User:Aeslyn/Galowei Monkeywrench

Author's Note: View Galowei on Armory & Letters to Fizzle Rachetarm a journal of her journies and adventures.

Birth of an Average Girl
Born in an average home to a pair of average parents who were average in their talents, skills and means; Galowei Monkeywrench wouldn't have stood out as significant to any historian as she came squalling into the world like every other gnome living in Gnomeregan at the time.

She grew up all knees and elbows, curious and mischievous... happily the apple of her parent's eye but, of no more importance than any other child whom she played with every day of her life. Selia and Garn Monkeywrench were both engineers and logically expected that their daughter Galowei would take up the trade when her time came; that both of them would have a hand in teaching her the talent they adored... but that day would never come.

The Power of a Lie
When the trogs first appeared Galawei never saw them. She was told that there had been a rupture in a tunnel and it wasn't safe to play outside anymore. She was ushered into her home and kept away from the windows, told that the loud noises she heard on the city's edges were people hard at work trying to fix the problem and that there wasn't anything to worry about. Days passed like this and Galowei believed her mother and father, after all, why wouldn't she?

Mother and Father spent longer and longer days away and each day they came home looking more tired and worn than the day before. Despite their weariness they worked late into the night every chance they got, building her a secret present. When finished, they presented to her with tears in their eyes. Her child's innocent mind thought their tears were tears of joy but, looking back in years to come she would see them differently.

Her gift was a suit, silvery like moonlight with a round helmet and a glass face plate like those used for swimming in the depths. Galowei played in the suit happily, it was her special gift and she pretended that it was a suit of armor like she saw men and women in the streets wearing, whenever she snuck a peak during mom and dad's working hours.

The day she learned the truth about what was happening in the tunnels would be the worst day of her life up to that point. The city protections were breached and the streets were flooded with gnomes fighting the overwhelming tide of trogs. There was no hope of defeating them. The din of battle was so frightening that little Galowei put on her "armor" and went in search of a weapon to take into hiding with her while she waited for the return of her parents.

Utility knife in hand she hid in a closet and listened to the horrible sounds of people dying from exposure to the radiation and at the hands of the trogs. All night she waited but her parents never came home. When she woke up the next morning she decided to venture out, to sneak around and look for her family ... what she found was beyond anything even adults experienced in war wanted to imagine.

The city was filled with dead & dying, trogs roamed the streets and no one she knew was anywhere to be found... not at the market where her father use to buy her sweet bread, not at her parent's workshop - no where. After hours of sneaking around Galowei finally saw someone she recognized. It was the old man from down the street who had all the cats she loved so much. Squealing for joy she ran towards him, calling out his name and reaching out to him. When he turned towards her, however, she immediately knew something wasn't right. She stopped and stared at his sickly green skin, his glassy gaze and the way he stumbled towards her.

Screaming in terror she tried to run, but as she exited the city into the snow she found it was too hard to run while wearing her 'armor' and she quickly tripped. Crawling in the snow she moved as fast as she could but something grabbed her foot and flipped her over. Seeing the trog who had captured her she cried out again. She struggled and flailed with all her might and just then fate intervened for the average, nobody important, child gnome: the trog lost his footing in the snow and fell not only on top of Galowei, but also her father's knife.

Hearing the other trogs around her Galowei didn't move, she tried not to breath though hot tears streamed down her cheeks. She couldn't see anything through the face plate of her 'helm' except the awful monster bleeding out his mouth all over the once pristine glass.

Galowei lay there for hours, not daring to move for fear that the trogs were just a few feet away waiting for her to show up again or worse more of her friends and family who were ... sick. When she heard a set of feet crunching through the snow she had no idea if it was friend or foe and so when she heard someone speaking in a language she didn't understand, she assumed the worst. The trog corpse was pulled off of her and she lept to her feet waving the blood stained utility knife at two dwarves who had come to see for themselves what had happened in the capital city of Gnomeregan.

Quickly the men spoke to her in common and ushered her away from the scene of the devestation. Though they tried their best to get her to comply, Galowei wouldn't let go of the knife. They tried to tell her that it was okay, to trust them... but she couldn't. If her own mother and father would lie to her... who else might? No, she had to be able to protect herself.

Her parent's lie had shaped her, as surely as the fall of gnomeregan had. Galowei swore to herself she would never tell anyone a lie, ever, no matter what and she would not tolerate people lying to her either. This was the first of many of her self-imposed edicts (her personal code if you will) that she'd make in the course of her life. The second being, from that moment on, she would never be without a way to defend herself... the first in many steps towards becoming the warrior she would be in the future.

The Brown Book
(Author's Note: This is a Pacer Group on My Server) Five years before she reached adulthood, Galowei received a gift from another orphan. It was a book titled: "Choosing Your Family: A War Orphan’s Guide to Success by: Samuel Berkehill"

The book discussed a great many things in a blunt and, what seemed to Galowei, truthful fashion. For the last of her years with the orphanage Galowei kept to herself, studying her book in the same way she studied mechanical parts. It became her holy text, her best friend... it seemed only the author understood how it really felt to be her. Sam knew and best of all he believed in her goals when others only chuckled about when she dared to share with them.

Galowei WOULD be a warrior one day... and she'd return to Gnomeregan with a sword and leave with what belonged to her, one way or another. And, with luck and skill just maybe she and her brethren would accomplish the "Prime Directive."

A Warrior Is Born
Galowei took up the sword the same day she left the orphanage. Setting off for a small village where she could receive training she took up tasks of killing wild boars and wolves as a way to learn and eventually she it seemed that people were laughing less and less at the sight of the small gnome girl dressed in armor swinging a blade.

Exaggerations, Rumors & Lies

 * It's rumored that Galowei was betrothed shortly after her birth to another young gnome named Fizzle Ratchetarm who's fate, after the taking of Gnomeregan, is unknown.
 * Add your own rumor, exaggeration or lie here!
 * Add your own rumor, exaggeration or lie here!