Role

Chapter 1

Born to a father who was concerned with gears and how they worked, and a
mother who was concerned with steam power, Zigglebert had an okay childhood.
His parents didn't completely leave him alone, but neither did they spend
very much time with him, preferring to work on their respective projects and
inventions. At the age of fifteen (in gnomish years of course), Zigglebert
made his first invention, a small catapult that he could fire by pulling a
string from in front, which would then throw a ball for him to catch. The
gnome child didn't have very many friends growing up, which lead to his
personality developing to be able to make people to like him more, out of his
direct want for friends. A human boy named Chett gave him the nickname of
Bert, saying Zigglebert was too much of a mouthful for anyone except a gnome.

When Bert was around forty years old, his mother was killed in a freak boiler
accident. His father basically locked himself in his work room and refused to
come out, Bert leaving his meals outside the door and finding the plates
clean the next morning. Bert continued to make his own inventions during that
time, but nothing seemed useful or practical. His father emerged from his
room on Bert's fiftieth birthday and seemed surprised that his son was there,
or even that his son was in fact his son. His next move was to tell his son
he was too old to live with his father, and he needed to leave. Bert was
deeply hurt, but he left anyways.