Socket is a small rock gnome with copper-brown skin weathered by years spent in workshops, caravan yards, and open-air repair stalls. His bright hazel eyes are magnified slightly by round brass spectacles, and his russet hair is gathered into a practical topknot threaded with colored wire. He wears scale mail beneath a soot-stained leather apron, with pockets full of screws, springs, chalk, and half-finished mechanisms. Within a minute of meeting him, most people notice that he constantly checks the small brass socket fitted to his left wrist, twisting it a quarter turn whenever he is thinking, nervous, or excited.

Socket is energetic, practical, and relentlessly curious. He treats strangers like potential collaborators and problems like invitations. He can be warm and generous when helping someone repair a treasured possession, but becomes intensely focused around unfamiliar machinery and may forget that other people are speaking. He enjoys arguing with poorly designed objects and is convinced that most arguments can be won with the correct wrench.

Socket was born in a burrow beneath a busy market town, where his family repaired clocks, kettle valves, wagon locks, and anything else that had the good sense to break within walking distance of their workshop. He showed an unusual talent for understanding objects by touch. Rather than taking machines apart immediately, he would hold them to his ear, listen to their tiny complaints, and predict which spring or gear had failed. His work earned him a place in the local guild, where he became known for clever repairs, unconventional designs, and an alarming willingness to test prototypes on guild property. His most important creation was a palm-sized self-adjusting tool called Socket, named after the first fitting he ever built for it. The device was meant to help exhausted laborers repair machinery without specialized training, but a dishonest guild factor attempted to claim the design and sell it to a military supplier. Socket exposed the scheme, though not before his workshop was damaged and several guild members were threatened. Rather than remain safely behind a workbench, he set out to recover the stolen design notes and build better tools for people who cannot afford guild prices. He travels with his namesake device, repairing what he can, causing only manageable explosions, and treating every broken mechanism as an opportunity to make the world slightly kinder.