Riki Maru, PhD

## Campaign Appearances

* Army of Tran
* Seldom Springs

## Physical Description

Age: 45

Height: 2' 4"

Weight: 42lbs

RIki is a verdant green Kobold with yellow eyes. Riki is most often wearing fairly practical clothes for research purposes: gloves, long sleeves, pants. He does, however, wear a traditional headdress made from the skull of an ancestral kobold adorned with brightly-colored feathers and gold jewelry. This headdress covers a significant portion of his face and is worn even during his classes. A distinguishing feature of RIki is his golden tooth which is most often seen when he smiles.

## Backstory

Raakaataakaataakiikiimaaru, or as he is better known, Riki Maru is a rather eccentric Kobold born into the Diamanti brood of Kazarak. Riki, even as a youngling, was never quite like his brothers and sisters; he enjoyed time outside of the tunnels and studied his mining products rather than simply mining them. This may have been due to the fact that Riki's egg was breached about 14 days before he was hatched. Regardless, one day when Riki was 3 years old, this eccentricity culminated into Riki taking some gold up to the surface during a particularly violent storm. At the time, Riki was "studying" the properties of certain metals by biting them with his teeth, so that he could determine their strength. As Riki sat at the entrance to the tunnels with a chunk of gold in his mouth, a bolt of lightning struck him where he sat and fused his tooth with the gold, creating his iconic golden tooth. Although Riki's life should have ended there, Talos instead saw a future of chaotic potential within the young Riki and chose to imbue him with the spirit of the storm. He became wiser, stronger, smarter, and more charismatic thanks to the gifts of Talos. In turn, Riki devoted himself to chaos and vowed to serve his savior in sowing discord.

As Riki grew older he continued his research and engaged in small acts of chaos for he understood that if he truly wanted to cause the most havoc, he would need more power. At the age of eight, Riki was accepted into Dracari University, Machiopagos Campus where he would study Thaumaturgical Metallurgy with a secondary focus in Biological Applications & Galvanic Science. Riki was known throughout the University for his unorthodox methods and dangerous experiments. Some of his most impressive undergraduate research while at the Machipagos Campus included developing hyper-smelting methods for ultra-dense metals like Palladian and Adamantian. His research eventually led to him continue his studies with the University but through the graduate college at the Capitol Campus. Riki eventually graduated at the age of fourteen with two Bachelors's, one in Thaumaturgical Metallurgy and another in Biological Applications & Galvanic Science, and his Doctorate in Thaumaturgical Metallurgy with his dissertation titled "Novel Physiochemical Properties of Galvanized Gold in the Reptilian Musculoskeletal System."

As soon as Riki graduated, he was offered a position within the University as a tenure-track faculty which he graciously accepted so that he could continue his research. At the age of twenty, Dr. Riki Maru became the first Kobold to have achieved a full professorship and tenure within Dracari University at the Capitol Campus.

Although Riki continues to teach, his passion has always been in his research; now, however, Riki has been granted a year-long sabbatical for him to continue his research in the field, with practically no constraints.