Those who have read my posts in Arkain threads know that my favorite characters are those of Orcs/Tribal Dominion.
-The dark and vengeful bad girl Inara, who deserves, DESERVES to get her revenge on that stinking t*rd Zoia and her putrid Wolf Regiment excr*m*nt. If she does not get her rightful justice, I am swearing off Arkain for good and will never, ever play it again. Even my beloved Lisara could not convince me otherwise. Just joking, of course. Or I am? Anyway, Inara might actually be my top character of Arkain, perhaps more so than Amari. While Amari from the Second Orc Books is still one of my highest-ranking characters and that has not changed at all, Amari's counterpart in the True Story behaved questionably in the Exiles chapters and depending on how the story goes, I might regard her as one of the lesser characters, both in isolation and in comparison to Amari's iteration in the Second Orc Book. Perhaps Shar was correct by putting Amari (the True Story version at least) in the Neutral Evil alignment and Inara might be morally superior to her. Oh, and if circumstances were different, Inara and Lisara should have been best friends and lovers. Don't get me wrong, Lisara and Ornassion are an iconic pair, but having two dangerous, badass women loving each other is too much of an awesome opportunity to pass up. In addition, my personal opinion is that Inara should become the "mascot" and/or the "cover girl" for Legends of Arkain. If not her, then either Ornassion or Lady Meya. And please, no Gardon and the Ironfist. They have enough spotlight on them as it is.
-The genteel and educated philosopher Ishzog. Where is he, by the way? He'd better be in East Asia, studying ancient spiritual philosophies and martial arts of its nations, becoming super enlightened and spiritual fighter-guru, who could obliterate Duke Redfist just by one simple kick and break the entire Redfist faction just by talking. A single sermon of Iszhog could cause the entire Zyainor to fall in a matter of week, if not days. Maybe the mighty Borean is simply a misdirection, a distraction from the true Secret Weapon of the Dominion. No one would suspect some mad preacher from a minor, unimportant Orc Clan. Jokes aside (though they do have a grain of truth to them), I think Iszhog should become a Hero character with a new model (I can imagine him using World Shaman Thrall model, only changing the outfit colors to black). I am not sure what kind of Hero could Ishzog be. He doesn't seem to be a combatant, so he may simply be a support hero and actually unable to attack his opponents. If he does become a combatant, he could be of a Monk Class. We didn't have Monk heroes in Arkain, so it would be an opportunity to introduce one in form of Iszhog. I also see Iszhog as being the leader of Tribal Dominion, either as a spiritual guide or as a "power behind the throne", if the Destroyer or Rath would be the formal/official Emperors of the Dominion. The Destroyer or Rath would command fear and respect, but they would be more of warriors than diplomats, while Iszhog would serve as their advisor and councillor, holding actual political power and influencing decisions. If Arkain ever gets voice acting, Iszhog should get a Chinese accent, Brockta should have a British accent, the Destroyer and Gardon should have a German accent, Merlon should speak with a French accent and Largoth should sound like Quan Chi from Mortal Kombat. There should also be a short story about how and when Ishzog came in contact with Amari. The humans have a lot of short stories, yet the Orcs only have one. This should change.
-I have already talked about Lokar the Crusher in this thread a few months back, but it would be a crime not to mention him here. My opinions on him still stand. He deserves more spolitght, more attention, more feats (him defeating Aveen Elvir would be one of them), more everything. If I was able to make 3D renders and artwork of Arkain characters, my first priority would be to feature Lokar, Brak Stormteacher and Iszhog, while I also would like to pay my respects to Largoth (it is strange that neither Largoth, nor Lisara got any fan art in Fanmade of Arkain thread). Inara, Iszhog and Lokar the Crusher – my three great favorites. My trinity of primus inter pares, equal to Vanessa and Brockta. Underappreciated and overlooked by others in favor of the Destroyer, Duke Redfist and Gardon (the former two are fine, the latter...well, my opinion on him must be clear by now). For humans, not counting Vanessa, my triad is Logan, Cora and Praxeus. And for the Undead, Lord Margazar, Urshan, Haran'tel-Kazor and Sir Edoarus the Executioner is my personal Four.
I also can't forget the rough and tough Okri. She, along with Iszhog's following of cultured savages, is everything that the Orc society should have been. Rowdy, enjoying fighting and killing, yet not a mindless brute and having standards, as well as common sense, Okri is the perfect example of an ideal orc. Amari might be too different from others, Grofzag might be too silent and reserved, while Hortnog is too unorthodox and more prioritized with gold and profit rather than strength and honor, but Okri is just right. A punk, a brawler, a tomboy. Like Revy from Black Lagoon, and Korra, Toph Bei Fong and June from Avatar, while Iszhog's followers are comparable to Conan the Barbarian. A hot-blooded brawn and body to Lokar's mind, intellect, rationality and pragmatism, and Iszhog's heart, soul and spirit. Okri is someone who arm wrestles everyone and drinks beer. She is Amari's sword, while Grella is Amari's shield. Amari, Okri and Grella are an excellent female trio and I liked that the final cutscene of the last playable chapter in Second Orc Book showed only three of them together. They were for each other since the beginning and the campaign ended with three of them together. As friends and sisters. I think Okri should get more prominent feats. Perhaps she, rather than Grofzag, could be the one to cause the avalanche that buried the Bonelords. Maybe she could kill Orgen Bloodstone.
