A slight, pale human man with narrow shoulders, careful posture, and dark brown hair kept short so it cannot catch in machinery. His hands are callused from years at the forge, though his fingers are fine and precise. A thin scar crosses his left cheek, one of several old marks concealed beneath the high collar of his work coat. He dresses in well-maintained scale mail beneath a soot-darkened leather apron, with brass instruments, vials, and small clockwork devices hanging from his belt. His signet ring is worn on a chain around his neck rather than on his hand.

Tomas is restrained, observant, and relentlessly analytical. He notices flaws in doors, weapons, armor, and social arrangements almost immediately. He is courteous when courtesy serves him, but his politeness has the cold precision of a locked mechanism. Beneath his controlled exterior is a starving need to be acknowledged, particularly by people who once dismissed him.

Tomas Werren was the third son of House Werren, a prestigious human family whose reputation rested on generations of soldiers, duelists, and battlefield commanders. His brothers were raised with swords in their hands and applause waiting for them. Tomas was born narrow-chested and weak-limbed, unable to keep pace with the family exercises. His parents treated him as an embarrassment, while his older siblings made him the target of cruel games and private beatings. At sixteen, after he embarrassed the family during a public martial examination, he was sent away with a small purse and instructions never to return unless he had made himself useful. He found shelter in the workshop of Odo Harn, a blunt old blacksmith who cared more about honest work than noble blood. Tomas began by sweeping floors and carrying coal, but soon noticed flaws in the shop's bellows, furnace vents, and hammer mechanisms. His solutions were crude at first, then ingenious. He built a self-feeding forge, a clockwork riveter, and tiny arcane devices that could hold heat, measure stress, and sharpen a blade without a whetstone. Odo taught him that metal rewarded patience, and Tomas discovered that weakness in the body could be answered by strength in design. Now he travels as an artificer, collecting rare materials and refining his inventions. He intends to return to House Werren not as a supplicant, but as the maker of something so brilliant and indispensable that every member of his family will be forced to admit his superiority.