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| Name: | Niksi Knockfathom |
| (NIK-see) | |
| AKA: | Nix, Niksi Piecewise (birth name) |
| Gender: | Female |
| Race: | Gnome |
| Class: | Warrior |
| Role: | Damage |
| Faction: | The Explorers' League |
| Professions: | engineering, mining |
| Homeland: | Gnomeregan |
| Player: | OzmaAsimov |
RP Hooks
- Ex-Pirate: Though she was never much of a buccaneer herself, Nix served on a pirate vessel, The Skylark, for several years.
- Explorer: Though committed mostly to the exploration of the sea, sometimes Niksi's expeditions require her to act like a land-lubber.
- Fish Enthusiast: Nix is fascinated by fish. By all sea life, actually, but people that know her still tend to think of her as "the fish lady".
Inventions
Appearance
Niksi's short, vibrant green hair frames a face freckled by countless hours spent beneath the open sky. Her eyes are a vibrant blue like the reflection of the sky shimmering on still water.
Every inch of her compact frame is honed by her relentless passion for the sea. Wiry muscles are a testament to the physical demands of her exploration and the strength required for her underwater excursions. Her movements are graceful and purposeful, as liquid as the currents she calls home.
Nix has several tattoos. On her right hip is a small silhouette of the pirate ship that rescued her. Her right forearm bears a swimming sea turtle. Rumor has it there are some tattoos only special friends get to see. Most notable is the large blue flounder marking her left shoulder.
Dressed in practical, sea-worn attire, Nix's clothing speaks to both her ingenuity and her affinity for the ocean. She wears sturdy boots and well-worn gloves, and is almost never seen without tools secured in pockets of a belt or vest. She wears a necklace of aquamarines styled like bubbles. Every piece of her ensemble bears the marks of a life dedicated to exploration and invention.
Personality
Mindful ⬥ Conscientious ⬥ Audacious ⬥ Overconfident
Niksi is measured and thoughtful, even when giddy and enthused about some new discover. She is an active listener, absorbing the thoughts and concerns of those around her before offering her own insights.
Perhaps due to being raised by a military mother, Niksi has a strong sense of principle and loyalty. She is fully confident of her own capabilities (perhaps more than she should be), and sees it as her duty to apply her singular skills for the betterment and protection of gnomekind, the Alliance, and above all else, Azeroth's oceans.
Niksi rarely does anything small. She takes big, bold swings, dauntless as she heads into adventure and the unknown. She isn't reckless, though. Her plans are painstaking and meticulous (which only makes her temper worse when things go horribly wrong).
Niksi harbors a boundless love for the sea and all it contains. She is deeply committed to protecting the oceans from polluters, and her affection for marine life exceeds even her concern for other humanoids. Nix is never happier than when she is out on — or even better, deeper under — the water.
Romance
History
Like most gnomes, Niksi hails from the sprawl of Gnomeregan. She grew up amid the din of pumping pistons and cranking gears. However, her heart was never confined to the echoing chambers of the gnome city. She yearned for the great, expansive world outside of her underground home, and took every opportunity to go outside.
Nix's favorite childhood memory was being taken to the beach with her family. She played to the melodies of squawking seagulls and barking seals. She saw a pod of whales swimming in the distance. The highlight of her trip was when she found a sea turtle washed up on the sand, caught in a fisherman's net. The turtle held perfectly still as she freed it, as if it understood what she was doing. Even as it crawled back to the water, Niksi could swear it stopped to look back at her and nod to her.
Her mother, Kelsi Cloudhopper, was a pilot with the Gnomeregan Defense Force. For a time, Niksi followed her mother's path, reveling in the freedom of the skies. Yet, even then, she felt something was missing. Though she could see so much more of the world, she could not interact with it from a flying machine, and almost everything she could see had already been explored.
There was one place, however, that hid unimaginable secrets and promised new discoveries: the sea. When Nix was airborne, she constantly found her attention drawn to the vastness of the ocean, stretching out to the horizon and beyond. She took every opportunity to visit the coast and fly out over the waves. The rumble of the machinery in Gnomeregan seemed to pale in comparison to the rhythmic pulse of the sea.
