Grolik

''Name's Grolik, by the way. I'd hate to die next to a stranger...''

Kind-hearted but troubled warrior from a far-off tribe, the Clan of the Bear. Adopted by the Hulun following a brief period amongst pariahs, Grolik is an emerging personality amongst the Hulun.

Description
Grolik stands over 6' tall, and is powerfully built. His long blonde hair hangs in tangled masses to his shoulders, usually obscuring most of his face. Nonetheless, his piercing icy blue eyes find the gaps to make themselves clear. His nose, cheekbones and chin are pronounced, giving him a fierce look which he readily uses to his advantage in the face of enemies, though also making it difficult to appear non-threatening to would-be friends. His back is scarred with whip marks, and he bears his clan's mark of exile, a brand in the shape of a bear claw on his left temple.

Grolik is a tamed bear, and has the humble, controlled strength to match. His manner is serious but kind, marked by the sobriety of a man who has a great deal of regret and wishes to keep others from making the same mistakes. His manner towards authority is penant, out of debt he feels he owes to thier taking him in and to atone for past rebellion. Altogether his is kind and helpful, but has little tolerance for mistakes, disrespect or malcontent.

Grolik is twenty years old.

Background
Grolik grew up in a fringe tribe of the northern forest; a small band of hunters who call themselves the Clan of the Bear, not for being beholden to any deity, but for their great strength and knowledge of the forest. His parents were not a part of the tribal leadership, but well respected for their service to the tribe and their prowess as warriors. Grolik was no exception. He did differ from his father, however, in his great pride. Grolik, in his youthful foolishness, let his exceptional family reputation and his own great strength go to his head. He had convinced himself that he could face any foe the forest could hold, and became reckless in his desire to prove his mettle. Despite his family and tribe's reassurances that he had done so a dozen times over for someone so young, he continually sought out greater foes while on patrol in his tribe's lands. It was on one such patrol that he foolishly provoked a over-large group of ogres, with but a few men in his group, among whom was the clan leader's son. Grolik was the sole survivor of the battle, and was near death himself. The clan chief, however, showed him no mercy for the loss of his son. Grolik was flogged severely, branded with the clan's mark of exile, and left in the forest.

He managed to survive and nurse himself back to health well enough to make his way into the steppe, where he was taken in by a band of Pariahs, bent on raiding the imperials as they made their way to Three Rivers from their native lands. Thinking this a good new test of his strength, he eagerly joined the band. His fervor quickly turned to horror as he witnessed the atrocities the others committed upon the travelers in the first raid he participated in. They not only killed the escorts and men, but targeted the women and children for far worse fates than he could have ever imagined. All he knew in the end was fury, and he loosed it upon his erstwhile companions, so that he was once again very near death by the time it was over. This time, though, he had spared many innocents from defilement and their own deaths, and he knew then how misguided his life had been to that point.

The travelers cared for him until they reached Three Rivers, where they turned him over to his own people, though a different tribe, the Hulun. Upon hearing of his bravery and sacrifice, they took him in and nursed him back to health. He expressed his sorrow for the mistakes of his past, most of all his involvement with the pariah band he had initially aided in the raid that had subsequently opened his eyes to the error of his ways. Seeing his repentant spirit, they put him to work as a guardsman over the citizens of Three Rivers, which he gladly took to as his penance for the harm he had visited upon them.

Role in the Story so Far...
Grolik was eagerly awaiting for the start of the Feast of Xa when he and Ret elected to get things off to an early start, reasoning that the tension within the camp concerning the long absence of the scouts needed to be lifted. The two warriors put on an impressive display of mock-combat and were approached by K'harg's son, Barras, who was eager for them both to join the raiding party. K'harg rejected their offer of support, charging them with defence of the camp. Grolik was posted to the north-west entrance with Amond and Grimach, where they discovered a shaken Tudaam returning from the horse fields after witnessing a frightful vision of the horse-spirit Miromar.

After setting a few snares, Grolik was alerted to the presence of a shadowy figure in the long grass, but was frustrated at being unable to confront the interloper. He joined Anna in attempting to put out the fire at Marek's tent, and was the first to identify the use of birch-tar as an accelerant.

Grolik helped patrol the camp by night but was one of the first up comemorning, agreeing to join his new comrade on her hunting trip. He is privy to Lugana's plans to head to Forl but has thus far kept his opinions on the matter to himself.

Beyond the Fourth Wall...
Grolik is an original character and PC in the Warriors of the Plains created and played by Baxder. The description and background in this article are lifted from the original character application. The italicised text in this article is taken directly from Grolik's in-character posts in the game thread.