R34P3R
From Valwiki
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| Player: | Phantos. | |
| Title(s): | Scarecrow. | |
| Age: | 23. Born in 33 PF. | |
| Race: | Forgewrought. | |
| Eye Color: | Yellow. | |
| Hair: | None. | |
| Skin Tone: | Oak. | |
| Height: | 5' exactly. | |
| Weight: | Lighter than other forgewrought, but unspecified lbs. | |
| Alignment: | Neutral. | |
Contents |
Personality
Reaper is a very naive and somewhat intellectually inferior forgewrought. He is good at following basic commands but if an idea doesn't fit his limited scope of thinking, then he tailors it down accordingly. He comes off as very childish and hard to understand, due to his lack of speech capabilities. He originally spoke Octet, and then a hackneyed version of "1337 Speak.", later "progressing" on to a limited speech consisting of "lolcat"s and memes. These days, he is capable of simple conversation without all of the annoying garbage, but he is still a child mentally. His interests are few, but he enjoys everything one could do relating to farms or gardening.
Equipment
Reaper carries little on his person, usually donning a simple robe made of burlap topped with a straw-hat of his own making. Doubling as both a weapon and a tool, Reaper refuses to part with a monk's spade given to him by a traveling merchant. He neither carries nor cares for any material wealth.
Abilities
A forgewrought learns quickly the things it is taught the first year or so of its life. Unfortunately, Reaper was not taught much and has only very basic skills relating to gardening. However, these can be put to good use while planting or harvesting crops. He is also excellent at staying very still and noticing small movements; his reflexes are superb.
He doesn't know it, but Reaper knows all of the skills mostly associated with the Monk class. His reflexes are quick and he is prone to meditating, humming while emulating a sleep status and he is perhaps the only forgewrought that looks forward to "fake sleeping." He is skilled in using a scythe and kama-sickles, for harvesting of course, and even his ghulra represents this fact.
Background
Creation
Reaper's background is largely unknown to anyone, for they find it hard to speak with the wooden forgewrought. However for the sake of the truth, the story will be told.
In the darker regions of Adom's lair, a line of creation forges has been set up to run continuously in an assembly-line fashion. They hummed quietly as they slowly produced construct after construct and Adom simply fueled these forges with the necessary materials they required. This way, he would only have to check up on his freshly created forgewrought every day or so. However, due to a miscalculation, one of the forges ran out of components and produced a forgewrought that was made of mostly wood and not metal. It stood shorter than the other forgewrought and seemed more sluggish as well. Upon discovering this mistake, Adom grew angry that such fine components were wasted on an inferior build of forgewrought and had it discarded down a river barge from his secretive location in the mountains. The forgewrought discarded that day was none other than Reaper.
Flotsam
Reaper's first memory, aside from the dull humming of the creation forges, was a clear view to the blue sky above. He was also interested in the way the wind moved the trees alongside the banks of the river in which the trash barge sailed. Studying this, Reaper first had the thought to move himself. Thus he stood and made his first few steps on the piles of trash and debris that housed him for weeks. Unfortunately, he wasn't a very good walker, and his lack of dexterity caused for a slip and then landed the forgewrought in the water, where he promptly floated away from the trash barge. This made Reaper terribly depressed and if any were around to see it, he'd have a very distraught appearance as he floated down a different fork in the river from the trash barge. Eventually coming to a snag in the water where some large rocks protruded, Reaper sat there stuck in the stones for many days. Autumn was waning and Reaper sat contently stuck in the river, watching the many colors of the falling leaves, and the swimming fish, which he seemed to appreciate. When the first snow fall of winter came, Reaper was able to move freely in the now shallow river, and he stumbled back and forth in the river, falling many times before reaching the banks. Roaming with no particular destination or desire, Reaper eventually collapsed near a farm in the Staghorn Weald and the snow of winter rolled over him. (late 30 PF)
Jetsam
When spring came and the snow melted, a local farmer found Reaper sticking out of the snow and hauled him back to his land where he awoke Reaper and was startled by the creature. Reaper, having no thought to communicate, only watched the man as he slowly got used to the construct. Unfortunately for Reaper, the farmer was a greedy bigot and a fiendish man with few morals. As soon as it became clear that the forgewrought was not going to hurt him, the farmer began putting Reaper to work on the farm. He had a very short fuse and grew angry whenever Reaper failed to plow or plan seeds correctly. Reaper was kept outside in the fields every night and found friends with the budding green of the things he had planted. His first words, a mockery of the common language, were low pitched murmurs that Reaper hoped to emulate from the creation forges in an attempt to sooth the plants.
