Hathok: Named by his human mother for an ancient god of poetry and music, Hathok’s human mother could not have predicted his predilection towards melody and prose as a young man. A product of rape and abandoned at a young age Hathok had a harsh upbringing on the Streets. His size was not matched by his intellect but Hathok found that using them in combination allowed him to bend people, even those of the Dwarven castes, to his will through overt and covert physical threats. The lessons learned as a bastard orphan were put to good use as Hathok developed an effective style of fighting that relied on his Orcish blood for strength and rage and his modicum of intellect for every dirty trick ever witnessed in the darkest of back alleys and sewers.
Eventually Hathok’s hard life and criminal means of survival caught up with him and the Empress’ disposable shock-troops gained a stalwart soldier. His regimented training refined his fighting style somewhat but his sergeant only encouraged Hathok’s volcanic temper on the battlefield. Hathok’s lack of allegiance to the Empress soon found him deserting, alone, and far from his place of birth.
Hundreds of hard miles later Hathok found himself entranced by the sound of a lute as he approached a crossroad. An abrupt halt to the music nearly caused Hathok to fly into a rage on the spot, as he rounded a corner of the path he found three men accosting a fourth man holding a lute. Dressed in a bards colourful garb this was the presumed source of the entrancing song. Hathok’s anger boiled out of him in an instant and after a few moments the red haze lifted as the bard was recruiting Hathok to be his personal guard over the three barely recognizable corpses of the would-be waylayers.
Hathok and Fen the bard travelled together for many months. Hathok’s love of music grew into obsession and eventually his persistence in convincing Fen to teach him the lute prevailed over Fen’s reluctance to allow Hathok’s hefty meathooks near his precious instrument. Fen was not a generous man but he did teach Hathok a few chords as payment for Hathok’s encouraging stare-downs of under-tipping customers or audiences. Fen once sweet-talked a handful of guardsmen to release Hathok into his custody when some Dwarves complained to a magistrate after some particularly overt encouragement to tip Fen's performance from Hathok. They were an odd pair but Fen had never been so profitable and Hathok had never worried less about where his next meal was coming from (outside of his brief military stint).
Unfortunately Fen’s penchant for liquor and the fire it lit under his tongue was the duo’s downfall. Fen occasionally allowed Hathok to borrow the lute and eventually got around to watching Hathok’s attempts at busking; Hathok's raspy baritone occasionally hit the right notes to accompany his stilted strumming, Fen was thoroughly underwhelmed. Perhaps it was jealousy over the coins Hathok was bringing in despite his mediocre talent, but as Fen got deep into his cups watching, he was oblivious to the horrific stares Hathok gave passerby over the lute. The fire in his eyes seemed to magically force coins out of pockets and into his hat. Fen, disgusted, told Hathok of his less than favourable opinion. Incapable of recognizing the seething rage swelling in his companion eventually his barbs were too much for Hathok’s bare self-restraint and Fen lost the ability to speak or play as Hathok’s fist snapped his jaw in a single blow followed by several popping fingers as Hathok stomped Fen's plucking hand as he walked away, effectively ending the poor drunk bards career. Hathok was taken into custody moments later by a passing guard troop who could see the aftermath of the former companions’ disagreement. The guards hardly needed any justification to toss another Half-orc into the temporary gaol erected for the Empress’ future settlers, and so Hathok literally and figuratively punched his ticket to the new world that night.
