Tha-Gulok

## Overview

Tha-Gulok (Thal) is a Northern Orc alchemist, having obtained his degree from the University of Aerisholm in the year 617. He is currently traveling with a group of adventurers in Marchbug.

## Background

Tha-Gulok was born to an unknown orcish tribe in the Northern Claedian Passes. At a young age, his mothering tribe was raided and he was captured by the aggressing tribe of Sky's Ire. Brought up in an unsympathetic environment, Tha-Gulok was treated with scorn: often times the warriors would stage bouts between the emaciated runt and the wardogs, only pulling them apart once they grew bored of the spectacle. Beaten and mistreated, the then nameless sprog scraped through, day by day, subsisting only on scraps thrown to him in pity by the shaman.

When the human pioneers visited the tribe, Tha-Gulok felt none of the suspicion that the other orcs harboured, and stared in amazement as the head of the human delegation entertained and entreatied the Warchief with shiny baubles and endless bags of grain. As the years passed on, the single human homestead grew into a thriving adjacent village, replete with trade caravans regularly visiting to disseminate scraps of information of the world at large. Little of the material benefits that the tribe obtained in their trade trickled down to Tha-Gulok, but the consequences of the settlers needing what they termed "fertiliser" and healing drought led to the shaman employing Tha-Gulok in helping him keep up with ever-increasing demand.

Throughout this time, the abuse against Tha-Gulok never lessened, and while he never was able to fight them off he quickly learned that a few trinkets and well-kept promises can at least lessen the beatings. Even when his tormentors did decide to strike he quickly learned to roll with the punches, giving the desired spectacle while minimising his injuries. Furthermore, the quickly changing political situation meant that Tha-Gulok was often disregarded as an insignificant distraction while feuding warriors dueled to maintain their honour and clans struggled to adapt to the new technology and oversight brought by the settlers. Foraging was abandoned once the humans set up their crops, raiding became a crime once all of the other Orcish tribes either submitted or were driven away, and bartering became obsolete with the introduction of shiny metal "coins" that served as currency. Family ties were strained and even broken, and Warchiefs were deposed almost as quickly as they came into power by yet another ambitious Orc warrior backed by an influential enough settler family.

It all came to a head shortly after Tha-Gulok's fourteenth winter, when rugged men in green cloaks rode into the now thoroughly domesticated tribe and presented the Warchief with an ultimatum: the land that the tribe resided on was to be zoned in with the adjacent village, meaning that under this ruling all of the orcs in Sky's Ire were to be accepted as Aeristhanian citizens, both with its benefits and responsibilities. The Aeristhanian Rangers were here to ensure that the transferral was to be a smooth and safe experience for all of the settlers involved. Fortunately, by this point the battered and culturally confused tribe was happy to accept the annexation offer, with what was the fourteenth Warchief since the initial meeting shakily signing the document with an inked handprint. From that point on, the town of Sky's Stead was born, and Tha-Gulok could only breathe a breath of vindication and relief as he was finally allowed to leave the tribal walls without harm.

Taking what little belongings and purchasing as much food as he could buy
with his meager savings, the young orc packed his bags and followed the beaten
path in search of the town of Aerisholm. Eager to see the multi-storey stone
walls and the expansive Mage’s Academy as described to him by the human
settlers, he did not account for what would be a nearly four-hundred-kilometre
trek of unpatrolled paths more or less infested by roving groups of bandits. Fortunately,
thanks to his small stature and flighty instincts, he was able to avoid
confrontation by roving bands of bandits, hiding away in trees or skirting
around their roadblocks. Several times he was even able to relieve the gruff
brigands of their foodstuffs as they slept, keeping himself fed and extending
his admittedly meagre rations.

It would be two months later that a weary orc would step foot into Aerisholm. Squirreling away at first as a guttersnipe, Tha-Gulok realised that the little coin he saved would not be enough for even a single course at the Mage's Academy. Resorting to fast-talking and a bit of ingenuity, Tha-Gulok spent the next year as a street entertainer, pan-handling his way through his stay in the capital city. It all came to a head one cold Winter day when the scrawny orc was finally detained by the city guard on charges of vagrancy and solicitation. He failed to meet the set bail amount and languished in the jail cell. It would be in his cramped jail cell where the orc struck up an unexpected friendship with his cell-mate, a eccentric alchemist who was serving his sentence for destruction of public property.

Tha-Gulok only knew of the alchemist by "Cord," for the otherwise unassuming man never disclosed with his name. A stocky middle aged Aerisholm native, Cord was one of the "stay-at-home" mages, for the university had banned him from setting foot on the campus out of fear property damage. Having been in need of an apprentice and assistant, Tha-Gulok's bail was happily paid for by Cord. In return, the young orc entered into an apprenticeship to pay off what would have been a paltry 20 silver bail.