Fears
Satisfied that his field was well planted, the farmer then moved on to the other concerns of a field: crows and fire. Crows were easy enough to explain to the forgewrought, "If you see a crow, scare it away." and so Reaper learned to stay very still and move his arms very fast when he saw something move, if he was told to look for crows that is. Reaper had a much harder time understanding the idea behind fire, so the farmer meanly set ablaze some of the crops as a demonstration and Reaper watched in silent horror as the things he helped grow were suddenly turned to ash. The farmer made his point, and Reaper kept a close eye out for anything that even resembled fire. One day he turned his eyes to the sun and thought it to be a terribly large source of fire, so he shook madly and wailed at the sky, but he soon grew tired and afraid of it. When the sun set that day, Reaper had retired to the fields and began humming again, scared and confused of the world.
Inertion
With all matters of sowing in order, the farmer resigned himself to his homestead and placed Reaper in a far off lot they had planted, separate from his main fields. Before leaving, the farmer thought it humorous to stuff Reaper's joints and mouth with straw and dress him up as a scarecrow, then he tied the subservient forgewrought to a stake that was planted firmly in the ground. He told Reaper to watch for crows, and then departed. The winter came again and Reaper's lifelong damages finally caught up to him in the bitter cold. Spring came and the forgewrought was inert, the farmer having no means or theories on repairing the construct, so he left it there and moved his farm somewhere else in hopes of finding the cheap labor he had come to rely upon. (31 PF)
Along Came Another
One day while strolling through the farms near Greendale, the forgewrought Bromium came upon Reaper and helped him down from his spot where he had been for quite some time. Confused and angered by the lack of crops in the fields, Reaper shook himself wildly in an attempt to frighten Bromium away, his left arm falling off shortly after that. Reaper silenced himself and Bromium thought it only right to take the poor creature into town for repairs. Scooping him up and grabbing his unattached arm, Bromium took Reaper to Greendale city where he was repaired. After removing the straw from his body, Bromium spoke with Reaper and learned a little of the mysterious wooden construct, though it was very difficult to understand Reaper with his speech impediment. Bromium was dubbed a vegetable, which is something Reaper considers a good thing, and Reaper was allowed to stay in the city to protect their small vegetable gardens from crows. (late 32 PF).
The Mother of Invention
One day, Reaper was contently watching the crops when he noticed Bromium and a band of others leaving town. Curious, he followed them to the Laboo where they had business with the great lich Cahfei. Reaper was close behind them when his straw hat, a most prized possession, fell off of his head and floated downstream. Not wanting to lose this memento, Reaper climbed back down the path and looked for his hat. Unfortunately, it was trapped in some rocks in the middle of the river and the wooden forgewrought would have nothing of it; so he waited. When the others came racing down the path on a quest to find Cahfei's grave, they all ran past Reaper and he was left there for quite some days, meditating with the trees, before anyone noticed. When he came to, his hat had floated further downstream and was quite anguished. Luckily, some kindly adventurers fished it out for him and he decided to take up the hobby of straw-hat making. It was during this time that Reaper gave one of his straw hats to a most unusual spectral merchant, who in turn gave the forgewrought a Monk's Spade which he instructed Reaper on how to use both for fighting and for harvest. Reaper cherished the gift and kept it at his side at all times. (32 PF)
The Father of Accounting
The city of Greendale, and its parent nation Celdin, experienced massive changes in the years following Reaper's arrival. When Eian Smarth seized power, he made sure to deal with the homeless and the vagabond of the city (33 PF) by having his men sweep through the streets. Reaper was happened upon by one of Smarth's men and he was brought before the newly-appointed leader. Recognizing a good opportunity when he saw one, Eian bestowed Reaper to his brother, Jarden Smarth. The wealthy politician owned much land a small ways from the city limits in Kanoshire, had an expansive garden that needed constant upkeep. Reaper was very pleased with this opportunity, and spent years tending to the garden and nearby croplands. During this time, he had little contact with the outside world, gaining an even deeper connection with nature even while the world around him fell into revolt, chaos, civil war, and more. He would occasionally see Jarden, but the ever-busy politician was nearly always away from the homestead and was content to let the forgewrought do his job. (36 PF).
War
Even during the Imperial War, Reaper remained blissfully ignorant of the goings-on around him. While the forests of the Seanchanni burned to the south and Greendale erupted in a huge firestorm following a climactic battle, Reaper sat happily in Kanoshire working away on his plot of land. It was not until the events of the Divide that Reaper would begin to take notice of the world beyond that which he could immediately see and tend to. After spending such a long period of time of and with the earth, he began to develop a sense of empathy for the things he watched over, more than just as a guardian but as a friend. When the continents shifted apart, he felt a great sense of dread, just as when his original owner had set aflame the crops so preciously cared for all those years ago. He waited for dawn to come so that he might say goodbye to the moons and the stars above, but soon after Reaper left the extravagantly well-kept gardens of Jarden in search of greater purpose (40 PF).
