Thread: [Bio] Gul'Rok

  1. #1

    [Bio] Gul'Rok

    Name: Gul’rok The Devourer

    Age:.40 years old

    Race: Drakkari (Ice Troll)

    Gender: Male

    Languages: Zandali, Broken Common, Broken Orcish.

    Class: Shaman/Warrior

    Faction: None Currently.

    Alignment: Neutral Evil

    Likes: Eating, Drinking, Slaughter, Hunting, The Loa’s, Leatherworking, Cannibalism, Cold Weather, Distillery.

    Dislikes: The Scourge, Other races, Those who believe they are above the Loa’s, The Twilight Cult, hot climates.


    Personality


    Gul’rok is everything that represents the frozen landscapes of Zul’Drak. He is brutal, uncaring, a firm believer that only the strong have any right to survive. He even openly practices cannibalism, at times in the middle of battle to sat his gluttonous behavior and to demoralize those he faces.

    He needed to be completely ruthless to survive among his peers, who have a habit of slaughtering each other in the heat of battle. Any signs of weakness would have simply gotten him killed in the Drakkari society. He has absolutely no moral issues with killing the weak and helpless. It’s what sets him apart from the rest of his breed that truly shapes this hulking troll.

    As a shaman, he holds a much more powerful spiritual than most of the rest of his kind and is fiercely devoted to the loa, and becomes enraged at even the talk of sacrificing or enslaving of Loa. He also has been known to be a loyal individual to those who have proven themselves to the older troll. While still a slow process, he is quicker to trust other trolls over any other races.

    Conversations with him are haphazard at times since he can only speak a limited amount in common or orcish, though he can understand both well enough. In zandali, he is surprisingly well spoken.


    Appearance


    Gul’rok is a massive troll, even among his own kind. Standing at 8’6” and weighing nearly 400lbs, he was a massive wall of liquor, cannibalized flesh and muscle. His powerful build is shocking for a troll his age, though a necessity for the harsh realities he normally faces on a day to day basis. His skin is a dull blue, with long white hair pulled into a mass of braids. His tusks were curved upward with one of them damaged. The shaman’s eyes were a bit strange for his breed of trolls, mismatched with his left being a shade of pale green and feline, while the right was red and reptilian, showing his own brutal dedication to the loa’s of the north. He carries all of his war-wounds with pride, with piercings lining the flesh of his chest, arms and back.

    He is normally found in the shamanistic trappings of the north. Hardened wind serpent scales, frozen bones, and snow leopard furs compose his armor, with a constant layer of frost coating it all. In warmer climates he seems to have a constant haze of mist surrounding him, occasionally taking the shape of the Loa of the north. His face is normally hid behind a helm crafted from ice covered bone and a hood of wind serpent scales. He also carries with him some form of shield and one handed weapon, with the shield normally bladed along it’s edges and an axe or mace of some sort.


    Strengths


    Physical Condition: Still physically powerful even as age is beginning to take its toll on him. He is also something of a trash compactor when it comes to eating, able to consume most things, including rotted, diseased, or poisoned foods without harm do to his stomachs powerful digestion. This does not help against diseases or poisons caused from things injected or inflicted upon him.

    Shamanism: His devotion to the loa has granted him powerful command over the elements and the spirits. His primary focus in the elements is with both water and air magics, with fire being his weakest school. With spiritual magics, he focuses upon the animal spirits of the Loa.

    Stalwart: Gul’rok is a very stubborn man, almost to a fault, and as such a has become single minded in his goals. His savagery and pig headedness has caused him to become very resistant to any form of fear ability.

    Brutality: The Shaman has a very bad reputation of being completely ruthless and sadistic in battle. He will slaughter others simply to demoralize their allies and eat the fallen parts of others while they are still alive. He is simply a terrifying force to deal with.


    Weaknesses


    Language barrier: He knows just enough of common and orcish to get by when dealing with the alliance and the horde, unfortunately this also has a tendency to make him sound rather crude or simple with his choice of words.

    Blood Lust: He does nothing to hide his lust for battle and carnage, taking joy in wading deep into enemy lines with reckless abandon. It is very hard for him to pull himself from combat and at times, when he loses himself, he needs to be physically restrained by others if retreat is needed. Any allies he has may also find his habits rather disturbing.

    Overly Focused Magic: He has a hard time summing the power of fire spells. He can invoke them as needed but he does not have nearly the skill as most shamans might with them. He is unable to summon earth and fire elementals, instead only summoning frost and air ones. Also, his own almost fanatical devotion to the Loa’s and recent assaults on his own people, has caused him to lose touch with his ancestors.