Tha-Gulok would spend the next two years in Cord's home-turned-laboratory. Reagents, reactions, mechanisms, apparatus were ruthlessly drilled into the orc's head, accompanied with hands-on experimentation. The regimen was rigorous it showed: Tha-Gulok would finish his candidacy exam at the early age of 18, graduating with distinctions despite technically not having attended any formal lectures.

At the graduation ceremony, Tha-Gulok was faced with a dilemma: the hereupon unnamed orc was asked for a name to be written onto his degree, and in a moment of confusion the orc answered "Tha-Gulok," intending it more of a joke than anything. Instead, his proctors simply shrugged and wrote it, not knowing its meaning. Tha-Gulok could only look on in despair and schadenfreude as he was called up to the stage, knowing that henceforth he would be known as Tha-Gulok, or "Of Green Men."

For the next three winters, Tha-Gulok stayed with Cord, but it was clear that the budding alchemist was not wholly happy with his station. Despite his close rapport with the explosives mage, Tha-Gulok always had an inclination for healing salves. Upon seeing Thal's work with enhanced healing salves, Cord began to grow more and more aloof, knowing that his student had taken another path and would eventually no longer need his tutelage. Thus, on his twenty second birthday, Cord pressed three gold coins into Tha-Gulok's hand, handed him a pack of alchemy equipment, and told him to strike out for himself. Despite Tha-Gulok's insistence, Cord would not hear of it and ended up detonating Tha-Gulok's bed to prove his seriousness.

Sullen and a bit lost, Tha-Gulok wandered the Aerisholm countryside, cataloguing plants and hopping from town to town while working. Thal quickly discovered that despite Aeristhane's relatively liberal nature, it was clear that there were clear prejudices around. Dwarves were to be miners ; Elves, artisans ; Orcs, warriors and guardsmen. Ironnically, it would be often fellow orcs that would bully the "scrawny runt," aiming kicks his way as he went from town to town. Other races tended to avoid business with him in lieu of "more trained" elves and humans, even when it was clear that Thal's competition couldn't tell Crow's Eye apart from poison ivy.

Tha-Gulok's travel soon brought him south of the Peddler's Summit and into the Kingdom of Lunthorn. While business grew more lucrative, competition also grew fiercer. Tha-Gulok was soon forced to forgo his learned ethics, undertaking some shady and some outright illegal dealings to obtain reagents and remain afloat, but remain afloat he did. The traveling alchemist soon struck a name for himself, undercutting local potionmakers with his own decoctions for oftentimes half the price, guilds be damned. By the time that the sentiment grew nasty, Tha-Gulok would pack his bags and move to the next town, purse full and journal filled with notes on better and more powerful potions. This would continue for years, with Tha-Gulok earning the grace of townspeople and the ire of the guild members.

Tha-Gulok's spree lasted until 642, when he was finally confronted by a mob of guildsmembers eager for his reckoning. While townspeople appreciated the occasional visit from "the odd orc that sells cheap potions," Thal quickly discovered that their good will was at best ephemeral and realistically useless. Arrested and jailed on one hundred and seventy nine counts of illegal sale of guild operated merchandise, Thal was to be fined an inordinate sum of five thousand gold coins and to serve ninety years in jail. When he was led out in public, his once fawning and happy customers were now just as happy to curse and spit on the downtrodden orc.

Once again, Thal's luck lay with his jailmate. A sullen bureaucrat's son in for charges of grand theft equestrian, the man confided in Thal that all Twyst had another recourse: exile to the Terian colonies. Originally envisioned as a way to purge the Lunthorn society of unwanted Twyst, any accused could request exile and be shipped away to Marchburg, barred from ever returning to Lunthorn for their lifetime. Of course, the law quickly fell to wayside once prosecutors realised the true cost and bureaucratic nightmare of sending their prisoners to another political entity's colonies. Nevertheless, the law was never repealed, simply buried underneath traditional Lunthornian red tape and bureaucracy.

As it was, Thal requested and was begrudgingly granted his exile, leaving the Lunthornian bureaucracy embarrassed and scrambling to reassure the Guilds that no such incident would occur again as he was shipped off on a barque bound for Marchburg.

Battered and travel-worn, Tha-Gulok stepped onto Marchburgian soil with no real goals nor aspirations. Simply content to stay alive, Tha-Gulok decided to foray into adventuring work. Shaping some plates out of boiled petrol, he fashioned a fake set of metal armour, intended to scare more than protect. Calling on alchemical lessons, Tha-Gulok then installed a series of pneumatic lines that could spray out concoctions, ranging from napalm to acid to healing salves. It would in this bizarre guise that Tha-Gulok would wander Marchburg, intimidating and fast-talking where possible and napalming where needed to complete his quests with aplomb.

Having earned a bit of a name for himself, Tha-Gulok nevertheless spent 642 and the first bit of 643 again traveling from quest to quest, not sure what he wants to do but jaded and wary towards strangers.