Bauzak, Stalwart Companion

    In the spirit of my last post “Eithne, the Girl of his Dreams” I thought I’d continue to talk about the characters I am developing.  I had a blast finally talking about Eithne of the fiery hair, and thought perhaps the same fun and energy I put into her might be transferred to talking about all my other creations.
    Today I want to talk about the character probably closest to my heart: Bauzak Longani, the consummate and ever faithful companion to our hero Altan Barr.  Within the Heroes Dichotomy Altan Barr is the ideal hero, the strapping and strong adventurer, quick with a witty rejoinder, quicker with a gun, and driven by a singular purpose to serve truth, justice, et cetera.  Bauzak is the ideal companion because he isn’t driven by such lofty ideals, he is only there because he cares about the people he cares about, and nothing else really matters to him.  While Barr focuses on the future, Bauzak lives entirely in the now.  The two are a force to be reckoned with, and I doubt either one would make it very far without the other.

    Before I tackle the nitty gritty of Bauzak’s history, I will say this: his history is somewhat amorphous and cloudy.  With Eithne, I know where she came from, where she’s going, what drives her, and all that jazz.  Bauzak is a different beast all together, he’s far more organic to me, and I won’t lie to you, he is probably a little too much a reflection of my own self-image than I’d like, which is why his “history” probably won’t ever be properly fleshed out.  Suffice it to say, he is still a fascinating character.

    Bauzak was born and raised in the Northern Boondis city of Dun Eideann, one of the earliest signatory states of the Boondis Alliance.  Like many Eideanni, Bauzak speaks a basic vulgate known as Patter, which is essentially common English heavily smattered with rhythmic linguistics, slang, and pop culture references to make a point (for example, Eideanni tend to call hangovers Pat Lazarus, in honour of a Eideanni street cleaner said to have been resurrected so many times thanks to the good drink).
    His father (Dag) was an Engineer with Aiodh Steel – a war machine maker – and his mother (Luga) was a pub singer and street vendor of sweet cakes.  Bauzak has one sibling, an older brother who Bauzak has lost track of over the years but is believed to be a field hand in the hamlet of Kilbridie.
    The death of Bauzak’s father forced him to work as a member of the Eideann Welders Guild at age fifteen, and he quickly enlisted in the Boondis Royal Marines (known as the Black Garrison) at the age of eighteen.  He was a Royal Marine until the Fall of Boondis in the Shattered Hills War, and spent the next ten years as an insurgent with Altan Barr.
    Naturally, interspersed in all this is a lot of smaller historical events, but these are the defining events in Bauzak’s life.  Bauzak is basically built off of the events of his Life, while Eithne was built off of the purpose of her life (I say that based on some things about Eithne I have yet to share openly).

    Bauzak was born with a type of gigantism (see the cause of common mutations in my story universe here) that does not overdevelop the face, but does result in practically ogrish size.  Rumours did commonly circulate that his mother was a whore for the Ogrish in the woods, which always drove Bauzak to violence.  He towers at least a foot over most other men and is twice as wide as others around him. 
    As if this great size weren’t enough to make Bauzak socially awkward, his life as a Welder, then a soldier, then an insurgent, have left him scarred.  Great burn scars on his arms and scalp from welding accidents (the scalp later from a nasty type of grenade) massive shrapnel cuts across his chest, back, and face, half a left ear, a wedge out of his chin, a permanent gash in his nose.  He is battered and beaten, and everyone knows it.  His life’s scars make him even more frightful, and it continually separates him from the rest of society.
    His size and menacing appearance are all exterior, of course.  He is, at his core, a gentle giant, well read, and possessing a sharp mind and rapier wit.  He just keeps it hidden most of the time.  He started work to stop his mother from selling the Library his dead father had collected.  Bauzak spent his time reading anything he could get his gigantic hands on: from prose to verse, textbooks to love stories, plays, ballads, war stories, histories, sciences and anything on paper.

    Rather than rambling without purpose, I will succinctly sum Bauzak up with a series of one-liners.  He protects woman because he loved his mother like a Goddess; he puts on a show of bravado to protect his delicate emotions; he’s smarter than he lets on; he never gives up for a friend.
    He has very few people he’d kill for, but he has killed for them and will again.  He has a distaste for guns, being of the opinion than a blade or a fist makes the act personal and intimate, which is how murder should be.  Because of this distaste for guns, Bauzak is a firm supporter of the cestus – or spiked gloves.  One should never kill from a distance, according to Bauzak, but he will not stop his sharp shooting friend Barr from doing it.
    Bauzak cherishes very few people, mainly Altan and Eithne, and lately Jetzabel Jones, who has quickly become the matriarch of this little gang (and who I will talk about later).  Bauzak has yet to admit it, but he is madly in love with Jetzabel, and I suspect she knows all too well how he feels.

    I am sure I have more to say about Bauzak: he is brown haired and blue eyed, tan skinned, afraid of rats, and has a taste for spirits over beer.  Minor things for the character I know intimately I suppose.  As usual, I’d like to hear your opinions in the comments section.  I suspect there is something wrong with Bauzak that new eyes might detect.


Nota Bene:  As usual, I went looking for appropriate art and couldn't find any.  The beaten and bruised hero is hard to find.  But this was pretty close to the IDEA of Bauzak.