Urso Soulwarden (aka Ullik the Bear)
Name - Ullik the Bear
True Name - Ou Lic sa Shoz (Eternal Blood of the Bear)
Player - Adam Alman
Preferred Weaponry - Blades n' Throwing Axes
Favorite Armor - Bearhide cloak
Political Affiliation - The Pack
Allies - Stagg Longhorn, also most of the area's barbarians and shamans.
Enemies - None at the moment, but he is quite leery of most
"civilized" folks.
Likes: Healers, druids, and persons of honor.
Dislikes: Assassins, Anti-Paladins, and whatever barbarian originally
bastardized his name (he hasn't found out who yet).
Driving Goals: Become a Shaman. Find the missing Clan of the Bear and
restore them to the world of the living.
Background Story - Song of the Shamans
Ullik was born on a night where the winds were calm and the moon did
not choose to shine. His mother died that night, a victim of childbirth. His
father died a week later, wracked by grief. The child would have died as well, had
not a spirit intervened. Threeclaw, long dead shaman of the equally dead Children of
Bear, heard the wails of a healthy child and investigated. Upon finding him, the
spirit gasped. Here was one born with the blood of Bear, yet there had not been a follower
of Bear living upon this earth for hundreds of years.
"Ou lic," he whispered. "Blood eternal." With
that, he took the child for his own. He was raised alone, parented by a gentle voice
from an unseen man, and suckled his nourishment from the breast of a great old she-bear, a
veteran mother of so many cubs that she scarcely cared whether another would appear.
As he grew older, the voice grew fainter. He struggled to listen to it as he
was taught to hunt, to heal, and to learn the ways of Bear. Then one day, the voice
departed.
"Young Ou Lic, you must revive the Clan," it said, no louder
than the footfall of a hunting wolf. Ullik mourned his mentor's death in the only way he
knew - he continued to learn. From the trails left by prey to the smell and markings
of predators to the various herbs and fruits of the forest, Ullik learned. For ten
more years, until his seventeenth summer, he learned. Then he departed, realizing
that he had no excuse to remain a student.
He found the Clan of the Wolf by pure accident. While wise in the
ways of the wild, he was not so canny in the mind of man, and he was caught in a snare
meant for deer. After ascertaining that the young man was not from the City, and was
indeed a denizen of the woods, they took him in. At first, the only people who could
understand him were the Shamans, as his language was a dead and ancient one, one used only
for the healing and protective spells that the shamans found useful.
He dealt with his new Clan the only way he could: He learned. And
as he learned, he found out more of what had happened. The Children of Bear had been
hurt badly during the first wave of colonization. When the second threatened to
destroy them utterly, they... went away. Nobody, not even the shamans, knew what the
old tales meant. The Children of Bear were considered dead and gone, mourned for and
forgotten long before.
Ullik knew that this was not the case, and despite the warnings of the
shamans, he left the Wolf Clan in order to seek his lost people. After many seasons
of travel, he came to a place where there was water as far as a man could see. The
salt stung his eyes and the smell turned his stomach, but he knew that this was where he
would find his answer. He waded out into the water, and examined the area. To
the left, nothing but water. To the right, nothing but sand. Then he looked
below.
Fish! Salmon! Millions of them swimming around his body in
an effort to pass him by, to go to the hidden place where the fish recreate themselves.
After staring at their flashing scales for a time, he suddenly reached into the
waves and caught one by it's tail. Surprised by his own instincts, he almost lost hold of
it. Coming back onto land, he threw the fish down and began to speak to it.
"Tell me where my people live, and I will spare you," said
Ullik.
"Knowing is death, bringing is sacrifice! That is your role only!
Let me live!" cried the captive salmon, flapping pitifully. Ullik immediately knew it
as truth. He picked up the salmon and threw it to the waves, his Ritual of Portent
over. He then sat on the sand and watched the sun fall, thinking of the salmon's
words and what they meant. He let the bitter cold lash over him, barely feeling it,
as the night drifted on. As the sun rose again in the morning, Ullik had his answer.
He traveled back to the Wolf Clan, but when he arrived, he noticed immediately a
difference. Where once was tradition, there was now rage. Where once there was
leadership, there was now discord. The clansmen saw him, but did not acknowledge
him. Dismayed, he turned away.
The earth suddenly fell away from him, and a roaring silence filled his
vision. As he awoke, he found himself standing in a circle of earth. He stared
around, wide-eyed, at what surrounded him. A great gray wolf stared into his soul.
An owl, bringing night with it stood apart from an eagle, whose radiance shone
bright as day. A spider, in the middle of a huge, sparkling web regarded him coolly.
A wolverine, radiating anger and vengeance, stood apart from all. He opened
his mouth to speak, and immediately shut it. He waited.
"We are uniting," said the Wolf. "We are becoming
one."
"Our peoples will fly together in the day..." spoke the
Eagle.
"...and hunt together during the night," finished the Owl.
"Our rage will be great," growled the Wolverine.
"And the land itself will rise up as our ally," whispered the
Spider.
"But we are not whole," announced the Wolf.
Ullik was paralyzed with fear as the powerful spirits passed their
knowledge unto him.
"Our greatest healer, Bear, was taken from us long ago. You
must find Bear again," cried the Eagle. "And you must awaken his sleeping
children."
"But..." Ullik stammered. "How?" The spirits
exchanged looks, and then, finally, one spoke.
"You will know when you have learned the Way," whispered the
Spider.
Ullik suddenly felt his limbs become heavy, and he sank to the ground,
overwhelmed. His vision blurred, and the sky above spun. He was ready to fall unconscious
when one last voice pierced his mind. "Do not fear
death," Owl said softly.
When Ullik awoke, he found that the rage and discord were gone. A new
symbol, the blood-red half-moon and wolf's head stood in it's place. The strength of
alliance had destroyed all feuds and canceled all grievances. The tribes were at
one. But as Ullik watched this new amalgam, he realized that Wolf had been right:
They were not whole. The weight of the spirits pressed down upon him, and he let out
a deep breath. He finally knew why he had been born.
