When Kobold Press launched the Tales of the Valiant RPG, we also launched six pre-generated characters for people to be able to start playing right away. These characters showed “iconic” representations of these classes, and provided some art that appears in Tales of the Valiant products, showing these iconic characters in action.
But who are these characters? We know their heritage and background, but how did they get from there to the character you can play?
Today, we find out the story behind the orc mechanist, Hendrian Kaska.
Hendrian Kaska (Orc Mechanist)
Class: Mechanist (Metallurgist)
Lineage: Orc
Heritage: Diaspora
Background: Maker
Long ago, in lands across the silver sea, our people built an empire that challenged the sun in glory. Within glittering spires that reached the heavens, we crafted masterworks that allowed us to rule without oppression and live harmoniously without spoiling the land. The very gods looked upon us with envy, as did other beings that jealously watch the mortal world. The demon lords who writhe in the black and fetid Abyss saw our glory and did the unthinkable. They overcame their base natures and worked as one to rise from their pits to swallow our glittering empire. Thus was the end of the first and last kingdom to know one thousand years of peace.
So go the stories often repeated by the orcs of the Ur-Kannar tribes. Though no evidence of this mythical empire remains, the dwindling populations of such tribes cling to these tales to preserve what little remains of a proud and powerful ancestral heritage.
These stories sparked the imagination of an orcish boy named Kaska. He was born in a remote mountainside hamlet established by descendants of Ur-Kannar. Like the other members of his tribe, Kaska was raised to honor ancient tradition and tasked with preserving his people’s way of life above all else. However, as Kaska grew, his active imagination, curiosity, and thirst for knowledge strained against his community’s humble way of life.
As their other children grew to excel as hunters, farmers, and herders, Kaska’s parents watched their youngest son bounce from trade to trade. Skill wasn’t the problem, Kaska excelled at everything he tried, whether weaving with the elders or forging blades with the blacksmith. However, nothing held his attention.
Most concerning were the boy’s questions, particularly about the old stories. Where were the ruins of the lost empire of Ur-Kannar? What kind of masterwork machines did they build? If there was a giant demon attack, why didn’t anyone else know about it? Why wasn’t anyone looking for answers?
As Kaska grew older, he became aware of how different he was and stopped asking questions. His people had no answers and were too set in their ways to go looking for them. If the mysteries of Ur-Kannar and its remarkable machines could be uncovered, a dying people clinging to a memory of greatness wouldn’t be the ones to find it. Shortly after his fifteenth birthday, Kaska packed his meager possessions and slipped away quietly into the night.
Without a coin to his name or much knowledge of the world, he began the multi-day journey to the nearest town. Kaska’s diversity of skills made it easy to find odd jobs that kept his belly full while his mind consumed all the new information. However, he soon longed for something more. Kaska got his opportunity when a traveling band of tinkers rolled into town.
The tinkers were artisans from across the land who peddled goods and services from colorful covered wagons. Kaska was enchanted by their fine goods and expert demonstrations but drawn to one wagon above the rest. Hendrian Henley’s Clockwork Creations displayed fantastical toys and mechanisms powered by gears and mechanisms, using technology and magic Kaska could only envision. In the following days, Kaska spent every free moment talking to the eccentric old gnome who owned the wagon. Seeing the orc’s clear interest in his work and needing an assistant, Henley offered to hire Kaska as his apprentice.
Kaska learned much about making, the world, and magic in the years he spent traveling with the tinkers. He also learned much of Henley’s extraordinary life as an engineer, inventor, and teacher after leaving his ancestral home long ago. The odd pair quickly formed a deep bond, becoming their own kind of family.
When Henley’s aging body grew too weary for the hardships of the road, they settled in the bustling capital where Kaska could formally study engineering. As the orc ended his studies, his gnomish friend finally succumbed to old age. A grieving Kaska set about settling his old friend’s affairs and discovered that the gnome had no living relatives. He had named Kaska his sole heir and inheritor of his family’s ancestral estate and fortune. To honor his friend’s memory, Kaska took the gnome’s first name as his own, determined to leave his mark on the world as Hendrian Kaska.
The newly named Hendrian left city life behind to discover what awaited him at the abandoned gnomish estate. Within its dusty vaults, he found magical contraptions, rare tomes, and extraordinary wonders Henley and his ancestors had collected and protected over the centuries. One of the strangest among them was inside a wooden box—a semifluid shard that reshaped itself in accordance with the orc’s will.
Armed with education and resources, Hendrian is determined to unravel the world’s great mysteries, including the truth of the lost empire of Ur-Kannar. In the meantime, he has teamed up with a heroic organization called the Valiant Six to hone his skills and find ways to use his mystical creations for the good of all, just as his legendary ancestors once did.