Character Background
R0-K1 was made for
The Last War in one of the creation forges at sharn. However, he was built just before the war ended and never saw battle. He was thrown out to the streets of sharn after
The Treaty of Thronehold, which gave the
Warforged rights, like many of his
Warforged brothers. Eventually, he stumbled upon a monk temple just outside sharn and was fascinated by the martial arts performed there. However, because of his iron-clad body, he was not granted entrance to the temple and instead watched and trained in his lonesome for almost a year even learning how to harness the four elements to an extent.
During the time he trained he found a boy being bullied by a few older thugs. Although he lacked the understanding of emotion, he felt the need to save the boy and become friends with him. He later finds out his name is Eric and is 12 years older than R0-k1. He teaches him the way of the streets. Later he happened to stumble upon a
Human trafficker and smuggler called
Alex Rapide and joins her on her journey as he wanted to learn more about the world. With her, he also meets Kara d’ Cannith as Alex smuggled for her on a regular basis. On his adventures, he also meets another
Warforged whose name is DA-R12 (or Daris) who is 7 years old and has fought in
The Last War and tells tales of his battles and knows a little about smithing and how to help upgrade Rokis hardware. Daris has arms and legs that are made of mix-matched parts and is missing a foot in exchange for a squeaky wheel. Both Eric and Daris have lost many friends from the war which left them poor. R0-k1 wishes to become more socially adept for them to strengthen his friendship with them. R0-k1 is very curious about
The Mourning as Daris tells him about war stories and all the people lost there. Eric also lost his family there. He wishes to one day figure out what happened and what caused it. (R0-k1's identification is on his left arm where his wrist is. It is covered by a sheet of metal that slides up his arm to reveal it: "R0-k1Creation date - 28th Rhaan, 996 YK - creation forge 023")
The first slot of his identification code stands for his model, the second stands for the iteration of the model, the third stands for the generation, and the final slot, which can be up to three numbers, is the unit number.
Motivation
"Rokies main motivations is to find his creator and discover why he feels diffrent from other war forged. He does not completely understand why some of the warforged have this need for war. He wishes to help his kind find meaning in a peaceful life and show the world that they are no different than any other sentient being. In short he wishes to lead his kind to be equal and peaceful to others and discover what happened in his past."
- R: Research
- iteration 0
- Generation k
- Unit 1
"Only one's metal will stand against the other"
Secret character story: R0-k1
The Basics
Contrary to R0-k1's belief, he's in fact not two years old. Instead, he is actually 6 (why his identification says otherwise will be explained later). In fact, much of R0-k1's existence is not as it seems or simply doesn't make sense for a variety of reasons. Firstly, he is not an ordinary
Warforged. With the war continuing to rage,
House Cannith was already beginning another project in case the
Warforged colossi weren't a decisive blow regarding the war. designs were made, schematics tested, and a select few of experimental
Warforged were produced. These
Warforged were meant to be the beginning of the next generation of
Warforged, capable of more power and destruction. Bulwark was considered one of the first of these and some such as him even saw extensive combat testing on the front. Each of these
Warforged had various different alterations to them granting them powers and there were at most 10 of them. An example would be Bulwark's incredible strength, defense, and tactics. R0-k1's (Roki) alteration was elemental harnessing and use as weapons. Hence, his control of the elements now. There was two generations of these
Warforged. The first 5 were the j generation and the last 5 were the k generation.
Roki's elemental harnessing is possible due to a unique system within his body. Inside his person are four magically enhanced and protected khyber crystals. These crystals are within his torso and each contains a separate elemental for each of the elements. This system is linked to Roki's alchemical blood and with magical runes inscribed on the inside of his body, he is able to use them to his will. Doing this requires practice and time, but the more he did it, the more powerful they became. There was also a 5th khyber crystal situated in the center of his torso, however, it is temporarily disabled as it didn't function properly (it was meant to contain a lightning elemental).
The beginning
For the first year of his life, R0-k1 at most engaged in three separate battles: two with the Brelish and one with the Cyre. In these battles, R0-k1 showed great promise with his combat prowess. After his 1-year lease ended he was taken to Cyre for "refitting" just like bulwark would be later, but this was not the reason. He was taken to a secret facility near the Genesis forge for an experiment. As explained in
The Lord of Blades article,
House Cannith carried out many expeditions into Xen'drik. They found two incredibly powerful docents there: Graurdor and
Ekho. With the discovery of the divinity (Another creation channel like the Roskurn) they attempted to insert these docents into Roki and Bulwark. They would attempt this with a fitting station hooked up to the genesis forge which would be drawing power from the divinity. First, would be Roki's which was in fact successful and he was properly bound to
Ekho without too much difficulty.
A friendship forged in magic
For the next year, Roki created a bond with
Ekho as he got to know the other being living within his body. They became best friends and functioned incredibly as a team.
Ekho granted an incredible host of abilities to Roki's toolset (described in
Ekho's article) and they worked in full harmony. At the same time, there Roki made many friends among the experimental
Warforged there and a pretty unique one. Queen Dannel ir'wynarn was the leader of Cyre at the time and had two children:
Oargev ir'Wynarn (elder son) and Ameline ir'Wynarn (younger daughter). It was Ameline who was put inside the secret facility as it was believed to be the safest location within the entirety of the nation even more than the capital. Ameline somewhat became partners in crime with Roki as she convinced him quite often to go sneaking around the facility and mess around like literal children. It also became apparent that Ameline was a sorcerer of a sort as she slowly was developing magical talents as time passed by. This is how Roki learned of Bulwark's arrival. For the 3 months before
The Mourning they became good friends. However, eventually, it was time for Bulwark to receive his own docent: Graurdor.
