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This article is a player character biography page for Rakeri of Cenarion Circle US created by Joshmaul. The contents herein are entirely player made and in no way represent official World of Warcraft history or occurrences which are accurate for all realms. The characters and events listed are of an independent nature and applied for roleplaying, fictional, speculative, or opinions from a limited playerbase only. |
"Let our foes quake before the evolution of gnomanity."
- - Professor Rakeri Sputterspark
 Rakeri Sputterspark | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Title | The Professor, the Feltouched, Master of the Green Flame, Dark Angel of Mercy |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | Mechagnome (Humanoid) |
| Level | 60 |
| Class | Warlock (formerly Mage), Engineer |
| Affiliation(s) |
The Alliance Kingdom of Gnomeregan The Black Harvest Sputterspark Industries The Eightfold Path |
| Occupation | Master warlock and engineer, chairman and chief engineer of Sputterspark Industries |
| Location | Mechagon City |
| Status | Alive (surprisingly) |
| Relative(s) | Marennia (sister) |
| Mentor(s) | Linavil Shadowsun |
| Student(s) | Lord Aldos Relsyn |
| Alignment | Chaotic evil |
Professor Rakeri Sputterspark, also known as Rakeri the Feltouched, was an embittered mage and engineer from Gnomeregan who was mechanized and then "recursed" during the war against the Lich King. Infused with fel energies, Rakeri became a powerful warlock... as well as dangerously psychotic, becoming a particularly reviled figure by some within the Alliance, especially in Stormwind. Eventually killed on Draenor, Rakeri's spirit lingered within the most unsuspecting of hosts: His younger sister, Marennia, who arranged to bring him back - in the most unexpected of circumstances...
Biography[]
Rakeri was born in Gnomeregan seventy years before the First War, and was considered something of a reckless visionary, combining his magical aptitude and his people's natural engineering skill. He attended Gearshaft University at the same time as up-and-coming alchemist Wilbert Blunderwitz; both would graduate with degrees, Rakeri as a Professor of Engineering and Wilbert with a doctorate in medicine and alchemy. Wilbert would later become one of Gnomeregan's first priests, in the wake of the Cataclysm.
Rakeri supported Gelbin Mekkatorque in his bid to become High Tinker of Gnomeregan, while his colleague Caedus Netherfist backed his mentor, Sicco Thermaplugg. Fleeing to Ironforge after the fall of Gnomeregan, Rakeri was quick to offer his service and fought for the Alliance in Lordaeron and in Outland, lending his engineering know-how to the construction of Toshley's Station in the Blade's Edge Mountains. When the time came to bring the fight to the Scourge in Northrend, Rakeri eagerly joined King Varian Wrynn's Valiance Expedition and was a member of the staff at Fizzcrank Airstrip in the Borean Tundra. There, things went horribly awry...
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Rakeri during his early training in Coldridge Valley
Rakeri was part of the original team that discovered Gearmaster Mechazod in the clogged suction pipe of the Fizzcrank pumping station. Upon reconstructing Mechazod's body, Rakeri and the entire team were turned into mechagnomes, which the "Gearmaster" claimed was a cure for the "Curse of Flesh". Unlike his comrades, who remained around the pumping station, Rakeri was sent with a handful of others to the Inventor's Library near Ulduar as guardians. Trapped in his mechanical form, Rakeri could do nothing to oppose this directive.
After some months, Rakeri was badly damaged by adventurers seeking access to the Inventor's Library. His smashed body was found inside the Inventor's Library by the paladin Saavedro of Stratholme, an engineer specializing in explosives. Taking the smashed body to Dalaran, Saavedro rebuilt Rakeri's robotic form using parts from other repair bots and several bars of titansteel, and put him to work as his personal butler. There was a portion of Rakeri's original self that remained to resent being put to such a menial task. Saavedro had found the schematics for similar robots on file in the Inventor's Library, but he used Rakeri primarily - not realizing, of course, that he had previously been a flesh-and-blood gnome. Someone else, however, did realize this.
