Character: Embi

Character Sheet (Embi)

Combat Value: 7

You are Embi. And in all your many years, you haven't had many weeks quite this complicated.

By now, you find the reactions of these Europeans to your story amusing. That wasn't always the case. For many years, it was simply frustrating to have a matter as serious as your life story disbelieved. But now, you find yourself turning into a legend, and that is an unusual and gratifying feeling. In fairness to them, it isn't as if you are entirely certain of your own age. Your best guess puts it at around 130, but those years wandering around the Equator were a bit harder to count than the rest.

You were born into the Klamata tribe -- well, whenever it was. To the Europeans, your people are considered pygmies: strangely short and black. To yourselves, you simply look like people, and it is these oddly stringy white people who are odd-looking. (Although, admittedly, you have had enough years amongst them that they no longer look all that odd.)

The Klamata were named for their patron god, Klamat, and you were particularly dedicated to him when you were born. Your people had a tradition that the first son born after the first full moon of each year is special -- he will have a destiny unique to himself, to which he must promise himself to Klamat. You spent your childhood thinking about what your oath would be. You were regaled with the accounts of the previous oaths: killing more lions than anyone else had ever done; building the mightiest water-powered engine of destruction the people had ever seen; taking more lovers than any previous tribesman had ever had; and so on. Somehow, they all seemed just a bit mundane to you.

So, on your coming of age on your 15th birthday, you were ushered into the presence of Klamat. (Or some reasonable facsimile thereof. The statues and fires were impressive at the time, but you must admit that the years since have made you just a bit skeptical and jaded. But whether it was actually your god or merely a stand-in for him matters little.) And there you made your oath: to see the entire world before you died.

It seemed like a reasonable oath. You had heard tell that it could take a year on foot to reach the Great Water, in pretty much whichever direction one went. So finding your way around all of those lands would make a fine life's work, and a distinctive one -- your people had never been much for exploration, so you would be doing something truly novel.

The next several years were spent preparing for the journey. You made sure to learn every skill that seemed useful, from killing wild game to eat to the making of compasses and maps. And finally, three years to the day after your oath-taking, you set out.

Those first few years really were delightful: the world was so exotic and exciting, and you were discovering new things every day. It actually took several years to make it to the ocean, since you were constantly taking detours one way or another. Then you began to travel around it, making sure to keep coming inland to see what tribes were around, and always map-making to keep track of where you had been.

When you started to reach north Africa, though, the folly of your assumptions began to emerge. Your people had fine ideas about how big the world was, but their definition of the "world" turned out to only be one continent. In Morocco, you had the opportunity to stop for several years and learn from great scholars, and realized that you had taken on a task far larger than you had originally conceived.

You started to worry then, and the worry continued for a number of years. The task seemed impossible within a single man's lifespan: there was simply too much to see! No firstborn had ever failed his oath; would you be the first? Would you fail to come back to your people and report your great accomplishment? Or would you be ancient and ailing by the time you could do so, not a hero at all but merely a sad curiosity?

Fortunately, by the time you were about fifty and had circumnavigated Africa, you began to realize that Klamat takes care of his own. It seems that you had made it to about age thirty and simply stopped aging. You would be given the time to complete your oath. And that meant that there was nothing for it, but to venture out into the strange lands of the north.

Since then, you've let yourself be a bit less disciplined about your task. If you are going to travel such unimaginable distances, you may as well enjoy it. So you have let yourself drift on the winds of fate, going where it would take you. And along the way, you've develop a taste for adventure that you had never expected originally.

Oh, the adventures have been many and sundry. You have seen creatures of mien so terrible they would freeze most men's blood and loved women so beautiful they would fire them back up again. You have traveled from England to Cathay and back, and even made your way down to Australia for an all-too-short time -- someday you must return and see more of the outback and the wise people who live there. You are far from having seen all of the world, though -- indeed, you have yet to find a way to the Americas. Many Sparks have told you that they had ways of getting there, but the schemes have ranged from the merely foolish to the outright suicidal (no, you do not think that a giant trebuchet is a good approach), and your desire to see more does not outweigh your fondness for keeping your neck straight.

