Torak's father

The unnamed man who is known mostly as Torak's father is a crucial character in Michelle Paver's Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, which is set 6,000 years ago in stone-age Europe. Though he dies immediately in the first chapter of the first book, his mysterious past intervenes with Torak's quest to destroy the villainous Soul Eaters.
==Biography==
===Early life===
Torak's father was born roughly 39 years before the beginning of Wolf Brother. His father was from the Wolf Clan and his mother was from the Seal Clan. He was declared a Wolf Clan member. He had a brother named Tenris who was two years older than him and became a Seal Clan member. When Tenris was eleven years old and his brother was nine years old, they met the eleven-year-old Fin-Kedinn, the future Raven Clan chieftain. The trio lived for five months as the Wolf Clan's fosters. While Fin-Kedinn was interested about hunting, both of the brothers lived for Magecraft. They still remained as good friends for ten years. However, during the eleventh year, Torak's father was named the Wolf Clan's mage, but Tenris himself did not become the Seal Mage. Embittered by this, he left to wander for six years.
At some point, Fin-Kedinn and Torak's father became acquainted with an unnamed young woman from the Red Deer Clan. They both fell in love with her, but she ultimately loved Torak's father like a woman loves her mate, while she loved Fin-Kedinn like a brother. That woman later became Torak's mother.
At some point, Torak's father stopped Nef the Bat Mage from committing suicide after her son died. This made her feel indebted to him even after his death. It is not until at the end of Soul Eater that she repays her debt by destroying the first piece of the Fire Opal at the cost of her life to help the son of the man who saved her life.
===A Healer and Soul Eater===
Thirteen years before the events of Wolf Brother, several clan mages banded together to help the clans across the Forest. They called themselves the Healers, and Tenris returned from his wanderings to join them. Torak's father joined them as well despite the warnings of his mate and Fin-Kedinn. This turned out to be a grave mistake, for most of the Healers were corrupted by their ambitions. They desired to oppress everyone under their rule and became known as the Soul Eaters. Only Torak's father and the Otter Mage Narrander were uncorrupted out of the seven Soul Eaters. They both tried to resign, but they were not allowed to. Eostra the Eagle Owl Mage forced Narrander to stay by holding his son Narik hostage, but it is unknown what was used to put pressure on Torak's father. His clan was so ashamed he, the greatest mage they have ever had, became a Soul Eater that they became as elusive and shadowy as their totem and started bearing the mark of shame by staining their shaved temples with red ochre.
Torak's father would still not let the Soul Eaters dominate the Forest. He summoned them on Souls' Night on a hill at the western edge of the Deep Forest. The hill that would later be known as the Burnt Hill has long kept demons trapped under the rocks. The Soul Eaters intended to release the demons and use the Fire Opal, the source of their might, to bind them to do their bidding. However, once the demons were released, Torak's father cut the ritual short by shattering the Fire Opal into three pieces, resulting in the Soul Eaters losing their control over the demons. He then set a fire which banished the demons back into the rocks. Unfortunately, the fire got quickly out of hand, and the resulting forest fire — known afterwards as the Great Fire — destroyed the entire valley around the hill. Though some of the Soul Eaters were badly injured, they all survived, but Narrander's son Narik died, and the Otter Mage lost his sanity out of grief. Torak's father and Fin-Kedinn made it look like Narrander had perished in the Great Fire, while the other five Soul Eaters scattered and went into hiding.
Torak's father fooled nearly everyone into thinking that he and his mate had perished as well. They begged Fin-Kedinn to help them hide, but because he was angry and jealous at Torak's father for winning the heart of the woman they both loved, he turned them away and never saw them again. They hid in the Deep Forest where the Red Deer Clan dwelt, but Tenris discovered that they had survived. They had to live on the run because Torak's mother would not endanger her clan by staying with them. Their son Torak was born in the summer that followed the Great Fire. When he was born on Midsummer Night, the World Spirit appeared to his mother in a vision to decree that his destiny is to fight all his life to undo the evil his father had helped create. When Torak's mother begged the Spirit to aid her son with this burden, the boy was made a spirit walker, but as the prize, his mother had to decree him clanless and die herself. She died three months later when she finished crafting a medicine horn out of the antler tine the World Spirit had given to her.
===A single father===
Torak's father raised his son in secrecy for twelve years. Following his mate's death, he placed their infant son in a wolf's den to be nursed by a female wolf until he could start raising him by himself three months later. This is what taught Torak to communicate with wolves. During this time, the former Wolf Mage built a Death Platform for his mate and put her bones to rest in the same place where Torak was born; inside the Great Yew of the sacred grove of the Deep Forest.