The blood elf warlock Linavil Shadowsun, apprentice to Urgan the Corruptor, was able to liberate the mechagnome from Saavedro's quarters in Dalaran and take it to Urgan's encampment near Granite Springs in the Grizzly Hills. Having obtained a sample of the "recursive" formula used to cure the mechanized gnomes of Fizzcrank, Linavil added her own ingredient - the blood of a demon - into what she called the "Feltouch Recursive". Injecting the combined formula into the mechagnome, it took effect almost immediately. Rakeri was flesh again...and possessing new powers. Linavil offered to teach the gnome the ways of the warlock in exchange for his services to Urgan within the Alliance - their first true spy. Rakeri cautiously agreed.
Urgan was skeptical of the decision Linavil had made, but Rakeri soon disabused him of any notion that he was useless because of his size, boldly threatening the warlock. Impressed by his dedication to learning the dark arts, Urgan finally consented. Linavil undertook the gnome's training herself, influencing him with her own ideals - that power should be taken, not given. The Corruptor was slain by Saavedro not long afterwards, and Rakeri went on his own way.
The Cataclysm War, and the Brief Alliance with Sekhesmet[]
Sekhesmet's gifts to his new "agent"
Rakeri was disheartened by what he perceived to be a lackluster effort in Operation: Gnomeregan, and was sickened by Mekkatorque patting himself on the back for the "progress" that was made - which, as he himself described it, was "so close and yet so far", establishing New Tinkertown in a "frozen, slime-covered bog in spitting distance of the gates of Gnomeregan, and nothing being done about it". Wandering abroad to continue his engineering studies as well as continuing to master the powers granted to him by the Feltouched Recursive, Rakeri - styling himself a "demongineer" - would eventually encounter the Forsaken shadow priest Sekhesmet, the former master of Saavedro, who was engaged in a shadow war with Saavedro throughout the Cataclysm. Rakeri agreed to serve as Sekhesmet's agent in Stormwind, his diminutive size and ability making him ideal for the shadow priest's long-term agenda.
However, despite being given certain items of immense power to awaken his demonic abilities, Rakeri began to distance himself from the mad Forsaken as he realized that his goals were not well-served while tied to a "raving, plague-spreading lunatic". Though they "officially" remained associates, they spent the majority of the Cataclysm acting independently.
In spite of his increasing disdain for the Alliance in general and Mekkatorque in particular, Rakeri served on the front lines during the battle against the Twilight's Hammer. Though his powers were considered by some to be as "unnatural" or "unholy" as the cultists, he retorted that he did not have any designs on the world's destruction or corruption, believing that submitting to the power of the Old Gods would be the "ultimate loss of free will", given the mind-altering powers at the otherworldly deities' disposal. With demon magic, at least, more oft than not it was a choice (though, he would be quick to point out, not in his case). Rakeri was engaged with Twilight cultists near Grim Batol when Deathwing was defeated, bringing an end to the Cataclysm War, and allowing Rakeri to shift his focus back to his foe. It was around this period that the battle would shift to a new land, formerly shrouded in mists, but reawakened to the world in the wake of Deathwing's fall: Pandaria.
The Feltouched Fully Awakens[]
Rakeri, after experimenting on the corpse of the Corruptor, awakens the ability to call on fel fire
Arriving as part of the first wave on the shores of Pandaria, Rakeri witnessed the vile and destructive nature of the Sha firsthand as he observed the confrontation at Serpent's Heart in the Jade Forest, at the gates of the Temple of the Jade Serpent, when the Sha of Doubt emerged from where it had been imprisoned by the Emperor Shaohao millennia before. Just as he had against Twilight's Hammer, Rakeri opposed both the Sha and those who sought to use it, believing that it was far more unstable and destructive than even demonic magic; the warnings of the pandaren, particularly the Shado-Pan, lent credence to that warning. Nonetheless, the influence of the Sha left a trail of destruction across most of Pandaria as the Alliance and the Horde engaged in an increasingly brutal and unrestrained war.