Your brush with legend was just about thirty years ago now. You had known of the so-called Brigadoon Effect, of course -- everyone who traveled did. Fifty years previous, a mad imam of some sort had sucked much of the Middle East into a gigantic time distortion, such that the lands kept "jumping" forwards by ten years at a stretch, rejoining the rest of the world for only a month before vanishing again. Indeed, the last time you had taken the opportunity to travel briefly into Persia, before exiting again before the next Jump. When the Effect was in place, it was wondrous to behold: all those lands, hidden beneath a shimmering silver dome that kept time at bay. But you knew that, romantic though it seemed, it was having terrible effects upon the people inside: revolts, wars and riots were decimating the people, who were terrified at the way the outside world was passing them by.

In your time inside the area, you had briefly met the Iron Sheik, a local ruler and powerful Spark who was gaining in influence. By the time the next Jump came around, it transpired that he was now being hailed as a leader by much of the people, and had set out to rescue them from the Jumps. He had heard the legends of the great Spark Amagog, who centuries before had done much exploring of the principles of time and space. He reasoned that, if anyone might have created the devices needed to rescue his people, it would have been Amagog.

And so the so-called "Race to the West Pole" began. The Iron Sheik encountered the Heterodyne Boys, the greatest heroes of the age, and after the customary misunderstanding and foolish battle (a ritual that you have observed is quite consistent when powerful Sparks first encounter each other), they allied. Along the way, you joined up with the group, and collectively learned that the best bet was the legendary Time Ruby, being kept by Amagog's descendents on the Rock of Gibraltar. The group of you headed steadily westward on board the Sheik's great fifty-foot-tall Clank, constantly pursued by the Heterodynes' enemy Professor Mongfish and his beautiful daughter Lucrezia.

In the end, you made it to the West Pole first, only to find it protected by a terrible time distortion, that had trapped many previous travelers like flies in amber. You had no desire to be the next victims of the effect, and it briefly looked like you might be stymied. But the Heterodynes observed that the field wasn't consistent: there was a maze-like pattern to it. And that was where you came in: being an expert and disciplined map-maker, you charted the effect, and determined its pattern. Once done, the group of you were able to walk (very carefully) right to the small house at its center.

And there was an ordinary house, with an ordinary family in it: father, mother, a pair of small boys. The von Zinzers were the children of Amagog, descendended from his son, who had left before his disappearance. As such, they had custody of the Time Ruby and a few other wonders of his. To his credit, the Iron Sheik did not simply seize the Ruby (which, with his giant Clank, he surely could have). Instead, he pled his case, explaining how his people needed the Ruby to ground them back in reality. And to their credit, the von Zinzers willingly gave up the Ruby, knowing that their separation and protection from the world would end there.

Time was short, though, and even the Sheik's great Clank would not be enough to get him back to his lands in time. So the von Zinzers gave him another gift -- a great Roc that had been in their family for generations. So, bidding farewell to them and to the Heterodynes, you and the Sheik climbed on board the mighty bird, and flew all the way back to Persia, faster than the faster ordinary bird could ever manage.

And as they say, everyone lived happily ever after. The Sheik got back to his lands before the next Jump, and was hailed as the greatest hero of the age by his people. You enjoyed his company there for much of a year before the wanderlust struck again. You haven't seen him since, but you understand that he has ruled his people well, and now has a son named "Zami", currently in the care of Baron von Wulfenbach.

Ah, yes -- Wulfenbach. Over the years you have seen many rulers come and go, in lands so numerous that it is hard to take any of them too seriously. But none have been quite so mighty as he. Once, Klaus von Wulfenbach was simply the "sidekick" to the Heterodyne Boys, and you met him as part of the Race to the West Pole: he seemed a decent and smart fellow, if a bit intense. But then, a few years later the Heterodynes disappeared -- you've never heard any reliable word on why. Wulfenbach was left trying to decide what to do with the chaos left in their wake. And you have no doubt that it was chaos: for all the horrors you have seen on your journeys, those years after the Heterodynes left were the worst.