    Prejudice: It is bad enough Gul’Rok dislikes most other Drakkari. He tends to not be very fond of most other trolls, but is able to remain something remotely close to civil with them. He has varying degrees of dislike amongst the other races, favoring the horde to the alliance somewhat. He has a violent hatred for the scourge and requires a lot of convincing to even accept the idea of working with a death knight.



    History



    Childhood


    Born to the harsh frosts of the north, Gul’Rok’s parents were sacrificed to the Loa Quetz’lun while his mother was eight months pregnant. Miraculously he survived the process with his mother giving birth just before her heart stopped beating. By all means he should not have lived through it, but the Drakkari of his tribe saw it as a sign that he was to be of use to them. Gul’Rok was forcibly introduced into the harsh, tribal lifestyle of the Drakkari at a very young age. While he remembers his childhood very fondly, it wasn’t an easy one for the troll. He was forced to learn how to skin at the age of 5 and hunt by the age of 10. All the while him and his friends, both boys and girls, would fight and wrestle with one another, even playing in the woods of the Grizzly Hills. Bruises, broken bones and cuts were all a common part of the young Gul’Rok’s life, and he loved every moment of it.

    By twelve, he was the size of children several years older than him and he slowly began to collect a group of favored companions. They were a trio of other children who he was able to command with ease, taking them out into the Grizzly Hills, far from home only to return days later with all of them covered in wounds and dragging prizes them ranging from items they were able to steal or animals they were able to kill on their own.

    Others took note of his natural strength and a few of the lesser witch doctors could pick up on a strange, if slight connection to the elements and spirits that grew with his age. Once it seemed strong enough, he was finally sent away to train, starting later than most might.


    Shamanism


    While he showed minor signs of the ability to commune with the Loa and elements, none of this was acted upon until his 15th birthday at he was sent away from his family to study with one of the rare shamans of the Drakkari. The shaman gave the adolescent no name to call him and instead began to guide him upon the path of spiritualism. The methods of the teacher were cruel, in an attempt to show the boy humility and tame his growing, blood thirsty nature. Unlike child prodigies, he had to fight tooth and nail for every scrap of knowledge he learned. His own personal flaws fought him every step of the way in his attempts to commune with even the ancestor spirits, forcing Gul’Rok’s teacher to try to take a different route.

    Instead of going the normal routes of revering the fallen and the elements, he thrust him into violent situations, using his negative traits as a blessing rather than a curse. Time and time again, Gul’Rok was nearly killed by air and frost revenants, thrown to the mercy of witchdoctors whom taught him about respecting the primal Loa, and even forcing him in be cowed to their glory. He fed off the sheer brutality of it all, drank upon the primal ferocity. As time went on, he became almost uncontrollable with his own urges, finally being driven away at the age of 18 by his own teacher who found him to be too savage to continue. This didn’t stop him though.

    He returned to his foster family and friends with his new abilities, and within the span of months, he took his small tribe for himself, utterly dominating them through both physical prowess and mystical might. The witchdoctors acted as his new teachers and advisors after he slayed the former chief and his mate. His two foster parents. In a way they were proud, proud that they raise such a son. As the new chief, Gul’Rok forced many sacrifices to the Loa, and took his both his step sister and one of his childhood friends as mates. He began to hone his skills as the years went on, commanding the unforgiving ice and freezing winds with the same skill that other shamans do with blazing infernos and arcs of lightning. He even began to find ways of summoning elementals of air and ice to his aid. His physical skills did not wane either, taking up both ax and shield, learning to use both for offense and defense.

    Life was surprisingly good for the small tribe, and by the time he was 32, he had sired many children, some dying from the harsh lifestyle, while others were kidnapped. A few were even sacrificed when the Loa requested more savory blood, a task he did not hesitate to act out. The Scourge were a problem for some time, though not one that was hard to avoid. That is, until they took Drak’Tharon.


    The Scourge


    The Scourge forced the Drakkari to band together in an attempt to drive them out of their homelands. His own tribe was one of the more zealous in the assaults on the undead hordes, with Gul’Rok spearheading their attacks. While they killed many of the undead, they unfortunately were truly an endless horde and his own people were gradually dying. He had no choice but to allow his own tribe to be assimilated into the larger Drakkari kingdom.