Rakeri was unsurprised when he learned that Sekhesmet had attempted to use Sha energy, only to eventually meet his end at Saavedro's hands at the summit of Mount Neverest, overlooking the Kun-Lai plains. Saavedro disappeared for months after that, only to return to Stormwind in the guise of the shadow-shrouded priest "Father Shankolin". Realizing that Saavedro had taken Sekhesmet's shadow powers, Rakeri sought a desperate solution to empower himself enough to confront the powerful and increasingly unstable priest on equal footing at least...though he believed he needed the edge. His studies of warlock magic, and investigations of a rumored conclave that had taken place after the fall of Deathwing, led him to a possible solution. His investigation had uncovered the existence of a group that had called itself "the Council of the Black Harvest", led by a human named Kanrethad Ebonlocke, who had gone to Outland to master the rich quantities of fel magic on that shattered world. Kanrethad had become so corrupted by fel magic that he had become a demon himself, but had gone completely mad with power and was banished by his own apprentice, Jubeka Shadowbreaker.
Intrigued by the results Kanrethad had achieved, but wary of falling down the same path, Rakeri took samples of fel essence from demons, flora, and the pools of pure fel lava that erupted from the Hand of Gul'dan, the great volcano in the center of Shadowmoon Valley. He took his samples to a secret laboratory hidden in an abandoned Titan vault in the Storm Peaks of Northrend, where he kept the corpse of the Corruptor in a jury-rigged Titan stasis chamber, using technology salvaged from Ulduar and from the Titan vaults in Pandaria. The various sources of fel magic had the effect of mutating the Corruptor's dessicated corpse, allowing it to take on a hint of demonic form even in death. After one last sample, however, the corpse awakened, the soul of the Corruptor still lively within it, as it attempted to consume the professor's life essence. However, Rakeri was able to channel massive energies through his staff as he stabbed it into the Corruptor's body, allowing him to draw on the fel magic coursing through the reanimated corpse. The backlash sent Rakeri flying across his laboratory, and destroyed the corpse. When he awakened, Rakeri saw that his experiment had worked; he had been able to meld pure fel magic into his spells.
So empowered, Rakeri participated in the siege of Orgrimmar, becoming embroiled in a duel with a persistent Kor'kron dark shaman in the streets of Orgrimmar when Garrosh was defeated.
Imprisoned by the Watch[]
Rakeri after more than a month imprisoned in the Stockade
Rakeri's conflict with Shankolin eventually came to the attention of the Stormwind City Watch, involving a confrontation between them outside the village of Halfhill in Pandaria's Valley of the Four Winds. Rakeri ambushed the priest on his way to minister to the masses, utterly destroying the human's horse and leaving the man himself for dead as he was taken by the Gilding Stream into the rushing waters of the Yan-Zhe River, and over the falls into Krasarang. Rakeri was only able to find his staff, and brought it to the Watch's commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Orwyn, at the Watch headquarters in Stormwind City. He claimed that the attack had actually taken place at Three Corners between Elwynn Forest, the Redridge Mountains, and Duskwood - and had prepared a scene there carefully prior to his reporting the incident. Not long after, the Shado-Pan Blackguard Yatiri Stormwatcher arrived with Shankolin's matching hammer, reporting he had found it at the true site of the incident.
As the Watch investigated, Rakeri himself was ambushed by Shankolin, bearing far more than simply Sekhesmet's powers, at the Deeprun Tram station in Stormwind on his way to Ironforge. Fortunately, this coincided with a public clinic held by the religious order known as Pia Presidium, who was able to tend to the warlock's severe wounds enough for him to report the incident to the Watch. Upon his return to Stormwind, however, Rakeri was again called to Watch headquarters, where he elaborated on the alibi he had worked out. Unfortunately for him, Orwyn was not convinced, and arrested the warlock on the spot for obstructing justice and filing a false report, with more possible charges to follow. Rakeri was outraged, claiming the arrest was motivated by a bias against warlocks, declaring that Orwyn would be forced to bow to public outrage.
