Knok Krauser

Biographical Information Physical Description Meta Information Knok Krauser, also simply known as Knok, is a mushroom humanoid affiliated to the Eastern Drakkenheim as a soldier, diplomat, merchant and regional leader. He's one of his kind, since there's only some few intelligent humanoids of his race; he has fought as a soldier and reached high ranks in the government of his country, while also starting a business in the food-making industry; as time passed by, he has developed a nationalist ideology as he has swore complete loyalty to his homeland.

Appearance
Knok is a tall humanoid genderless creature that assembles some features alike a certain type of wild mushrooms; he possesses a certain amount of human-like features like the shape of his body which is somewhat of a bulky build, as well as a pair of eyes with dark pupils, a sharp nose, mouth with teeth identical of a human's, as well as 4 limps that assembles arms and legs with the blatant characteristic of only having 4 fingers per limb.

His other major characteristics are quite more obvious and easy to distinguish: his "skin" is conformed by layers like the vegetal fibers of a mushroom, giving him the appearance of a pallid white skin tone, it is also to be noted that the exterior layers of his skin are somewhat soft, yet the inner layers are quite resistant but conserve a great flexibility, his weight is also very heavy due to his size; Knok lacks of any sort of hair, instead of it, he has a bright red mushroom cap directly connected to his head as a part of his own body, it is made out of mushroom scales and it is quite durable as it is able to act as a helmet, it also possesses gills and pores but they don't seem to actively function as the ones of a normal mushroom.

Since Knok lacks of any types of sexual organs, or even pheromones, he's not ashamed but rather comfortable when not wearing any sort of clothes since doing so would block his pores; besides that, he would usually tend to wear belts or rucksacks for carrying objects or equipment, therefore seeing him in any sort of clothing is pretty rare although he used to wear the military tactic uniform and gala uniform when he doing his duty in the armed forces.

The first step in an unknown world
It is unknown what was exactly the trigger of this event, or when was the exact time it happened, it just occurred: a new life was born.

Yet this life was quite strange, this being was unaware of its surroundings, or even itself; unable to think, unable to reason, unable to do anything. Emptiness was all it knew...until it became conscious of itself, it felt its surroundings filled with life and energy, nutrients coming from below the ground and light leaving a warm touch from above; yet, everything was still dark, all it could do was one thing: grow.

This being keep absorbing the nutrients of the earth, at a much higher rate than the other lifeforms around it, soon, it became the biggest around that area; but it was still dark, lacking of eyes was pretty unfortunate, but at least this being could think now, it was smart and conscious; day after day it questioned if everything that existed was really that dark, after all, it could feel the wind blowing, the rain pouring and the sun glowing, it refused to believe that the world was just an eternal and absolute shadow. Its wish to be able to see the world was so intense, than its body started transforming due to its own mind, its growth started to become way more different than the rest of its species like a mutation; a week later, it was time, first darkness and then a bright light, this shiny light blinded as this being opened its eyes for the first time, it took some time to get used to it, but finally, the being could see, it saw itself surrounded by a field of red cap mushrooms in the depths of a forest, then looked at its body only to realize how massive and taller it was in comparison to the others, it saw its own body, white and with a giant red cap on top, it was one of them, a mushroom. The intelligent mushroom tried its best but couldn't move, days after, he stood still and close its eyes trying to remain hidden as a group of human children of the nearby villages came by to pick up some herbs, the mushroom saw how they had limbs, arms to operate and pick up things, and legs to move around and explore the world; as the mushroom was able to think by own will, the mushroom decided to imitate the characteristics of a human being, seeing how these boys were living, talking, and moving was so meaningful to this being who all it knew was to survive based on the nutrients of the humid ground. Another week passed by, and its body was finally complete, a mouth was formed, and now new limbs were grown out of the main body, soon enough, it decided to move.

Although this being didn't know how to walk, it refused to give up, and ripped its body from its position for the first time ever in its short life: it was the first step in an unknown world.

With shaking legs, it learned how to walk, and started making the way out the forest, thinking in what it would do now, after a little while it was clear, the goal now was to find humans; sure he did as the kids from a close city walked into the creature, but against all odds, they weren't scared of the humanoid mushroom but rather curious since what it appears to be its face was rather not intimidating, the creature was also curious when finding out it's size was way taller than the human kids; anyways, the kids soon got closer and started interacting with the mushroom, who initially couldn't talk but soon enough started modifying its own body to be able to produce some sounds with the mouth, the mushroom saw how the body it developed was more similar to the male body rather than female, so the kids started referring at the creature as "him".

Yet, he still lacked of a name, the kids were curious and tried to ask him, but he didn't understand a single word of what were they saying, he tried to reply doing the most soft sound as a friendly signal, that's how he was named as "Knok" since that was the sound he was able to make.

Accompanied by those kids, Knok was led into a nearby city, Arcaan, it was now revealed that he was born in the forests of Grand Farencia, Knok was first feared by the guards, but it proved harmless after some few interactions, he was even taller than most human males. Knok then decided to settle down as he was developing his body even further and soon proving not only to be conscious but also incredibly smart, as he learned the language in the spare of mere days and was now able to communicate with humans, successfully becoming able to explore the world.

First friends and first war
Knok lived in the city for a few weeks, starting to do some basic work, gaining some fame as he demonstrated to be able to carry immense weights most men couldn't lift, he also started to develop his own personality, he was rather innocent at the time as he was starting to interact with humanity, therefore most of the people were kind to him, soon enough, he met two people in that city: Tsync and Stoocpants, two locals who soon got closer to the mushroom humanoid and started to hang out in order to teach him the basics of human daily life.

There was a lot of things Knok didn't know or understand, but all he could do was learn with the help of his new friends, yet destiny was rather cruel to him as a conflict between Grand Farencia and the nation of Drak Yamar broke over, later known as The Horse War. Grand Farencia lost the war and got annexed to the new formed eastern part of Drak Yamar.

Although Knok was mainly indifferent, he saw people were carrying the dead bodies of the soldiers who fought in the Battle of the fort Eanhardt. It was the first time he ever saw dead bodies, he didn't know how to act but sure was in shock due to the horrors of war, as he was rather smart and didn't want to end up like those humans, he decided stay away from any sort of violence and adapt to the new society he was living in a peaceful way, or at least he tried.