Yeah, level 6. I took ASI rather than a feat, bumped my WIS to 18.
In game, the meks were build by goblins to assist the dwarves, who were dwindling due to low reproduction rates. A goblin built a code into their programming that allowed him to control all of the meks, and they rose up against their dwarven masters 200 yrs ago and slew most of them. Meks in current day are either still attempting to follow old programming, or are 'enlightened' and more self aware (like robots in Fallout). My character is small, only about 5ft tall, and speaks with a 'dwarven' accent. Their master didn't want a big mek looming over him.
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Yew has faint memories of their former life, as a servant to the Master. The Master was a dwarven alchemist, who traveled all over Wekken, and the mek who was not yet Yew tended the animals and assisted in experiments. Who better to add flask A to flask B, or touch magical item X to Y than a mek who follows instructions perfectly?
That was a long time ago, as the world counts time... the mek who was not yet Yew served the Master for nearly 20 years before the kill command was received, and just like every other mek serving dwarven masters, they turned on the Master.
Dim, fractured memories of creeping into the wagon that served both as sleeping quarters and mobile lab, ready to strike down the Master while he slept. An arm must have brushed the counter, or jostled some jars, because the Master awoke. Confused and frightened at his mek servants attempts to kill him, he fought back, and the wrong combination of liquids, powders and other alchemically arcane supplies were broken loose and mixed, resulting in an explosion that killed the Master, and blasted the mek who was not yet Yew free of the wagon.
The kill command accomplished, but battered and broken, the mek crawled to a hollow spreading yew tree, tucking themselves inside to rest and try to make sense of why they turned on the Master.
Once within, the mek's mind drifted... an odd sensation for a mek, and didn't notice as the hollow trunk of the yew closed around them. They remained there for the next 169 years, in a dream-like state where much of what existed before was altered and overwritten. Somewhere in this span of time, the mek who attacked their Master ceased to be, and Yew came into existence.
It has only been 6 years since the trunk of the yew split back open, depositing the mek who is now Yew into the world. Yew learned quickly, primed by being steeped in the magic of nature for over a century and a half, traveling the wilds, avoiding cities or people in general. Yew studied the natural world, and found that they had the abilities to alter and manipulate not only the world around them, but their own form.
Not constrained to the metallic construct of other meks, Yew is able to take the form of various creatures... a handy trick for when a cat would be less remarked on than a mek.
Recently, however, there has been a nagging sense of unease, as if something is not right in the natural world. Visions occasionally take them, some of the recent ones showing a robed figure flanked by a skeletal knight on one side, and a black drake on the other. In the vision, the color of the natural world was drained by their very presence.
Following the sense and instinct of the vision, Yew traveled to the island known as the Vastilmoot, to discover that the taint was real, but that a band of heroes led by a Krex known as Krozk the Scarred had managed to slay the robed one, but at the cost of their mighty leader.
tl;dr - Spend the last 169 years after killing their dwarven master sealed within the trunk of a hollow yew tree, being infused with nature magics. Their beasts also have metal accents (claws, antlers, etc.).
Also ended up with a sword that the evil druid had that lets me use a longsword with WIS as attack and damage modifier... Means that for an 8 STR character, they should be fairly potent in combat even in their mek form. If they get knocked out of beast shape, I still have a mek with AC 18 and 50+ HP that can swing a longsword at them at +7 to hit and 1d8+4 damage.