Gunthabairhts Andaila Audafuns Ahtafriths-Liudabadws
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| Level | 3 |
| Race | Gnome |
| Class | Scout/Counterfeit Mage Rogue 1, Kensai Magus 1, ?1 |
| Armor | none or a fine custom magical scale armor |
| Weapon(s) | custom weapon |
| Hometown | Hakan(City), New_Hakan |
Gunthabairhts Andaila Audafuns Ahtafriths-Liudabadws (translated roughly to battle-bright courage-little wealth-eager terrible-peaceful--people-war) mostly goes by Guntha.
Contents
Appearance
Standing at less than 3 feet tall Guntha is small and scrawny and weak even by Gnomish standards. His skin has always tended to be pale and light, but recent increased exposure to the sun has given it a darker yellow/golden color. He has light blond curly hair which he keeps trimmed short to keep it from getting in the way. Guntha is prone to fidgeting and mumbling to himself when thinking. Guntha tends to dress in a simple and nondescript manner and is capable of quickly blending into a crowd. When he fails to remember his training his natural voice and affect tend to be dull and flat, but he is capable of putting on the charm when needed. Though he frequently appears bored or lost in thought he does pay attention and is capable of following conversations even while writing or mentally working on problems. His apparent lack of focus and dull eyes and appearance hide an exceptionally quick and clever mind. Guntha can be quite sociable when needed, but tends to standoffish-ness and paranoia and rarely stays anywhere long enough to be noticed, much less make friends.
Background
Early Life
born the 3rd child to a rich, politically-powerful and fiercely-nationalist Hakani family with a long history of commands and commissions in various Hakani military/spy and political groups. The Ahtafriths-Liudabadwsis branch of his family trace direct descent to the before the founding of New Hakan and to Gnomes who held key positions during the Crusades and the early days of the new homeland. The battlefield marriage that created the Ahtafriths-Liudabadws line was attended by Alexandria and several members of the Stand. That they were there in the sense of being on same battlefield is relatively well-documented, but the Ahtafriths-Liudabadws' current public assertions (which includes funding public theater, murals, and, publications) that the couple were personally good friends with Alexandria who presided over and blessed their marriage ceremony Herself is not recorded in any widely-accepted history. They have frequently over the history of the country been, both in public and behind closed doors of power, key voices of aggressive and expansionist foreign policy against against humans and to a lesser extent elves and dwarves. Over time this has led to assertions that for a strong New Hakan Gnomes have a mandate to control the parts of western Gildenhome and eastern Fresia that border the Scar, forming a contiguous homeland for wild and urban gnomes. His family also has a history of frequent agitators against the Alexandrian church which they see as being overly controlled by humans. One of the most famous murals in New Hakan features his ancestors championing and taking part in the killings of the family of Martyel Gaddrick-Thane. Very nearly every living relative of his branch of the family are currently serving as diplomats, commanders, agents, magius, infiltrators, or even shadier occupations in the service of the state.
Guntha was trained from an early age with the expectation of following this tradition and showed a genius-level intellect, though he stayed physically weak and lazy and intellectually prone to distraction and obsession and introversion.
Education
His early basic education and training went well but his magic studies became a problem. He showed a great naive skill with magic items and wands, but none of the sorcerer powers all of the 3rd children in his Mother-through-Great-Great-Great-Great-Uncle's line had always possessed. Further testing proved he instead had the affinity for creation of weapons and weapon enchantment that the 2nd son to a fourth brother on his father's side frequently manifested. His studies with the premier school of Magus masters however also failed culminating in being caught having never learned to actually read magic and having faked several months of testing by surreptitious use of "borrowed" items from the family vault. This led to Guntha being officially without a master teacher or sponsor, but not technically kicked out of the school due to his familial connections and high entry test scores (which were also boosted by unauthorized magical means.) After a few years of study and family assistance he was reassigned a new adviser, an eccentric Magus and enchanter who was the uncle of his father's cousin. The next several years of Guntha's life were spent learning the basics of magic and studying weapons, years of intense study and crafting and Guntha's breakthrough came once he decided that none of the training weapons were what he wanted so he created his own weapon, the Guntha Blade. In crafting it Guntha also was able to focus magic in a way he had failed to before and he was able to pull magic into the weapon and finally gain some understanding of how actual purposely called magic worked.