Such longing can lead to unexpected adventures. Six years after the Dark Portal opened, she was on a routine test flight, and as was often the case she became lost in her thoughts as she soared far beyond the coastline. By the time she realized the weather was turning against her, she could no longer see land. It was too late; Niksi could not outrun the storm before it overtook her. Winds battered her craft mercilessly for what felt like hours. When a lightning strike destroyed her engine, there was nowhere to go but down…down…into the raging brine below.
Niksi was surprised to regain consciousness, certain that she was about to die at sea (and strangely comfortable with such a fate). She found herself with a face full of sand, staring into the eyes of a sea turtle. It didn't take her long to recognize the turtle as the very one she rescued years before, notable for the marking on its shell that reminded her of Kul Tiras. She surmised the turtle must have remembered her and rescued her from the wreckage of her plane. In honor of this she chose to call him "Flotsam".
Stranded on an unknown island with no technology, no other gnomes, and only her wits (and a turtle) to survive by, Niksi wasted no time exploring her new home to learn everything she could about it. She found the island had a beautiful cove that attracted a wide variety of fish. So she crafted a spear and took to diving for her meals. Over the years she became a strong swimmer, and began to develop some technology to assist her, such as flipper shoes and a rudimentary breathing bladder, allowing her to stay underwater longer.
Niksi and Flotsam formed an inseparable bond, and the turtle would often allow her to ride on his shell. While Flotsam could easily support her weight, attempting to ride him to freedom from the island was out of the question. It was too risky should they run into inclement weather or choppy seas.
That was until the day Niksi finally spotted a ship passing close to the island, a full eight years after her crash. She snatched up her spear, a satchel of rations, and a banner made from animal hide she had managed to dye a vibrant orange. She mounted Flotsam and they swam like mad toward the ship, waving her distress flag. To her delight, they changed course to pick her up.
Niksi was shocked to learn that her saviors were no normal sailors or marines, but pirates. But they had saved her from her solitude, and she was grateful. It turned out the pirates had recently lost a skilled engineer who maintained their guns and helped to keep the ship in one piece. Nix immediately volunteered to help. Whatever moral qualms she had about aiding pirates were overruled by her gratitude, and these buccaneers were rather tame as pirates went. Plus, this was her opportunity to live at sea and experience all its marvels!
Niksi quickly proved herself indispensable with her mechanical prowess. She tirelessly worked on repairing and enhancing their armament, while also developing some new technologies that revolutionized the way they operated. Her turtle friend — who the crew had taken to calling "Flotsam" — stuck around as well and proved useful on more than one occasion.
The most amazing creation Niksi constructed while on the pirate crew was a small submersible to retrieve treasure from a sunken ship — dubbed the D.R.U.N.K. (Depth-Resistant Undersea Navigation Kinetosphere). Descending into the depths, she saw an entirely new world of wonders and mysteries that surpassed even her vivid imagination. It was here that Niksi realized her true calling — to explore, understand, and protect the sea and its marine life.
A year and ten months after her rescue, Nix made the difficult decision to bid farewell to her pirate companions, of whom she had become quite fond, despite their unsavory lifestyle. It was time for Niksi and Flotsam to embark on their own journey to study the boundless depths of the ocean.
