ImperatorAlric

Hey, grab yourself a drink and sit down for part two. Don't worry if you missed part one, it's here and we'll wait until you're finished reading. Done? Good...

Most of you may not know this but the very first prototype for Tur'geis originated back in 2006-7 with Relic Hunters 1.0. Yes, you heard me right. Unfortunately, being a poor university freshman/sophomore back then I couldn't afford the $20 per month to join up so this “prototype Tur'geis” never existed outside of my mind.

And boy was Tur'geis different back then. He still was a young smartass who enjoyed fighting and adventure, but he was more of a hotshot mana specialist utilizing metal sorcery and duel wielding swords. No, you didn't misread me there. He was like a young punk Ash Williams who used Drizzt swords and MANA. I know, right? Put down the rotten vegetables. He also wasn't as muscular as the final version, either, since he was a mana specialist type. I know, Luna, but I would later come to recognize the error of my ways (after undergoing a years-long powerlifting regimen myself).

Fast forward a few years to Christmas 2009, when Relic Hunters 2.0 came out. Some friends of mine on Drowtales wanted to form a squad, so they created Sarghress Highland Raider characters and signed up. I was a bit late to the party and joined up a few weeks after they did. And out of the recesses of my sick, troubled mind came Tur'geis.

Now, by this time I had looked through the other Relic Hunter character profiles and had about a year or two to redesign the character. First, the name. I pulled the name from a history book on medieval Ireland, perhaps the same one where I encountered the gallowglasses. Sorry, I don't remember the title or the author. Turgeis was a Norse-Irish warlord who nearly conquered the entire island. You can read more about that guy here and consider how good of a namesake he is for the character. There was also a Turkic confederation with the phonetically similar name Turgesh, which worked as well, in addition as a figure from Persian myth who was related to the Scythians.

I noticed upon joining Relic Hunters that there were a lot of characters who were young hotshot mana specialists or fancy duelists, and the GMs informed me that metal sorcery wasn't too effective in combat for most drow. A shame, cause I was thinking that it'd come in handy for strengthening and reshaping swords. Dual wielding was right out as well. So what was I to do? Well, I was thinking of how much fun Vithar was, and thinking about how much I loved Tur'geis' sarcastic, devil-may-care attitude. I figured Tur'geis would make more sense as a melee fighter (especially since the Marauders needed another one), so I gave him a big sword and naginata like polearm, and then it hit me.

Remember when I mentioned Robert E. Howard earlier? Relic Hunters was pretty much like the sort of stuff Conan the Cimmerian did; poking around old ruins for loot and fighting bad guys of all sorts. Vithar was a barbarian already, why not make his son a drow version of Conan? The character concept was made rougher, to reflect a young barbarian in a foreign land trying to understand it and feeling like the odd man out sometimes. Personally, I liked this change a whole lot, and had a lot of fun utilizing it in role plays, writing, and the like then. Another character of note was the semi-fictional Titus Pullo from the HBO series Rome. He didn't have a whole lot of direct influence on Tur'geis, but I found the character pretty reminiscent of my creation on retrospect. Tur'geis was also influenced by Conan-like historical figures and fictional characters such as Genghis Khan and the like. His hairstyle came from those borne by Celtic and Scythian warriors, as well as movies such as the 13^th Warrior and Braveheart.

I retooled Tur'geis' physical appearance, bulking him up and making him reminiscent of Robert E. Howard's famous hero. I even paraphrased Conan's physical description for Tur'geis' character profile, and used a few Conan quotes as well. Of course, I would go on to commission some riffs of famous Frazetta paintings with Tur'geis in them. Conan was already a bit of a clever smartass at times but I mixed in some Ash Williams and took it to a higher level. Tur'geis did get in verbal (and sometimes physical!) duels quite often in forum role playing sessions. It was all good, the guy does love to fight. Speaking of fighting, the prototype Tur'geis was fond of being flashy and theatrical. Of course, that does you no good in a fight, and whoever heard of a barbarian being unnecessarily flashy in a fight? Just like Conan, Tur'geis is an absolute beast on the battlefield, using brute force and speed to rip through his foes. He's pretty much “the damnedest bastard that ever was.”

