Brenika

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Information

Player: flammos200

Character Full Name: Brenika Halfmetal

Character In-Game Name: Brenika

Nickname(s): Bren, Freak, Tin-can.

Association(s): The Gnomeregan Exiles, The Alliance, The House of The Arcane Contraption, The Mithril Order(By trade, rather than actual membership)

Race: Gnome

Class: Techno-mage. (Mage)

Age: 132

Sex: Female

Hair: Fairly puffy light red, kept either in a pair of pig-tails or left loose. She sometimes hides her replacement eye and ear with the bangs.

Eyes: Green. Admittedly, one’s a mockery, surrounded by metallic plating and burn scars, with a green shutter-and-lens iris. Essentially a replacement eye cleverly suffused with a scrying-type of spell to provide the Gnome with much-needed depth perception.

Weight: 19 Kg.

Height: 88 cm.

Appearance

Usual Garments/Armor: Overalls, a shirt and pants or shorts, or whatever clothes her size manage to fit over the more cumbersome bits of her. She also seems partial to warm, furred cloaks and coats when in cold environments.

Other: As a result of having a leg and a half, an arm, an eye and an ear damaged far beyond repair - In the cases of the first three literally blasted off her body, the missing and broken bits have been replaced with techno-magical parts, that are constantly being tinkered with and optimized. Sadly, they are still clunky, though functional.

The eye and ear are interconnected, to better simulate the interactions in a nervous system, but this brings an unexpected drawback: Damaging one means the loss of both. Additionally, there’s no tactile sense to any of her prosthetics. They’re cold, dead, enchanted Mithril. Additionally, the right side of her body has burn scars. In general, it looks like this one Gnome should really have been dead.

Personality

Rational, reasonable and prone to debates on a very large variety of subjects, Brenika thoroughly enjoys learning as much as she can about the world around her, the Arcane arts and Engineering alike. There is great admiration in her for the workings of a physical body – she sees it as a system of organs not unlike the parts of a machine, and she doesn’t hesitate to pose questions on the appearance of others, should she feel comfortable with doing so.

By contrast, she shows a bit of nervousness and anxiety in relation to her own body, and it has colored her view of herself to the point at which she’s likely to try hiding her prosthetics in the presence of races like Kaldorei, Draenei and Humans, not particularly enjoying the silent judgment she sometimes feels she receives from the members of said races. She thoroughly enjoys the company of other Gnomes and Dwarves alike, at times displaying great reverence for the Exiles’ more thoroughly bearded allies.

Of the Horde, Brenika doesn’t show nor feel much. Orcs are a source of dislike for her, though Trolls are viewed ever so slightly better – unless they’re of the Frost variety. It’s likely due to how in recent times some Trolls have actually taken up engineering. Tauren are a source of quiet fascination for the Gnome, alongside Forsaken, on completely opposite sides of the spectrum – the former for their natural inclination, and the latter for their sheer unnaturalness. Blood Elves are given an air of friendly rivalry, as Brenika is well aware of both their Arcane inclination and of the Silvermoon Engineers’ Union’s existence. Needless to say that the Gnome greatly despises Goblins, mainly for their lack of planning and their love for coin, in detriment to scientific advancement and careful approach to science – both of the latter being traits that Brenika displays and admires.

History

Born in Gnomeregan, the thriving techno-city of the Gnomes, to a pair of like-minded Techno-magi, Brenika’s childhood was extremely happy. Not only were the marvels of the subterranean city a delight for the young Gnome, but she had parents willing to take time off tinkering and patiently spend time with their child, carefully guiding her on her steps towards adulthood.

Growing up meant constant study and practice, in both the fields of the Arcane and Engineering, and Brenika took on a competitive streak early in her life, constantly trying to out-plan her peers and improve upon her contraptions, and the joy of discovery and innovation fueled each and every breath she took. Predictably, as far as the Arcane was concerned Brenika had an inclination towards Enchanting and Transmutation, and as far as Engineering was concerned, she developed an affinity towards Robotics.

Decades went by in what felt like heartbeats and soon came the discovery of Chaos Energy. In short order, Brenika proceeded to obtain Chaos Generators and experiment with them in secret, regardless of the murmurs of concern coming from her peers as far as this new type of technology was concerned. Deep underground, Brenika had her hidden little laboratory where she planned and attempted to meld the efficiency of Chaos Generators with the stability of Arcane flows, in an attempt to create a revolutionary new power source that could resolve both the issues of space as far as generators were concerned, and those of stability – which were a commonly-encountered aspect of Chaos Generators.

As voices around her grew more and more intense in their opposition of Chaos Energy, Brenika became frustrated. She feared the technology would be taken away from her before she could achieve something with it. She rushed headlong into experiments with little planning, and within the blink of an eye, a Chaos Generator, suffused with far too much Arcane, detonated right in front of her. Trying to shield one side of her body from the blast of eldritch energies, Brenika remembered little before blacking out save the taste of blood.

The Gnome woke to agony. Pain beyond pain coursed through her, and a couple of Gnomes and a Dwarf towered over her in a surgeon’s operating room. The Dwarf, clad in humble gunmetal-gray robes told her that due to the eldritch nature of the energies involved, there was little he could do. Something about her sight and hearing felt very, very wrong, and between gasping breaths Brenika realized the horror of her situation. She’d lost her entire right arm and leg, the sight of her right eye, the hearing of her right ear, and half her left leg to boot. Not to mention the burn marks covering the right side of her body.

