Sunday, September 04, 2005

Darian Athuk: A Character History

This is the history I wrote out for my character Darian Athuk, based on the past 3 years of playing him in online Gor, hope you like it:

Darian Athuk was born as one of the fourth set of twins (along with his twin sister Akordia) to his father Varan Athuk and mother Demitria. Darian was always a lazy son, it became clear to him at an early age that with five older brothers he was never going to have to worry about running the family business (providing mercenary guards to merchant caravans), and thus could lie back and enjoy the family wealth without having to bother with earning it.

He would regularly skip lessons (hence why he cannot fight to save his life, though he never missed a lesson when it came to tarns, being fascinated by the huge birds), to spend time with the household slaves and his only younger sibling, his brother Rappan who was the only member of the family he really got along with. Rappan left the household at an early age, determined to make a name for himself, and ended up working for the assassin Soth GreyEagle, first as an apprentice, and then after changing caste, as a slaver, running Soth's tavern, the Black Dagger Inn. He eventually ended up in Port Kar, and there his life was to end, as he took his own life, jumping from the saddle of his tarn Watcher of the Dead, high over the port city, his body all but demolishing a hovel when it smashed into it.

On learning of his youngest sons death, Varan Athuk saw an opportunity to try and reform his lazy offspring, and banished Darian from the Athuk household in Thentis, telling him that he could not come back home until he had redeemed the stain on the familys honour caused by Rappan's suicide. When he asked how he was to do this, his father simply replied "Do as Rappan did, but do it better".

With this in mind, Darian set off across Gor, to learn the ways of the Slaver Caste, deciding on heading to Cos for training, as he had always enjoyed the company of the earth girls in his family holding, and Cos was known to be a place where they arrived from whereever it was they came from. It was on the long sea voyage too the island ubarate, that Darian found out he got seasick, thus beginning a hatred of sea travel that abides to the present day.

Darian spent a year on Cos, learning the ways of the Slavers, and it was during this time that he took part in a slave gathering trip to Earth, seeing the other planet for the first and only time, and gaining a deep loathing of the world in the process. When his training was done, he returned to the continent, and when he set foot on dry land again he vowed never to go on another ship, a pledge he has kept for years now.

Trained in the ways of the Slavers, he set off across the continent to hunt down the woman responsible for his brothers suicide, he having killed himself due to his inability to break her to his collar, after having hunted her for years. He finally tracked down Adrianna Seyal, and recovered his brothers tarn from her holding, she having kept the bird as a reminder of the man she had loved but would not submit too.

He set off then for Ar, determined to make a name for himself in the biggest city on Gor, so that his family would hear of his success all the sooner, his thoughts very much concerned with getting back home as quickly as possible. He gained an audience with the Ubar of the city, and was surprised when he was refused permission to take up business in the city itself, the Ubar having something else in mind. He took Darian to the village of Senkha, ten pasangs south of Ar herself, a small farming community built up around a amphitheatre, that had been ruined by an earthquake a decade past. The village had grown up while crowds from the rural areas around used to flock to the arena to watch shows, such as gladiator fights, honour spars, and more peaceful displays such as poetry recitals and plays.

The Ubar gave Darian administratorship of the ruined arena, and tasked him with making an income with it, so that it could become less of an eyesore and generate revenue for the imperial coffers. Darian moved in immediately, the Ubar spending enough coin as an investment to have the old noble seating boxes, knocked together into a small apartment, that part of the arena being remarkably intact. His tarn too was housed there, the earthquake having torn apart one section of the stands, leaving a gaping hole in the ground down to the old beast pens underneath, a rough but useable slope connecting the two levels. Darian was soon to discover that the earthquake had jumbled up the rest of the underground levels, smashing some tunnels, ripping open new caverns, until the arena sat atop a virtual labyrinth.

Tasked with making money from the wrecked site, Darian took to holding a market in the the open area that used to be the sands, held first twice a week, then later three times as it got more popular. Peasants from the village and the farms about would bring their goods and produce there to sell, and many merchants took to including the place on their travels, preferring to sell there and pay only a modest fee, than to pay the far higher tolls to enter Ar herself.

After a year though, Darian grew restless, the market was a success, the Ubar was pleased, or so the tax collectors who visited him told him, but he was no closer to returning home, his time occupied with running the market, slaving having become a pastime rather than an occupation. and so when he heard of a new place, a lair of pirates and scum that had just been founded, he packed everything he owned into a tarn basket, and headed for Parrot Cove, finding the place all but deserted, save for its leader Tai Phoon, who had been abandoned by those he founded the home with.

In return for a place to live and hunt from, Darian pledged loyalty to the home and to its captain, promising to do his best to ensure that the Cove always had a good number of trained kajira there. He would see to capturing them, training them, branding, and if need be, should their number grow too many, selling them at market. From that day to this, (barring a month long sojourn at Treve when the Cove was temporarily abandoned), Darian has resided at Parrot Cove, doing his best to keep his promise. He no longer dreams of returning home, knowing that he is already there.

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