As before, Tur'geis is a party animal who has quite the taste for women. In fact, his very first role play session had him bragging about his skill with the naginata (no, the other one) to two female player characters. Sure, he didn't get into their pants that time, but he would later go on to find companionship (or flirt back and forth with) with several player characters, and even an NPC. Tur'geis would even have a brief attempt at romance with his then-squad mate Riz'riia before they went their separate ways. But there'll be more on Tur'geis love life later...

Tur'geis made his first appearance with the Marauders staring down a wild drider in a canyon near Sha'shi. Though they failed to kill the drider and it got away (indeed, the entire first adventure was more or less a wash for the Marauders) he and the rest of the squad would go on to kick ass and take names, and make a fair bit of money on the way. He started to accumulate fan art and the like as RH progressed and folks got interested. Plus, a joke about Tur'geis choice of weapon and ripped physique in Relic Hunters led to a long running inside joke about Tur'geis pole dancing.

Fast forward to the fall of 2012. Chapter 40 of Moonless Age was shaping up to be a huge one, with Sarghress and Sharen having a titanic clash of arms. Dozens of cameo characters were signed up for the chapter, including Tur'geis and nearly the entire Marauders squad lineup at that time. I even got a concept art for the guy and his war mount, a white wolf named Bodark. I was excited like you wouldn't believe, and Tur'geis' first appearance in Moonless Age didn't disappoint! He couldn't have been depicted more accurately, and he did indeed kick some ass. In addition, Tur'geis made a memorable showing when he challenged one of the protagonists Ariel to a fight over her trying to take his loot away from him. (The whole event was resolved in a satisfactory manner, but it didn't help things when she ended up under his command four chapters later.) Around this time, I found myself as the leader of the Marauders squad, so now Tur'geis had a nice red cloak and new responsibilities as squad leader.

Speaking of fanarts, a friendly someone on DT commissioned two pictures of Tur'geis and other characters from Relic Hunters back around New Year's 2013. It was this time that I met the artist, Lunareth. Now this is where things really get interesting! Thanks to a scene where Tur'geis was holding a large sausage while comments about his own were made by an amorous Sullisin'rune friend, Lunareth made a funny chibi pic where Tur'geis was pole dancing around waving a big sausage. I found it highly amusing and started to get to know the artist. Not long afterwards she completed the second version, and it was amazing! Lunareth and I started to plot and discuss Tur'geis and Drowtales in general, and I invited her to Relic Hunters.

Here enters Die'tra, the love of Tur'geis' life! The name is likewise from Irish mythology. I told Luna about Tur'geis background and she was reminded of an early version of her character Lunareth. So, she wanted to create a wild barbarian female character who would be a perfect match for Tur'geis romantically as well as a valued member of the Marauders squad. And Die'tra was! Almost instantly we began plotting their romantic travails as well as having great fun with the two in Relic Hunters. Many double entendres were made. It continued on to comics, too.

Of course, becoming an officer and being mated to Die'tra, Tur'geis was going to have to become more responsible. They'd be having children and Tur'geis would have to watch the drinking and gambling habit (well, at least a bit). Since he's now with Die'tra, he's not going to be fooling around with others either. But really, what's the point when he's with Die'tra? Sex with her is the best he's ever had. So, no more promiscuous sex. Sorry folks, but at least there are other Am'saag out there! Die'tra and his family's influence, as well as his new rank matured Tur'geis a bit, and he's no longer quite as brash. He still loves fighting and adventure for its own sake and has a fatalistic outlook, but its tempered by reason and love for Die'tra and his children.

The two continued on having fantastic adventures and getting rich and blooded in Relic Hunters, and would appear in chapters 44 and 45 in Moonless Age, beating on some Hermiones. Luna and I planned out a family for them as well; Die'tra's mother Sla'inne got her own story in Daydream, and we so far have planned out four children; the first, a son named Krui'adh, and the second a daughter named Rox'elana. Check them all (save for the last two daughters...you'll hear about them later) out here!

What does the future hold for Tur'geis, Die'tra, and their family? Currently, they're going on a big adventure in the sky world with the rest of the Marauders, and relic hunting will hold their interest for quite some time, at least if the Sarghress clan holds together. With Tur'geis based on Conan he's certainly going to become king by his own hand sometime, right? Die'tra's certainly got a lot of conquering in her as well, as does their growing army of a family. Guess you'll have to wait and see what happens, huh?

