to work on his “masterpiece.”

It took time. It took an inordinate amount of time. If not for the obvious effort involved in pushing himself beyond his limits, Elystole would have been stopped by his father for being so wasteful. However, the son prevailed and it was complete.

His “masterpiece” was a white wooden bird that a greater Toymaker could have created in less than half the time and with fewer resources. Much was wasted by Elystole as he struggled to get everything “just right.” Stubby little wings hung from its bloated body and a misshapen beak jutted from its small head. A crank in the back wound the bungerer threads that, when released, would flap the wings and issue forth a warbling call as a flap whirled past the open beak. Elystole was virtually beaming with pride as he clutches his little treasure on his way to present it to Faelryth. He was winding his way towards the ally inside the Auralie district when “They” came.

The only warning Mechanus had about the impending Divine Guardian attack was that the Elders had predicted a slightly higher chance of a catastrophe that day. There was no explaining the speed, ferocity, or size of their forces. One moment, Elystole was happily walking down the street towards his favorite alley. The next, Cannoneers were running through the streets for their weapons. The great technology of the Tinkers, a combination of clockwork and magic, could only delay the inevitable. People were screaming, buildings were crumbling, and Elystole was running for his life. He was running to see Faelryth. When he finally did see her, he wished he hadn’t.

He only had a glimpse of her between the legs of the panicked masses. She lay crumpled on the ground across the street from him, her silk dress torn and long hair scattered amongst the rocks. Time seemed to slow down and that agonizing moment of realization was stretched out for an eternity… It was simply too much to believe. Elystole tried to run towards her, but the Cannoneers and stampeding people pushed him back. Again he threw himself at the crowd to try and get past. That was the last time he saw her.

At that moment, a behemoth crumpled down the street with the high-pitched scream of twisting metal. It was a sound unlike any heard before and everyone stopped to turn towards the noise. They all witnessed what should have been impossible. Even as a half dozen Auralies ran towards the construct to try and contain the power in its damaged crystal generator, the magic broke free. In a split second, a sizable chunk of Mechanus and the mountain it sat on was missing.

The explosion compromised the foundation for the rocks above the blast site, including the street that Elystole and Faelryth was on. Slowly, the rock began breaking free and tumbling down the mountainside, often taking screaming tinkers with it. The various metal spires groaned and creaked, trying in vain to secure their foundations, before they too keeled over. When Elystole’s street caved in, he found himself suddenly in the air.

Everything that happened afterwards is a blur. The Toymaker’s son found himself tumbling, often submerged, in something cold and wet. It tried to break him against the rocks and throw him over cliffs. It tried to rob the air from his lungs and the warmth from his body. Yet, somehow, through some great unknown working of The Clockwork, he survived the once-underground stream and it threw him into the river.

There, exhausted, battered, and mentally broken, he clung to a hunk of blackened driftwood. More likely than not, it had been a part of the city he just lost. He lacked the strength to fight the current and let it carry him downstream. Eventually, he was fished out of the water by a kindly human but the memory of this incident eludes him to this day.

Almost a year later, Elystole finds himself roaming the human-controlled lands of Linmotar looking for others of his kind. Maybe they washed up as he had. Maybe they hid in the caves and snuck out later. Maybe Mechanus managed to beat back the attack. Actually, that last one was just a bit of self-delusion that Elystole entertains now and again. He searches every city he comes across while working his trade as a Toymaker for the children. Every time he steps through a set of gates he fills himself with the hope of finding a brother, sister, friend, acquaintance, or even Faelryth. Every time, he sets himself up for disappointment.

There is another question that nags at the mind of this young tinker. Occasionally, a tinker did leave Mechanus to experiment in the world abroad. Could it be that, somewhere, the workshops and libraries of these brave tinkers exist? If they do, is Elystole willing to face exile or even death at the hands of his own people in order to learn the sciences forbidden to him; those of the Laborer, Cannoneer, and maybe even the Auralie; in order to fight back the Divine Guardians and save his people?

Abilities/Skills:
Low Toymaking – In tinker society, learning the craft of the other castes is punishable by death. As such, Elystole is limited to the meager toymaking he learned while growing up. With the proper tools and materials (generally ranging between one to ten gold but devoted projects take more time and resources), he can craft small, simple toys to amuse and delight. Such toys generally include, in order of increasing difficulty, little puppets, trinkets, and crude wind-up toys. To another tinker, his work is pathetic. To the masses that have never seen a tinker’s delights… who knows?

Low Hammers – Elystole’s experience with hammers comes from using them all his life. He developed strength behind his blows while trying to drive in a particularly stubborn peg and accuracy to make sure he didn’t crush his hand doing the same. However, there is a big difference between stubborn machinery and an active opponent. While he had to deal with the stray bungerer now and then in Mechanus, his skills on the field are below average. His wild swings rarely make their mark but when they do, it does more than sting.

