#webdings

He’s still fairly new, so I hope more of his background falls in place over time, but hoo boi he’s a fun? guy.  Rockwell is a warhound construct, same as Webdings, and was the “alpha” of the pack he was put into.  Bigger, (a whopping 8′5″ tall, 14′ at shoulders when shifted), stronger, and what gave him the edge over others is the fact that his defining trait is determination.  It was very hard to get him to stay down.

I loosely say “alpha” because that social construct has been debunked in wild wolf packs.  These warhounds however were all antsy, highly aggressive individuals forced together into a group and instructed to get along.  Brawls over dominance and disagreements were often occurrences.

Webdings and Rockwell were actually part of the same pack before Web and Tatters fled from humankind and ended up allied with monsterkind.  The thought of him sends fear in Web’s soul, however so much time has passed and no known skeletons other than Web and Tatters were sealed away, so it’s assumed the rest of his packmates perished.

Nope.

After Rockwell’s necromancer handler died and the war was won, it became increasingly hard to keep him under control (warhounds are well-known for their violent tempers) to the point that the only way to keep him in line at least somewhat was through fire magic.  Rockwell strongly disliked humans (and pretty much everything) to start with, but scorch after scorch...it easily became a deep hatred.  His bones are permanently charred (first drawing for reference hhh).

He managed to flee, however due to how skeleton constructs were treated, they were like batteries without knowing how to recharge themselves.  Eventually he ran out of strength, almost magic as well, but was discovered by a mouse-like monster named Matthew.  The mouse took a chance by offering food to the warhound and it formed an uneasy pact between the two.  Rockwell was to help protect Matthew’s hidden refuge from humans and their tools while he would be repayed in food and shelter.

A dangerous gamble, but Rockwell saw no threat from the monster village, learned that “food” was both surprisingly tasty (to the point where he repeatedly tried eating things he shouldn’t have) and kept him alive, and at least had the notion not to bite the hand that (literally) fed him, so he complied.  Over time it would change into curiosity, then perhaps a massively tsundere form of companionship.  Small acts of kindness from those who dared get close enough to him boggled him.  For the first time, he witnessed a form of humanity.

Rockwell is not as far in development mentally as Webdings is, but there is some support from his small companions (dare he say).  He can still be quite cruel and aggressive toward outsiders, though he will stop at nothing to make sure his charges are safe.  Perhaps there is a little good under the levels of assholery that he is.

Though that brings up a good question, when will they learn that monsterkind is free...?

Fun facts:

-With the introduction of Rockwell, it probably warrants a list of some defining characteristics in warhounds in general.  First of all they have notoriously violent behaviors with severely stunted emotional/mental growths and are often kept sealed away until released to hunt monsters down.  Large nasal passages, they are incredibly good at sniffing prey down.  Horns, they all have unique horn patterns that are retractable if wanted.  It’s believed their vaguely draconic/demonic looks were inspired by the mages creating them.  All are “multi-bodied,” meaning multiple skeletons were used and fused together to form them, so they have a range of quirks they can pick up from their human and canid remnants (or whatever skeletons were selected for the individual).  They made for very effective monster hunters, but were often frowned upon by human mages due to how unpredictable and difficult to manage they were.  Webdings (and vaguely Rockwell) have moved on from that stage thanks to the incredible influences they’ve had in their lives.

-In case you were wondering, Rockwell wears a ghillie suit that the mice made for him.  Helps him blend in a little better with the forest they’re residing in.  Fashion!

-The mice monsters don’t have that long of a life span, so while Matthew was the first “handler,” Rockwell probably went though like 4 or 5 before monsterkind is freed.  His latest handler will be Matthias, a much more cheerful and outgoing fella.

-Shifting for multi-bodied constructs moves kinda like nanite technology?  They will adjust their bone structure as small fragments until the new shape is formed (as seen in the second to the last sketch).  However there are varying styles of it, some are able to shift more gracefully/smoothly than others.

-Warhounds are more likely to do this out of other multi-bodied constructs, but they will regain bone mass by consuming other bones.  Webdings doesn’t do this since it’s seen as barbaric (and hopefully he’s not losing entire limbs like yikes).