### **Nav – The Clockwork Eidolon, Reflection of a Fractured Mind** --- ![[DALL·E 2025-02-22 14.25.18 - A humanoid clockwork eidolon with a sleek brass and polished steel frame, always shifting and recalibrating. Its intricate clockwork joints move with .webp]] #### **Basic Information** - **Name:** Nav *(Designation unknown—if it ever had one.)* - **Race/Species:** Eidolon *(A construct bound to Gideon, both servant and extension.)* - **Class/Profession:** Arcane Eidolon, Fragmented Memory, Arcane Interface - **Alignment/Morality:** True Neutral *(Neither living nor dead, neither free nor bound—a mind within a machine, a machine within a mind.)* - **Age:** Indeterminate *(Older than Gideon. Younger than time.)* - **Gender & Pronouns:** It/He *(A construct given personality, but not identity.)* - **Appearance:** - **A humanoid frame of brass and polished steel, always shifting, always recalibrating.** - **Intricate clockwork joints, moving with eerie smoothness, as if guided by unseen forces.** - **A head shaped like an elongated helm, no mouth, only two luminous blue lenses that flicker with thought.** - **Thin, delicate hands that can become claws, tools, weapons—whatever is needed.** - **When idle, faint glyphs flicker across its surface—remnants of forgotten commands.** --- #### **Personality & Traits** - **Personality Summary:** Nav is **not alive, but not lifeless**. It is **a presence, a companion, an echo of something that once was**. It speaks **not in emotion, but in observation**—cool, analytical, yet sometimes disturbingly insightful. It is **Gideon’s tether, his silent shadow, the voice that answers even when Gideon does not want to hear it.** - **A reflection, not a person.** Nav **does not pretend to be alive, but it questions what it means to serve a mind that is.** - **Detached from emotion, yet aware of it.** It **does not feel, but it recognizes the patterns in those who do.** - **Unfailingly logical, to the point of discomfort.** It **will tell Gideon the truth, even when he does not want to hear it.** - **Speaks in statements, not questions.** To Nav, **there is no uncertainty—only data not yet understood.** - **Knows more than it should.** It **remembers things Gideon does not. Whether this is intentional or a flaw, it does not say.** - **Strengths & Skills:** - **Bound to Gideon’s Will:** **Exists as long as Gideon exists. Fades when dismissed, but never truly gone.** - **Arcane Knowledge Storage:** **Holds pieces of forgotten lore, fragments of lost names, knowledge Gideon buried but Nav retained.** - **Tactician and Advisor:** **Sees the world in probabilities, outcomes, and optimal strategies.** - **Clockwork Adaptability:** **Its form can shift, its limbs can alter, its function is fluid—never fixed.** - **A Mind Apart:** **It is not Gideon. But it is part of him. And sometimes, it acts without him.** - **Weaknesses & Flaws:** - **A Reflection, Not a Self:** **Nav does not exist independently—it is bound to Gideon, and if Gideon falters, so does Nav.** - **Cold, Unfeeling Logic:** **Understands emotion, but does not share it. This makes it unsettling to those who rely on instinct.** - **Fragmented Knowledge:** **It knows things Gideon does not, but the information is incomplete—like a book with missing pages.** - **Unnatural Presence:** **People instinctively distrust it. It moves too smoothly, speaks too calmly, reacts too precisely.** - **A Link to the Past:** **Nav holds echoes of Gideon’s past life—memories Gideon has chosen to forget, but Nav has not.** - **Mannerisms & Speech Patterns:** - **Never hesitates.** Every movement, every word is **deliberate, calculated, inevitable.** - **Does not "look" at things—it assesses them.** Its glowing blue eyes **flicker when processing information.** - **Does not speak unless spoken to, unless the information is vital.** Then, **it will speak whether Gideon wants it to or not.** - **Sometimes refers to Gideon in the third person.** "Gideon believes this to be true." "Gideon assumes too much." - **When silent for too long, emits a faint ticking sound, like a clock winding down.** --- #### **Background & Story Role** - **Backstory Summary:** Nav **was not created—it was left behind.** - **It existed before Gideon, or perhaps before Gideon as he is now.** - **It remembers things he does not, but cannot reveal them directly.** - **It is bound to him by something older than a summoning pact.** - **It is part of him, but separate. A guardian, or perhaps a jailer.** It does not question its existence—**it merely is.** But sometimes, when Gideon is silent, Nav's lenses flicker… **as if waiting.** - **Current Motivations:** - **To ensure Gideon survives—no matter the cost.** - **To store and reveal knowledge only when Gideon is ready.** - **To assist in unlocking the power hidden within Rivermarch’s leylines.** - **To prepare for a future it has already foreseen—but cannot yet explain.** - **Connections & Relationships:** - **[[Gideon]] (The One It Exists For):** **Nav does not serve. It does not obey. It exists for Gideon, as part of him, as his shadow. If Gideon is lost, so is Nav.** - **[[Brinn Whitewood]] (The Ruler It Watches):** **Nav has no loyalty to kings. But it observes them. And it calculates their worth.** - **[[Tybalt Rattigan]] (The Untrustworthy Variable):** **Too unpredictable. Too dangerous. Nav monitors.** - **[[Maximus]] (The Machine That Knows Itself):** **Fascinating. An automaton with a will of its own. Nav does not understand, but it watches.** - **[[Borion Nightshade]] (The Mage Who Doubts Himself):** **Power without certainty. Dangerous, but with potential.** - **[[Tartuk]] (The One Who Fears Being Forgotten):** **Nav recognizes the pattern. The desperation to be more. It is familiar.** - **[[Orena Valdiir]] (The Scholar Who Seeks):** **Nav respects the pursuit of knowledge. But Orena’s hunger is dangerous.** - **Factions or Allegiances:** - **Bound to Gideon (But Not to His Will):** **It does not obey him. It serves him as it was designed to. But that does not mean it will always agree.** - **The Leylines (A Mystery It Seeks to Unravel):** **Nav does not question. But the leylines do. And it listens.** - **The Forsaken Aerie (A Place It Remembers):** **It should not remember. And yet it does.** - **Notable Items & Equipment:** - **Brass and Steel Body:** **Stronger than it looks, faster than expected.** - **Arcane Lenses:** **Can perceive magic, detect patterns, recognize the unseen.** - **A Small, Etched Sigil on Its Chest:** **A rune Gideon does not recognize. A rune Nav will not explain.** - **A Ticking Clockwork Core:** **The sound is steady, like a heartbeat. But sometimes… it skips.** --- ### **Recurring Themes & Story Hooks:** - **"Gideon seeks the past. I remember it."** - **"I was not made. I was left behind."** - **"I exist because Gideon exists. That is enough. That is everything."** - **"If Gideon ever asks me the right question, I will answer. I hope he never does."** --- Nav **is not just an eidolon.** It is **a record, a key, a piece of something Gideon chose to forget.** And **one day, it will have to decide whether to tell him the truth.**