Tanas of the Ram

Tanas (c)1999 by David Nett

Description: Tanas is a giant of a man, standing just over six and a half feet in height, and weighing close to three hundred pounds, though he does not appear to be overweight. Instead, Tanas is a finely muscled and broad shouldered man, being nearly half as wide at the shoulder as he is tall. Tanas is in fine physical condition, and does not appear lanky or clumsy despite his height. His skin is a slightly tanned, and cracked in some place, products of his encompassing time under the suns of Cyuk. Tanas wears his hair long and unbound, reaching just past the middle of his back. His sporadic maintenance has kept his mane an unkempt entanglement, and though he bathes in the streams and lakes of the world regularly, his hair lacks real cleanliness. In contrast to this, Tanas does well in keeping the rest of his body clean, and is known to enjoy the smell of cleaned skin, and those who know him know that he has a particular weakness to the taste and smell of freshly cleaned skin of the ladies, a foe he is not at all good at defending against, at any rate. Tanas wears his beard nearly as long as his hair, with the same attention to detail he displays of his hair. This stems from an ancient tribal ritual, as a descendant of the Tribe of the Ram, that believes that one’s strength comes from their beards, and that it also grants one protection from the elements. Only men of shame or those who challenge and are defeated by the tribal leader will ever be seen with clean-shaven skin, and is said to have lost the protection of the Ram. Tanas wears loose-fitting pants constructed from a cotton-like material, which are bound to his well-built legs by long cords of leather and a thick leather belt. His boots appear as little more than tightly bundled cloth about his feet, held together by the same leather cords as his pants. These are, however, constructed of layers of thin hide, and do indeed possess a thicker, leather sole. Tanas wears no shirt, instead preferring the sleeveless cuirass of hide, which was constructed for him by his father, when he was still a young man. Luckily for Tanas, his father had left a little room for growth, for since that time Tanas has added nearly one hundred pounds of muscle to his then lanky frame. A thin leather cord is tied just above each of his biceps, and he wears bracers of leather about his forearms. These bracers are short, extending only five inches from his wrist. The only visible pieces of equipment on Tanas’ body are his great bastard sword, which has an overall length approaching just over four and a half feet, and the hanger he wears over his back to hold it. The remainder of Tanas equipment remains hidden, as he has very small pouches tucked into the folds of his pants, which contain a few gold pieces and a flint and steel. The expression on Tanas’ face is one of sadness, and of reflection, though this does not diminish from his imposing stature, instead giving him a more dangerous appearance, as it appears that he has little to lose. Most of the time, his eyes will have a glazed over countenance, which has many a time led one to believe that he could be caught unawares, to the quick fate of many a man. Though Tanas often only speaks in hushed tones, his bellowing inflection can easily be heard once he has been angered, or worse yet, motivated to the task at hand.

History: Far to north of the civilized continent of Aredakar, and north of the more peaceful lands inhabited by the Olinara, in the wildlands known to the inhabitants as Fahrena, or ‘the home,’ the tribes of barbarian cultures roam the lands of vibrant trees, rich plains, and treacherous mountains. To the West, the territory of the tribes of the Ram, the Ute, and the Grey Bear lay claim. The tribe of the Ute was fashioned after a large stag-like animal bearing the horns of a ram, and possessing great strength. These aggressive cultures have warred against each other for centuries, with neither scoring any victories significant enough to expand their territories one way or the other. In the holdings of the tribe of the Ram, feelings are downcast, as they struggle to hold their lands against the numerous forces of the Ute warriors. Their confidence has carried them into battle on numerous occasions, aided by the strength imparted them by their Ram totem, and the protection of their beards, so much so that they had lost very little land to the Ute, far-outnumbered though they be. The warriors of the Ram were running thin, each to the last giving their lives in hopes of saving the tribe of the Ram from extinction. Every youth among the tribe of the Ram had been trained in art of warfare from the time they were first able to hold a sword, and uncountable were the times when youths barely of fifteen winters were sent to meet their destiny at the hands of ever imposing Ute forces. Such it was that Ungerthas and his wife Gearna gave birth to dual sons, each within one and a half years of each other. Jungen and Tanas were born to them, and each by the age of five winters began their training in armed combat.

