Friedrick "Freck" Habert

Character SheetA former renowned chemical scientist working for the Akorosian State, Habert entered the peak stage of his career in the year 839, when he joined the military project CHARIOT, tasked with developing the future of warfare weaponry and technology in the name of the Empire. Most of their efforts were focused on ending the Unity War, going on for far too long and posing a direct threat to the stability of the other Imperial provinces.
In 843 however, he quitted the project and the military as a whole with no public announcement or explanations, without anyone knowing if he was actually removed from it, or got out on his own terms. Since then, he is known for his half-time working at the Halkin's Charity Hospital, but has otherwise gone totally out of the public's eye.

I generally avoid keeping secrets from players. I prefer to let the players know if their characters don't know a thing, but tell still the player. (A phrase I find myself using all the time is: "There is no way your character would know this, but ..." and then proceed to describe the horror awaiting them on the other side of the door:).

Telling the other players allows them to use those facts to steer the story towards these aspects of your character, thus helping incorporate them into the story.
Keeping them secret often results in the game ending without anyone ever knowing there was a secret at all. Often a player will then reveal the secret and get a tepid "Oh? So that is why you were acting strange? I did not want to say anything."
It is fine for you to have fallen far, but remember that you are Tier 0 --gutter scum-- dealing with Tier 0 issues. There also are no 'future weapons' available to anyone, so this might not come into play.

- Freck -
How do you feel about the war ending two years after you left? What creation of yours contributed to the Skovlan surrender? Do you know if/how it was used or what it did?

Aight', seems logical and good design ! Won't hide anything then.

Yep, I was thinking renowned inside the profession for the most part, not the Nobel-winning kind.
I think the "gutter scum" part can be explained by the fact that he more or less abandoned theoretical chemical science to a more down-to-earth, practical use of it. Plus the fact that with the money he makes now, there is basically zero chance that he get access back to his military-funded tools and products.

As for the "future" of weaponry, I was also thinking about it in the context of the technological advancement of the era, ofc.
So, his "major accomplishment" would have been a chemical gas similar to the Mustard Gas, invented in WW1. It would be called "Ochrite" and would present itself as a form of dark, orangeish vapor that would have been spread and bombed on the battlefield. Without total protection, it would have the same effect, for the most part: hard respiration, heavily burned skin and respiratory system, blindness -partial or total-, etc. The main aim being to incapacitate the enemy instead of killing them, giving more work to the other side (having to use more men to care about those now unable to fight) while demoralizing them.
So, Friedrick took a big part in creating it, both out of duty and by convincing himself that this was the "most humane way" to end the war quickly and without killing more people, thus sparing many lives. The Ochrite would finally be done in 842, but he quickly realized his error -and denial- of it's effects. It actually helped a little bit in the war, without ending it at all, until it was replicated in 843 by Skovlan, and used against the Empire's soldiers. Then directly facing the consequences of his actions and unable to turn a blind eye, Freck reached his breaking point when he was awarded a medal for his good service in "serving his country", and simply stopped to work at all until he was fired discretly by the army, that didn't wanted to make a fuss out of it.

So, here's the full backstory. If you're fine with it, I'll add it to the sheet with some other details (like relationships).

Sounds fine. Also answers the questions I had about whether the army was looking for you.

Your gas sounds a bit like Drown Powder (iii/2): A fine dust that incapacitates by giving the sensation of drowning. Or is it something else entirely? Maybe Drown Power's heavier twin?

About the army, I'd say they check his whereabouts from time to time, but without investigating too much. Basically, they just wanna be sure he's not handling secret formulas/intel to a Resistance Group/Enemy of the Empire. They would certainly make their presence known if they knew about his secret job, however.

As for the Drown Powder, I quite like the idea. Maybe it could have been based on it, using its base concept on nociceptors (I'd guess it would work this way, "scientifically" ?), but by both moderately burning the exposed parts of the body, and giving a feeling of being burned everywhere inside the body ?

Did someone base Drown Powder on Freck's design or did Freck base his gas on Drown Powder? (English can be so imprecise:).
Either way, remember this and bring it up if you ever try to add Drown Powder to your Alchemist's list of Known Formulas (don't @ me about plurals), it will make the Project easier.

Latter, Freck based his gas on Drown Powder !
And yep, will remember that ^^.