Further years of studies followed paid for mostly by his family allowance supplemented by selling a few weapon designs and modifications. One day the Guntha Blade may just be known as the Gnome Round-Knife! The end of his formal education was shortly after attracting some fame and notoriety after the publishing of his uncle's life's work. Most of it was fairly conventional or slightly borderline crankish at points, except for his uncle's repeated life-long experiments in searching for the perfect beer to pair with days-long enchantments and a short coda detailing advancements in imbuing arcane power in weapons and armor which suggested future experiments which could yield even greater results. Others recreated the changes and some of the suggested experiments were attempted. None were successful, but did produce interesting results which led to future research and discoveries.
This led to a popular Hakani broadsheet running stories suggesting a huge breakthrough that would lead to lightsabers amazing new magic weapons in just a few years and since his uncle refused all interviews by disappearing into the Scar they turned to Guntha who was credited as a the book's coauthor. In truth the coda was purely Guntha's work, but all he discussed in his interview were new theories and projects he was envisioning.
This public attention and professional interest in his work and a few pulled strings by his parents landed Guntha a position in a prestigious think tank and magical research facility. Studying and working there surrounded by fellow proteges, strange geniuses, and other masters and philosophers of magic theory and metaphysics was the happiest time in his life and the first time Guntha had the respect of his colleagues and even made several close friends.
Disaster Strikes
His happy new life as well as his life in Hakan came to an end shortly there after when a miscalculation during an experiment involving cross-plane harnessing of pure Astral energy and bonding it directly to a humanoid's body and caused a brief, but deadly crossing of matter and energy from the Ethereal and Astral planes and possibly even the Veil itself. The explosion was similar to the classic portable hole in a bag of holding, but took out a large portion of the building and many of the gnomes present. Strangely, despite being at the heart of the blast Guntha survived with minor injuries and a strange wild magical aura that went away after a few days. An investigation followed where Guntha was cleared of negligence, but the institute was disbanded and Guntha was ordered to kept under observation for at least 6 months and banned from further planar experimentation. The observation proved inconclusive and he spent much of those 6 month just laying in bed staring at the walls and ceilings and being non-communicative. Upon his release he found himself lost, friendless, and wracked with grief. He had previously been a bit of an outcast, but now also felt shunned and guilty, both in his mind and in the opinion of some former colleagues, of breaking the great Gnomish taboo against killing a fellow gnome.
Guntha's family at first tried to convince him to take various jobs or even just settle down to a simple life of item creation and enchantment with one of his family's merchant concerns without. Finally an exasperated and long-suffering father gave Guntha a line of credit with a port company and a bag of gold and told him to not come back, an offer which Guntha accepted, setting sail that day on a ship bound for North Gildenhome and points beyond. What he never disclosed to the investigators, his family, or anyone else from home was that while the experiment failed in what it was intended to do, it did leave him with a strange new ability. One he is intent on studying and strengthening on his own.
Current Life
Strangely despite his bookish nature Guntha has found the life at sea to suit him well. His natural affinity for problem-solving and repairing has proved useful and his quick climbing and sharp eyes have led to him serving as a fine ship rigging monkey and lookout. Working alone at night from the crow's nest he has come to several conclusions about his condition and some a measure of control.
Views and thoughts
Though he never strongly shared many of his family's more gnome-centric views Guntha is distrustful of the church and wizards of other races. He is not devout, but does have an adoration of Alexandria in part due to her powerful changing of the ways and the knowledge she must have possessed concerning Magic, the Old Pantheon, and the Planes. While technically not an exile or fugitive Guntha plans to never return to Hakan or have anything to do with his family again.
SPOILER Gunthabairhts Andaila Audafuns Ahtafriths-Liudabadws' Character Sheet (Pathfinder) SPOILER (not active)