Jungen, the eldest boy, took quickly to his training, and indeed matured more quickly in the physical sense than did Tanas, and was deemed battle ready at the age of thirteen. Jungen was then sent of to the front lines, much to the chagrin of his father, who insisted that the boy was not ready. He was, and he returned victorious from battle three times, and at the age of sixteen was deemed ready for the ritual of the Ram, one that would impart him with the strength from the Ram for battle, a strength where he would feel no pain, and would be able to fight beyond death. This in and of itself was a dream of Tanas,’ and indeed all that knew Jungen were extremely proud. Throughout all of this, Tanas grew in height quickly, but failed to add any weight to his bones. He reached the height of six feet by the time Jungen was performing his ritual, but was gangly and awkward still with both movement and blade. Jungen criticized him continuously for his ineptitude, but his father stood by him always, as he believed that Tanas would indeed be the best of them one day. Tanas continued to train endlessly, and to eat as much as possible, so that he might please his proud father.

Three years later, in the year 803SR, the Ute forces seemed on the brink of overtaking the lands of the Ram. Their slow march from the North brought with them thousands of warriors, burning a swath through the lands held by the tenants of the Ram. By this time Jungen was commander of his own unit of men, second only to his father, and to the leader of the tribe. Ungerthas was the commander of the war effort, a prestigious position indeed given the warlike natures of the surrounding barbarian cultures. Tanas, though, was still unwieldy with the blade, and many tried to sway him from his choice of the great sword, fearing that he would disgrace the symbol of their tribe with his inadequacies. Ungerthas refused to allow the change however, and warned the people once again that Tanas would lead them all to redemption one day. Most all of the tribesman dismissed the notion as the love of a blind father for his son.

In late 803SR, Ungerthas received word that the stronghold at Falgren, which was presently under the rule of Ute warriors, was sending most of its forces to defend themselves from a marauding Grey Bear tribe to the North. The time to strike was now. Ungerthas ordained to his son to gather the forces of the Ram warriors. Falgren would be his with little blood shed. Jungen set off at once, taking with him more than four hundred warriors to the half-finished walls at Falgren. Jungen and his men won handily, defeating the Ute barbarians, who numbered just over a hundred strong. Most of the defeated were spared, and sent back from whence they came, as was the Ute commander Gethern, who was made to leave the lands of the Ram, and never to return. Sent with him was a message, Ute strongholds would not be tolerated on lands of the Ram. Jungen returned home shortly afterwards, and received a hero’s welcome. They had left but fifty men garrisoned at the stronghold, at his father’s orders; it seemed Ungerthas desired the stronghold of Falgren primarily as a bluff of the Ram forces.

News quickly reached the warlord of the Ute, who grew infuriated at the humiliation and disgrace of Gethern, and vowed to detour his forces from the conquest against the Grey Bear tribe to the North, and would instead crush the Ram for all times. The warlord Regren quickly gathered a force of men, numbering over two thousand strong, with reinforcements that would meet him along the way. Regren could not let the disgrace of the loss of Falgren be allowed to exist under his regime, and thus set out in the midst of the coldest winter yet known to them, on a trek of hundreds of miles to the stronghold at Falgren. Regren would lead the troops personally, to see firsthand the slaughter of his foes beneath his feet.

The warlord Regren had covered ground of over one hundred miles before the advance scouts dispatched by Ungerthas returned to him with dire news. The warlord would reach the stronghold within three ten-day; the king of the Ram needed to act post haste. He summoned his son Jungen to him, he would send the young warlord back to the stronghold, with as many men as he could recruit within two days, to gather all of the supplies and men from Falgren and to bring them back to him, so that a final battle might take place with the strongest contingent of Ungerthas’ men, against what he hoped would be a tired and depleted Ute force.

Jungen set off within the day, eager to return to his place of conquest. He had with him only thirty men, reasoning that it would be much easier to escape the clutches of the Ute with thirty than with hundreds. Once there, however, Jungen surged with pride. He would not let the place of his greatest conquest fall into the hands of the enemy so easily, and, he reasoned, better to fight them here than to wage war amongst the homes of his people. He gathered together his men, now eighty strong, and asked for volunteers to ride to the far corners of Fahrena, to recruit those that would see the fall of the Ute. Jungen sent two men that day, and two more every day for the next ten-day, until the first troop of reinforcement arrived. It was an emissary from Ungerthas, demanding that he follow his orders or be left to die alone at the stronghold. Jungen called his bluff, sending the messenger back to his father with a single phrase, “I will not.”

