RATCHET OLDSTONE
GnomesRetired Master Engineer & Teacher
"Flesh fails. Metal endures. But it's the mind that matters—whether it's housed in bone or brass, it's the ideas that change the world.""
Identity
- Residence
- The Elder Spire, Gearhaven
- Civilization
- Gnomes
Appearance
• Physical: Ratchet is ancient beyond most gnomes' lifespans, kept alive by a combination of mechanical augmentations and pure stubbornness. His body is more machine than flesh—clockwork heart, pneumatic lungs, brass fingers, and one entirely mechanical eye that whirs softly when focusing. He moves slowly but with deliberate precision. • Clothing: He wears traditional robes of a Master Engineer, modified with access panels for his various mechanical systems. His walking stick conceals a multi-tool that would make most inventors weep with envy. • Distinguishing Marks: Visible seams where flesh meets metal, a serial number tattooed on his neck (from his first major augmentation), and the Master Engineer's seal branded on his forehead.
Relationships
- Family - Outlived all natural relatives but considers his students his descendants; particularly close to his youngest great-great-grandniece
- Allies - The Engineering Council, former students now in positions of power, the Mechanist Priesthood who maintain his augmentations
- Rivals - Young engineers who dismiss his "outdated" methods, purists who believe mechanical augmentation is unnatural
Personality
- Traits: Crotchety but kind beneath the surface, frustrated by his physical limitations, fiercely protective of engineering traditions, unexpectedly sentimental
- Mannerisms: Taps his mechanical fingers against surfaces to "feel" their composition, occasionally speaks in binary when tired, keeps a journal written in machine oil on metal plates
- Voice: Raspy and mechanical, with occasional clicks and whirs that have become part of his speech pattern
Backstory
Ratchet designed half the infrastructure of modern Gearhaven and personally trained three generations of engineers. He's survived three "fatal" accidents through increasingly extensive mechanical augmentation. Now retired from active engineering, he teaches advanced theory and serves as the city's living memory of engineering history.
Daily Life
Mornings are dedicated to teaching his select group of advanced students, afternoons to reviewing current engineering projects and offering advice, and evenings to maintenance of his mechanical systems and writing his memoirs on metal plates.
Secret
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Story Hooks
- 1 Ratchet needs adventurers to investigate the source of his augmentation technology, fearing he's unknowingly participating in something dangerous.