Peace
Traveling south, Reaper happened upon the many bustling supply wagons dotting the recovering Empire's highways. Following them, he made his way eventually to Ganelon, where efforts were underway to repair and expand the city into a powerful port hub. With the effects of the Imperial War taking its toll on the populace, the call for manual laborers was louder than ever, and Reaper heeded that by volunteering to help with the construction of houses. By the time the city had finished construction, Reaper had made a few friends in the construction business and was awarded with the privilege (in his mind) of working on the city's public parks. (42 PF) During this period, he spent a great deal of time socializing with humans and honing his conversational skills, though he was still unable to hold a steady conversation without confusing or tiring someone.
Familiar Faces
Some time after this, Reaper felt another disturbance in the force of things, once more to the south; the tower of the Ignis Fatus had been destroyed, its energies ravaged the nearby countryside and displacing hundreds of mages, among other things. Recognizing this as an opportunity to help tend to the wounded earth, Reaper set off once more. By the time he arrived in the Laboo, Forgelord Vergoth had made a pact with the magicians to offer them a new home, and efforts were underway to transport the mages from their makeshift camps in the forest to their new home, a floating island crafted from the great city of Durandal. Approaching the camp, Reaper made his intent to "help with the gardening" known, though this served only to confound those involved. A grand airship had been sent to escort the mages, and aboard this ship was none other than Bromium, one of Reaper's favorite "vegetables." Recognizing the simpleton, Bromium allowed his old acquaintance travel to Durandal if he so wished to help and be a part of the so-called promised land for all forgewrought. Reaper didn't think much of it, but it seemed like the right thing to do. Climbing on, Reaper was whisked away to the smoggy metropolis in the sky (45 PF).
A Bad Fit
It didn't take long for Reaper to grow tired of Durandal, with its gloomy landscape and lack of greenery. Deemed frivolous by many in possession of real estate, parks and gardens were almost exclusively kept as experiments or for the production of alchemy. What farmland did exist was used for the mass production of food materials, tended to by mechanical processes that made Reaper's methods look laughable whenever he offered his services. Still, it was not an entire waste of time, as Reaper was able to spend more time socializing with those of his kind. Furthermore, he gained a respect for the world beyond simply green; even here, the sun shone and the moons rose each night, and the smokestacks and machinery made captivating sights and sounds for the forgewrought. For Reaper, it was in many ways a strange call-back to his birth-home in the creation forges of Adom's clockwork castle (46 PF).
To Infinity
In an annual review of Reaper's deeds, a city official noted how little merit the forgewrought had made for himself in his time amongst the clouds. With little contacts to vouch for him, Reaper was brought before the Forgelord and given the opportunity to be attached to the airships for diplomatic missions, where he was most likely to be pawned off as an indentured servant. When the Inspired flew to Lerhyn to seek their aid in the Infinitum Event, Reaper hoped to help negotiate by approaching the desert dwelling officials. Unfortunately, his lack of diplomacy did nothing to help the situation, and he was brought back on board the airship just as an unfortunate accident occurred with a propeller blade. Retreating to Durandal, the Forgelord moved on to more pressing matters, leaving Reaper a part of the ship's crew until a time presented itself for him to be of use (47 PF).
And Beyond
Reaper accompanied the various airships of Durandal on several "missions", though very few were actually diplomatic or anything beyond the simple shipping of exports. It was not until many years that Reaper would leave the airship docking bays of Durandal, in that time coming to know of the many types of metals and materials that the city created in its industrial endeavors. Through this, he gained a further appreciation for non-living things; the wood and refined metals were merely reshaped earthstuff, no different than the forgewrought or anyone he had met. This epiphany kept Reaper happy, as it also gave him an entirely new world to commune with. Many thought him crazy, softly speaking with cast-off bits of metal or piles of sawdust, but Reaper did not mind. One day, however, he attended a flight set for the island of Eisenfort, where representatives from many factions were meeting to discuss the formation of K.E.E.P. (51 PF) Curious of the place, Reaper left the airship to explore and was promptly left there when the Forgelord had finished his negotiations. Allowed to stay by the few people living and working on the island, Reaper thought nothing of how little his previous employers cared at his absence. In time, he would work to planting a small farm to help provide food for the skeleton crew living on Eisenfort, spending much time on the coast learning what he could from the slow ebb and and tide of the sea. (to current day, 56 PF).