Now you know the rest of the story. Got any further questions?

Hey everyone! I figured I'd go OOC for a moment here because I just realized something. Tur'geis' birthday (at least, when I more-or-less finalized the idea) is January 15^th, 2010. For those of you who hate math, that means he's 5 years old as of this year. Hard to believe, huh?

So, thanks to an idea given to me by Lunareth, I figured I'd take this time to talk a bit about how and why I created the character, as well as inspirations and major influences on his development. But first, I’ll discuss a bit behind the scenes about the Am’saag clan and the Gimirri themselves.

Back when I was formulating the character who would be later known as Tur’geis, I created a Highland Raider character named Vithar. Vithar, who would become Tur’geis’ father, was depicted as a tough veteran warrior from a barbarian tribe who had signed on as mercenaries in Chel’el’sussoloth, later elaborated on by me as the Am'saag tribe of the Gimirri ethnic group. I had thought of Vithar like a barbarian auxilia akin to those used by the Romans, and originally Tur'geis as a son of his who'd taken to Chelian ways as he was raised near there. Shocking, I know! But more on how much Tur’geis changed from his prototype design later.

Now, about this time I started reading more of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, and some of his other works such as the Turlogh Dubh O'Brien, El Borak, and Cormac Fitzgeoffrey historical fiction stories and the King Kull and Solomon Kane fantasy tales. I highly recommend them for anyone who likes the fantasy genre or action-adventure, you'll see where the guys who made D&D and a bunch of other well-regarded fantasy games and stories today got many ideas. But keep Two-Gun Bob in mind, cause he’ll show up again in a bit...

By this time Relic Hunters 1.0 was still going (barely) and there was open mention of a revised Relic Hunters 2.0 coming out. I started getting into the backstory of Vithar and his tribe of mercenaries. From the beginning, the Am'saag had been based off of Robert E. Howard's Cimmerians and the medieval Irish gallowglasses. In fact, “Am'saag” comes from an old Gaelic word for “mercenary” or “wild man.” I thought it was a good fit for the name of a barbarian tribe.

As I thought more about it, and we learned more about the Drowtales world (somewhat loosely based on ancient Central Asian culture) I figured that a dokkalvar barbarian culture in that setting would be most correctly based on the steppe nomads that terrorized Eurasia for millennia. Lucky me, there was a real life steppe nomad civilization who were known as the Cimmerians, close cousins to the Scythians. The Persians referred to these people as the Sakas or the...Gimmiras. 

Man, they were some dudes you didn't want to fuck with, either. These guys were renowned for being expert horsemen and savage warriors who would celebrate their victories by turning the skulls of their slain enemies into drinking cups and making cloaks and bridles out of their skin. Hell, their women were likely bigger badasses than most men elsewhere; there exist many archeological and historical attestations of steppe nomad women fighting alongside their men and taking leadership roles, and Herodotus stated that a Scythian woman had to kill three enemies in combat before she was allowed to marry. Many believe that this is the origin of the Greek Amazon myth. And hence, a big reason why DT Gimirri are down with having male warriors and leaders.

For their skills as cavalrymen, the Cimmerians were often hired as mercenaries by various peoples throughout Eurasia. In fact, they were present in the Assyrian army that destroyed the Hebrew nation as referred to in the Book of Jeremiah:

"Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far ... it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not... Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, ... they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: ... they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword." [Jeremiah 5:15-17]

Talk about crushing your enemies, driving them before you, and hearing the lamentations of their women, huh?

But eventually the descendants of the Cimmerians and some other steppe nomad tribes (such as the closely related Scythians, also referred to as Gimirras) would turn against the Assyrians and would sack the capital of Nineveh in 612 BC, and would go on to crush the Assyrians and their Egyptian allies for good a few years later at Carchemish in 605 BC. The power vacuum caused by the end of the Assyrian Empire led to the foundation of the Persian Empire by some of those nomads.  

So, the Am'saag and Gimirri would incorporate cultural elements from the Scythians, Cimmerians, Alans, Huns, Tatars, Mongols, and other such groups from then on out. Next time I’ll discuss Tur’geis and how his character has changed since I first mentally conceived him. 

Any further questions?