First appearance

Coal's first appearance would be in a D&D game I set up for a couple of my friends back in 2018; the players were heading north to a small village known as Chillhelm. Up until then - I had given a unique encounter for each of my players except for a fighter known as Buri Icemane; who belonged to a friend of mine at the time.

I didn't want to ignore any of my players and so I asked him in pm if I could design a character to be his friend from Chillhelm and I got the approval, I started out making a wolfborn by the name of Cole Fletcher and when the party arrived, he was running for mayor of the village and tending to Buri's home. However, he was not doing a good job at either as Buri's house had fallen under siege by giant spiders that had crawled in from an underground tunnel connected to a spider's den.

From this moment on the party disliked Coal, believing him to be a complete nuisance because they had to clean up his failure, everyone except Buri was harsh on him and one of the players attempted to have Coal killed by accident by bringing them along on the adventure and putting him into dangerous positions. Over time I developed an interest in the character and decided to rename him and give him more character - his first art appearance was a piece done by Rindeadsong on FA of him leaping forward with a smug grin holding a gun - this was to finalize his role as a gun smith in my story!

His name was changed to 'Coal' to better fit his color scheme, and Itawa was a surname I picked to fit his backstory. His backstory takes some pieces from my overbearing father's Christian views and how he tried to hold back anything that went against his beliefs. Coal doesn't have a surname being part of a tribe and so when he was asked what his last name was - he took Itawan from his tribe and cut out the 'N' at the end making it 'Coal Itawa'.

To get his surname I wanted to come up with some cultural background to make the game feel unique, his character was part of a foreign background - to do this I browsed google maps and found a city in India named 'Etawah' and simply replaced the 'E' with an 'I' and the 'H' with an 'N' = Itawan. Coal not wanting to entirely forget his passed opted to call himself Itawa as it rolled off the tongue much better.

Character Development

I got the opportunity to play Coal as a player character in my friend's campaign where an artificer would be allowed to prosper. I made him a quirky character that had many flaws but unique interests to bring to the story. In this campaign is where his character was completely built up as someone who had a very keen interest in keeping himself safe, building armor and weapons for his team, and running away from fights that appeared to be going south. Using spells like expeditious retreat he became known for being a coward in combat but very good at keeping the team alive and strong.

In this campaign, I utilized his intelligence to decipher and remember key details about the campaign. Studying and reading was also his specialty so whenever we needed more information; he would gladly hit the books. He went from being a disliked character to one that everyone loved, once they got past his flaws and picky personality traits they really appreciated him for the amount of awareness and utility he brought to the team.

One of the quirks Coal has that has proven to be difficult to deal with sometimes is his sex drive, Coal is very driven to sex in any humanoid that will sate his needs and has been manipulated to give up information in exchange for 'service'. His drive is high that he begins to feel very pent up and frustrated when he goes a day without sex.

He had a dark secret he was fostering however and the party would learn this later on in the campaign. He had built a robot by the name of CP-14, this robot was his loyal companion and could talk, however every now and then it would 'glitch' and talk about remembering it's past or asking if it had become a slave. Later on, it was revealed that Coal lost a friend a long time ago by the name of Aziim - who was his previous traveling partner. Unable to say goodbye, Coal utilized the technology available to him at the time to extract his brain and place it in his robot companion to 'keep him alive' sort to speak.

Coal has very low Wisdom and so usually doesn't ask the moral questions of 'should he?' but rather 'can he?' and so he put his old traveling partner into the robot and made a few tweaks to make him subservient. In Coal's eyes, this was better for both of them as Coal could have the perfect companion, and Aziim could continue to live. The party consolidated and convinced Coal what he was doing is wrong, by this time they had enough contacts that they believed they could revive Aziim since he preserved the brain. 

The campaign ended however before we could reach the destination and so I was unable to add more to his character at the time. Instead of I have rewritten and revisioned some aspects of his character through NPC interactions in other campaigns.

Coal Now

After many campaigns and my own personal writings and commission work, Coal is still pretty much the same person but without the Aziim robot. I confirmed Coal to be autistic because growing up I have always been called autistic for my line of thinking or my approach to situations. I always hated how people looked down on those with autism; in my eyes, someone who is born with autism has a very unique trait about them or a hidden skill - for Coal, his skill is creativity, tinkering, tools, and overall intellect.