The former Wolf Mage taught his son hunting and tracking instead of Magecraft, skills that would prove invaluable in his quest to defeat the Soul Eaters. However, he did no tell Torak anything about the Soul Eaters or his history with them because he did not want his son's childhood to be burdened by the weight of his destiny too soon. Though he knew his son to be clanless, he allowed Torak to believe himself to be a member of the Wolf Clan. He gave Torak the clan tattoos when the boy was seven years old, but he purposefully made a small scar to cut through the tattoos as a subtle sign that Torak is not truly a member of the Wolf Clan.
Torak's father also kept one of the three Fire Opal pieces hidden inside the hilt of his ceremonial knife until Torak discovers it in Outcast. Five years before Wolf Brother, Torak's father went with Torak to a clan meet at the sea-shore. It was the only time he ever took his son to see people. In order to disguise them both, he covered their clan tattoos with bearberry juice and made it sound like a game to his son. Leaving Torak alone for a while, the former Wolf Mage sought out the Raven Mage Saeunn and told her about his son. He told her that Torak was clanless, had been fed by a wolf and might someday vanquish the Soul Eaters. He did not tell her that Torak was a spirit walker, though. He then found several children insulting him in Torak's face. He took his son away from the clan meet as he laughed at the insults of the ignorant children.
===Death and legacy===
In the first book, Wolf Brother, Torak and his father are setting up a camp, only to be suddenly attacked by a bear that is possessed by a demon. The bear, created by none other than Tenris as a weapon against his brother, mortally wounds the former Wolf Mage. Before dying, he tells Torak to travel north, find the Mountain of the World Spirit and ask for the Spirit's help in destroying the bear. He knows that the bear will become invincible when the red eye of the Great Auroch (the most powerful demon of the Otherworld), a celestial body of great evil, will be at its zenith by the time of the Moon of the Red Willow in less than one month. That is why he makes Torak swear that he will do as he asked or die trying. He also tells Torak that his guide shall find him. After receiving the Death Marks, he sends Torak to fetch water, knowing that the bear will return to finish him off. His last words are telling Torak to run before the bear kills him.
Throughout the series, Torak discovers many secrets his father had kept from him — both about himself and Torak. Though all of this leaves Torak with mixed feelings, he continues honoring his father's memory. The spirit of Torak's father appears briefly in Ghost Hunter when he and the other deceased Soul Eaters are summoned by Eostra. They are all under her control because the Eagle Owl Mage possesses their hairs. Seeing his beloved father makes Torak reluctant to send his spirit away, but when the mind-controlled spirit ignores his son, Torak breaks the spell by burning the hairs. Torak's father recognizes his son and bids him farewell before he vanishes along with the other deceased Soul Eaters.
==Personality==
As a young man, Torak's father was described to be eager to learn the ways of trees, prey and hunters. His brother Tenris says that like Torak, he was constantly asking questions that began with a "why". He was also eager to do good, which is why he joined the Healers. Unfortunately, he believed himself to be infallible and did not listen to the advice of others, not even his mate and best friend Fin-Kedinn when they warned him not to join the Healers. After he realized his folly in trusting the Soul Eaters, he was determined to stop them, for he was not a coward. He was also clever with the way he cowered his tracks and went into hiding.
After the former Wolf Mage's mate died, he never told his son much about her because the subject always made him very sad. He also kept Torak unaware of his future role in order to keep him safe and happy for as long as possible. He acted around Torak like a practical hunter and not like the former Wolf Mage, for he knew that Torak would need to use his head more than Magecraft in order to survive. He taught Torak to pay attention to the surrounding Forest like his mother so that he would not repeat his father's rash mistakes. In his last moments, he wisely predicts what his son would have to go through and asks him not to hate him later for all the secrets he kept for Torak's entire life. When Eostra summons the spirit of Torak's father in Ghost Hunter, she describes him as "wise as the wolf, the willful one". He apparently used to quote a saying of the Wolf Clan: the best thing in life is moving on to the next campsite.
==Powers and Abilities==
Torak's father was a talented mage to the point that he was the greatest mage the Wolf Clan has ever had. The Wolf Clan chieftain Maheegun says that Torak's father was the only one able to become wolf (in other words, spirit walk in a wolf) for a few heartbeats. He also knew how to survive in the seclusion of the Forest with his son for twelve years. He taught Torak to hunt, track and use his mother's gift in listening to the Forest.
==Trivia==
*The reason the name of Torak's father is never revealed is because it is forbidden to speak a dead person's name for five years after they die. This is because the dead person cannot otherwise rest peacefully. It is not revealed even when Eostra speaks it while summoning his spirit.
==External Links==
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