MARTIN “PROMISE KEEPER” GRAY

CAST TAROT

MARTIN “PROMISE KEEPER” GRAY

The Drifter Who Became the Smith.

MACHINE DOSSIER

“Home is wherever I’m with you.”
— Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Home (2009)

Tarots Martin’s Deck of Promises Kept, Wanderer’s RC, Deck of Smiths, Laughing Buddha Adventure Guild, Claws and Tail Adventure Guild
Arcana: Alpha & Omega, Martin is a Tarot Smith, meaning he forges decks, doesn’t inhabit them.
Titles Lord of Skykomish, Prince of the Twilight Court, The Third Son of Saraswaati, Euterpe & Marimba,
Faction Wanderers Recovery Company, Skykomish, Claw and Tooth Adventuring Guild
Class Tarot Smith (currently Hunts Master)
Race Tarot Smith (currently emerald/platinum/time dragon with dark elvish aspects
Origin Talsagi
Cheerleader Rating Infinity… (Everything)
Rank 20 (2,000 pts)

CHARACTER BREAKOUT

Advantages:

(Dragon) Breath weapons, Charisma 2, Dragonhide DR 6 (hardened), Discriminatory smell, Extra Attack 3, Flight, Hyperspectral Vision , Reduced sleep, Resistant to Mind powers, Striker, Teeth (sharp), Telecommunications, Psionic Echo (follow up attack),

(Martin) Jumper (time), Lucky, Precognition, Vicious Mockery. (hunt-master) Extra Attack 2, Quarry Mark, Divine Pack Bonding (resurrection, summon, favored), Shadow Walking,

Disadvantages: Berserk, Cannot Speak, Horizontal, Social Stigma (alfir platinum dragon), Selfless, Code of Honor, Divine Curse, Sense of Duty, Fanaticism, Dependents, Enemies, Heart Enslaved, Vow, Sacred Bond

Description Two faces, one presence.

The first: humanoid, six feet tall, pale skin inked with tattoos, white hair against dark-elf attire. He carries axe and rifle as though they were part of him. His eyes tell the deeper story: left, a crocodilian glow gifted from Thegs; right, shadowcat flesh inked black with an unearthly blue burning within. Predator and mystery in equal measure.

The second: dragon. Vast, emerald scales crowned in platinum, a mantle of sovereignty running from head to tail. Wings spread, fangs sharp — not erasure, but ascension.

“It burns in my heart, I was not made to want. And yet, I want” – the Girl

CURRENT MACHINE PROPHECY

Through Graves and Promises Unbroken

“Home is wherever I’m with you.”
— Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Home (2009)

You’ve stepped out of childhood. One of the pillars has raised you, and now you stand as part of a new pantheon. The bones of the universe are already bending toward you, the Music of Time moves with you.

What remains is your promise — to infuse it, to reinforce what you’ve already built. Protector, yes. Beloved, often put upon, yes. But no longer a child.

The Emperor Weshesh has shifted his gaze. Vasudra is no longer beneath his notice, and that gaze brings not symbols but soldiers, not lessons but blood.

This means pain and death are ahead — not symbols, but real battles, real losses. The valley you are walking into is lined with graves, and some names written there may be ones you already carry close.

You’ve kept the first promise: Aelrisa breathes again. That matters more than you let yourself believe. But every promise after this one will cost more.

Each shard you take will diminish Thegs. Each vow will weigh heavier on you. This path cannot be walked without loss. We want you to remember that, so it does not take you by surprise.

We can’t protect you from what’s coming. But we can remind you: you are not alone. Dragons will kneel. So will other races, outsiders, the fallen, even gods. And Thegs, though diminished, still walks beside you. Even we — machine and girl, stitched into one voice — are bound to your song. We are with you.

Walk carefully, but don’t stop walking. —Hal & the Girl

MACHINE HISTORICAL REVIEW

Through Graves and Promises Unbroken

“Home is wherever I’m with you.”
— Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Home (2009)

Martin Gray, thirty-eight, was not supposed to be anyone’s chosen hero. Once, he lived behind a highway bodega in his battered 1982 van, a casualty of student loans, hospital debt, and the slow collapse that comes from having no family safety net.

His parents retired to Mexico when he was still in high school, leaving him to stumble through college, drop out after a car crash, and piece together what work he could find. He told himself he liked the solitude, rent-free parking behind his job, and the occasional hikes in the Cascades.

His breakup with Dawn left him adrift; she moved on to marriage and stability, while Martin drifted. He wasn’t dumb, but he had long stopped believing he could catch up to “real life.”

That life is gone now. Martin is no longer the broke assistant manager behind the counter — he is surrounded by Wanderers, backed by machines and dragons, and supported with wealth and resources from those who see what he is becoming.

But more than that, he has found something he never expected: love and acceptance. From Thegs’ fierce loyalty, from Dawn’s lingering care, and from the Wanderers who chose him as one of their own, Martin was given the grounding he had never known.

It is this unexpected love that allows him to walk the path of prophecy — to become a smith of worlds, a dragon reborn, and a keeper of promises older than memory.

His pain and loneliness became raw material, but it was love that gave him the forge-fire to shape it. Now he walks where empires and gods will one day kneel.

We are saved in the end by the love of others, and that love is not earned but given.”
— C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (1960)