It soon became clear - less than two days after Rakeri's incarceration - that Shankolin was in fact possessed by residiual remnants of Sekhesmet's spirit; they were both imprisoned in the magic-warded cells of the Stockade for several weeks. Shankolin, in a rare moment of lucidity, decided to end the feud between himself and Rakeri; against the advice of his personally-requested counsel, Battlelord Velenkayn, he requested the warlock's assistance to contain the spirit of the dead Forsaken high priest in exchange for a reduced sentence for the warlock, possibly even release. Hearing every word, Rakeri knew that Orwyn and his troopers would have no choice in the matter if they wanted it settled, and just as predicted, the Watch caved. Foravin Nash, the King's Prosecutor for the City of Stormwind, offered Rakeri a deal: He would be released from the Stockade after one week, and held under enforced residence in Stormwind for another two, if he removed the unwanted spirit from Shankolin. Rakeri, theatrically refusing at first, knew the advantage he was being given and accepted, successfully trapping Sekhesmet's mind in a soul shard - and taking Sekhesmet's powers for himself, negating the effort that the man formerly called Saavedro had made to become "forsaken", as his new name meant. One week later, he was released from prison.
The Dark Angel of Mercy[]
Rakeri tends to plague victims in the village of Moonbrook in Westfall, ground zero for the fel plague
It was during his incarceration that certain members of the Pia Presidium, as well as officers of the Watch, approached him with a request. A plague had arisen in Westfall, which was determined to have been created with fel magics. As a "resident expert" on such powers, the Watch turned to Rakeri. At first refusing, Rakeri decided that in order to repair his own reputation, as well as that of those of his calling, he agreed to examine what evidence they had and assist in finding a cure. Little did they know that Rakeri was well aware of who was behind the plague - a fellow warlock, human probably, who Rakeri only knew by the name "Grim". Grim had forged a clandestine alliance with Rakeri before his incarceration, and with the gnome now a public victim of "warlock bashing", offered to raise his (and by extension, all warlocks') standing with the public by helping to cure the plague.
Shortly after his release, during his parole period, he was approached outside Stormwind Cathedral and given a series of papers written in the eredar tongue, with his last name in Common. Thinking it was an attempt by the deliverer, a human female, to frame him for the plague, Rakeri instead took the papers to the Watch himself. Officer Ariccan Halconis, who had been investigating the plague, called in several members of the Watch and the Pia Presidium to discover exactly what they had. From Rakeri's summary, it appeared to be a means of curing the plague, but it was incomplete. Rakeri, seeing the opportunity, theorized that since the plague was partially infused with fel power, overloading the "herbal elements" of it with pure, untampered fel magic could drown out the plague and allow it to be flushed from the patient's system. The Presidium apothecary called to the meeting agreed with that assessment, and Rakeri was escorted into the quarantine established in the basement of the Cathedral, where there were four patients who were still stable enough to treat.
At first, Rakeri himself conducted the cure alone, first for the "volunteer" - who infected himself with the blood of one of the patients, then underwent the purge - and then with one who was driven to the brink of death. Exhausted, Rakeri requested additional help, and two more warlocks - one human, the other a gnome - arrived to assist him with the three remaining cases, effectively clearing out the quarantine. The Watch, and Commander Orwyn in particular, indicated that they would call upon him to conduct the "final cleanup" - the curing of those quarantined in the ruined village of Moonbrook in Westfall, considered ground zero for the plague. Rakeri graciously offered his services wherever they were required. When word spread, people on the street began to refer to him as "the Dark Angel of Mercy", for he had sprouted fel-green wings (part of the powers of his specialty in demonology) during the cure, and yet had used magic that had hitherto been condemned as evil and destructive to heal the sick. Shankolin, hearing the adulation for the warlock, was outraged and exiled himself from Stormwind, declaring he would never return again.
The morning that his enforced residency in Stormwind ended, Rakeri led a group of warlocks, druids, priests, and apothecaries to Moonbrook, and spent the better part of that day tending to plague victims. The plague was cleansed from Westfall within the week, further increasing Rakeri's standing. The "posse" Rakeri had collected for the plague curing included worgen druid Eidan Zherron, who had come to blows with the warlock in Northrend prior to his incarceration; Rakeri clearly stated that he wished to bury the hatchet somewhere other than in Zherron's skull, and considered the druid's assistance in the plague cure (allowing Zherron to witness his "good works") as full repayment for destroying his sky golem during the flight across the Storm Peaks. Reluctantly, Zherron agreed.