Relationships
| Almeiria Fey A shadowy lady serving on squad with Niksi. |
| Ben Hazan |
| Florande Wildbloom |
| Estel Herald |
| Nish What a bold one! Niksi met her when she returned to turn in her Cobalt application. Got along well. |
| Sir Elohad Ference Niksi met Elohad for the first time when she was being interviewed for Cobalt Company. She found him to be a respectable and charming human. |
| Finnegan Sharpgear Niksi met Finn by a chance encounter at the tavern in Wintergarde. She doesn't know much about him, but he seemed very personable and well-mannered. Apparently he knows (or at least knows of) her mother. |
| Captain Jocoza Sparkwire Niksi was delighted to meet the gnomish captain of Cobalt Company. Jocoza's leadership gives Nix confidence in the future of the organization. |
| Kitty (Kithish) Met Kitty while she was applying to Cobalt Company. A friendly gnome lass. |
| Lireen Cloudskimmer Niksi came to Cobalt HQ seeking oceanographic maps, but found herself being recruited to lend that very expertise to the company by Lireen. |
| Maisha Cloudskimmer Lireen's daughter and a friendly dwarf. Her tale of a missing, sunken ship led to Niksi's interest in joining up. |
| Paluuva The draenei lieutenant was mostly silent during Niksi's Cobalt Company interview. But see seemed agreeable enough. |
| Kerlo Quarterflash Niksi met Kerlo by a chance encounter at the tavern in Wintergarde. A siege engineer with the 7th Legion, and a former mechanic with the G.D.F., he recognized Niksi from her youth as the daughter of Kelsi Cloudhopper. |
| Rab Niksi's brother is Parabolus "Bonk" Bonkladle, who she always knew as "Rab" Piecewise. Their relationship was strained as children, as their parents were constantly comparing them and trying to urge Parabolus to be more like his sister. She loves him, but also quietly pities him for his apparent lack of aptitude. He left through the Dark Portal with the Sons of Lothar while Nix was still presumed dead at sea. They only recently reconnected, each having believed the other deceased for 20+ years. It's been…awkward. |
| Vice Admiral Siamus Fallon The man is a legend among sailors. But Niksi found a certain childlike wonder in him she did not expect. That was until she mentioned pirates, then she saw a glimpse of the storm he could unleash if he chose. In the end, they came to a reasonable understanding, and it seems Nix has a wealthy new patron. |
| Captain Skylarke Nix will be eternally grateful to the pirate lady who not only rescued her at sea, but gave her a place among her crew and the freedom to innovate and study the oceans. Though she did have a way of driving Nix up a wall when she called her submersible "the DRUNK tank". |
| Tadget Niksi met Tadget while bringing in her Cobalt application. They got along rather well. |
Animal Companions
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Flotsam Niksi first met this amazing turtle as a young girl, rescuing him from a fishing net on the beach. Many years later, the turtle returned the favor, saving Niksi's life when her plane went down. She recognized him by the marking on his shell that resembles Kul Tiras. Flotsam has been her stalwart companion ever since. |
 |
Glub the Unfathomable Nix discovered this remarkable and colorful fish during an expedition into the Forbidding Sea, miles off the east coast of Stranglethorn. "Glub" appears to be some sort of goldfish, but like none other she has encountered. Even more astonishing is the fish's ability to gather a sphere of water around itself that it levitates to effectively swim through the air. She had dubbed this an "aquasphere". Niksi remains unsure if this is a trait of Glub's species or a unique bit of magic he has been affected by. |
Writings
- Writings feat. Niksi Knockfathom
- RP Logs feat. Niksi Knockfathom
- Journal of Niksi Knockfathom
- Mentions of Niksi Knockfathom
| Title | Summary |
|---|---|
| (2025-04-18) Call to Tol Barad! | Jo Sparkwire sends out notices regarding work in Tol Barad to a number of people. |
| (2024-04-11) Operation: Gnomeregan | Alaisa, Azizia, Jo, Kerlo, Lucy, Niksi, Oranna, Sintha, and Teensy take part in the attempt to reclaim Gnomeregan! ~3500 words. |
| (2024-03-17) Dear, Dear Friends | Old friends reconnect and talk about marriage, children, and potential assassinations while meeting someone altogether new. |
| (2024-03-05) I Accept | A reply from Vice Admiral Fallon to Niksi Knockfathom, which arrives so promptly it would not be surprising if the letter had scorch marks. |
| (2024-03-05) A Proposal of Great Depth | Niksi writes to Siamus about a proposed mission to recover the Salty Heron. |