Ottoheim Sparkcore

## Otto

The beginnings of the Sparkcore clan take root in the ancient history of the Gwarfs, beginning as a modest clan in charge of maintaining and constructing various forges and mechanisms, aiding crafters and forgers in their glorious endeavors of creation. This small clan only left its relevant anonymity when “Loewn, The Peaceful Crafted” took charge as its leader. Loewn was endowed with a genius mind, and a love for magic and magical creations. He would live on for eternity in gwarvish myth when he created the first gwarven golem.

Golems are magical constructs, imbued with a magically fabricated intelligence, allowing them to move, adapt, and perform complex actions, appearing to be alive, even if they lack true intelligence and sentience. Loewn developed these constructions to provide the gwarven people with extra help in their day-to-day tasks, possibly taking on more dangerous or tiring jobs, providing gwarfs with safety and more free time.

However, the war applicability of these creations was soon noticed by the Gwarven elders, who amidst the Punitive Wars, were always on the lookout for weapons capable of helping Gwarfs stand against the seeming insurmountable power of the Dragons. The elders then requested that Loewn create even better, and more dangerous golems, wishing to deploy them as extra soldiers and weapons, aiding in the war effort. Loewn, of course, could not refuse a task from the elders, and he soon began to train and prepare his clan for mass constructing, and usage of arcane golems, leading to the Sparkcore’s fame as master craftsman and golem makers.

The golems soon became an instrumental part in the war against the dragons, and the knowledge of golem creation spread throughout all of Gwarven-kind. Entire armies of stone, iron and magic were built, destroyed, and reconstructed, and the Gwarven Golems went on to become legendary among the myths and legends of the Punitive Wars.

Loewn’s greatest creation, and the artifact most associated with his legendary fame, is the “Unit Core”, also nicknamed the “Slaughter Core”. This core contained the souls of several dozen willing gwarven soldiers, most of which found themselves at death’s door, due to the war. These warriors then choose to accept a second life as part of a larger whole, in order to continue doing battle against the dragons. This core was then placed on particularly large and powerful war golems, creating a soldier who had all the knowledge and prowess of several gwarven warriors, and all the resilience and power of a gigantic war golem.

The core’s nickname stems from an unforeseen side effect of the soul uniting process, as the various gwarven souls, whether due to sever stress or other disorders, would sometimes enter a state of collective psychosis, further melding together into a single being, whose only purpose was to kill and do battle, crushing anything caught in its path.

But despite the nickname of his greatest creation Loewn was a peaceful man, and hatted violence above all. For the entirety of the war Loewn refused to go directly to any battlefield and would delegate the addition of weapons onto the golems to others when possible, granting him the title of “The Peaceful Weaponsmith”. After the war ended Loewn quietly disappeared, leaving the leadership of the Sparkcore to others, and he was not seen again.

Eventually, after many calamities and forgotten history, many of the secrets of golem making were forever lost, and Loewn’s Golems now only exist in collective myth and legend. But the Sparkcore carried on, and even though they have been reduced to a small tribe, among the Gwarfs of the Ladian Empire, the dreams of golem making, and Loewn’s glory, still lives in their minds.

## **Backstory**

Ever since he was a kid, Ottoheim was fascinated with the Sparkcore’s ancient history of golem making, and the arcane arts. Showing great aptitude in the craft, his father, and leader of the Sparkcore clan, quickly provided his sons with tutors and scholars, with Ottoheim devoting most of his early life to the craft of golem making.

Ottoheim was particularly fascinated with the myths surrounding “Loewn, The Peaceful Weaponsmith”, and the lost art of infusing souls inside arcane golems. He then had his ultimate goal, and the inspiration for his masterwork, he would become the first gwarf in centuries to successfully infuse a soul inside a golem core. But to take on such an endeavor, Ottoheim would require vast amounts of the legendary gwarven dust, which was now scarce since the gwarf’s relocation to the Ladian Empire. So when the opportunity to settle a new gwarven home in the mountains, Ottoheim jumped at the opportunity to go, and represent his clan in the colonization efforts. Thus, joining the events of the gwarf text campaign.