Gloating over his public relations triumph, Rakeri penned a dispatch to Genevra Stoneheardt's Conclave, of which he had formerly been a member, calling upon its members to "consider yourselves; more importantly, consider your friends", painting a picture of Genevra as a puffed-up preacher who was big on rhetoric and small on action, and also her apparent hypocrisy in shunning Rakeri and Shankolin for the powers they used, but embracing the gnome physician Dr. Cail Liam Mahlr'D, who had also turned to shadow powers; for judging Shankolin for his "lapse" while demanding that Shankolin (in his former guise as Saavedro) not judge her for doing the same, and belittling her for preaching about the Three Virtues of the Holy Light while upholding none of them. Even Zherron, one of Rakeri's most vocal critics, was forced to admit that the warlock had a point; Genevra had not gone as far as Shankolin (who, in his self-imposed exile in Lordaeron, sent flyers to Stormwind claiming that the plague was divine retribution for tolerance of warlocks, and that turning to warlocks to "usurp the Light's judgment" damned the entire kingdom's people as heretics), but she had also not contributed in any meaningful way to the cure, either.
The Return of Sekhesmet[]
Sekhesmet returns from the grave...though not entirely according to plan
Deciding on a plan that would finish Saavedro for good and give him a weapon to use against Genevra, Rakeri elected to undertake a dangerous gamble: Claiming the soul shard of Sekhesmet from the archives of the Watch, and using it to resurrect the demented priest. However, he knew that he would need his nemesis' aid, and was able to convince the priest to use his mental powers to influence the Watch to gain the shard for him. Once this was done, the two of them formally made a pact that would be sealed with the "destruction" of the Dark Father. Rakeri was careful not to let anything slip to his new "ally". But the trail was picked up by Marennia, Rakeri's younger sister, who pursued them upon seeing them leave for Menethil Harbor to sail to Northrend. While Yatiri - now under Rakeri's influence - battled Marennia outside Utgarde Keep, Rakeri gathered leftover artifacts that would enhance the power he would call upon to restore Sekhesmet to the living. He thought, at least at first, that it would probably result in Sekhesmet taking over Saavedro's body, and imprisoning the original soul within - either in a shard like Sekhesmet, or within the recesses of his own mind. The result was far different.
Rakeri elected on using the furbolg city of Grizzlemaw, built within the destroyed World Tree Vordrassil, as his "altar" for the ritual, believing that the residual darkness of Yogg-Saron's influence would combine with his own magics, Sekhesmet's soul, and the Scourge artifacts to ensure its success. He also slaughtered several of the local furbolgs and used their blood - still tainted by the same darkness - to paint ritual designs on the "walls" at the center of the great tree stump. Despite Marennia, joined by two agents of Taeril'hane Ketiron, rushing to the scene, it was too late: Rakeri shattered Sekhesmet's soul stone, and the trapped spirit went into the body of the chained priest. Unexpectedly, however, Shankolin's body exploded, his soul consumed by a vortex to presumably take it into the void. As if from the air itself, a new body formed, and the ragged remnants of Shankolin's robes were reformed around it...the dark figure of Sekhesmet himself. The explosive end of Saavedro had not been part of Rakeri's plan - and neither was what came next...
Thanking the warlock for his efforts to bring him back, Sekhesmet reached out with a void tentacle to restrain Rakeri, and placed his hands on either side of the gnome's face, sapping the magic he had stolen from Shankolin, which he in turn had taken from Sekhesmet after defeating him. Once that was done, he left Rakeri behind and travelled to Stormwind to announce his return. Unnerved, Rakeri fled once more through the Dark Portal to Outland, hiding in the abandoned halls of Manaforge B'naar - as much from Sekhesmet himself as from the authorities who would hunt him down for killing Saavedro.