But you sometimes question Wulfenbach's approach. He decided that the Heterodyne's polite ways had no built a lasting peace, so he would instead build on on strength. You've seen that enough times to know that it works even less, rarely past the death of its builder, if that long. For now, though, there is peace, constructed by Wulfenbach's will, and his armies of Clanks and Jaegermonsters. Things still aren't great for the average villager, but at least there is little open warfare. He holds the children of his vassals and allies captive, even young Zami, son of the one man whose power almost rivals Wulfenbach's own. Sometime you hope to meet the boy, and see how he measures up to his father.

Meanwhile, you've spent these past few years traveling with Master Payne's Circus of Adventure, doing a variety of acts: you juggle quite well, and have a dancing and singing cat routine that has been wowing the crowds lately. They are a good bunch of people, if all a bit strange -- you are not out of place in the group. Publically, it is simply a traveling Heterodyne Show, telling the stories of the Boys. (The Heterodyne Boys and the Race to the West Pole turns out to be a popular favorite with the crowds. That would be amusing enough by itself, but the real amusement is getting to see "Ember, The Black Knight" hacking his way through the shields at Gibraltar. Being unable to play yourself on stage because you are too short says -- well, something about the popular imagination.)

In private, though, the Circus is a haven for the strange and dispossessed. In particular, the majority of the players are minor Sparks, banded together here for mutual protection. No one really appreciates their breed: they are powerful enough to scare people, but not enough so to really help themselves. But by working in the Circus they can pretend to simply be creatures of illusion, and people dismiss any strangeness.

The past month has been complex, though. First, there was the arrest. Three weeks ago, the Circus passed through the town of Middleburg. Once upon a time, it was a nice enough place: you first encountered it about 20 years ago, and it had struck you as a bit dull but pleasant. You hadn't been there in many years -- it wasn't on the Circus' usual route -- but with the bridge at Passholdt out of commission (and you all having barely gotten away from the creatures there with your lives), it was the obvious way to go.

Middleburg, it turned out, was now run by a corrupt nobleman named Hugo von Markheim, a ruthless and cruel man. You have seen too many of this breed over the years, and it always makes you long for the decent sorts like the Iron Sheik. Von Markheim runs Middleburg as his own private little fief, and he makes up the rules arbitrarily. By all accounts, he is exceptionally harsh, and likes to extort from everyone who passes through.

Master Payne and Countess Marie (the owners of the Circus) were very clear with the members of the show: everyone was to stay strictly on the up-and-up. For all you know, they might have done so -- reports were very muddled. All you know for sure is that, late on that first night, a rider came from Middleburg, telling you that all the Circus members in town had been arrested, on the serious grounds of "theft". That was out of character, but you couldn't discount the possibility that it was true -- a bit of grifting is almost reflexive for some members of the show. Payne asked how to get them out of jail, and was cited a price that was clearly a bribe. A bribe far beyond the Circus' means.

They pleaded and begged -- everything but outright exposing their own Sparkiness to the herald. But he would hear none of it. Either the Circus coughed up the money within three weeks, or von Markheim would begin to execute members of the show. Finally, they asked whether fair exchange would be accepted, and the herald agreed that a gift of suitable value would be considered a proper bail.

Well, you clearly couldn't raise the money in Middleburg, and risk having more members of the Circus taken hostage. So you have spent the past two weeks on the road, doing everything you could to raise the funds. It has been hard, though, especially with half the group behind bars. As of a week ago, you were nowhere near having the needed money. But you did hear about one desperate option. The Hidden Castle of Amagog had recently reappeared.

Now that took you back. Amagog, creator of the Time Ruby, had famously vanished only a few years after he invented it. Local legend of this area claimed that he had constructed a fabulous monster called the "Perfect Construct". It sounds quite mighty and terrible, but you occasionally remind yourself about how legend has treated you in only a few decades -- with two centuries to grow, reports of a snaggletoothed kitten could easily turn quite frightening. So you try not to take things quite at face value. (On the other hand, the servant of a God's work can't discount things too easily, either.)

Regardless, Amagog had apparently disappeared, Castle and all, two hundred years ago. You'd visited the spot quite some time ago, and the land was unremarkable -- no signs that a Castle had ever been there at all. But now, for no apparent reason, it had suddenly reappeared.

Of course, every adventurer in the region has been coming around and trying to enter the Castle, and none of them have come back out as far as you know. The Castle is fully functional, including all of its deathtraps. Frightening stuff, but it does imply that there are things of great value inside. Perhaps great enough to ransom back the Circus. And so, the Circus came here a couple of weeks ago.

