Neil the Ork Barbarian

Neil the Ork Barbarian first appeared in trideo projections and simsense chips in the early 2040’s, beginning with the original “Neil the Ork Barbarian” in 2043. It was a big, flashy, over-the-top fantasy action flick with outlandish monsters, plenty of swords flashing, blood flying and heavily muscled (and heavily oiled) bodies in skimpy costumes.

Panned by critics as “an incomprehensible mess with a story as skimpy as its main characters’ costumes”, it was a runaway commercial success. Anybody who was a kid in the mid-2040’s remembers the first waves of ‘Neil-mania’. The original “Neil” was successful enough to spawn three sequels by the end of the decade: “Neil Returns!!!” (2045), “The Blade of the Ork” (2046) and “The Crusade of Neil the Ork Barbarian” (2049). During the original run, Neil was played by Walker Metcalf, a former pro-athlete Human  (from a Humanis Policlub upbringing) who would go on to break with his upbringing and become a noted advocate for the ork  community.

When Metcalf retired from the role of Neil, the decision was made to bring Neil to trideo. On Walker Metcalf’s recommendation an actual Ork was cast as Neil this time, Russian-born bodybuilder Peter Nevinski. In order to avoid the costs for the complex fantasy scenes, the trideo series transported the prehistoric barbarian into the present time, looking for the wizard who sent him here. It was a surprisingly successful combination and the “Neil: The Ork Barbarian” ran for five seasons from 2051-2056. It was during this time that Neil became not just a fad for kids, but a household word, with images and phrases from the show becoming part of the rhetoric for both pro- and anti-  metahuman groups.

When it was announced that the series was coming to an end with the 2056 season and that its parent company, ET (Entertainment Trideo) Productions was selling the IP to Amalgamated Studios to produce as a Sim, Nevinski announced he was leaving the series.

What AS produced in 2057 was the now-classic “Neil the Ork Barbarian: Dawn of Earth”, a prequel returning to the savage prehistory of the original setting. With virtual unknowns Josh Adams as Neil, Stella Stratos as the heroine Thayla and character actor Jeremy Smith as the treacherous elf Kearos. Amalgamated knew its business, playing to the huge and dedicated fanbase of the trid show, still jonesing for their ‘Neil’ fix, making “DoE” possibly the most beloved and successful installment of Neil to date.

With Amalgamated unable to retain either Adams or Stratos, the parts were recast for 2060’s follow-up “Atlantis Must Fall!”, focusing far more heavily on Jeremy Smith’s returning anti-hero Kearos. However bad press from the Atlantean Foundation , combined with a backlash with Neil fans who were disappointed with the new Neal (Roger Lazerbeam), convinced the studio to shelve plans for a planned third installment in the series (tentatively titled “Sea of Death”).

Four years later in 2064, Amalgamated dusted off the ‘Neil’ name and decided it was time for a reboot. “A fresh face for an old favorite” as the marketing materials said. That fresh face was orxploitation superstar CrimeTime. All effort was put into making this reboot a success with multi-million nuyen budget, magic and computer generated effects, a linguist to help integrate or’zet quotes into the dialogue and historical advisers from the Atlantean Society to avoid the problems of 'Atlantis Must Fall!'.

While not a favorite of hardcore Neil purists, ‘The Gahad of Neil’ was an enormous popular success and made Amalgamated tons of nuyen. Plans for a sequel (“Neil the Scorcher”) were derailed, like everything else was, by the Matrix Crash 2.0 at the end of the year.

When the Neil name returned, it was in a new form. The newly-formed megacorp Horizon  bought the property from a cash-strapped Amalgamated, along with much of their rights and licenses, and had Pathfinder Multimedia spin it out into the first big ‘shared world’ ARRPG game, the venerable cash cow “Neil the Ork Barbarian’s Fourth World Online” (usually just referred to as 4WO) in 2066. They backed this up with a matrix-series “Neil in the 4th World” using character skins in the game to retell stories from the Neil franchise and narrated by CrimeTime.

In 2070, another Neil Sim was in the works, but the attempt to reboot Neil into a “Techno-barbarian” for “Neil In Space” was met with remarkable apathy both by old-school Neil purists and the newer fans of 4WO and no further Sims were planned for the next five years.

In August of 2075, Horizon’s Minneapolis  subsidiary, Shangri-La Entertainment, announced that work would begin on a new Neil sim, a remake of “Dawn of Earth”, with controversial sim director and winner of Best Director at the 2073 Supercannes festival Eric Jonrosh at the helm.

Signed on to the Cast:

* **Dirk Snowfield** (“Telepathy Man” and star of EVO’s ‘TuskScent’ ad campaign) as *Neil the Ork Barbarian*
* Jonrosh’s wife **Lauoreighiya Samcake** (“Spoils of the Shadows”) as *Thayla*
* **Christopher Smith** (“Nightwraiths over Warsaw”, “Escape from Chicago”), son of Jeremy Smith in his father’s role as the treacherous *Kearos Navarim*.
* **Sir Richard Driftwood** (“From Richard to Richard”, “Satan’s Alley”), noted Shakespearean and artistic director at the New Blackfriars’ Theatre as the venerable *Elianar Messias*.
* **Marty Comanche** (“Omae, Where’s My T-Bird”, “Big Bad BTL-Borgs”) as the voice/presence of Neil’s Dire Wolf *Gwenhwyfach*.
* Changeling activist **Robert “Bobcat” Macaullie** (“Blacker Than Night: The JetBlack Story”, “Karl Kombatmage [Series 3]”) as *Baalilal*.
* **Dixie Melonworth** (“Tales of Atlantis”, “Logjammin’ II: Jammin’ Harder”) as the elven *Princess Failla*.

### Merchandise

Besides 4WO, an enormous range of other products are produced under the Neil the Ork Barbarian brand. These include but are not limited to:

* Neil Bier, a soybeer produced by Beck’s in Germany (a subsidiary of Saeder-Krupp), popular in Europe, Quebec and the UCAS. Classically it shows a picture of Neil (modeled after the Nevinski Neil) in full kit. Other products under the ‘Neil Bier’ brand include Hez Neil, a brand of Hurlg  endorsed by CrimeTime (which comes in both the regular and spicy ‘uyataa’ varieties) and, starting in 2074 the alcoholic ‘Neil Bier E+’ combined with energy drink, which features the Neil in Space version of the character on the can.
* Combat Ax, a body spray and deodorant formulated for Ork body chemistry.

Return to: Horizon