Shadowgarde, and the Wrath of Ketiron[]
Shadowgarde, Rakeri's fortress on Draenor
Rakeri in Shadowgarde's main hall
Following the end of the Pandaria campaign, the emergence of the Iron Horde revealed that another Draenor existed, separated from Outland by space and time. Rakeri banked on his work in curing the fel plague in Westfall to arrange a pardon from King Varian so that he could participate in the campaign - and establish a base for himself, where he could protect against any "meddling" from Orwyn and his officers, or any other authority. A band of warlock acolytes and gnomish engineers formed the genesis of Shadowgarde, the professor's garrison in Shadowmoon Valley - a pleasant land in perpetual starlight in this timeline. Rakeri amassed considerable resources here - enough to construct his own workshop, a mage tower to contain his tomes of engineering schematics and demonic rituals - and at last began to feel at home somewhere for the first time.
That feeling did not last, as he soon found himself in conflict with Ketiron, who had established his own fortress (which, much to Rakeri's disgust, he had named "Saavedar", in honor of his fallen friend Saavedro) in the frozen wastes of Frostfire Ridge, the territory of the Frostwolf clan - one of the few orc clans that did not align with the Iron Horde. Forced into a "shadow war" on the periphery of the main conflict, Rakeri gained a major victory with the slaying of Ketiron's wife, General Areinnye Scourgebane, and the capture and torture of Ketiron himself. But the "victory" ended up turning against him, as Ketiron's allies within the Alliance - namely the draenei death knight Battlelord Velenkayn - rose against him. Leading a battalion of death knights from the Ebon Blade, Velenkayn seized Shadowgarde, forcing Rakeri to flee. His archives were seized and slated for burning, but were saved by the worgen warlock Eldred Valmy, who was able to put the rituals and schematics to his own use.
Ketiron, driven half-mad with grief and hatred, pursued Rakeri to Tanaan Jungle, which had become tainted with the fel after Gul'dan seized control of the Iron Horde. In the hopes the warlock would not return, the Blood Knight slew Rakeri and destroyed his soulstone. So far as anyone knew, Rakeri was dead forever.
Hatred Finds an Outlet[]
Yet Rakeri's vengeful spirit survived somehow. It made its way through portals - first back to Stormshield on the island of Ashran, then from there to Stormwind - managing to find the way back to New Tinkertown outside Gnomeregan, there to seek out the one person who could sustain him until he could find a way to return: His estranged sister, Marennia. The news of his death on Draenor at the hands of Ketiron, and the distinct lack of care taken by the authorities in avenging it, drove Marennia to rage; Rakeri thus found her mind an ideal place to linger. Though he could not manifest power within her, he could subtly influence her emotional state. When the Burning Legion made its greatest invasion of Azeroth, Marennia abandoned her post, her people, and her homeland, and set out to sea. Her ship was wrecked on an island off the coast of Kul Tiras... an island, she (and Rakeri) discovered, was the mythical realm of Mechagon, founded by the last king of Gnomeregan some four hundred years before.
From Marennia's subconscious, Rakeri watched with great interest as Marennia was accepted into Mechagonian society, even undergoing "upgrades" of her own - first replacing her limbs, then her eyes. He could feel the pain as she underwent her mechanization, but was fascinated by the process regardless - recognizing that unlike what he had underwent in Northrend, her mind remained her own. Unlike Gearmaster Mechazod, King Mechagon offered the perfection of the machine to his people without the risk of being turned into mechanical slaves by ignorant humans. Yet it became apparent to Marennia (and Rakeri) that Mechagon secretly intended to do the same thing Mechazod had, only on a global scale... and had a terrifying weapon to see that it was done. Rakeri was sickened by the idea of all gnomes becoming mechanized slaves to anyone, coming to believe - as Marennia did, without his influence - that mechanization should be a choice. Marennia thus joined Prince Erazmin and the Rustbolt Resistance, and fled to the surface, settling in Rustbolt. Soon, trouble arrived, in the form of the Alliance and the Horde, who had found their way to Mechagon, and aided the resistance in bringing down the insane king. Afterwards, the gnomes of Gnomeregan brought their comatose High Tinker - near-mortally wounded by the Horde during the siege of Dazar'alor in Zandalar - to Mechagon for treatment, hoping that their superior technology could restore him. The mechagnomes did one better... not only did they restore Mekkatorque's health with the Spark Reactor, but they named him to be king of all gnomes, thus ensuring that Mechagon would be inducted into the Alliance.
