Onyx Crux

This document has been contributed by Onyx Crux

Onyx Crux

Onyx Crux is an Automaton originally from the nation of Relana, on the continent Ansara. He was created by Asher and Evelyn Crux, first as an assistant before being upgraded and gaining sentience after Evelyn's death.
He has since found his way to Vehasi, across the ocean from his home continent and an area that was completely unfamiliar to him. This new continent had no communication with his home, and so Onyx was forced to pave a new way for his life. He stayed with a few communities, joined an adventuring party for a short while, and eventually settled down in Mestrania.
While in Mestrania, Onyx created a mountain range now known as the Onyx Mountains. Having started the project in 1985, the mountain range has become substantial in size, continuing to baffle scientiest and mages across the continent. There are very few people who know of Onyx's involvement in the creation of these mountains.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Onyx's body is made from black metal, which was once finished with a shine. This is how he got his name of Onyx. However, the metal has since gotten somewhat rusty and begun to deteriorate. This has caused his strength to diminish greatly - to the point that he currently relies on a cane to support his walking. He has aged to be much older than most automatons in his home nation and continent would typically run for; the lifespan of an automaton was generally just short of a decade, at the time he departed from his homeland.

Body Features

Vines and plants grow from between the plates and machinery of Onyx's body. How they sustain themselves is somewhat unclear, though is most likely due to the magic that keeps him running. These plants were not present at the time when he lived in Ansara.

Specialized Equipment

Onyx carries a ring with him everywhere he goes, generally on a necklace as it is too large for his fingers. This necklace generally remains tucked behind the plate covering the machinery in his chest. The ring contains the soul of his creator, Asher, who became trapped within it when his investigation went awry.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Creation in Relana

Onyx Crux was created in Relana, a nation in Ansara, by Evelyn and Asher Crux - two humans living in an elven land. Both Evelyn and Asher were on the forefront of technological discoveries in their nation, and this automaton was the first project the two had worked on together. Onyx was not originally created to be sentient, instead acting as a research assistant to the pair.
However, shortly into their project, Evelyn perished - and Asher suspected foul play. He continued to work on Onyx, as he believed that to be what Evelyn would have wanted. However, he began to take a different direction with the automaton - programming it to be able to aid in his investigations. However, in this process, Asher accidentally gave the automaton sentience - something incredibly rare for contructs, even in Ansara.

Lab Assistant

With his newlyfound sentience, Onyx only had a further drive to help solve Evelyn's murder. He worked with Asher for nearly two years before they made any breakthroughs - but when they did, it was a big one. The pair found a possible murder weapon, a magically-charged firearm that Onyx wanted to dismantle and take a look at the inner workings of. Asher allowed him to, with supervision. However, the next day, when Onyx began to do so, they quickly discovered that the weapon had been rigged to explode. A large magical detonation rocked the Crux's shop, causing a chain of magical effects to go off as well. The result was disastrous.
When Onyx came to, he found his creator's body a mere pile of ashes, the only thing remaining a small ring that Asher used to wear - his wedding ring from Evelyn. Unaware of the ring's meaning or significance, only knowing he wanted to keep the memory of his creator with him, he took the ring and began to wear it.

Lost in Ansara

Directionless, with a ruined workshop and a dead creator, Onyx began to wander through Ansara. He made his way into the dwarven-ruled lands of Zarindra, leaving as quickly as he came before the dwarves started examining him because of his sentience.
He then found his way to Oscain, where he was able to blend in a bit better. The human-predominent nation was the only one on the continent that had begun to mass-produce automatons (granted, most weren't sentient), and so Onyx drew significantly fewer eyes as he tried to mind his own business. Still, he was not quite sure with what to so with himself, and eventually found himself boarding an airship headed to Prospera, only two years after his creator had died.

Washed Ashore

While on the airship, disaster soon struck as a bolt of lightning did. The airship had headed directly into an oncoming storm, and even the mages warding the ship had not been strong enough to shield from a direct lightning strike to the engines. The airship began to spiral out of control, spinning out into the relentless waves of the Auren Ocean. The passengers and crew all drowned, but Onyx simply shut down. His body entangled in the ropes boards of the ship, he drifted for almost a full year before making landfall, drifting into the mouth of the River of Verun. It was there that he was fished out by some very confused fishermen.

Druidic Refuge

After Onyx was on dry land, it only took a short while for his system to dispel the water that had found its way into his body. He was then able to wake up, with minimal damage and only a few issues with memory storage. He made his way inland, determined to discover what the strange place where he had landed was.
He could not understand the language of the people around him, and was able to determine that his language core was not damaged - they were simply speaking a language unknown to him. He was soon able to reverse-engineer the language, teaching himself how to speak it as he made his way to the eastern shore of the continent.
On his way there, he found a village willing to take him in, the druidic settlement of Woodpine. There, he was able to fix the majority of his system as he was provided shelter. However, after a few days of him staying there, the village was visited by a group of elves native to the Underdark - followers of Wrinyth, specifically. They spoke to some of the druids in hushed tones, and the following day, Onyx and all other non-druids residing in the village were cast out. Any druids taking issue with this had also been cast out. Onyx thought this strange, but did not spend too much time questioning it, for he needed to find a new shelter.

Adventuring Days

Onyx then made his way north into Astrakkhan, the largest city in the nation that he had found himself in, Vechia. It was there that he met an adventuring party, a strange group of four composed at the time of Mimi Flowerpicker, Faebellis, Yinzumin, and Kit Seaglade. The group welcomed him in, and he joined their group for a while. However, upon the party finding themselves at a shrine to a Devil and insisting on drinking the blood from its fountain, he decided that the party were imbiciles and left.

The Onyx Mountains

From there, Onyx decided to move south, to get as far away from any chaos that the party might cause. He made his way to Mestrania, the southernmost nation in Vehasi, and began to work on a new project - the Onyx Mountains. These were his crowning achievement, a mountain range made entirely by himself, risen in the short span of a few months. He never told anyone his reasoning for this project - in fact, very few people even knew that he was responsible.
However, his reason was quite simple - just to prove that he could. It was a technological feat for the ages - the creation of an entire geographic feature, one that had since made its way onto maps and into stories. It was not long before old myths began to be told to have taken place in the mountains, despite them not having existed until recently.

Gender Identity

Though he is not technically living, in the biological sense of the word, nor does he have any primary or secondary sex charactaristics that would be expressed on living individuals, Onyx identifies with more masculine traits, using he/him pronouns and preferring to be referred to with masculine terminology.

Sexuality

Onyx is not particularly interested in romance, and does not feel attraction to others. This is in part due to the differences he holds from the rest of the population on the continent he currently resides on, but also due to the fact that he does not wish to waste time pursuing a romantic relationship, for it would detract from his time spent researching or inventing.

Education

Onyx received little formal education. He was programmed originially by Asher and Evelyn, and later learned near everything he knows from Asher, while he was still working under him. He has dedicated his life to the pursuit of more knowledge, and in particular, the study of mechanics. He holds a particular interest in firearms, especially those larger in size.

You feel like a sword, but you are not a sword.

— Mimi Flowerpicker, former member of Onyx's former party

Alignment

True Neutral

Current Location

Onyx Mountains

Species

Automaton

Year of Birth

1979 A.G.W. 22 Years old

Parents (Adopting)

Asher Crux

Evelyn Crux

Eyes

Orange, glowing/flickering

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Black metal

Other Affiliations

• Relana

Speech

Monotone

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Onyx Animated by notahumanhand