    While the majority of his tribe was taken deeper to help with plans that only the witch doctors knew about, Gul’Rok remained deep in the thick of the combat, constantly fighting, sating his own blood lust with every undead he could. He made them pay for every foot of land they took. He began to scatter the remains of any undead he could, all the while he felt a nagging pain in the back of his mind. As time drew he felt something was calling to him, clawing at him. It was one of the few things that caused him to willingly leave combat. What he saw horrified the troll and infuriated him in a way that nothing else ever had.


    The Slaying of Loa


    He returned to find out what the Drakkari had planned to do with their mighty Loa. They were slaying them, using their blood to drive back the Scourge, he found his tribe willingly participating with these atrocities. There was absolutely no control left in the troll anymore. He violently turned on his own kind, assaulting those he saw as betrayers with reckless abandon. He was prepared to slaughter everyone who stood in his way when his former teacher finally showed himself once more, telling him that they would be avenged and that he should not throw his life away so quickly in rage. After a brief confrontation, his mentor subdued him in stone chains, and forcibly returned him to his training.

    His teacher informed him that he could restore the Loa through rituals, through the same bloody violence that the aging shaman found distasteful. He just needed to wait. The older troll did not allow him to return to his home, instead bringing him south to the Grizzly Hills. Even as the scourge finally overtook Zul’Drak, Gul’Rok was forced to wait, to commune with the surviving Loa and those that remained in the world of the dead. His own loathing built for many things. For his teacher, for his own tribe and family that turned their backs so quickly to the Loa, for the Scourge who pushed his people to such blasphemous actions, he wanted them all to die. It wouldn’t be until after the Shattering that he would be finally be allowed to leave his current training, fueled by the smoldering hate and a new found goal.


    Now


    The Shattering forced his nameless mentor to have to leave the younger Drakkari behind. Gul’Rok finally was able to try to plot out everything he needed to resurrect the murdered Loa, though realization hit him recently that bothered him nearly as much as his older source of hate. The Drakkari have almost completely wiped out from the undead hordes, even after the death of the Lich King, leaving him feeling torn. Should he focus completely on saving the Loa and let his own kind spiral into extinction, or should he try to gather any Drakkari he could find in an attempt to save the tribe? He would need help to be able to take back his homeland, at least long enough for him to take the throne as his people’s new leader.


    Goals


    Gul’Rok wishes to resurrect the fallen Loa of Northrend, to bring them back to their full strength. He also feels a responsibility to try to bring his people back into power, though this same responsibility also causes him to feel entitled to take their throne. He is unaware of the former meeting of the troll tribes and believes that the Drakkari have been all but wiped out.

  2. #2
    Pretty well written. Most of the lore and whatnot seems accurate, though two things kinda bugged me. Firstly, the communication with the Loa and the elements as per the duties of a shaman thing, but that isn't my area of expertise. Perhaps someone who knows troll culture a little better than myself can comment. I can see it as being plausible, but perhaps I merely tend to view shaman as through the orcish and tauren and draenei fashions. From what I can tell, druids are more connected to the Loa, though. The other thing that bothered me was that even after he leaves his teacher, brutally takes over his tribe, and lives a life of comfort and power, his teacher is still able to exert as much control over him as he does. I dunno, perhaps expand on that.

  3. #3
    Deleted
    Shamans can be connected with the Loa, but its more of an oldschool thing and would by our words more likely be labeled as "Voodoo" than Shamanism.
    Otherwise Madgod is correct, Loa mainly shares a spiritual bond to hunters, priests and druids. There's no real mistakes lorewise, yet I would still suspect that you would be walking a line before it should be called Voodoo.

    ~ Saerwen.

  4. #4
    His teacher is a drastically more powerful than he is, it's why he holds sway over him so much. With the Drakkari, strength equals power and respect, and his teacher was simply powerful enough to be able to put him in his place on multiple occasions. He might dislike his teacher but he is one of the few people he actually respects.

    As for the Loa, it was a bit of a stretch thing for him, but the way I see him is someone who is such a savage person that he tended to relate more to the Loa and revere them do to their animalistic nature. He does seem to be on a the edge of both Shamanism and Voodoo, and may even eventually be a turning point in him somewhere down the road depending on how games go for him. From what I've seen of the trolls, the shamans of their tribes seem to be on that tightrope between the two, though that can be just personal interpretation.

  5. #5
    Fair enough, though perhaps that is worth mentioning a bit more. As far as how I read it, he merely sounded like a teacher, not necessarily someone stronger than him.

  6. #6
    I should have, but I tend to start to ramble after a while with my histories for my characters so I was trying to trim things down a bit. I will add a small section about his teacher at some point.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •