Nix Telven

Nix Telven is a wiry, soot-stained gnome with a mop of tangled copper hair and goggles perpetually pushed up to his forehead. His clothes are an erratic patchwork of protective leather, scavenged cloth, and metallic plates, covered in ink-stains, chemical burns, and the occasional twitching gear-driven trinket. He has a missing front tooth, a nose that’s been broken more than once, and burns running across one forearm from an experiment gone sideways. His eyes are bright green, constantly flicking from one detail to another.

Brilliant, excitable, and terminally awkward, Nix is a chaotic blur of motion and mumbled ideas. He talks with his hands (often while holding tools), gets distracted mid-sentence, and tends to accidentally insult people without meaning to. However, beneath the awkward exterior lies a keen intellect and boundless curiosity. Nix believes in making things better — for himself, for others, for the world — even if he tends to blow things up in the process. He has a strange optimism rare in Cressari's depths, and an infectious laugh that often arrives at the worst possible moments.

Nix is known in the Hollow Ember as a go-to artificer for "weird problems." Whether it's crafting a trap to immobilize a summoned horror or cobbling together a lightning-powered unicycle, Nix can probably build it — or break it. He trades inventions for favors, parts, and stories, and sometimes stumbles across relics from the dwarven ruins hidden beneath the Ember. Despite his lack of polish, he’s earned a niche in the underworld for being equal parts mad genius and lucky fool.