Acerbus Praetyri

Name: Acerbus

Surname: Praetyri

Birthname: Archirus Togglemouth

Title/Nickname: "Ace", "Darko"

Race: Gnome

Class: Rogue

Age: 44

Appearance: Rather average height for a gnome with an athletic build, usually wearing a tattered leather jerkin over a faded blue, deep V-necked shirt. As for his lower half he wears deep-pocketed loose-fitting embroidered blue pants, trimmed with dark brown leather. His shoes are a dusty old pair of grip-boots that aid him in climbing, mainly blue, and once again trimmed with brown. His gloves are in the same fashion, a matching pair with the boots. His prized possession, his hat, is a wide-brimmed purple-azure fedora with gold trimming. When he does remove his cap he has a head of dark brown hair almost to his shoulders, he also sports a goatee and sideburns of the same color. His facial features are soft and somewhat round, yet surprisingly masculine for a gnome, and his eyes are a shade of purple. At his waist he has a bulky belt, with many pouches and satchels attached, and at his sides in their sheathes he keeps his dagger "Lucidus Posterus" and his longsword. His skin is fair in tone, yet slightly worn from working with poisons and acid.

Alignment: True Neutral

Psychology, Combat: He tends to avoid fighting and work in the background, and when confronted violently, he will attempt to diplomatically resolve the situation before resorting to violence. When he is forced in to combat, he is not unskilled; he often uses his size to his benefit, as well as the skills he's learned on the road. Over his lifetime, he has developed a method of countering "punts" that has become invaluable to him in combat, as most see his stature as a flaw, and attempt to use it against him.

Psychology, Social: He loathes the stereotypes of his race, and personally strives to be anything but them. When he encounters other gnomes, especially those of the cookie-cutter class, he is very outwardly hateful to them. Even those gnomes that do not fit these stereotypes, he is very disrespectful towards. There is only one other race that has earned his disliking as a whole, and that would be the fair-skinned elves of Azeroth, be it Blood elves or High elves. He has met far too many arrogant elves that disregard him, and treat him as if he was a child upon their first meeting. Other than those two exceptions, he tends to treat all races equally. When I say he treats them equally, this does NOT mean he treats them well. He distrusts everyone to the point of paranoia when he first meets them, and he rarely trusts even those he knows well. This distrust causes him to regularly check any food and drink given to him for poisons or other agents, and he often shows other traits of paranoia as well.

Birthplace: Gnomeregan.

Actual residence: Duskwood, though he is on the road more than he is there.

Lineage:

Father:

 Name: Perrywink

Surname: Togglemouth

Occupation: Advisor to the High Tinkerer

Alignment: Neutral Good

Appearance: Shorter than average for a gnome, with dark brown hair, and soft features. Rather charismatic in looks for a gnome.

<span style="font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left; color: lightblue; ">Mother:

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; text-align: left; line-height: 12px; "> Name: Bussy

Surname: Wracketwrench

Occupation: Tinkerer

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Appearance: Average height for a gnome, with dark green hair, and somewhat sharp features.

<span style="font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left; color: lightblue; ">Background:

Ace’s mother gave birth to him inside of Gnomeregan where he was given the name Archirus, though his parents instantaneously gave him the pet name Archi. His father was always in the Court helping the High Tinkerer with political matters, so it was up to his mother to raise him. His family had an abundance of money, mainly from his father, so Archi was raised like a prince. When Ace turned ten, a new High Tinkerer was elected, and Archi’s father retired.

Less than a year after, the factories of Gnomeregan were bustling with the creation of war machines, the new High Tinkerer had decided that the gnomes should join the alliance alongside the dwarves to fight the orcish menace to the south, and Archi’s mother began work to aid the war effort. It was during these times that Perrywink allowed his house to be used as a meeting place for a group of politicians. Ace would usually stay in his room upstairs during these meetings, but an odd smell seemed to always float to his room, a smell Archi knew nothing of, but would soon enough. The smell was that of poison, and these meetings were of dark intent, as many conservative gnomes did not like the new High Tinkerer, or the fact he joined the Alliance without a vote. Perrywink tried to not get involved in the meetings, but soon began hearing pieces of the thickening plot. When he discovered that his house was being used as the base of operations for a conspiracy, he forced the people out, demanding that they never return.

After the war-time buzz ended, Archi’s mother was home more often. Soon, the conservative gnomes began harassing the family with blackmail and threats. Eventually it became near violent and on the night of Archi’s twelfth birthday, they fled from the city carrying what they could in a small motorized wagon. They fled south on a supply route from Ironforge to the ruins of Stormwind, attempting to escape the politics and people of Khaz Modan altogether.

While on their way south, they were intercepted by a group of raiders who proved to be too much for the gnomes. The bandits easily mugged and killed them. After, they searched the wreckage of the wagon and found the traumatized boy, who could only stare in silence and disbelief. One of the dwarven members showing pity offered to raise him as one of their own, giving him the title, "Ace".

Ace was scarred, and in that night he suppressed the first twelve years of his life in order to get past the pain and agony. He has no memory of the night of the attack, nor any memory of anything before it. The only memento to his parents he was given, was his father’s hat. He was never told where it came from, all he knows is that it fits perfectly and all together, it just feels right.