Attitude/Alignment/Personality: Tinker society deifies machinery and applies that sense of order to every aspect of life. As such, Elystole is extremely lawful. So much so that he refuses to even entertain the idea that such a thing as “Chaos” exists. That is merely a word people use when they don’t understand the probability. In fact, on the day the Divine Guardians attacked Mechanus, the Auralies had predicted a 0.000012% chance of a civilization-ending catastrophe occurring that day. The only thing tinkers have not managed to break down to probability is emotion… and that continues to frustrate Elystole. It is not to say that tinkers do not have fun or experience emotion, they do and the entire presence of a Toymaker caste is testimony to that, it is just that they would prefer it if emotion was properly catalogued.

Weapons: Wooden Mallet (Warhammer)

Armor: Leather Work Clothes (Jerkin + Accessories)

Miscellaneous: Simple Tinker’s Tools + Magnifying Glass on Leather Band

Location: The human-controlled lands of Linmotar

Religion: Elystole is still a devotee of the tinker religion: The Clockwork. The tinkers think that there is a giant clockwork device that is keeping all of the cosmos in working order. The stars, planets, and other celestial bodies all orbit around an axis of clockwork thanks to the spokes attaching them to the center. Think of a giant mobile. As everything is regulated by clockwork, everything is lawful. By trying to understand The Clockwork, a tinker learns that there is no such thing as chance and, consequently, everything is within one’s grasp if they can understand the mechanics behind it.

Miscellaneous Additional Information About Tinkers

Auralies
The highest caste of tinker society is also the most magical and their appearance reflects this. The Auralies are responsible for the creation and maintenance of the crystal generators and matrices that make the greatest inventions possible. These inventions are also the most dangerous. As such, Auralies are naturally in-tune with the flow of magic and many find they are adept with a secondary school of magic.

Magically Adept (+3): Skilled Auralies can sense the presence of a crystal generator and diagnose it just by walking past one. They are almost painfully aware of the ebb and flow of magic through the world around them and are skilled at its manipulation.
Great Voice (+3): Auralies naturally channel magic into their voice. If they so desire, this tends to give their words more ‘oomph’ with non-Auralies and can even stun the unprepared.

Woefully Ignorant (-3): Most tinkers have had no contact with the world outside Mechanus. This leaves them painfully ignorant of and vulnerable to the world around them. They are not familiar with the customs, races, politics, or even the laws of the other lands. As money, crime, and dishonesty were unheard of in the tinker society, thanks to the vigilance of the Cannoneers, this puts them in a pinch when dealing with everyone else.
Vulnerable to Magic (-3): No one feels the effects of magic greater than the Auralies, who have been physically shaped by it. Sometimes, this hurts.
Honor Bound (0): Auralies, due to their priviliged status and the effects of the magic flowing through them, are more capable of escaping the tinker caste system.

Bungerer
A bungerer is a carnivorous insect inhabiting the caves around Mechanus. They are about the size of a small dog with a blue-black exoskeleton, four green eyes, four long legs, and two clawed legs curved up near the mandibles. Their abdomen is disproportionate to their body and justs out the back.

Bungerers appear to have a hive mind similar to ants, though no one has spotted the rumored queen. A bungerer that is separated by distance from its hive for any reason becomes eratic, panicked, and aggressive. These are the most common bungerers encountered in Mechanus itself: lone scouts that found themselves stranded, lost the guidance of the hive mind, and lashed out. This explanation, however, accredits the individual bungerer with more intelligence than is warranted.

Their hunting tactics vary depending upon the size of the prey. For small prey, they attach a strand of their elastic webbing to the ceiling, drop down on the victim, and bounce back up. Large prey is herded towards a tunnel were several strands stretch across the opening. Generally, such prey is panicked, runs headlong into the strands, and bounces back to painfully collide with a hard surface. Then the bungerers descend upon the stunned victim.

Bungerers make poor eating and worst pets. Their strands of webbing are what make them valuable. Inventors found that the elastic quality of bungerer webbing was excellent for storing and releasing kinetic energy, like our rubber bands. Essentially, if something calls for rubber, bungerer webbing can replace it.

The Laborers have devised a few schemes for harvesting bungerer webbing. The material cuts easily enough. The problem is that bungerers have no problem eating tinkers. This means that they need to be driven out of their tunnels for harvesting to commence. Laborers use flashes of bright light and loud noises that seem to pain the bungerers subterranean eyes and disrupt their communication.

Fame:
Gold: 600 - 385 (for items)
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