Russ Tauron

Official image of Russ Tauron, drawn by @grace.pptx on Instagram

Russ Tauron is one of the Player Characters of Arc 4 and played by Sean.

## Description

Russ is a Minotaur, and his cow-like part looks like a highland cow, with ginger fur and mop top hair with a center part. He is a bit gangly, and kind of awkward.

He is a rusher for the Winster White Claws orbula team, and comes from a family of orbula players. His father, Woody "Big T" Tauron, has a lot of influence over him, and makes him practice every day, twice a day in summer. He is a talented player, the most athletically gifted rusher of the team, and the one with the best head for the game. Still, he is only the third rusher and spends most of the games on the bench, because in stressful situations, he easily panics, which gets in his way. Usually, during team practice he tries his best to impress the coach, in the hope of him maybe being allowed to play in a game. When he plays the game, he does his best, not for other people, but for the feeling of winning, as he himself claims, yet he often feels trapped in his brother's legacy.

Since a few months before Arc 4, Ace, who now lives in his house, watches him practice and gives him pointers and advice. It took Russ a few weeks to accept Ace as a new member of the family, especially because his parents allowed them to live in his brother's room, but they get along better now, or at least talk to each other. Still, Russ is not happy with Ace trying to coach him, mostly because he already has his dad breathing down his neck.

Russ's whole personality revolves around orbula, and he does not know anything but that. His interest is focused on playing the sports, though, and not on other people playing it, and he knows little about other teams apart from the things he picks up from his father.

He is very protective, both of his family and his friends, and that even includes his deceased brother - not just the legacy and memory of him, but also the zombie they encounter in the Trembling Timbers.

He usually wears warm-up clothes like Jerseys.

## Backstory

Russ comes from a family of orbula players, most noteworthy his older brother Wrangler, who was the star rusher for the White Claws and all but guaranteed a spot to go on to bigger and better teams, until he mysteriously died 10 years before Arc 4. On his way to Sorborough, the carriage he and his trainers and teammates were in was found in a flaming heap on the side of the road, and full of bones. Wrangler's death influenced all of Winster, but especially Russ, who is motivated to play for his brother tries to follow his footsteps, but can't really fill his shoes.

## Character Arc

During Arc 4, Russ and the rest of the party have to enter the Trembling Timbers to follow the orb. There, Russ discovers his Devine Sense (a Paladin feature) for the first time and can use it to track down the necromancers from the Thymore Flameskulls orbula team. Despite never using it before, he feels in touch with it right away.

While in the woods, he has to face the undead version of his deceased older brother Wrangler. While everything inside him still tries to fight this knowledge, he tries to plead to what is left of his brother inside the zombie, but fails to reach him. Later, when Ace gives Wrangler the mercy kill, Aster and Quinn try to make sure that Russ can't see it, but still, he knows what happens. While he needs some time to process it, he is thankful for what Ace did.

While the party is at the enclave, Binglebug Borple, an artificer from there, built him a weapon named "Flail of the Orb" out of the orb that belonged to Wrangler, and that Russ always carried with him. Later, between Arc 4 and Ace's Birthday Party, he went back to the enclave and asked Binglebug to replace his brother's orb with a different one for the weapon. He then put his brother's orb on a display in his room.

After the arc, and after being the one who scored the winning point for the Winster White Claws in their last game of the season, Russ feels a lot more at peace with the game of orbula as well as his brother's legacy. He still is not a starting player for the White Claws, but he is more in rotation and gets to play more often. He got the closure he needed, and can now enjoy the sport that he grew up with a lot more. Additionally, his father no longer makes him "earn" his breakfast with workout in the morning, which makes his mornings more peaceful, too.

When his father asks him if he would be okay with them selling a few of Wrangler's old things to donate to the orbula youth camp Coach Clobber wants to set up, he agrees, saying that Wrangler would have been fine with this legacy.

## Items in Russ's Bag

* **His brother's orbula orb**
* **Hoof polish and ankle/hand tape** - to take care of his hooves during the game
* **A whole bunch of protein grass** - his dad makes him use it

## Trivia

* In TVC Arc 4: Episode 4 during leveling up the characters, the cast asked what subclasses would their character be at level 3. Sean said Russ would be an Oath of Glory Paladin because of being an orbula player.
* The last name "Tauron" is taken from a planet in Battlestar Galactica.
* He is a Taurus. All Minotaurs are Tauruses.
* After Arc 4, Russ read the entire rule book for orbula.