People: Roywyn Folkor
Roywyn Folkor (RIY -118 Feb 19 – -42 Feb 15) was one of the earliest technologically-minded individuals of the Fourth Epoch, and among one of the chief enablers of the birth of the Ronkan Empire.
History
Roywyn Folkor was born in RIY -118, just over a century prior to the birth of the Ronkan Empire. Her family was housed in the city of Goug, which - at the time - was primarily a fishing village. Its distance from the seat of the Woodland League made it a relatively sleepy locale, politically, but its proximity to the Windflats made halfling caravans relatively common.
Around RIY -100, a number of dwarven smiths and mechanics had moved into Goug, to provide repair and construction services for the halflings. Being so distant from most other Woodland settlements, this invasion of technology went largely unnoticed. Roywyn, however, took notice, and was intrigued. She showed a natural talent for machinecraft, and after a particularly showy demonstration of her intuitive skills, a dwarven smith took her on as an apprentice.
While she excelled at her studies, Roywyn was more of a dreamer than a realist, and while she grasped the basics of mechanics easily, she often daydreamed of far more exciting machines. In her late twenties, she lost an arm to a forge accident, and began work on crafting a mechanical replacement. While crude, it functioned far better than anyone had imagined possible, and this was the spark that ignited her work on her masterpiece: the walker.
Her first work was completed in RIY -81, and while simple by modern designs, the first walker was nothing short of ingenious. After demonstrating the potential applications of her machine in almost any application of physical labor, what was once a sleepy fishing town erupted into an industrialized city nearly overnight.
