Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

(Let’s keep the champions coming with Timoran Wrath who made his official debut in Family of the Tri-Rune.  He acting made a cameo earlier, but I don’t remember if his name was revealed.  Don’t know if there’s a lot for me to add here because Timoran was the stable rock of the series.  He changed, but he didn’t divert from the story or his original plan like many of the other characters.)

First, Timoran Wrath is a barbarian, so he has an uphill battle in terms of the audience view.

Most people think of the wild, illiterate berserker when they think of a barbarian.  Not always true.  After reading some of the original Conan stories, I have a different take on them.  They are primal, easy to anger, and brutal, but they’re not stupid and they can possess honor.  This led to the barbarians of Windemere being more war philosophers.  At least the Snow Tiger tribe.  They have the aggression and rage when they need it, but they’re very wise and remain calm when around non-clan members.  In fact, every barbarian must take a journey to find honor and wisdom when they turn 18.  Even the women do this because they can throw a beating as well as the men.  Timoran mentions this several times as well as pointing out that Nyx would make an excellent barbarian if she was bigger.

The original Timoran was a non-player character in the D&D game, who the gamemaster used to give us the power that we were lacking.  At the time, we had the speedy blades of Luke, the basic magic of Nyx, and the quick daggers of Sari.  We lacked strength and that’s where Timoran came in.  He had no last name, so I called him Timoran Wrath in the book.  He was calm and wise while staying in the background because he wasn’t supposed to solve the puzzles.

Then, he was up-graded when a new player adopted him.  Now, Timoran was talking and drinking and fighting and drinking.  Yeah, the guy played a really good barbarian by the traditional sense.  I loved playing the game with him, but Timoran was slowly eroding into a battle-hungry drunkard.  For example, Luke had come into possession of an ancient wine cellar and it was mentioned that there was a vial of ancient Elven wine.  Rare and not made anymore.  Timoran raced off to drink the wine right after the battle, which I shrugged off on the surface.  Luke didn’t care about the alcohol. Beneath my surface, I made a mental note to revert Timoran back to his original state.  Look, players can do whatever they want and more power to the guy for making Timoran his own.  I just didn’t think a drunk, battle-loving barbarian would be a good fit for what I had planned.  Also, it was kind of cliche.

This brings us to the book Timoran Wrath.  When he appears, the group is nothing more than the three most emotional character in the story.  Luke is reckless, Nyx is temperamental, and Sari is a flirty ball of mischief.  I knew they needed somebody to be their common sense or they wouldn’t make it through the up-coming battles.  Timoran adopted a habit of sharing wisdom and speaking very eloquently by using the same noble speech pattern as Aedyn Karwyn.  This created a barbarian that I couldn’t enrage at the drop of a dime and I love that about him.  You really need to push his buttons to unleash the whirlwind of death.  He also developed a heightened sense of smell, making him a perfect tracking ally for Luke. I have to admit that Timoran had the smoothest transition into the group, which says something about him.  Though, he is still nervous about Nyx’s magic.

I’m having a lot of fun writing him now even though he’s starting to adopt some of Luke’s recklessness, which is becoming a disease among my heroes.  All of them pull an occasional crazy stunt worthy of Luke.  Is there a reason for this?  Maybe.

2023 Update– With the series finished, I look back on Timoran rather fondly.  He was in the background and low key many times.  I realized he didn’t have a strong personality, but he was the type to speak when he has something to say.  It was always to the point and cleared confusion.  Even in his own book, Tribe of the Snow Tiger, he didn’t ramble on very often.  He definitely shined in that book and went on to develop some great abilities.  I loved it when I could give him a chance to cut loose.  It was just combat for him too because he got to act as the foundation of the team at times.  I really do think Timoran kept everyone somewhat grounded even when they were acting up.