Anaximander
Played by John in Umgar's Request.
Background
Son of a fisherman in Talathese, Anaximander was in trouble with his father often for disassembing rigging and netting and and other tools of the trade. At 14, his father volunteered him for the Talathese navy, where the young lad worked as a siegecraft engineer's apprentice. Various disciplinary issues resulted in his discharge at age 17, whereupon he succeeded in securing a position as an architect's apprentice, where he learned the basics of masonry, carpentry, and engineering principles. As he approached his mid 20s, his bold ideas and failed experiments convinced the architect to send him to his elder brother for further tutelage.
The elder brother, Archimedes, was a philospher-scientist-inventor, interested in formulating comprehensible and comprehensive theories to explain all natural phenomena and magic. Here, Anaximander thrived as a general apprentice, and took over many of the master's duties, which provided them a meager income repairing tools and instruments and occasionally teaching their philosophies to young seekers.
Upon Archimedes' death, Anaximander found himself destitute and directionless, and resolved to sail forth and see where he arrived. He hitched a ride on a trade vessel in return for performing various seaman's duties, and arrived in Zareph some weeks later.
In that great and bustling city of mining and industry, he found a job working as an engineer in an armor production facility controlled by the government. For more than a decade he contributed innovations in articulated limb armor, new alloys and techniques, and other innovations. His greatest was the development of a set of tools that decreased the time required to construct a suit of fine chainmail by 30%. For this invention, he was provided a generous bonus, which he used to put a down payment on a house with an extensively outfitted inventors workshop.