Roach

Information

Player: Shane

Character Full Name: Roach

Character In-Game Name: Roach

Association(s): None.

Race: Troll

Class: Warrior

Age: 19

Sex: Male

Hair: White with some black streaks.

Eyes: Red

Weight: 263lb

Height: 8'0. He is somewhat taller than the average troll.

Appearance

He wears light plate armor that covers his shoulders and chest.

Other: His accent while speaking Orcish/Common is much less noticeable than that of other trolls.

Personality

Alignment: Neutral

Roach is detached from the world around him. He tries to keep contact with other trolls to a minimum and usually tries to avoid meeting them. Trained to be a shadow hunter, he is proficient with a blade. Oddly he is a pacifist and always makes a lot of effort to avoid conflict whenever possible, even putting up with humiliation and physical abuse just to ensure a fight does not break out. His skills though remain sharp due to his practicing for many hours every day. He practices with his blade not to improve his fighting prowess but to meditate and calm his mind.

Roach usually remains impassive to whatever goes on around him but intervenes, reluctantly, on seeing someone in distress.

History

The troll looks up at the sky. Only the birds know what freedom is, he thinks as he looks down again at the witch doctor applying a thick yellow paste on his chest. Other witch doctors do the same to the five trolls standing a few feet from him. The one with him, now takes some red paste in the cups of his hands and slathers it on the troll's face. All those years of relentless training and mind-numbing practice were for this day. This is the moment his father had been waiting for, having his only son pass a shadow hunter's initiation rite. The troll, impassive, feels his father's eyes bore into his back. Seven years ago six of his siblings had been killed when the murlocs attacked their tribe, he alone survived amongst them.

Another troll now comes into view, he is wearing a wooden mask and loose, black armor. His name is Ronja. An aura seems to emanate from him that demands respect and reverence. He is one of the handful shadow hunters of the Darkspear tribe. This troll knows why his father would have him be a shadow hunter, at the pinnacle of the trolls' hierarchy, they are the most fearsome and skilled warriors and shamans among the trolls. Recognized for their wisdom as much as for their strength, there is no higher honor for a clan than to have a shadow hunter in the family. This troll had been chosen by the witch doctors among others of his age for they saw promise in him, the troll wonders why no one asked whether he wanted to be one. Everyone goes quiet when the Shadow hunter begins to speak, "You know why you are here, to pass the test that is required for you to be allowed training as a Shadow hunter. To bring honor to your clans and keep the Darkspears on the path of the loa. It is a big responsibility and so will be your test.", this troll smirks, of course you wouldn't ask us to cook a stew, "The raptor is the personification of every quality that a troll should possess, fearlessness, cunning, skill and such rage that makes everything that lies before it, drop dead. Today, you six will go after one such bull, one of the strongest, no doubt, and far more cunning than any other. I and the loa's priests will judge as to who will walk the path of the Shadow hunter!".

Cheering erupts. They don't care whether we live or get mauled, they just want a good show. He remembers being taken to a clearing, the crowd stays far off. Ronja soon after leaves with his men. And he waits. Standing there with a spear and shield along with the other trolls who are shooting off all the prayers they know, to every loa they have been told about.

They hear a roar. The troll feels a bead of sweat come down from his temple. Before the drop can even reach his chin, he sees Ronja and two others running towards them, grins stuck on the other two's faces. They leap over the six of them and run over to the crowd.

It appears. Black, with its eyes as yellow as the piss this troll thinks he'll pass right now. He can clearly see himself being shredded by those claws, torn into pieces by those dagger like teeth. The troll wonders who Ronja lured into the clearing, them or the raptor. The other trolls quickly encircle the raptor. For several minutes nothing happens, the trolls keep jabbing unsuccessfully at the raptor. This one just stands and stares at them. He can hear his father's voice telling him to go attack, the voice seems far off to him. The raptor has managed to send one flying with its tail, he won't be getting up again. Five left. The troll looks down at his spear seemingly oblivious to whatever is going on some meters from him. Is this my destiny? he wonders, shoved into the mouth of death without my asking. He knows other trolls his age would kill to stand where he does but he doesn't care. He can't accept the destiny that has been decided for him by others. The troll is brought back to the present by the blood splashing on his face. The raptor has one troll in its mouth, shaking him as if it were a doll. The body gets torn from the abdomen, the remaining four are painted red.

One of them manages to makes use of the situation and stabs the raptor, the spear pierces its flesh but does not reach the heart. The raptor shows no sign of pain, but it hurts, this troll thinks as blood gushes out of the wound every time the raptor takes a step. The crowd hurls abuses at him, they think he is just waiting for the others to weaken the raptor before going in for the kill. He does not care, he never did, for anything. His eyes meet the raptor's for a moment. The raptor, the king of beasts, a slave to its destiny, the troll thinks. He backs away. The raptor stares at him, another opportunity arises for a spear to hit it and it does. The raptor thrashes its tail and leaps onto the attacker and rips off the head. Three still live. The raptor seeing the other two fall back returns its attention to this one. It is confused, though the troll is retreating he does not seem frightened, is he baiting it? The troll turns, dropping his spear and walks away. He hears a roar, someone managed to pierce it in the stomach. The raptor convulses on the ground but no one cheers. The other two lie beneath the thrashing beast.

The troll comes back to the village in the evening, he meets his father. Their eyes meet. The father's, full of rage and grief. The troll's eyes blank, without remorse, shame or any other emotion. The father hurls the foulest swears at him, tells him that he crushed his whore of a mother's head with a rock, for its impossible that this one is his son. He feels nothing, he doesn't care, he tells his father, that he never did. A crowd gathers there, they never miss a show. They shout at him, call him a bastard, a traitor. He turns to leave. A few steps forward and the father roars, "Roach!".

Roach turns. "Never come back here, you son of a bitch, you don't belong here", he says through gritted teeth. No, I won't, Roach thinks, never will I return here, a world I have no stake in. Never. A stone hits him in the back. He doesn't turn. Soon, many more come flying. He doesn't look back or quicken his pace. He is thinking about the birds, wishing he too could be like them, freed from the shackles of destiny.