Marennia was not at all enthusiastic about that prospect... but Rakeri, while agreeing with the sentiment, saw an opportunity.
Synthesis: Return as a Mechagnome[]
Rakeri resurrected as a mechagnome of Mechagon, at the Temple of Invention in Northrend
Through Marennia, as she learned about what she had missed, Rakeri saw that the Alliance had recently concluded a major war against the Horde with yet another deposed Warchief - the Forsaken queen, Sylvanas Windrunner, much to his surprise - and yet another fragile peace that could easily be shattered. He knew that the peace with the Horde would not endure, and that in order to break the cycle, the next war would have to be the last. In order to ensure that, the Alliance would require ruthless, merciless minds to be the "perfect warriors" for a final war... minds like Rakeri's.
Having decided that he would not return as a "simple" gnome, Rakeri subtly hinted into Marennia's subconscious that a mechagnome body would be required to bring him back, as would a powerful warlock to conduct the ritual. Having observed the visitors to Rustbolt during the Resistance's campaign against Mechagon, Marennia (and Rakeri) knew the ideal candidate: Lord Valmy, the former "guardian" of Rakeri's writings on Draenor. Although he was an ally of Genevra, he was also Gilnean, and the worgen were among the most vocal critics against any peace with the Horde, no matter what "enlightened" leadership it may have. Marennia - spurred by Rakeri's hateful mind, which she had begun to suspect had taken hold within her - convinced Valmy that the Alliance would need people like her and Rakeri, people willing to go beyond what the prudes in Stormwind considered "acceptable", to achieve final victory over the Horde. Although concerned about how Genevra, the Watch, and other authorities would judge him if they knew what he had done, Valmy nonetheless accepted the charge.
Marennia kidnapped one of the Steelarm pillagers, a group of thieving junkers lingering in the scrap piles outside Rustbolt, for use as a host body, while suggesting that Grizzlemaw be used as the ritual altar just as it had been for Sekhesmet. Valmy adamantly refused Grizzlemaw as a location, knowing that the essence of Yogg-Saron yet lingered, and that it had corrupted Sekhesmet when Rakeri resurrected him there - and it had then corrupted the hateful, void-twisted spirit of Saavedro, when it had taken back its flesh when Sekhesmet was killed. If she persisted in that desire, Valmy warned her, she could find another warlock to conduct the ritual. Marennia took the hint (with a nudge from Rakeri), and acquiesced to his chosen place: The Temple of Invention, part of the Ulduar complex in the Storm Peaks. Valmy chose it partly for the irony of its name, given that they were "inventing" a new Rakeri, and partly because Rakeri's journey down the path of the warlock had begun in the Storm Peaks, when Saavedro had found his broken body there and repaired it to be his butler.
Reluctantly sacrificing a loyal acolyte, a Dark Iron warlock named Daeron Soulscorcher, Valmy used his blood and life essence to conduct the spirit transfer, obliterating the spirit of the terrified mechagnome within the host body, and removing Rakeri's spirit from Marennia. In a flash of green flame that nearly killed the worgen warlock, the ritual was complete, and Rakeri was reborn in his new body... to which his first comment, directed at Marennia, was a question regarding the hands he had been reborn with: "Pincers, dear sister?" Then he turned his attention to Valmy, thanking him for his work, and then taking back the things that belonged to him: The Shadowgarde Tome, a grimoire Valmy had written based on Rakeri's spells and schematics; the Shadowgarde Felcoil, a staff also created from Rakeri's own schematics... and the fel-fire powers granted by Rakeri's study of the Codex of Xerrath, which had influenced the ritual Rakeri had undertaken on the Corruptor's corpse, simply because he felt that green was not the worgen's color - and that he had absorbed some interesting powers all on his own...
