Sha'he

Backstory
Born the child of Lord Charles Umberwald the 3rd and Lady Aislinn Umberwald (maiden name Ó Loinsigh) Lord Charles Umberwald the 4th Smokestack was born into greatness, wealth, and power; He hated it all from the day he knew how to hate. The Umberwalds were a old family and the rulers of a few hive cities on the world of Felrin, they were steeped in tradition just as much as they were steeped in excess, greed, and laziness. They also all had a tradition of gathering the family on the day of a child's birth and performing a divination in the name of the emperor. Most times this, if it produced anything, told some harmless prophecy or told of hard trials they would face. The entire family was unnerved by what was said when they did this for Smokestack, To war is human. None of his family had ever done manual labor let alone joined the guard and they would be damned if they would let this happen. Try as they did at 13 he picked up a Lho Stick habit, and at 15 he stowed away on a rogue trader ship and joined up with the 1st Saletera Loyalists. He was recruited by the tau after an incident with some genestealers (see redacted section) after 5 years of service in the guard.

Origin of the name Smokestack
In basic training he was called many things: Lord, Charlie Highclass, Umberwald the Uberguardsman, etc. He got called Commissar once and that man had his toe shot off that night, they never proved it was Smokestack that did it but let's be honest he did it. But one name started to stick more than the others: Smokestack. To put it bluntly the man has a prodigious Lho stick habit. It seems like there is never a time he's not smoking or got a Lho Stick in his mouth.


 * Shower? Lho stick
 * Digging a latrine? Lho stick
 * Sneaking behind enemy lines? Lho stick
 * Cleaning prometheum tanks? Lho stick
 * Sleeping? Lho stick
 * Mid planet transfer in a cramped shuttle? Lho stick
 * During a speech by the commissar explaining that Lho Sticks are banned? Lho stick
 * In a brothel on leave with the squad? Lho stick
 * Having to kill his brothers in arms of the last 5 years because they got infected in that brothel and joined a genestealer cult?  Tears, and a Lho Stick
 * Hiding from the inquisition afterward? Lho stick |Being talked out of your sniper nest by local Gue'vesa? Lho stick.
 * Pathfinder training? Lho stick
 * Being put to cryo sleep? Unlit Lho Stick

Joining the Tau Empire
The gue'vesa who recruited him helped him through some mental issues and along the way instilled an immense amount of faith in the greater good. He became a pathfinder and served loyally for quite some time. His life has been much better since joining the empire and he has not regretted his decision once. During his original time serving he was under the command of Shas'vre Torith, now Shas'O Torith.

Reawakening
After a unscheduled 5 year cryo nap, caused by tripping into a cryo pod while reaching for a lighter, Sha'he awakened and joined the Tau Low Power squad in a mission to save/retrieve a Aun. There was some immediate tension as Ca'sho, the acting squad leader at the time, was blatantly disappointed in Sha'he for the embarrassment of how he was put into cryo once he explained. This mission was over quite soon after as a horde of monstrosities that haunt Sha'he to this day began to close in from all sides of the planet. Sha'he quickly proved his worth however as his shelling with the stations rail guns kept the monsters at baying enough for all to be safely evacuated.

Caught in the Crosshare
The next mission the squad was dispersed on was a mission to Monolith along side Por'vre Crosshare to investigate the hulks and hopefully make a deal with the local gue'la. While initial investigation of a hulk found a gravity hammer it also caused attacks by hereteks whom communicated in binary Morse code. This investigation is also when Smokey acquired the recon drone that would become G00DB0I, and the first time said drone saved the party by landing the killing blow just in time. On the way back to Monolith there was tension between Crosshare and Smokestack caused by a failed prank/joke of smokey's. He still fears for his kneecaps to this day.

Once they returned to Monolith from the hulk there was a small bit of downtime which was interrupted by a heretek attempting to sneak in, this plot was foiled by the Kroot allies of the team. This was followed by the discovery of tracking devices on their ship; Not all of which were from the enemy. The outrage that they were being spied on by enemy and ally infuriated Crosshare even further and all involved marched to demand answers from the leaders of the local Gue'la.

In the midst of said answers the section if the ship they were on was sealed shut and began to be flooded by pure oxygen. This was discovered thanks to Smokey's voracious smoking habit. Attempting to be clever Sha'he attempted to light up a pack of Lho Sticks to burn off the oxygen faster then it was pouring jn, which nearly detonated in his hand because it was too late. It soon became apparent that their only escape would be the vents.

That is were Ca'sho died, he was the first to fall the monstrous vent monster chasing them. Smokey failed to notice the monster before it struck due to being distracted by 'The Greater Goods' in front of him. They ran and were sandwiched between the monster and a swarm of hereteks. Realizing moving forward was pointless while it was blocked and that he had plenty of range Sha'he stopped in place and began to open fire on the hereteks that stood between the squad and freedom with G00DB0I doing the same (This would mark the second time G00DB0I saved the party,  his burst cannon was essential to tearing through the horde). This act of bravery nearly cost him his life, after the hereteks were clear he began to run forward again but the monster was gaining, Crosshare had also soun around and begun to walk towards the monster which Sha'he yelled to her to help snap her out of it.

Smokey was prepared to die that day, but the T'au'va had other plans for him. He was saved by Grix who threw him in the back of Grix's knarloc and booked it to safety. Smokey has never had a negative opinion of kroot, but he has quite a positive opinion now.

The squad narrowly managed to escape with no further casualties but the death of Ca'sho effected them all. In the case of Sha'he it pushed him to become a Firesight Marksman never wanting to see a squad mate die again.

On the way back home Sha'he had a heart to heart with Crosshare. This amongst other things showed him to reveal that he has a attraction to Tau women, and that one of his dreams is to one day settle down with a nice fire caste or earth caste girl. This of course was seen as shocking by Crosshare who he assured that he knew it was just a dream and was aware the T'au'va forbade it. She at the time refused to talk about her problems so Sha'he spoke about his, telling her of the death of his guard squad and the hell it caused him.. The two seemed to bond over the conversation and Sha'he considers Crosshare to be a close friend now. She gave him a ball from her pitching machine as a momento which he still keeps with him.

When entering cyro sleep for the next mission he held the ball for comfort, 5 years of unplanned cyro sleep can real make a man anxious about cyro.

And that brings us to present day.

Trivia

 * Smokey has a preference for tau women, he blames this on his favorite book since childhood, "One Hundred and One Bor'kanian Nights
 * Smokey seems to attract harem cliche situations: In house one formed, a side server was made dedicated to anime style harem shenanigans, and recently Canon he's been given command of a squad that is nearly all female tau
 * Smokey was originally made for a campaign called Guardwatch which fell through and never got off the ground
 * Smokey is the oldest, or tied for the oldest, character on the server currently