Kek, orc battle medic

[Dr Jackal]

HAKAJA KEK

 

Whatever the Divinity is, know that it cares not at all for you,

or else the wicked would be punished and the good would be rewarded, yes?

But the world is not fair. It is not remotely fair. This is obvious.

So put no faith in such a fickle thing as the Divinity.

 

 

The Hakaja

Before the Great Upheaval, Kek's tribe lived in the deep forest in a dangerous, war-torn land. According to the Hakaja's oral tradition, they had long ago been locked in a life-or-death struggle with an enemy whose identity has since been forgotten. The legends say that they had lost battle after battle to this foe and were on the verge of extinction, yet the spirits that the Hakaja worshiped called for bloodier and bloodier sacrifices -- sacrifices which did nothing to win them success in war.

So the Hakaja slew their gods.

It's unclear precisely what happened or how this was accomplished (and less charitable historians might suggest that their gods never existed in the first place, and the Hakaja merely purged themselves of various opportunistic charlatans). Either way, the Hakaja found a newfound strength in their godlessness, and subsequently defeated and exterminated their mortal enemies.

For centuries after, they lived and thrived in their ancestral forests, surrounded by vicious monsters and enemy tribes. While their existence remained brutal and bloody, the Hakaja never again faced such an existential threat as before.

 

 

The Great Upheaval

The Great Upheaval deposited the Hakaja deep in the wilds of Orona, far from any other civilizations. When the Hakaja realized that the world had changed around them, they sent scouts out to learn of these new lands, and to report back. Being analytical rather than superstitious, the elders of Hakaja selected several different people to represent them, as they did not know which sort might be most successful in such a strange place. The seven emissaries they chose were a warrior, a tradesman, a scout, a criminal, a grandmother, a healer, and an idiot.

Kek was the healer.

 

 

Kek

Kek is a loyal member of Clan Hakaja, and at some point he plans on returning to tell them of the strange people who populate these lands. To outsiders, Kek is cagey about his origins, and while he has told his close associates that he comes from an orc tribe deep in the wilds, he has told no one of his mission or the exact location of the Hakaja.

Kek adventures in part because he is a healer and a warrior -- and what else would a combat medic do? But he also adventures because he wants to learn about these strange other people who are not orcs, and whether they will in time be the Hakaja's enemy ... or not.

 

 

Future Directions

Kek will take Medic as his archetype, and probably Godless/Mortal Healing as feats.

 

 

Posting Rate

I can somewhere between every weekday and every other weekday -- let's say 4x/week. Weekend are very hit or miss for me. Sometimes I'm around, but most of the time I can't commit to posting at all.

 

 

Preferred Game Balance

Evenly split between social, exploration, and combat.

 

 

 

Sheet link: https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets/?id=2834889

Edited October 3, 2023 by Dr Jackal (see edit history)

[Blaeringr]

1 hour ago, Dr Jackal said:

So the Hakaja slew their gods.

I've gotta know: klingon reference?

[Dr Jackal]

I wasn't thinking Klingon, but strangely enough the Klingon myth actually closer to where I ended up than the inspiration I started with. The actual inspiration was the Teblor from the Malazan Book of the Fallen, who killed their original gods and then replaced them with new gods [slight spoiler alert] which turned out to be the disgraced outcasts of a society of cavemen that had turned themselves into lich-warriors several hundred thousand years ago because they really wanted to murder a society of generally peaceful orc super-wizards.

It's complicated.

So anyway ... I think I'm just going to go with the Klingon thing from now on.

 

EDIT: Oh, and also vaguely Nuggan from Monstrous Regiment.

Edited October 2, 2023 by Dr Jackal (see edit history)

[Dr Jackal]

Medic for the free archetype. This advances Kek to Expert Medicine.

Continual Recovery for the skill feat. Crafting advances to Expert.

Nimble Dodge for the rogue feat.

+8+2 HP, +1 all attacks.

[Dr Jackal]

@Blaeringr Would it be a problem if I retrain a feat I've never used? I'd like to change You're Next to Nimble Dodge (and this level, change Nimble Dodge to Mobility).

 

When I made the character, I expected him to be a little more typically orky, but that's not really how he turned out, and an Intimidation feat doesn't really fit.

[Blaeringr]

Sure, I don't have a problem with that.

[Blaeringr]

So here are some of my thoughts on fleshing out the Hakaja some more and placing them in this setting:

The Hakaja Orcs

Not the only orcs to be brought to this world. As with the other races, the gods seemed to scatter the orcs across the Cosmos. Or perhaps they all share a common, distant origin, and their ancestors found ways to travel to other worlds, or perhaps just slipped through cracks in time and space.

The Hakaja tribe now finds itself living in a fortified position on an island in a group of islands not far at all off the large continent.

Main Map

• How close to the Vedan colonies where our campaign is playing out do you imagine these islands to be?
• Hot or cold climate?
• What is the architecture of the Hakaja like?
• What kind of system of government do they have?

I can answer these myself if you don't have any preferences.

 

[Dr Jackal]

1. Very close. The Hakaja aren't sailors. If they went to the mainland, it must have been practically close enough to see on the horizon, and they probably went in canoes or kayaks. I would also tend to favor a single large island rather than several.

2. Cool/cold. I was thinking temperate rainforest like Washington state or western Canada.

3. The Hakaja prefer to live inside solid things. Top choices are cave systems that have been expanded. They will also hollow houses and towns out of the living redwoods that grow in their lands. If neither of those are available, they build longhouses covered with sod. Hakaja architecture focuses strongly on function, not on form, so it's extremely durable and fairly comfortable, but it looks quite crude at first glance.

4. The Hakaja have a council of elders who are chosen more or less by discussion amongst the clan. While the Hakaja not superstitious, they tend to favor the number 7 in a lot of circumstances, so that's usually the size of the council. Hakaja prize having a broad diversity of viewpoints so that all sides of an argument can be explored thoroughly, and this is taken to the extreme in the council. There is always a warrior, but the council often includes members like a wide-eyed idealist, a conniving bastard, and a fool. (In particular, the fool is widely regarded as only slightly less necessary than the warrior.) A sufficiently capable youngster can also be elevated to elder status, although this is uncommon.