You were thinking about broaching the Castle yourself, scouting around in the forest, when you ran into Othar Tryggvassen doing the same thing. You know Othar well -- he has been a devotee of the Circus' for many years, attending whenever your paths cross. And they've done so frequently: Othar is a wandering adventurer and hero, and shows up in all sorts of strange places with great regularity.

He had, of course, been drawn by the reports of the Castle, and had come with his current compatriots. One was Theopholous DuMedd, nephew of Lucrezia Mongfish. You remember Lucrezia fondly: she may have been a villainess (she and her father were the ones harrying you all the way to the West Pole), but she was a charming and beautiful one, and eventually married Bill Heterodyne. Young Theo is apparently all that remains of the Mongfish line, and is a mild Spark himself.

And the other -- well, you were slightly startled to discover that the weary soldier with Othar was Moloch von Zinzer. You remember Moloch, but he probably doesn't remember you: he was a small child when his parents gave the group of you the Time Ruby. The years haven't been kind to him: he seems bitter with the passage of time. You didn't tell him at the time who you were, but at some point you want to sit down and find out more about what became of him and his family after the affair with the Ruby.

Moloch is wise enough to be unfond of dangerous adventuring, but Theo and Othar were eager to brave the Hidden Castle and see what they could find. And you haven't had a good adventure in some time. So a week ago, the three of you set out to explore the Castle and see what you could find in there.

It was far from easy, and you encountered the corpse of more than one predecessor in there. But the three of you had appropriately complementary skills for the task: Theo's Sparkiness, your cautious exploration (and small size) and Othar's sheer bravery and exuberance got you all through the various traps to the heart of the Castle.

You were disappointed not to find a great treasure-room or anything of the like, which would have made it easy to ransom the Circus. Instead, you found a variety of libraries and laboratories. At the center was a room that was clearly the main Laboratory, with a variety of devices and a great mirror on one wall. You couldn't tell what it was all supposed to do, and you didn't have time to explore deeply -- young Theopholous had been injured in the course of the adventure and needed to get out and rest. But at the center of the Lab was a pedestal with a large and rather odd crystal set into it. You gently removed the crystal from its perch, finding that it contained the most remarkably intricate clockwork, connected to a variety of tiny levers and gears sticking out the bottom. The Crystal itself seems like a reasonably rich prize, so you took it with you. With any luck, Hugo von Markheim will take it as a suitable ransom from the captured members of the Circus.

In the week since, things have continued to be a bit tense and unusual. A couple of days ago, Agatha came out of the woods with a new companion, a talking gerbil to accompany her talking cat! Master Theopholous, with the stubbornness of youth, refused to get treatment for his injured arm for several days; you grew downright concerned about him until he finally went to see Countess Marie a couple of days ago. And just today, while out checking on the roads, you've seen a couple of different parties coming up the road, presumably to explore the Castle themselves. It promises to be a busy day. And sometime today, von Markheim's herald is expected to arrive, seeking his ransom for the members of the Circus.

In the meantime, you find yourself wondering more about what can be found in the Castle. Amagog was legendary as the master of not just time, but space. You have spent quite some time in Europa, and the wanderlust is striking again. There are so many places you haven't been yet. Might there be something in there that could help you travel further than you have done before?

Summary

You are Embi, a native of central Africa, accidentally semi-immortal due to a childhood vow. In your century-plus of wandering the world you have seen and done much, even winding up a (wildly misrepresented) figure of popular legend. Nowadays you are enjoying a bit of quiet semi-anonymity as a juggler with Master Payne's Circus -- ostensibly a fairly normal life, but nothing is ever simple when traveling through the woods of Europa.

You are a pygmy. In practical terms, this means that most of the people of Europa are strangely tall, but such is the way with outlanders.

Embi appears in Girl Genius volume 4.

Public Info

Personality

In your youth, you were impetuous, even impulsive, and you will admit that you still enjoy a good adventure. But you have seen and experienced so much by now that very little takes you truly by surprise. You are cool-headed, but you have managed to fend off the danger of getting jaded. You are still perpetually curious, and love to meet new people and learn their stories. One thing you have learned is that every is the same, and yet everyone is just a bit different.