While they aren't the focus of this essay, it is imperative for me to say that Oneeye (underrated in my opinion), Grofzag and Hortnog (jolly and smiling uncle of Vanessa) are all fun and great characters. While I made it seem that I may like Grofzag less, that's not case at all. He deserves to be one of the primary orcish storyline characters and the representative of the entire Orckind, while his loyalty to Vanessa is what made him endearing to me in the first place. The thing is, I really like characters like Okri, Lokar, Inara, Iszhog and the racial leaders of Dominion (Brockta, Grella, Flammedus and others) and, naturally, I want them to achieve great and notable feats rather than just have Grofzag be the single character who gets to do anything important. It's not that I don't like Grofzag, not at all, it's more like that I enjoy certain other characters a lot and I wish for them to accomplish something. I remember Shar saying that he does not want to introduce too many characters at once and in the case of Dominion, that may make sense. If there are a lot of Dominion characters, it may be hard to juggle between the characters and give them appropriate amount of screentime and attention.
Pechan, Rangul and the Destroyer are all respectable characters and I have already talked about Rath Wolfscar after VastanX created and showed his drawing for him. There's also of course Rathman and Rathmobile, sometimes accompanied by Sasrobin or Vanessa. Given who he is based on, I wonder if Rathman could defeat the likes of Duke Redfist and Aridon if given enough preptime? And yeah, I am not letting that joke about Rath being a Batman-esque fighter go. Hey, I am having fun in Arkain threads and we are supposed to have fun when talking about Arkain.
While he crossed the Moral Event Horizon in the Hunt for the Riches chapter by being the one who was responsible for Amari's banishment (still find that chapter unpleasant and I'm quite sore that I forgot that Sasrogarn is younger than Amari, rather than the other way around, when I talked about Rangul's wife; I still wonder if Rangul's wife is dead or is she missing and may appear later) or when he killed Logan in the Second Orc Book (if the player chose that option), thus deserving of his death at Amari's hands, I'm fine with Sasrogarn and I don't dislike him like many other fans. I actually prefer Sasrogarn over Gardon, Ironfist and quite a number of Human, Dwarven and Elven characters. I know that this is simply my headcanon and it may not be even correct, but I sometimes think that if Rangul's wife was still around, perhaps Sasrogarn might have turned out at least slightly differently. Not saying that Rangul did not try to raise Sasrogarn as best as he can, but perhaps Sasrogarn's mother (being a female orc and probably having a different perspective on things than Rangul and many other male orcs) could have influenced him somewhat. If Sasrogarn's personality is somehow linked to a lack of mother in his life, it would be surprisingly tragic aspect in regards to him. It would not justify Sasrogarn's actions, but it would give him some semblance of pathos. He also did seem to genuinely love Vanessa as a sister and it is one of his few redeeming traits. I would go even as far as to say that if Rangul chose, or at least considered, Vanessa as his heir, Sasrogarn may have accepted her and would not have tried to sabotage her, like he did with Amari. The True Story does seem to downplay this trait, but it's somewhat there nonetheless. While he is not meant to be someone who should be seen in a positive light, I think making Sasrogarn into a complete jerk would be a bit of a misstep. Sir Lerrig, another character mocked for his incompetence, was presented in a somewhat sincere way as a knight who honestly tried to follow his duties, Lord Genethas seemed genuinely frustrated with the Empire and pointlessness of serving the Emperor, making him accept the pact with Ebira, and Zoia got a surprisingly touching moment with Aedale. While Sasrogarn is by no means a saint, he did not cross the lines that Genethas and Zoia did, who both got some nuance, and not giving him any sadness or tragic quality would be a disservice in my opinion. Maybe when he gets killed by Amari, he stares at Vanessa, dissapointed and sincerely hurt that she, out of everyone he knew, turned against him, while Vanessa would wonder if Sasrogarn was right and whether she could have done something to mend the wounds between her two siblings.
I could have talked a bit about Zairmak and Dogran, while also sharing my thoughts about Gorthog (originally, this essay was meant to be about him), but I got tired after writing the paragraph about Sasrogarn, yet I really wanted to express my opinions right now, so I decided to release this essay as it is. If I'll want it, I might talk about Zairmak, Dogran and Gorthog at a later time, but I make no promises.
