Caust

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Horde Causticity “Caust” Blackbreath
Caust elegant portrait.png
Player Bovel
Title <Alchemist>
Gender Male
Race Goblin
Class Warlock
Age 38
Height 0,91 m / 3’ (1.0)
Weight 17,7 kg / 39 lbs
Eyes Violet
Hair Bright burgundy
Affilliation(s) Alchemists’ Union, Three Oars Cartel, Bilgewater Cartel, Horde, Steamwheedle Cartel
Occupation Transmuter, scientist, demonologist
Relative(s) Aspix Serfchains (father), (siblings), (children)
Mentor(s) Professor Ficklespitz
Companion(s) Narl (formerly)
Status Alive
Caust on narl banner.png
Appearance | Personality | History | Skills and Abilities | Other

Appearance

Causticity’s head is topped by a wild bundle of burgundy hair wrestled into a topknot and bushy muttonchops framing his face, both held down by screw-nuts. His violet eyes fades in comparison to his garish hair yet retains a level of inviting depth. Acid-burns tarnish Caust’s pale emerald skin and makes it hard to estimate his true age, although the fine furrows on his face suggests he is not a young goblin anymore. The big ears amplifies his mood and can often be used to determine what mood he is in. His body is lean and wiry from not having suffered much heavy manual labour in his entire life.

A seamless ring of truesilver hangs through his septum, it’s enchanted to stabilize the arcane energies Causticity channels. His earlobes are adorned with similar silvery jewelery fashioned from other metals such as iron, silver and solid mercury. Long gloves fashioned from hardened and reinforced leather covers his arms up to the elbows, and he often wears goggles or spectacles to protect his sensitive eyes from direct sunlight. Around his waist Caust wears a utility belt that can carry a surprising amount of vials and flasks.

One of Causticity’s most prized possessions is a tiny snuff box carved from ironwood. It resembles the clasped hand of a satyr and lifting the fingers uncovers the contents within.


Personality

Goblins are notoriously greedy and so is Causticity, but gold isn’t the most prized goal to him. He values knowledge above monetary wealth, especially if one holds monopoly on the discovery. But even if he was the sole being to understand a secret of the universe, he might not strive to make profit on it. Caust is content treasuring the knowledge and dislikes the notion of rivals or simpletons abusing it out of his control.

Caust periodically suffers from episodes of megalomania when he most notably inflates the importance of his work to the entire world. These delusions of grandeur are fueled by his abuse of fel and sometimes also triggered by it. This also happens to strengthen his already great sense of ambition.

In Caust’s mind there’s only two kinds of beings in the world: those who are gifted with intellect and the unfortunate who are not. He treats the ones he considers intelligent with respect and mutual courtesy while the stupid are met with arrogance. But they are also a resource as expendable tools. This creates a paradox to Causticity when individuals he is fond of turns out to be dumb.

He has a softer side that is more patient with ignorance and finds pause in his work for indulgences, but it is rarely seen outside of private gathering with his family and high ranking members of the Three Oars Cartel.


History

Causticity is the product of Aspix Serfchains’ second marriage to a woman that supposedly was his most favoured concubine, and this due to her primal ways and unkempt looks. Most of his youth was spent in the Undermine around his siblings from various mothers and even some of their young. It was a childhood of mild luxury and relative safety apart from the lack of blast protection on cartel grounds. Caust was a creative and clever child but in his adolescence proved he was less able to apply this in practice.

The initial motivation for his alchemical studies was pure greed, a gold-fever that had set in after he witnessed a goblin alchemist create liquid gold out of thin air. He became one of several apprentices to an alchemist associated with the Three Oars Cartel. Causticity quickly grasped the basic principles behind alchemy and remained headstrong in his pursuit of the secrets of making gold. Transmutation proved to be his forté.

Caust wrecked.png

Turning junk and shrapnel into precious metals quickly lost its charm and Caust realized that the pursuit of alchemical knowledge was his true passion. His first teacher couldn’t sate the hunger for knowledge and wisdom that the young goblin harboured within and he joined the Alchemists’ Union at the cusp of adulthood. For years he immersed himself in alchemy and became intrigued by alchemical legends such as the “Philosopher’s Stone” and “Waters of the Well of Eternity”. He earned the name “Blackbreath” after he developed a technique to create a rapid, high-energy release of dark, arcane fire into an aimed and potent blast, and the fire also empowers entropic effects on its victims. Caust dubbed it the “Breath of Neltharion”. During this time of his life he got a wife and started a family.