Ace matured quickly in that environment, learning how to use his size and agility to help him steal small items from people and caravans. Around the age of fifteen he discovered the joy of climbing trees and has since become quite adept at it, developing the climbing skills he still uses to this day. At the age of sixteen, he was sent as a scout for an ambush party on a caravan coming from Ironforge. The ambush that followed was a success, and Ace watched the slaughter and plundering of the caravan. Since then he has been infatuated with the laws of nature and the thought of survival of the fittest. After that assault the troop was pushed further south on the route due to the newly rebuilt Northshire Abbey, they continued their work nonetheless, and started including Ace’s skills more and more every time.

Soon, VanCleef showed up with his men and started rebuilding from the ruins of Stormwind. The bandit troop was forced east, and was eventually pushed too close to the Abbey to continue their line of work. They split up, each member taking an equal share of the stash and going their own way. The now eighteen year old Ace found himself lost without the group, wandering Elwynn on his own. In his youthful pride, he attempted to continue his work as a bandit, but faltered; the convoys were too heavily guarded for one such as him to face alone.

He continued to steal goods from the workers at Stormwind in order to survive, but after avoiding capture for as long as he could in the forest, a small bounty was put up for his capture. He was eventually cornered by the men of the Northshire Abbey, and with nowhere to run resistance was futile. After a slight interrogation on the whereabouts of his "friends" and his past, they learned he was ignorant in the ways of regular people, and was raised by the bandits in ignorance of the law. At the mercy of the Abbey, he offered to learn their laws, and how to abide by them.

Over the next two years they taught him not only law, but how to read and write. They taught him the basics of math and history as well. While in his studies, he found two runic symbols that infatuated him, though he had no clue why, he had to find out what they meant. They translated to 'Acerbus Praeteritus', meaning 'Dark Past' in High Common. These words he adapted into the name he still holds to this day. When he was let out of the Abbeys protection, he took with him the metal-bound tome containing those words. The book was aptly named 'Lucidus Posterus', meaning 'Bright Future'. The priests told him to read its lessons and learn from it, as it would lead him on a brighter path.

Ace took the tome and fled into the forest with a new mind set, seeking to start a prosperous life for him. Though, soon he discovered that he was not good at socializing, honest work, nor begging. He went into poverty, and descended into a life of petty crime once more. For three years he lived this way, stealing from lonesome travelers just to survive. During his travels, he came across a group of strange folk; they called themselves “The Darkmoon Faire”. After being without companionship or a good source of income for so long, he tagged along, following them where they went. He became good friends with the Potion-master, and began dabbling in the art himself, soon becoming his apprentice. The alchemist taught Ace the basic formulas, as well as the science behind it. As soon as Ace learned those things, he began making his own potions.

Four years in to his apprenticeship, Ace’s human teacher simply died of old age. After the funeral, the twenty-seven year old Ace left the Faire and began wandering in the region surrounding the capital city of Lordaeron. He continued to dabble in alchemy, using it as his source of income, but noticed most of his clients were looking for something a little more toxic.

Ace began experimenting with more deadly ingredients and creating poisons. He took to poison rather quickly, and he found it much more natural to him then beneficial alchemy. He began selling his deadly concoctions in the dark corners of the city, and went by a new alias to keep his identity from the ears of the guards. ‘Darko’ he called himself. Using the sewers and alleys to his advantage, he sold his poisons to assassins, nobles, even the peasantry sometimes. During this time, when he would sleep after brewing poison, he would have flashbacks and nightmares of his parents and of their deaths. The smell of the poison reminded his sub-conscious of the past, and triggered these, and when he smells poison, he will sometimes become more irritable in response.

After three years of living in Lordaeron, rumors of the plague and the undead began to spread like wildfire through the city, and people began to panic. ‘Darko’ was unaffected by the panic, thinking it to be some doomsday cult and trickery. To turn a profit, he began selling suicide pills to those that had lost faith in life, and thought it would spare them from ‘zombification’. When the king was killed, no one was spared from the madness. The city was in a mass-hysteria, and many died that day. With some quick thinking ‘Darko’ escaped within the hour, using the sewers as his road to freedom.

He ran south as fast as he possibly could, resting only when absolutely necessary. Within about four months he made it to booty bay. After settling himself a bit and gaining a reputation, he began to make money via selling his poisons and potions to the shady folk and travelers, once again acquiring the name ‘Darko’. To get some extra cash, he started working as a part-time smuggler. It was during the four years he lived in Booty Bay that he had the metal bindings of the tome 'Lucidus Posterus' reforged in to the shape of a dagger, which he still has riding on his hip to this day.

After things settled down up north, and the panic over the plague spreading was done, the now thirty-five year old Ace became a traveling merchant, selling trinkets, potions, poisons and other substances. He shrugged off the alias ‘Darko’, feeling that it scared off the friendlier customers, and once again became known as Ace. The next four years were a blur of traveling and thousands of faces. After having walked all these years, he began looking for faster transportation. Seeing teleportation as a possible answer, he paid a mage to send him to Dalaran city. There he met a wandering mage, and over three years of companionship, they became quite well aquainted. Acerbus showed some of his inner gnome towards his mage companion in the form of curiousity. Ace was bewildered by the use of magic, and the mage seeing this attempted to teach him a few cantrips. Seeing how well Ace took to the use of magic, the mage recommended that he should seek further training. Soon, Ace's funds began to run low, and he knew he had to return to the open road selling his wares once again. Upon their parting, the mage sent Ace back to Stormwind, where he resumed his travel route. Acerbus 'Darko' Praeteritus to this day he continues to sell his wares and skills to those that seek them, looking to further his abilities in alchemy, strategy, and possibly even magic someday. ..