The event drove Brenika into weeks of silence. Last she knew, her parents were working on the Deeprun Tram’s construction, but the Dwarf kept staying at her bedside. It was strange – she didn’t even ask his name, nor tell him to stay, but he held a silent vigil, deep blue eyes downcast. Silence didn’t mean that her mind wasn’t working, however. In her head, Brenika was trying to find a solution, an exit to her situation. “Necessity is the first cousin of invention.”, after all, and this Gnome was in dire need.

Eventually, she nodded to herself, ever so faintly and her companion looked up. She asked his name, and gave her own, and slowly they started talking until an entire night was spent. Eventually came the Gnome’s question: Did he have a sizable quantity of mithril available? It turned out that he did – he was in fact a part of the Mithril Order, though the Dwarf in question was also a Priest.

Within a week’s time, Brenika had accrued the necessary materials to enact her plan. Slowly – as was the case when working with only your left arm and the Arcane, she created a functional right arm for herself, and continued improving on it until it was capable of the fine, careful gestures that delicate engineering required. Then came her legs, eye and ear. The legs were the easiest part – all they had to do was keep her stable and take her from place to place, and the Techno-magic involved was fairly basic. She considered adding little rockets in on the mix to produce the same effect that rocket boots do, but eventually she decided other things were more worth her effort. The ear and eye were both the subject of clairvoyance and clairaudience spells, becoming arcane sensors, capable of zooming in on the little objects that the Gnome tinkered with as far as the eye was concerned, and listening to the minute mechanical clicks and whirrs of gizmos for the ear.

The prosthetics were all capable of conducting the Arcane, which worked essentially as the impulse that drove their ‘muscles’ – which were a simple rigging of hydraulics at first. Mithril was a very good choice of metal, due to its light weight and strength, and the availability of the metal with the Dwarves. Soon came minor wards and inscriptions on the arm to allow it to perform the magical somatic gestures inherent in Arcane spellcasting.

It would take well over a year to complete, but eventually Brenika was returned to function, as far as her missing limbs and damaged sensory organs were concerned. She presented herself before the tinkers of Gnomeregan as her greatest invention, gaining the surname of ‘Halfmetal’. Another problem soon cropped up, however: Developing her prosthetics sapped most of the funds that Brenika had managed to accrue. As she discussed this with her Dwarven friend – who still stuck with her, even after all this time, she found out that he was going to join the War, as the Second War was dawning. Brenika hadn’t had much combat experience, even against the Troggs, but she agreed still. She needed the money, and even though it could end in injury or death, it couldn’t have been worse than what she’d already been through... could it? Besides, there was a sense of adventure in it all that tugged at Brenika somewhat.

The Second War proved to be a trial by fire for Brenika, and she had to adapt rapidly to battlefield conditions, eventually armoring up her prosthetics and diverting her techno-magical pursuits towards the craft of war, mainly hinging on firearms to hold her own. Admittedly, she was never fond of black powder-based weaponry, instead propelling the same bullets via electro-magnetic coils or rails, or shooting fireballs out of her guns, or the like.

Thankfully, both Brenika and her Dwarven ally survived the Second War relatively unscathed and returned to Dun Morogh, where for a time, Brenika lived quite happily. Then the Troggs came en masse from beneath the ground, and besieged Gnomeregan, and the Gnome was once more pressed into combat. Though she fought with all her might and did all she could, she still had to flee before the city was irradiated on the suggestion of Sicco Thermaplugg. With it came the loss of what was left of Brenika’s family, and the Gnome felt her world slowly crumble around herself. The entire Third War had passed over the course of the struggle in Gnomeregan, and she felt somehow left behind. Desperate for anything familiar to cling to, Brenika made a beeline for Ironforge and sought out her Dwarven friend, managing to attain some solace in the process – Priests were always the most soothing types of people you’d want to see after a heavy loss.

Brenika was later torn between a desire to travel, and to stay in Ironforge and tinker, eventually choosing the latter, and not involving herself in any of the major events of the world until the first Icebreakers headed to Northrend. Curious by nature, and eager for more discovery and innovation, Brenika set off with Brann Bronzebeard’s expedition to the frozen continent, eventually reaching even into the heart of Ulduar, staying with the daring Dwarven incursion all throughout, even if it meant the jaws of the God of Death, or preventing the transmission of the Re-Origination signal by Algalon The Observer. The discoveries made on the trip – mainly those relating to Mechagnomes meant very, very much to the Technomage, and she mused at times if she wasn’t somehow destined to eventually become one.

Northrend did bring with it a series of further challenges however, the biting cold requiring thermal shielding to be applied to Brenika’s prosthetics, which brought up yet another problem: Due to the shielding, the limbs no longer dispersed Arcane energy as well as they used to after casting was finished, and vents had to be installed for this purpose. After the Expedition, Brenika stayed in Dalaran for a while, enamored with the city’s Arcane literature, before the lust for further exploration and adventure took over her once more...

Skills and Abilities

Aside from the usual drive and ability to create devices that result from the fusion of technology and the Arcane arts, and control over her own magi-tech prosthetics, Brenika is also able to channel Arcane through existing techno-magical contraptions, for instance in pistols that shoot frostbolts.

Netherwind Vents: Due to their permanent nature, and the often large amounts of Arcane energy conducted through them, Brenika’s prosthetics accrue residue arcane energy overtime, which can prove extremely dangerous to the Gnome if not vented, either by being channeled into a spell or as a superheated, purple mana-residue gas – quite similar in composition to the Mana Gems that Magi employ as ‘batteries’ - being jettisoned out of vents present on the devices.

Mind Over Machine: As a Technomage, Brenika is able to exert her influence over existing machinery, in order to get one last use out of it, or command it to move as though she were moving her own body.