Klaüs Newmaker - Alchemist

Role Within The Rogue Elements
Klaus is the group's support, he has filled a variety of roles as a former defender to the current role of healer and inventor. His primary role is to help his contemporaries to shine by augmenting their gear, bolstering their abilities, or just being a shoulder to lean on. Klaus is a busy-body and does not like idleness, so he is usually busy crafting some odd or end and will sometimes become hasty when it seems the party is stalling or suffering from 'analysis paralysis'. This last character flaw has led to a few unfortunate events including the destruction of a sentient dragon statue and his jumping into a void of death.

His companions are his cherished treasures and he sees his purpose in making sure they fulfill their goals, and while he cares little for his own life, any threat to the life of his companions becomes an obstacle that must cease to exist. Though he puts on an aloof air in regards to their safety, his biggest fear is to fail in keeping them safe and sound. He does his best to not let this side of himself to be known by anyone in the hopes that his companions will continue to act without hesitation to fulfill their purpose. The introduction of Tenjin Ryogoku, the regalia soul present in his bracer (Tenjin's Palette) is a welcome balm, as Tenjin seems to have held the same outlook on life, putting the lives of his companions above his own and working towards that end. The bracer is a boon in Klaus's endeavors to turn the odds in the party's favor.

Backstory
... I ... I don’t .... remember. I know I had a drive, some internal need, but now it is dust. Ever since my transformation in Mur Khazgur I seem to have forgotten some skills and gained new ones. I worry that there is something important that I’ve forgotten, or that perhaps I have been replaced by an alternate version of myself from some other slice of possibility. I seemed to have had a knack and proficiency for tinkering constructs, but this flies against my life-long study of chemistry... my life-long study that I cannot seem to remember where I learned the skills. I can recite from heart Remoraz’s mapping of nerves and name every bone in the body of 10 separate races, but I cannot remember when I opened the books to gain such knowledge. Worrying indeed... Why did I ever give up my search for my mentor? Some hand has altered my fate.

Backstory as is revealed
My life was a gift. I won a lion's share on the lottery of my birth. I grew up among loving parents of some stature and my early successes led me to study at the Imperial University in Angelium. It was there that I excelled at my studies in Artificing and that led me to be first assistant to Professor Cherenkov as we researched methods for military success.

Cherenkov was an astute observer with a keen mind and a way of compiling observations in an easily digestible way. This made him one of the best professors on the campus and it was my delight to have him as my mentor... at least it was for awhile. We were working on advanced phases of aerosolizing poisons for deployment against humanoid troops. You may think this is where I had issue, but no, I was a good citizen and proud to help my countrymen in their fight. The issue arose when I discovered that our willing volunteers were being pressured or outright conscripted into complying with our tests. At first they were willing, we all were. This was groundbreaking work that would be put at the forefront of our cause and fight, but as experimentation is want to do, there were anomalies.

One such anomaly still haunts me to this day. We were testing a particularly novel dispersal method using extremely low doses of poison, looking for area of effective saturation and overall coverage. The doses should have caused nothing more than to invoke a light cough in our test subjects with perhaps minor dermal itching. However our results went far beyond our predictions, and even at such low doses 14 of the 16 participants suffered permanent dysfunction of their lung tissues and severe dermal and sub-dermal rashes, the remaining two died outright without a specific cause of death, all subjects were lost. I lost my stomach during the ordeal but Professor Cherenkov didn't even notice as he feverishly detailed the results in his notes, for him this was a rousing success.

After that our subjects became harder to come by but bodies were still made available. I stepped back as much as I could as first assistant, taking on lighter and more menial duties. I treated subjects as they came from testing and learned the methods for which the Imperium was persuading or conscripting subjects into service. With this realization, I sought to minimize their suffering as much as I could, concocting potions throughout the nights during my free time that would help them heal faster or outright resist the poisons. I began to slip this to them in their food or via salve when administering aid or meals. I began to question my place and role in the suffering of others. I seemed to have lost my nerve and determination along with my stomach that fateful day.

As my measures to prevent suffering in the subjects became more pronounced so to did Cherenkov's measures to make his devices more potent. I realized too late that not only were my methods creating greater success in Cherenkov's work but it was also bringing his dreams to fruition faster than originally expected, so I did what anyone would have done when faced with competing philosophical differences... I absconded in the night.

My flight from Angelium was hard bought with the greater share of my savings plied towards my escape and disappearance. When all was over I found myself in the dainty holdings of Hoarfrost Village sequestered high in the Red Mountains. There I spent the next 42 years of my life in simple service to the members of the community, plying what small salves and potions I could provide for them to make the days easier. It was a humble and good life, and also a life led in secrecy far from the prying eyes of the Angelium banners., but I ached for more. After four decades of anxiety ridden hiding I thought myself free of the grip of the Imperium and longed instead for legacy. I wanted to leave a name for myself, something greater than the history I'd written in Angelium so long ago.

That's when Rangvald and Kavadhan stumbled into our village. The Gnome Rangvald, a seemingly absent-minded and distracted practitioner of the healing arts and his protector and friend the Goliath Kavadhan, a stolid and steadfast monolith of a man. Rangvald saw my work in the village and offered me a place at his side finding the lost and suffering to administer healing and aid. It was a meager occupation but rewarding far beyond anything I had experienced before. By Rangvald's side I learned much more than I ever learned in study at the University and the deeds we did helped scrub of some small amount of guilt still lingering on my heart. The Gnome himself seemed to have a calling, in an odd sort of way he wandered seemingly aimlessly about, lucking upon those in need. He hid the truth of his wandering behind an outlandish tale he would spin of a mysterious ingredient he searched for that would help him create an unending supply of his most potent potions. Divining the real truth of his intentions was difficult, if not for his absentmindedness or his constant ability to become distracted, then also because he magically warded himself from being detected or gaining magical insight into his intentions.

I lost my mentor some months ago during a sandstorm in the desert south of Sunspear, I searched for weeks before losing heart and beginning a loose trek towards the coast. It was then that I found myself allied with the Rogue Elements (though they did not call themselves this at the time) and the rest is...