Tang the Horrific, tarkhan of the Purple
Eagle Tribe,
was born in a yurt on the Dry Steppes.
He had a normal
Dry Steppes boyhood, learning to ride at
a very early age,
shooting the bow, hunting, and raiding
neighboring tribes.
Unlike other nomad boys, young Tang was
restless. He
wanted to see the wonders of the rest of
Oerth, if only to
inspire his people to descend on the sedentary
peoples and
conquer them. His father, the Khakhan of
their tribe, gave
his son his blessing, allowing him to spend
time traveling
among the nations of settled folk. He gave
his son a oneman
yurt and a bactrian camel, as well as a
string of strong
nomad ponies.
Since then, ‘Pang the Horrific (a nickname
given him by
the first civilized folk he met) has roamed
over Oerth, making
a living as a mercenary. He still refuses
to live indoors,
pitching his yurt where he can. He has
served many masters,
both good and evil. For a while, the young
nomad was
in charge of training the cavalry of several
of the local lords
of the Shield Lands, as well as serving
masters in places as
varied as Iuz, the Great Kingdom, Greyhawk,
Furyondy,
and Tenh. When he was “between jobs,” he
would accompany
bands of bold adventurers on raids.
Currently, Tang is between jobs, and is
living on his savings.
His yurt is pitched in the Shield Lands,
and he soon
expects some local lord, dissatisfied with
the state of his
light cavalry, to contact him to arrange
for training. Meanwhile,
he relaxes in the way he loves best, riding
his pony,
practicing his archery and scimitar work,
and learning
new woodslore.
Tang is skilled in the use of the knife,
spear, hand axe,
scimitar, short bow, horseman’s flail,
spiked buckler, light
lance, dagger, and javelin. He has the
barbaric skills of his
people: cliff climbing, hiding in natural
surroundings, surprise,
back protection, leaping and springing,
illusion and
magic detection, leadership, survival,
first aid, outdoor
craft, tracking, animal handling, horsemanship,
long distance
signalling, and yurt construction. He does
not like
magic, and uses no magic weapons, considering
them
unworthy of a true Tarkhan.
Tang is still, for all his residence among
civilized folk, a
barbarian, and he holds fast to the tenets
of his people, particularly
their tradition of the vendetta. Despite
his alignment,
if he has sworn enmity toward someone,
he will do
anything in his power to bring them woe.
Tang is a short, bandy-legged man with a
round, flat face,
snub nose, black hair streaked with gray,
and black slanted
eyes. He is almost always smiling, and
is very friendly
with anybody who he knows is not evil,
or connected with
Iuz or his evil allies. He owns many maps
of Oerth, and
pores over them frequently, trying to figure
out how a barbarian
horde of Dry Steppes nomads could travel
to Iuz
without having to traverse so much hostile
territory inbetween.
He can read, and speaks several languages
fluently.
He has a few barbarian quirks and taboos:
He does not
willingly sleep anywhere but in a yurt,
tent, or the open;
and if he is forced to spend the night
indoors, he feels
trapped, and will often have terrifying
nightmares. He also
is forbidden by a personal taboo to ride
anything but a
horse or a camel. Donkeys, elephants, vehicles,
and other
modes of travel are forbidden to him.
Tang left Iuz under a great cloud, and he
is consumed
with insane hatred for Iuz. He has sworn
a vendetta
against Iuz, and will attack any evil humanoid
he sees,
believing it to be an agent of Iuz. If
any one asks him what
he most wants to do, he launches into hours
of talk about
how he would like to bring in a huge horde
of his people,
along with the Rovers of the Barrens and
the Tiger and
Wolf Nomads as allies, to lay Iuz’s entire
kingdom to waste
and kill every creature in it. He pores
over his maps, and if
he can find a way, he will go back to his
homeland to summon
a barbarian horde of his own folk, to lay
Iuz in ruins.
Tang’s obsessive hatred of Iuz is unusual
for him, since he
is usually friendly and easy going. His
hatred of Iuz started
while Tang was serving as a mercenary commander
of Iuz’s
cavalry. With his contempt for “civilized”
folk, Tang didn’t
much mind riding with Iuz’s horsemen against
the settled
folk. When Iuz wanted to send him and his
command
against the Rovers of the Barrens, though,
Tang rebelled.
There was too much resemblance between
the Rovers and
his own people, and he couldn’t bring himself
to slaughter
people so like his own. Iuz sent orders
to arrest the young
nomad, but Tang managed to persuade his
command of cavalry
to slaughter the messengers, and he defected
with his
cavalry to the Wolf Nomads.
The young nomad’s impertinence in refusing
to be
arrested sent Iuz into a raving fury. He
has not stopped
searching for Tang, and if he were to be
brought before Iuz,
the nomad could expect no mercy. Iuz had
planned to use
the cavalry Tang was training against the
nomadic peoples
on his northern borders, and seeing the
nomads strengthened
by his own men enraged him.
Tang the Horrific is unmarried, since he
does not consider
“civilized” girls to be proper company
for a Tarkhan
of the Purple Eagle Clan. He has become
very good at
repairing his yurt, and makes excellent
kumiss (fermented
milk). He is always glad to see fellow
nomads, and will
cheerfully sit up till the wee hours talking
shop with them,
arguing about what kind of bow is best,
or discussing
horseflesh, or comparing methods of hunting.
Tang is an excellent general, in the nomad
style, and is
accustomed to commanding all types of troops.
Iuz is correct
in feeling that he poses a threat, for
if he manages to
bring a horde of his people to Iuz, along
with the northern
nomads, there would be little that could
stand against him
except the cities, which would starve without
supplies.