Jungen’s bluff seemed to have the achieved desired effect, as with five days King Ungerthas and the near entire army of the Ram, including the young warrior Tanas, arrived at the gates of the stronghold. With the reinforcements from various tribes to the South and East, including the men of the Hinlyn Forest, who had despised the Ute for leaving carcasses of their hunted untouched to rot among their trees, they now numbered just over four hundred-seventy strong, though still too few to adequately defend Falgren, and too few in comparison to the Ute forces numbering in the thousands. Preparations were made for the remaining warriors, as well as the wives and children of those set out to Falgren, so that they might live on in hiding, should a Ram defeat seem imminent. Should the tribe of the Ram be defeated at Falgren, the remainder of the tribe was to go into hiding, until the day when their people would once again gain redemption, and be led from the shadows to claim their place on the wild lands of Fahrena.

When daylight broke on the third day of Jalenen, 804SR, the sentries posted atop the stronghold sighted the crest of what would be the horde of the Ute. Days would pass as the Ute would attempt to lay siege to the wooden walls of Falgren. The initial days would consist mostly of volleys of spears and arrows, with the Ram tribe scoring many hits while escaping any injury thus far. The battle raged on with neither side gaining any ground, until the sixth day of the siege, when Ute battering rams found a weak area in the fort’s walls. With the wall breached, the Utes poured into the stronghold, overpowering the Ram protecting the Southern wall. The Ram warriors swarmed to the breach, and the ensuing battle was fierce and long-winded. Ten Ute fell for every Ram, in part because the breach was only wide enough to let a few in at a time. Despite the Ram’s growing fortunes, the Ute began to take control of the battle within the walls. Jungen was among the first to fall to the warriors at the South wall, his area of responsibility. Tanas watched as he fell before him, his body impaled by a pair of spears.

This was the first battle that Tanas had been a part of, and a grand way indeed it was to find ones first taste of the chaos of war. Tanas fought bravely, though the majority of his movements were in defense of himself than anything else. The Utes by this time had reached the stone towers of the stronghold, and had taken out the archers and spear chuckers, the primary cause of their casualties to this point. The leader of the Ram was atop one of the ramparts, defending the wall from the barbarian attempts to scale it. He could not defend it alone however, and was soon surrounded by Ute warriors on all sides. Tanas watched these events unfold, and rushed to his father’s aid. As he reached the bottom of the ramparts and began to scale it, the ledge that held his father gave way, and rock and flesh fell from the wall towards Tanas. A large section of the wall clipped Tanas across the back of his head, rendering him unconscious.

When Tanas next awoke, his eyes glazed over at he signs of carnage and destruction. The corpse of his father, ran through at least a dozen times, lay across his legs, a sight which sickened him to the core. Falgren had been decimated, the outer walls and lesser structures of wood had been burned to the ground, and corpses of the foolhardy warriors strewn across the landscape, marring the near perfect sunset with its pools of glistening blood. The central building of the stronghold, a twin towered keep constructed of stone, was now merely a shadow of what it had once been, its imposing stature lost with the crumbling of rock and the carnage disseminated about it.

Most of the warriors lay dead on the fields of Falgren, and as far as Tanas was able to tell, very few if any had escaped the ravages of war. Most of the corpses littering the fields belonged to the warriors of the Ute, however, enough to decimate the ranks of the Ute well enough that the Grey Bear forces to the North would have an easier time of conquest against the depleted Ute tribesman. Most of the surviving members of the attacking forces had either left to return to their own lands, or were somewhere out of sight as Tanas surveyed the wreckage. There were still a score, perhaps two, of the Ute warriors walking about, taking turns thrusting their spearheads into the bodies of Ram warriors to ensure that they were indeed dead. The sickening feeling welling up in the bowels of Tanas’s stomach quickly rose to his throat and onto the ground beside him as he watched them impale the body of his brother, Jungen, at least a dozen times, only to hear his final death cries cursed to the wind.

Tanas knew that he must escape, and soon, before they were to find him still breathing. He quickly surveyed the landscape, looking for any signs of life that might still exist. This glimmer of hope soon faded from his mind, however, as it appeared that the spear-carriers had done their jobs well. As he was about to abandon hope, he noticed the flicker of movement far to his right, as a body of one of the warriors of the Ram, propped up against a wooden parapet, had clutched and removed a spear from his left shoulder.