He's become one of my favorite characters to write about and I hope that his cute personality, useful utility, and accomplishments inspire others to create intricate characters. The goal was to show that even with flaws someone can be very useful and bring more to the table than someone with minimal flaws.

Coal's Origin

Coal had a very troubled uprising growing up with a pack alpha for a father, six brothers and eight sisters. His dad being the alpha meant he had first calls on all mating that occurred in the tribe, his father would utilize this to procreate and try to make the perfect warrior hunters in the lands of Mor'vundaal. Not tied down by restrictions of society Coal had many mother figures; about six to be precise but his birth mom who cared for him deeply established a good relationship with him.

Unlike the rest of his siblings, however; Coal was not great at hunting or survival instinct. Having been born with mental deficiencies he was unable to fully grasp certain aspects of life. He also didn't much like physical endurance or exercise and so was comparably weak to his family. Instead, he was an inventor - building unique contraptions and traps that would help aid him in survival. This enraged his father, who wanted all of his children to be skilled capable hunters. As a direct result, he would punish Coal for his ingenuity or destroy his devices.

He quickly began to resent his father, and cling to his mother who would protect him from his father and other siblings who would pick on him as the 'omega' wolf. As he grew older though, he became more rebellious and also difficult to feed for when he was unable to survive on his own, things would get worse for Coal however as he learned the extreme lengths his father would go to in the tribe.

Later on during his time in the Itawan tribe; Coal's brother, whose original name is not currently known. Fell victim to a horrible incident during a mammoth hunt - The pack alpha made the decision to abandon him as he would only slow them down due to his injuries after the hunt. Coal's brother had lost an arm and a leg, part of his face was brutally destroyed and he was bleeding out - while the rest of the family abandoned him, Coal took him to get aid in a nearby cave. 

He cauterized his wounds and made sure he was stable, but definitely not in a situation where he can return to the tribe; this would lay the foundation for Coal's departure from his tribe. He even built on attachments that would allow him to walk and stab attackers with a makeshift weapon arm.

After witnessing his father abandon one of his own; and several prior experiences, Coal would be offered up to a rival tribe to mate and bring the two communities together; this was the final straw for Coal who didn't want to be used as a pawn by his father to gain political power; he ran away from home and brought his brother who he dubbed "Onaga" henceforth on - and fled the tundra.

Not knowing anything about society Coal and Onaga would eventually go their separate ways after many disagreements, Onaga wanted vengeance while Coal just wanted to focus on his talents and try to be useful and make new friends. It's unclear how long after did the two brothers split off as Coal doesn't like to speak about it, but what is known is that his first appearance in society was by himself, after stealing a brown jacket and toolbelt from a smithy's basement and fleeing the village - ever since Coal has taken a liking to tinker and building without the restraints of his father.

Coal The Artificer

After acquiring the toolbelt and his signature brown coat; Coal got to work on building and selling small gadgets for gold in any village that would accept him. Typically he favored the snowy villages of Chillhelm and fortifications of Mors Nix's splinter factions. He picked up a keen interest in arcana, something he had been innately born with but forbidden from exploring by his father who feared magic.

With his newfound freedom, he began to explore the magic and how to manipulate it. He may have burned down a few village homes in the process... but that is beside the point! He's not very capable on his own, usually finding a team to work with or who will tolerate him and offers to manage and maintain their equipment in exchange for food and a place to sleep. Anyone who has the 'misfortune' of running into him will say that he can be very annoying but has a gentle heart. However, a lot of people have taken to being annoyed with his many quirks and so his reputation isn't very reputable let's say.

Alternate Modern Reality

Something I worked on during my downtime was what Coal would be in a modern furry reality outside of D&D with a little bit of magic. I made him into someone who works in retail part-time and studies various subjects. His roommate frequently changes as he can be a hassle to deal with but currently it is believed he lives alongside Zarkunos who is a caster that teaches in a university. The two are in a relationship with Coal as the dom but Zark likes to keep up appearances in public and so will show restraint whenever Coal tries to do anything in a public setting.

Coal enjoys Chaco Taco's and milk - even in D&D he prefers milk but in the modern setting it's much easier to obtain. Coal's mom and dad visit him but he doesn't have a good relationship with his father - he however has a very good relationship with his mother, his six brothers, and eight sisters. Family gatherings can be a hassle with so many people in the family.