[hider=Rothros][b]Name:[/b] Rothros

[b]Race:[/b] Undine

[b]Age:[/b] 49

[b]Text color:[/b] [color=yellow]Yellow[/color]

[b]Special skill:[/b]
Toughness. Rothros is a hardened farmer, miner and soldier who has seen both the bitter cold of water and the fiery heat of the earth, the world below the water's surface and also a bit above. He can absorb unusual punishment and a dragon bonded to him would probably exhibit the same ability. A 'go anywhere' creature that has not much trouble transitioning in and out of the water. Also, if one combines water and fire, the result could be a breath of steam that can be just as damaging.


[b]Ambition/dream:[/b]
There is nothing specific Rothros craves for not yet knowing about an invention prior to inventing it lies in the very nature of the thing. Imaginations there are many: An armor more robust than simple seashells, yet light enough to carry while swimming. A projectile than can be launched from below the surface just like an archer does with his arrow on the battlefield, yet is strong enough to cripple a ship that would otherwise need to be intercepted by Undine warriors at the risk of their lives... But how to propel it ? How to aim it and how to give it enough oomph upon impact ?


[b]Childhood:[/b]
Rothros stems from a place that is commonly referred to as [i]Hetrop[/i], although not many people outside of Undine society know it actually exists. That cannot come as much of a surprise though as a certain level of daringness can be considered a prerequisite for any desire to live there. It is a place where the hot innards of the world boil close underneath the surface, yet above that surface is an immense layer of water that allows one to stay cool.

The white and black smokers caused by ocean water seeping through cracks and touching molten stone spew out a constant stream of sulphur and other minerals considered valuable. Mining those is hard and also dangerous work, but still the Undine seek out the opportunity for there is another thing to be found there: food. There is a competition for fish and other sea fauna from humans and elves, but nobody cares about seaworms that thrive in this kind of environment at the ocean floor.

Rothros' parents are farmers who maintain, harvest and post-process the worm colonies and mineral deposits so it was only natural for their son to follow their footsteps as soon as he could. Workers in this area are usually free to take comparably long leaves in one of the coral reef settlements where living conditions are a lot more hospitable though.


[b]Adolencence/training:[/b]
Joining the military was pretty much set in stone for Rothros, just like many others of his kind do. The Undine marine forces are faced with a few challenges that could be considered rather unusual and which always require people to act and risk their lives in order to safeguard them, their families and all the others. The war is fought on the sea as fiercely as it is on land and the remains of this pointless carnage tend not to stay on the wind-whipped surface for very long. Instead, they sometimes literally fall onto Undine people's heads or at least their cities.

The military has sort of a special branch that is occupied with cleaning up wreckages and, more importantly, disposing of any dangerous cargo that might damage the coral reefs. Salvaging precious goods or returning the bodies of deceased seamen to their human families also poses a significant source of foreign currency and bolsters relationships with the coastal settlements. On top of that, there have been several attempts of Phospholite vessels to cause deliberate damage to Undine settlements by polluting the shallow waters with oil or dragging anchor-like structures and nets over the ocean floor.

Rothros spent his base training with such tasks before becoming involved in sneak attacks upon hostile vessels. Coming from below and damaging a ship's hull from outside sounds like a rather safe thing compared to surface-based approaches, but the Phospholites keep learning in terms of how to dodge or escape such things. A thin layer of copper or bronze on top of a wooden structure can pose quite the barrier to overcome already.


[b]Adulthood/After Completing Training:[/b]
Rothros has seen how dangerous the 'job' can be. It served as motivation to try something different, to become an apprentice in one of the several workgroups who try to develop new techniques of defending Undine territory. Many of these involve digging deeper into a discipline that so far, for the rather obvious reason of being underwater, has not exactly been any Undine's forte: blacksmithing.

The challenges are unique for it doesn't suffice to just find a facility on land, but one also can't count on the experience of human masters alone. They work with steel and steel is both too heavy and too prone to corrosion in salt water. Bronze doesn't rust, but is even heavier. Undine have started to mess around with other metals, but there is a lot of new knowledge to build up from scratch when it comes to combining and processing them. Rothros' new job involved a lot of learning, experimenting and trial and error, but also getting to know humans much more closely for everything happened on land.

The information provided to him about this 'expedition' to the remote island has not been very specific, mostly that his employers would keep the spot open for him even if it would take very long for him to return...


[b]Notable family:[/b]
His parents are still alive, but they still work in the Hetrop mining and farming colony. It is therefore not very likely to encounter them unless perhaps they are forced to leave the ocean. Rothros has no siblings yet.


[b]Notable figures:[/b]
William is the master human blacksmith he worked for in a rather small human town at the coastline. There are also several other apprentices Rothros has worked with prior to his sudden, new assignment.


[b]Character Themes:[/b]
Experimenting, discovery, fighting, brutal raw strength.


[b]Character Tragedy:[/b]
Rothros has once misjudged the jets of hot water in Hetrop, causing significant damage to the left side of his body. More importantly however he was the foreman of an entire party of seaworm gatherers and still feels somewhat responsible for two of his followers also having been injured very severelyin this incident. This is in spite of the fact that common consensus is that nobody could have foreseen this sudden outburst.


[b]Character flaws:[/b]
The accident in Hetrop has left him with a slight limp and impaired vision on his left eye. Rothros is not exactly stubborn, but at times a bit imprudent and prone to jump into action before thinking all too extensively. Also, while his body is perfectly adapted to swimming, at land he's rather sluggish. That certainly isn't helped by the fact that he's just a damn heavyweight individual.


[b]Hobbies:[/b]
Deep-diving (sort of a competitive sport that involves testing each other's limits while roping down the continental shelf into the deep sea), archery, wrestling (both in and out of the water).


[b]Appearance:[/b]
Rothros exhibits a skin typical to his kind. Adapted to efficient movement underwater, it is very smooth and tight to minimise resistance. Its color is mostly blue-ish, but with hues of silvery gray mixed in almost like a shark. There is some significant scarring running along his left thigh and also a bit on his head, but at least on land most of that is rendered invisible by clothing. As one could expect he has neither hair nor beard, but can definitely brag with a large fin running down from the back of his head almost to the level of his hips. He also has smaller fins running along his elbows and legs and some webbing between his toes and fingers.

At 5'6 he's average for his people, but more on the short side from many others' point of view. A combination of great natural disposition, his time in the military and hard work helping in the forges have caused him to bulk up immensely however. He's well fed and bristling with muscle from top to bottom.[/hider]