With the aid of mercs from the cartel, Causticity was able to capture a one-headed ogre as a test subject for his research. Over the course of a year the ogre Narl was treated with a plethora of alchemical concoctions and was even subject to one or two implants. The ogre became extremely compliant and naturally protective of his masters but also suffered a loss of intelligence and memory loss. Years later this flaw had a grave consequence when the ogre-slave wandered off alone into the deserts of Tanaris when chasing a mirage, and has not since been seen by his masters. Though rumors have been circulating the inn of Gadgetzan that tells of an especially dim-witted ogre that befriended a seat turtle that took him across the ocean where he now aspires to become a famous and rich gladiator.

Caust’s reason for delving into demonology was two-fold. With the ogre gone he was without a reliable bodyguard and became an easy target to the rivaling cartels. But the loss of Narl was a blow harder than he had anticipated and he tried to lessen his grief with various alchemical stimulants. He came across the blood of demons which had the desired effect and offered so much more. As a demonologist he found it easier to acquire fel to feed his budding addiction. An orc became his warlock mentor.

More than once has Causticity gotten his hands upon parts of the radical research of jack-of-all-sciences, gnomish professor Ficklespitz. The gnomes work has taught the goblin a great deal, who despite the unorthodox apprenticeship considers the gnome an unintentional mentor. A chronicle about unusual applications of magic has inspired Caust to expand his transmutation further.

Like many other considerably wealthy goblins at Bilgewater Port, Causticity was tricked into slavery under Trade Prince Gallywix. He survived the many ordeals of the Lost Isles and witnessed the death of Volcanoth. By the mercy of the orcs he disembarks a free goblin on Kalimdor, but only with the rags on his body and demons in the Twisting Nether eager to abuse the Caust in this precarious situation.


Skills and Abilities

Causticity relies on his cunning rather than sheer power and often aims to horribly maim and disable his foes than outright killing them, because living specimen make for better experiment results. He is adaptive and utilizes both dark magic and various branches of alchemy to pursue his goals.

  • Goblin Alchemist - Countless of hours spent in a laboratory has given Causticity the knowledge to adapt his alchemical goods to empower himself or his allies or harm those that stand in his way. Most notably weaponizing his destructive concoctions.
    • Breath of Neltharion - An explosive gout of shadowflame that bypasses armour and lingers upon its victims. The magical flames empower entropic effects and consumes flesh and metal alike. (Shadowflame)
    • Liquid Fire Cocktail - Fire that is alchemically created to burn upon that which fire does not normally burn and be resistant against being extinguished. (Immolate, Incinerate)
    • Potion of Gills & Fins - Allows the imbiber to breathe when submerged and increased speed and agility when swimming. (Unending Breath + Glyph)
    • The Hungering Acid - An alchemically altered acid that becomes more corrosive the more it consumes. One variety grows unstable at a certain point and explodes in a shower of acid. (Corruption, Curse of Agony, Seed of Corruption)
    • Oil of Silence - Crude oil or tar that has been given a life-like quality. It strangles and constricts its victim and instinctively reaches for the airways. (Curse of Tongues)
  • Transmuter - The art of transmutation is Causticity’s forté and his expansive knowledge and keen instincts allows him to perform swift and precise transmutations. Be it to empower the skin of an ally temporarily or turn a foe’s armour into mercury.
    • Instantaneous Essence Relocation - By creating a complex circle of transmutation that is imbued with his own essence he is able to instantly dissolve himself and reassemble at the circle. Drawing a circle is a time-consuming and is preferably done in a place where it won’t be disturbed. (Demonic Circle)
  • Occult Employer - He conducts business with demons regularly, employing them as guardians, servants, informants, teachers and have even bought one or two as subjects in his experimentation.
    • Friends on the Other Side - A deal struck with a demonic entity that empowers the goblin with arcane energies but comes at a cost of his lifeblood or more. (Life Tap, Soulburn)
  • Fel Fueled - The demonic blood that Caust at times indulge in allows him to greatly empower his entropic spells and makes them fel-tinged.


Other

Caust is inspired by the skaven Grey Seer Thanquol - http://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Thanquol

Caust is a varied form of the name Faust whose legend has inspired the character as well. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust

Causticity is the chemical term describing a substance's corrosive quality. It was inspired by names such as Serenity and Serendipity.

Narl the Ogre is a collab between Madmek and me based on his WH40K ogryn. He has a Custom-Model-Character profile. - http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ogryn


As Seen by Others