Lieutenant Matthew Zimmer

Lieutenant Matthew Zimmer is a character from The Relentless Slaughter.

Biography
Hailing from Gredenarith, the fifth planet in the Meltat system, the Orashaldi people began as a social experiment involving colonization and isolation of hundreds of thousands of individuals. The centuries, nutrition, atmosphere and climate of the planet slowly changed their physique, though they are still human.

On the first month of the millennial year of colonization two important events in Matthew Zimmer’s life occurred. First and foremost, he was born. Second, a crusade began between the surviving religions on the planet. Though the war raged on for the first thirty years of his life, he was raised as normally as possible under a tyrannical religious system. He was part of a program to end the war that involved converting children and enrolling mid-teens in the military until they were forty. Matthew, though as eager a zealot as any and a prodigious reader, proved inept in all serious forms of combat so was given a job as a field messenger.

It was at this point in his twenties that his unusual talent began to assert itself. Matthew had always had a passion for the sciences, from botany to herpetology to chemistry. As a messenger, however, he found little time to apply his knowledge in earnest and could only do so when not on duty. On one crucial night, Matthew Zimmer had started a fire to read by but was called away to help spread word of an early morning attack. While he was gone, the fire slowly grew out of control when it seared his chemical set and spread throughout the camp, at which point the wind shifted to carry the fire straight toward what was later found to be an ambushing battalion. After thus single handedly "killing" several hundred trained men, he was given an honorary field promotion to Lieutenant, which he has gone by ever since though the title has no authority behind it for him. After his promotion, he was moved into research and development of newer and stronger weapons to use, and often stayed up for days at a time working on several projects. He was also the one who volunteered to field test some of the explosives and ammunition that he himself developed. His work improved flares and grenades, and several varied takes on incendiary and explosive ammo. Though some of them were useful, none were strong enough to use on a mass scale, which was fine with him. He did his work for the enjoyment it brought him, not to end the war that gave him such a job.

As a man of science and religion, Lieutenant Zimmer was a strange combination of devout and free-thinking. When the war ended in the winter of its twenty-ninth year Matthew chose to apply for an apprenticeship at his hometown’s alchemist. His time spent learning from textbooks was soon put to practice and he discovered that Alchemy was nothing like the sciences he read about. It was much more. While there was much studying and learning procedures, the lure it held for him was that it was, to him, the embodiment of religion. There was life and death, creation and destruction, corruption and purification, a sense of eternity. The only setback was that much alchemy was still trial and error, and failure didn’t suit Matthew. Every setback in his trials, every time he worked for gold and wound up with lead was seen as a personal failure. The idea that something could be done, and had been done, sent him into a downward spiral when he couldn’t do it.

With his short attention span and fear of failure, he often devoted relatively little time to experiments that needed either more time to mix or more effort to perfect. This was a surprise blessing, as within five years of his apprenticeship he was promoted to a Master Alchemist when he was the first alchemist in millennia to turn lead to gold and discover the elixir of eternal life, among other things. Some of the discoveries actually needed days or even months of inactivity to bind, and many were accidental when he combined mislabeled ingredients together.

As a bonus of his profession, the Lieutenant is able to carry some of his creations on his person. To that effect he has added numerous straps to his favorite vest, each one holding a vial of a separate creation. His prize vial is one that appears to be large-grain salt but truly, when combined to anything other than itself, creates just enough of any substance it contacts to fill another vial. Another, it’s opposite, is an Alkahest. Though still imperfect, it has the power to dissolve MOST substances it contacts. He also has a transmuted cloth that he uses to clean his tools and vials that nullifies any residue left on them. In his off time he entertains at parties.

The strangest part, as others see it, of Matthew Zimmer’s achievements is that they were formed from the stuff of coincidence, accident, and luck; many consider him a fraud. Brilliant, but a fraud. Few of his achievements took much work or were truly “done by” him; they just seemed to happen from anything he did. It has strengthened his zealotry for, as Matthew sees it, his Maker is guiding his hand and protecting him, that he always has and always will be an active piece in His design.

It was during such an event in 1037 C.G. (Colonization of Gredenarith), where he was demonstrating to a new apprentice the reaction of combining vinegar and baking soda (actually mislabeled water and pure potassium, respectively), that he was pulled away into the multiverse.

Weapons/Abilities
Lieutenant Zimmer carries two knives, one that is a five inch pocket knife, and another that is affixed to and extends past a clockwork revolver, curling up so the tip of the blade is scant millimeters below the path of any bullet fired. This has the combined purpose of providing a sight, doubling as a close-combat weapon and, most importantly, a place to combine alchemy with ammunition.

Alchemy in practice has certain goals in mind: turning metals to gold, the elixir or eternal life, gaining wisdom and the creation of new substances that possess unusual properties. Though he has done the first three, his expertise is in the fourth. His prize creations, a salt-like substance that creates more of whatever it contacts, and an Alkahest (universal solvent) that, while imperfect, can dissolve most substances, are always carried with him. As an alchemist he has an advanced understanding of the combination of science and magic and is able to transfigure most metals by blending them on a molecular level. Not just limited to metals, Matthew has made herbal medicines from plants and created the miniature golems.

Matthew has also unknowingly had the talent to trigger chain reactions in events that have often had unpredictable consequences, but always ended up being in his favor. Seeming accidents, like the fire that led to his promotion, or his discovery of the Elixir of Life, have led to his recognition.

Description
Matthew Zimmer has always fancied himself as an alchemist and holy man first, but in his city, a man of his status must of course be presentable. To that end he has tried to mix form with function, never wearing something that was not both conducive to his profession and society. He is dressed most presentably in Earth’s Victorian style clothing: black leather coat, brown vest with numerous custom straps to hold vials, white ruffled shirt, brown trousers, black work boots and gloves. Regardless of the fact that such clothing went out of style over a millennia ago, Zimmer has always fancied himself to be quite “dashing” in them. As for his personal appearance, Zimmer is shorter than average for his race, roughly 5’7” and slim. He also has dark brown hair, which is fairly short since it is constantly being burnt during work, and amazing manual dexterity. Lieutenant Zimmer has always had a relatively short attention span and is slightly absentminded, but always tries to act the gentleman in spite of his short temper. His religion preaches about success over failure and strength in the face of conflict, and Zimmer holds his religion as his highest ideal. However, when put in practice, large setbacks have always sent him into a depression, and minor ones into a rage.

Fears
Raised from birth to believe in a great Maker, Zimmer, like all Orashaldi, is intensely devout. Even though he doesn’t realize it because his people are all have the same beliefs, losing his belief in his God would be destructive to his whole way of life, as everything he does has ties to religion. He also has an intense fear of failure, for it causes him to lose his already short temper and has caused him to have depression in the past.