Evil claws from the mists
As Bulwark was escorted to the fitting station for his Docent. Ameline snuck into R0-k1's room and convinced him to watch the event through the air vents they use to sneak around. As they watch from an air vent from above the command station, something went wrong. According to the artificers below them, they weren't receiving enough power from the forge due to the docent not being as compatible as they thought. As they debated whether or not to turn off the failsafe for the divinity, Ameline started acting strange. Her eyes turned glossy black, her skin paled, and a strange mark on her neck started glowing bright gold. She told R0-k1 that she needed to get him out of the facility immediately saying her only real friend is in danger. She didn't leave time to argue. Quickly, she guided him to the teleportation room with a teleportation circle. There,
Ekho was able to override the security runes on the circle to allow them to teleport them. However, as
Ekho was doing this. Alarms started to blare across the facility as mechanical screams filled the facility. The floor began to shake as Ameline fell to the floor screaming in pain as the mark on her neck started to glow brighter. Through her pain, she is able to tell R0-k1 what was wrong.
Graurdor is not like the others. He's hurting Bulwark. Attacking him. He's nothing like
Ekho, he's evil. The divinity isn't doing what it's supposed to. It's destroying instead of creating. An explosion flings Ameline from the teleportation circle. R0-k1 tries to help her, but
Ekho stops him. If R0-k1 moved he would be destroyed from the teleportation circle because
Ekho was still attached to it and the runes would release their energy on them. The facility started to fall apart around R0-k1 stared in horror, yelling for Ameline to make it back to him. Ameline reaches her hand out to R0-k1 saying: "Bulwark is.... fading. He's still there Roki. He needs his friend. Help him before he hurts people...". A large explosion occurs as gray mists start filling the room around him. Another explosion erupts in the room the likes of which Roki has never seen. As the explosion reaches R0-k1 and Ameline, she tries to say something as R0-k1 reaches for her with his left arm. R0-k1 can't hear her, but he knows what she says: "I'm sorry, goodbye friend."
R0-k1 is teleported to the Sharn creation forges, missing his left arm, and severely damaged, and the magic from the explosion begins to erase his memory.
Ekho is trying to save him using all the strength he can muster. He can do it, but he will have to sleep for a very long time, possibly forever.
Ekho states, "I've repaired you as best I can friend, but... I'm too tired to stay awake....I don't know if I will wake up....I'm scared R0-k1.....Roki....".
Ekho shuts down and for the only time in his existence, R0-k1 fades from consciousness as a startled Merrix d'Cannith stares at the damaged
Warforged on the floor.
The aftermath
Merrix learns of the events of
The Mourning very quickly. He uses the sharn enclave's creation forges to repair R0-k1 over the next two years. He slightly changes his id on his new arm so he wouldn't appear in any logs as he would be considered made after
The Treaty of Thronehold throwing off anyone who might be digging too deep into him. He has ordered much of South
House Cannith's higher leadership to keep an eye on the
Warforged, in particular
Kara d'Cannith
Memories
R0-k1 has many memories that need to be restored. Whenever a trigger is met, R0-k1 must make a DC 2 wisdom saving throw. On a success a memory flashes before his eyes. The listed triggers are merely examples.
"Your eyes flicker as suddenly a pounding pain fills your head. Images flash pass as you feel various emotions from anger and sadness to curiosity and happiness:"
Trigger. Using his ID to open old House Cannith Doors. Memory. "Long metal hallways stretch out before you. The lanterns above flicker with flame. You chase after somebody down the hall. Their silhouette dances ahead of you as you both run towards a door just like the one infront of you. You hear them calling your name. Telling you to catch up. You're running out of time."
Trigger. Walking into an old battlefield Memory. " You are lying against a cold stone wall as you hold your arm. You are trying to keep your blood from spilling out of your arm as you look at the scene before you. There, lying before you, are hundreds of dead; maybe even thousands. Warforged and humanoids alike. The life drained from their eyes. No lights flicker. No eyes blink. Each killed by one another. Why are you here? Why is this happening?
Trigger. Seeing a training grounds. Memory "You stand in a stone room with a practice dummy standing before you. You begin to weave and bend the elements; Drawing on the power inside of you like they taught you to. Suddenly, at staggering speed you propel yourself forward with wind as an inferno erupts from your hands engulfing the dummy. You bend the earth below it to bind the dummy in place as you twirl in the air. In a single motion, you bring a water whip to bear cutting the dummy's head clean off. You feel the presence of the others in the room staring at you, Taking notes."
Trigger.Gettin downed. Memory. "The sounds of combat ring in your ears. An enemy stands before wearing pristine plate armor. This isn't the first one you fought nor your last. You quickly dispatch of the foe using the sheer force of your punches breaking the man that was once inside. You roast the man alive making the plat armor his melted tomb. You suddenly feel a sharp pain as a blade digs through your back into your stomach cavity. You spin around seeing another knight in plate armor. The battle rages long and hard. You are covered in blood. Both your own and those who opposed you. How much more of this will you do?"
Trigger. Drinking potion of regret. Memory. "It wasn't your fault. they were right, you couldn't do anything. If they hadn's stopped you, you would have died with her. However, it doesn't dampen the pain you feel.The guilt still gripped you, even as your vision was going dark for the first time in your life.
Social
Birthplace
Sharn