Tanas eyed the distance between them, covering nearly a hundred yards, as well as the spear-carriers within that distance. He watched them move about, careful not to move, in order to draw the least amount of attention to himself as possible. As the began to walk away from him, he reached for his sword, picking it up with the intention of placing it in the scabbard draped across his back, but at the last moment noticing his fathers sword, a great weapon specially crafted for him by the most highly reputed weaponsmith of the tribe, and a weapon that had served him well. Instinctively, Tanas dropped his sword and began to reach for his father’s, stopping short as the noise made by the weapon caused the spear-carriers to turn about, searching for the source of the noise, but eventually dismissing it as coming from other Ute warriors across the battle site. They turned about once again, and Tanas quickly reached for his father’s blade, and then quickly moving to the backside of the rampart, out of site of the Ute warriors.

A clear path of escape lay before him, but he could not leave his fellow tribesman to be summarily executed by the spear-carriers, who were even now making a erratic path towards him. Seeing no other Ute within sight of his path towards the prone man, made a mad dash for the spear-carriers, who heard his loud steps and quickly turned about, drawing their respective axe and sword with their left, while waiting for their attacker to approach within range to cast their bloodstained spears. He did, and the spears were cast to flight, Tanas easily dodging them and approaching within melee range. The sword of his father sliced mercilessly through the air, it’s perfect balance and keen blade taking down first one, and then the other Ute warrior.

Tanas heard the sounds of alarm about him now, and ran as quickly as his legs would carry him to the struggling tribesman against the parapet. Arrows flew about him as he ran, hastening his pace until he reached his destination. He reached the man, grabbed his arm, and threw him over his shoulder, feeling the warm sticky blood from the man’s shoulder flow down his bare-skinned back to be soaked into his breeches. He continued his mad flight, knowing that if he could get to the trees several hundred yards away, he would have a chance for survival.

Hope was rising in his chest now, as he neared closer and closer to the forest ahead of him. His hope began to falter, however, as he felt the sickening thuds of arrows striking flesh. Tanas could feel no pain, and so knew that his passenger had received the brunt of the blows, and was likely little more than dead weight now. He continued towards the trees, now using the man’s body as a protective shield from the arrows of his pursuers.

Tanas reached the trees, and cast the dead man aside, offering a rite of safe passage to the departed soul. All thought and judgment fled from his mind now, as he allowed his instincts to take full control and to guide him to safety. After many hours of flight, Tanas collapsed to the ground, exhaustion overtaking him to the point of a near comatose state. He awoke unscathed, as his pursuers had long since given up the flight of the lone survivor of the massacre at Falgren.

Current Sketch: Tanas has survived the wilds with the help of Grey Bear tribesmen, who, as common enemies of the Tribe of the Ute, have taken him in. Tanas has since filled out his lanky frame with the addition of solid mass, and no longer appears as the frail youth of only three winters past. Tanas is often cast and downtrodden, for he has never forgiven himself for not dying on the battlefield with the rest of his people’s warriors, or for letting the man he attempted to save die as an effect of his own actions. These thoughts and despondency will likely follow Tanas throughout the rest of his life, or until redemption has been granted him by his great totem of the Ram, in the shape and form of revenge against to Ute, and a reclaiming of the lands once held by his people. Tanas is well aware that his father made preparations for the remainder of the tribe to go into hiding should they not win the war, though Tanas has little idea of where they could be now. He searches for them endlessly, hoping one day to reunite with his people. He also desires to one day learn the secrets of the elite warrior of the Ram, secrets that had been imparted to Jungen just before his death. These secrets are said to provide one with the strength of the Ram, ignorance of pain, and a savagery in battle that few have seen. Until that time, Tanas delights in any minor victory he can score against his old enemy, and often drowns his sorrows in the company of women, and earning his place among the tribe of the Grey Bear.

Statistics:

Tanas of the Ram   Human      Warrior of the Ram    Lvl 1
AL    CG    Religion: Rognaar    Siblings 1 Brother
Age   20    Sex  M
Ht   6'8"  Wt  291
Hair  Brown  Eyes  Brown

ST 17,   DX 10,   CN 15,   IQ 9,   WS 11,   CH 8
HP 11,   AC 9

Proficiencies:
Languages: Common, (1 Empty Slot)
Weapon: Sword, Great, Single Weapon Style Specialization, Two-Handed Style Specialization, Spear
Non-Weapon: Survival (Woodlands), Leatherworking, Fire Building, Riding (Land Based, Horse),

Equipment: Sword, Great; Cuirass, Hide; Flint and Steel; Boots, Soft; Hanger, Sword; Rations, Dried (2 Weeks); Fishhook, String
Money: Gold 2, Silver 6, Copper 9