Bjorkas

Name: Bjorkas. No titles yet earned.

Sex: Male

Race: Minotaur

Deity: Baphomet

Age: 24

Height: 7'7"

Weight: 850 lbs.

Eyes: Gold

Hair: Dark brown. A couple inches long, normally matted.

Skin: dark, not visible under fur.

Other characteristics: a brand on the chest that looks like 4 simple identical mazes arranged in a square that converge in the center with no exit.


Disclaimer:
Jason was in the room when I rolled up this character. Everything was personally approved by him. I acknowledge that Bjorkas is really OP for a new character, but that's because of his race. He may have started as a lvl 1 barbarian, but he was ECL 7 due to the Minotaur's 6 levels in Monstrous Humanoid. Reason being that it doesn't make sense for a 750 lb monster to start with 12 HP.

More on Minotaur characters: http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Minotaurs_(Race)



Story and stuff:
    Bjorkas was a black sheep among the minotaurs growing up in the mountains South of Therdim. While most young minotaurs were playing with their father's massive axes, maces, hammers, or crossbows, Bjorkas would tie a rope around a rock and wield them (Minotaurs of that tribe weren't allowed to own their own weapon until they were an adult, and Bjorkas' rocks were considered a child's toy). He received a damaging blow to the head while fighting in early childhood. He sustained damage to the frontal lobe, impeding his cognitive thinking skills (but leaving his instincts intact). His damaged frontal lobe pressed against his pituitary gland resulting in myotonic hypertrophy and acute gigantism leaving him of great stature among minotaurs. He greatly valued Strength as the others of his kind did, however he saw worth in balance and agility as well. Eventually, his skill was great enough to wield two rock flails, and he realized that by using more rope and swinging for the calf or knee, he could pull as the rock wrapped and bring his opponent to the ground. He was seen as different for his disability and unorthodox technique, therefore he was disregarded as an inefficient fighter.
    Years later, during the minotaur rites of adulthood at 20 years old (a tournament lasting a month where only the top 50% of fighters are recognized as adults; most minotaurs will pass the first or second year), he easily defeated every opponent in single combat by laying them down and keeping them there while pummeling them with granite. The elders and chieftain objected because he wasn't embodying the strength of his people in the way he fought. His fighting reminded them of the tricks of the elves and men, so they refused to grant him adulthood. The shaman of his tribe advised them otherwise, this uncharacteristically affected their decision little.
    The next and second year, Bjorkas tried the rites with two maces against the counsel of the shaman, but often used his wrist awkwardly due to the rigidity of a shaft, was defeated early, and was mocked because he "couldn't handle the weapon of a man."
    The next and third year, there were wars among the Minotaur tribes in the mountains, but Bjorkas was not allowed to fight because he was not an adult. Bjorkas competed with a two handed great axe once again against the shaman's advising. He competed well, but due to one slip up regarding hand placement affecting his swing, he was defeated and left one standing place short of adulthood making him the first minotaur to require 4 years for adulthood.
    Enraged, he trained the next year vigorously with his roped rocks and developed a ruthlessness in his raging desire to prove himself among his youngers. He killed four trainees three years his younger and one that was two years younger during that year by crushing their skulls between the ground and his rocks. This tendency gained him much disdain among the tribe and fear from his competitors. That year, the fourth year of his trials, he killed his first two opponents. The chieftain called a stop to his fighting and ordered him immediately ejected from the tribe. The shaman advocated Bjorkas had proved his might and should be granted adulthood regardless of the trial, but the chieftain refused. Bjorkas called out to the chieftain and called him a coward. That day, Bjorkas fought against the chieftain of his tribe for adulthood. The chieftain's stance was too solid to trip, but Bjorkas disarmed his hammers and flung them down the mountain. The chieftain charged Bjorkas with his horns and wounded Bjorkas' side. Bjorkas flew into a rage, dropped his flails, and grappled with the chieftain. Gaining an advantage in the dust of the arena, Bjorkas seized the horns of his elder and gored his throat.
    Spectators were shocked. The elders ordered him ejected from the tribe. After being branded with the cross of the outcast, Bjorkas left his people at the point of many crossbows. Overcome by the shame and rage of not being an adult by right of his people, he headed for the dwarven city of Therdim with intent to attack and be killed. The second day of his journey North, Bjorkas received a vision in his campfire telling him to climb the highest mountain and wait there. He waited there for four days. On the sixth day of his journey, the shaman met Bjorkas and gave him a coil of rope and a set of chain armor with a depiction of Baphomet on the front and back. All the shaman requested in return was help in performing a ritual on top of the mountain.
    Bjorkas aided him in kindling six fires, and began fashioning a flail from rock while the shaman chanted and danced among the fires while adding various things to the flames. At once a blood-red flame erupted from all fires, and the air before the shaman opened like a door and there was a semi-spherical space with the massive head of a great Minotaur before the shaman. The head demanded the reason why the shaman had contacted him before the ten year shaman's conclave. The shaman addressed the head as Baphomet! The shaman explained that the greatest warrior of his tribe had been denied adulthood for four years, had killed the chieftain and wasn't granted the title as was customary at a chieftain's defeat, and was here to be granted adulthood directly from his greatness himself. Baphomet demanded the young warrior, who had risen from his rock in amazement, step forward.
    There they arranged a simple contract for Bjorkas to defeat a champion. Victory meant adulthood, defeat meant being consumed. Out of the head was produced a ghour demon. With one rock flail, Bjorkas fought with the demon until dawn with only two spectators. The ground shook with the battle, and the sound of the ghour's body hitting the mountain was tremendous. When the rock in the flail shattered, Bjorkas prepared to grapple the demon and clash horns with it, but the ghour declared Bjorkas worthy because he lasted longer than the rock of the mountain. Upon Bjorkas was bestowed the gift of adulthood by the god Baphomet and his cross brand was reburned into the symbol of Baphomet.
    After Baphomet and the ghour returned to the abyss, the shaman gave Bjorkas two enchanted metal flails he had secretly commissioned from a blacksmith and enchanted himself. He bade Bjorkas to seek entrance into another tribe North of the dwarven city so he could make war like his people, but never against his own tribe. On the seventh day of his journey, he parted from his only friend and headed north.
    One day later, after passing too close to the dwarven city, a patrol waylaid Bjorkas on his journey North. Being over a week without food, the weakened Bjorkas was captured by the dwarves of Therdim. He was bound, dragged to the city, and locked in a cage. Here he was given a roasted ox leg to eat and a small bowl of water. That same day, his cage was moved, and he heard a familiar sound that he'd heard during the trials: a crowd. His flails and armor were given back through the bars of the cage moments before it opened into the dwarven arena.



Kudos if you actually read all of that. After pivotal points in his story, I'll post an update for lore's sake.