Some People You Know (Embi)

The Iron Sheik: The ruler of Persia, your old compatriot and friend from the Race to the West Pole.

Zami Yahya Ahmad ibn Suliman al-Sinhaji: The Iron Sheik's son. By your calculation, he would be just about reaching manhood now.

Baron Klaus von Wulfenbach: Ruler of these lands and many others, a brief associate of yours from that same Race. You haven't met him since, but he seems to be a decent but slightly harsh ruler. You are told that he has little family of his own, just a single son named Gilgamesh, who came a few months ago to try and recapture Agatha.

Master Payne: The owner and proprietor of the Circus you currently travel with. A good man, if a bit overly serious. A Spark whose particular skill is illusion.

Countess Marie: Payne's wife and co-owner. She is a lovely and intelligent woman, and a Spark in her own right, with a specialty of potioncraft.

Zeetha: The Circus' green-haired swordmistress. She is a princess from a land known as "Skifander", who no longer knows how to get home. You wish you could assist her, but you have never encountered this place yourself. From her descriptions, it is an exotic and fascinating place; you will need to visit there sometime, in your travels.

Abner: Payne's second-in-command and assistant. He had been held with the rest of the arrested Circus members, but was released a few days ago as a sign of good faith from von Markheim.

Pix: Abner's lover, the best actress of the troupe. She is still being held captive in Middleburg, along with many other Circus members -- the Cook, Balthazar and family, Anton the music-master, and so on. You miss all of your friends, and hope that you can help Payne and Marie ransom or rescue them.

Othar Tryggvassen: An adventurer who you recently worked with to get into the Hidden Castle. A good man, but a bit obsessed with the evil of Sparks, so not someone to tell about the Circus' secrets.

Theopholous Mongfish: A young Spark traveling with Othar, the nephew of Lucrezia Mongfish, sometime adversary (and lover) of the Heterodyne Boys.

Moloch von Zinzer: A sometime soldier also traveling with Othar. You met him when he was but a child living at the West Pole. You are slightly nervous that taking the Time Ruby from his family may not have been good for him, and feel a tad guilty about that. Perhaps there is something you can do to help him improve his life?

Agatha Clay: A young woman who joined the Circus a few months ago. She had been on the run from Baron von Wulfenbach; you still don't know exactly why (despite your long hours peeling dinner gourds with her), and keep meaning to ask her more about that. She is a Spark, and an unusually strong one at that. You get the same sort of feelings from her as you did from your old friend the Sheik.

"Emperor" Krosp: Agatha's talking pet cat. You find him quite an amusing creature, and more intelligent than most people you know, if sometimes a bit full of himself. Heaven knows, he'd probably be a better ruler than most people manage to be.

Dingbot Prime: A small Clank that trails around after Agatha. She apparently built the thing, and it is her most devoted servant. It is a bit difficult to communicate with sometimes, but it makes an entertaining game.

Artie: Agatha's latest acquisition, a talking gerbil. (Where does she get these things?) Every bit as smart as Krosp, and rather friendlier.

Maria: A local girl from the nearby town, who joined the Circus about a week ago. You can tell that Payne and Marie don't approve, but you think she should be encouraged. Everyone needs a bit of adventure in their lives, and she is seventeen years old -- older than you were when you took your oath. So you have taken her in hand, and are teaching her a bit about what adventuring is really like. It may not be for her (it is a poor idea for most people, really, who simply get themselves killed), but she shouldn't be frustrated by idle dreams.

Dimo, Oggie and Maxim: A trio of wandering Jaegermonsters who joined the Circus a couple of months ago. You still aren't sure precisely how that happened. That said, they are a mystery unto themselves -- as far as you knew, all of the Jaegers were in the service of Baron Wulfenbach. Moreover, in your long experience, you have always seen Jaegers to be intensely tribal creatures, who stick together. It is another mystery to explore. Why would three Jaegers be off on their own like this? What did they do, to find themselves separated from their pack?

Bangladesh DuPree: The self-styled pirate queen of the southern seas. You first met her a bit over 80 years ago, when you were still relatively young and beginning to travel outside Africa. You weren't sure which direction to go, and your feet took you towards India, on board a merchant ship bound that way. But the ship was captured by a band of marauding pirates, who looted it and killed the captain -- and captured you as a curiosity for good measure. You despaired that you might spend the rest of your days as a mere freak, but the captain -- Miss DuPree -- fell to talking with you, and you found a somewhat kindred spirit. She was as restless as you, always moving from place to place, and loved to see new places in her own way. She was a bit frightening in her casual disregard for life, but you found yourselves gradually becoming friends.

In the end, she brought you back to her homeland in eastern India, feted you as a guest for a month or two, and then sent you on your way. Of all the strange friends you have made over the years, she may be the strangest, but her cheerful spirit still warms you, years later. For all her bloodthirstiness, you saw how her people revered her, and she them -- to people she cares about, she is quite decent. Quite a puzzle, she was...

---

Male (Status: In Game)

Pictures
(v4, p66-67)

Plots:
The Brigadoon Effect (Brigadoon Effect)
The Circus Arrested (Circus Arrested)
Theft of the Clockwork Crystal (Stolen Crystal)

Bluesheets:
Master Payne's Circus of Adventure (Circus Bluesheet)

Items

Clockwork Crystal (Clockwork Crystal) -- A rather large clear crystal, about three inches in diameter. The top is smooth; the bottom comes to a point. Embedded inside the crystal is an intricate clockwork mechanism of gears and levers, which come out at the bottom as a set of tiny linkages.

The gears are almost constantly moving, if there is any sound. They stop only when it is completely silent.

Abilities and Disabilities

Juggling (Juggling) -- You are a juggler of surpassing skill, capable of juggling a few of almost anything, or keeping up to ten balls in the air.

Agility (Agility) -- You are exceptionally agile and observant, with far faster reflexes than most people, the result of your years. As such, whenever you are threatened with any sort of trap or device, you can spend one Point to duck around it or avoid it, no matter how quickly it comes on you.

---

Historical Background

The following were notes while the character was evolving. They do not necessarily represent the way it came out.

From the Cast List:

An explorer from Africa who travels Europe searching for exotic adventure. Embi is a Pygmy, and so, although he is proficient in storytelling, juggling and many other forms of entertainment, his main attraction for the crowds is that he is short.

He considers Europe to be "savage" and "exotic" (v4, p66); like many people, he has joined the Circus for safety.

He talks very big. We think he is prone to exaggeration -- on (v4, p67) he claims that his people are born the size of beets, and that he himself is 130 years old. But really, knowing the GG universe, it's entirely possible that it's all true. It might be fun to write him in the Vissevald mode: he enjoys being a legend, and deliberately tries to not pay attention to where the bounds lie between the truth and the legend.

Actually one of the more interesting minor characters. As an explorer from a foreign land, he is explicitly curious, well-educated, and has an unusual view on many things. And his costume is great. May well be worth pulling in, if we can come up with a good plot for him. Something relating to his homeland? Something he's quietly been looking for here in Europe? An adventure where he has gotten in over his head? Heck, he could be the one who found the Castle in the first place. He claims to have made a sacred vow to see the entire world; Amagog's devices give him access to more of the world than would otherwise be possible.

Embi doesn't enjoy playing chess (v5, p32). What does this say about him? Is he not a strategic thinker?

Given his life as a world traveller, it would be easy enough to tie him cross-faction. For example, he might well have crossed paths with Z years ago, back in his youth. Indeed, this might be a fine way to raise the question of how old he really is. Indeed, for real fun, we could have Embi exist in fictionalized form in Race to the West Pole. I'm thinking that that included a character named "Ember, the Black Knight", a large and fearsome warrior. In fact, it was a set of Clank armor made for Embi by The Iron Sheik (who [we know was involved in that story]). If the Circus is performing this show today, that introduces interesting extra nuances. Indeed, it introduces the delightful problem that they need a Strapping Black Guy to play this fictional version of Embi. And they've only got one of those -- Artie, in his human form. I'm liking this plot: we can say that they offered to do a show for the incognito Gil and company. He, knowing that this story was based on Z's father and was a favorite of Agatha's, requested this one.

Amount of Character Potential: Good (I really like Embi, and pretty much know how to write him, so he's probably in.)