Grendel

Yep, trying my hand at this too. I hope I didn't make anything too generic or Mary-Sue-ish, but it's the best i could think on at the time. Don't hesitate if it needs tearing apart!

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/i/komodo2.png/

Name: Grendel

Nickname: The Outlaw, The Ravenous Demon, The Lone Black Wolf

Species: Squamataur (Komodo dragon)

Gender: Male

Age: 66

Birthplace: Great Rocky Fields, but he rarely goes there as of late

Height: 135 feet.

Likes: Taking naps, food (lots of it), spending time alone, things going his way, hot and dry places, rolling and splashing on mud

Dislikes: Goro-Goros, being reminded of his weight, things not going his way, being humiliated and anything that disturbs him for that matter, weak things, women

Physical description:

The human half is a huge, broad-shouldered adolescent with a bit of a paunch. His hair is blackish-brown, messy and dry like straw. Thick, red saliva constantly slobbers from his mouth, and his lips and tooth gums have many cuts from constant laceration during feeding. The tauric half is that of a massive and fat komodo dragon or monitor lizard, with wickedly sharp claws and a thick tail. The scales are black and mottled orange, but often are brown from all the dirt he accumulates over time. Both halves are covered in a genuine lattice-work of cruel scars, a testament of all the battles and hardships he has endured. He has purple eyes.

Abilities:

- Red saliva is a noxious cocktail of flesh-eating bacteria and a particular venom that prevents blood clotting, unique to Grendel’s breed. A single bite from his filthy maw can poison prey and weaken them in a matter of minutes, eventually leading to death from blood loss and/or internal decomposition if left untreated.


-Grendel has little knowledge on magic, but uses just enough for mud to cling to his body for far longer than it normally would. The healing properties of the water and soil help his wounds recover faster, and it serves as an easily renewable, temporary shield. When there's enough mud, and he has been sufficiently enraged, he can shape and harden it into a terrific and sturdy armor that only heightens his fearsomeness

- Can see as far away as 300 meters, runs considerably fast in short bursts of speed, and is a decent swimmer and burrower.

- Incredibly strong and resilient, and he knows it; any attacks are met with extreme agression and brutality. This tends to get him to underestimate foes, though.

Personality:

Grendel comes off as asocial and isolated, which is to be expected in a largely solitary race. He is quiet, instinctive and always wary, and in general prefers to do things on his own. But get him to talk, and he reveals himself to be ingenious and smarter than he appears to be, if with a cynical, snarky streak. Grendel finds it extremely hard to trust others and invariably will keep distances, as he believes he's better off alone. A lifetime of struggling for survival has hardened the squamataur and he is usually grumpy and bitter at the world, a great deal of primal fury bubbling just below the surface even when he's in a good mood. Sometimes, however, an air of childish-ness can be seen in him

Grendel is patient, but doesn’t like his life to be complicated and tends to look for the easy path. He’s not overly conflictive and would rather prefer you leave him alone, but is very violent and reckless if you push too many buttons. Firmly believing the idea of survival of the fittest and that might makes right, he abhors weakness of any kind, and anyone that shows it. And as a result of an...unsavoury event, he has a strong dislike of females, thinking them all to be scheming, manipulative traitors

He has a remarkable wanderlust that drives him as a perpetual nomad, always wandering Felarya and never staying too long in the same place. Some argue he is probably trying to escape his painful past, but if you ask him, assuming he actually answers at all or he crumps you for asking so, he'll just say no one can tell him where he can't go


Feeding habits:

Grendel is a ravenous glutton, and a great deal of his daily activity consists on hunting for any creature, great or small, that he cares to toss on his rancid maw. Giant eggs and elves are favoured delicacies, even when he finds elf meat to be a tad stringy

However, Grendel is kind of clumsy for a predator, and he tends to tire easily when running. As such, he often ambushes victims with a stealthy approach. Small creatures are swallowed whole in a big gulp, thought he will chew if they struggle too much. Larger game, on the other hand, are charged at and bit on the underside of the throat. He then will retreat, and let his filthy saliva do its work until the victim passes out. Thanks to an acute sense of smell, he will patiently wait and leisurely follow the track of his dead-or-dying quarry, licking his lips in anticipation of the meal. If the victim still fights back, he is perfectly able to bring it down with a swing of his strong tail. A stretchy stomach lets him swallow the whole prey as long as it is the right size for it, but he doesn't use that often and prefers to tear prey into shreds for easier consumption

More often, thought, Grendel will go for the easiest meal, and that is gorging on carrion and scaring off smaller predators of their kills. Once he has stuffed his stomach to his heart’s content, he will drag himself to any sunny location and doze off.

Whenever prey numbers plummet in a given area and the amount of blood trails and littered bones crops up, that's usually a sign Grendel is roaming nearby.

Background:

Grendel hatched from his egg as the runt of four siblings, which meant he was always the last in getting food and constantly being picked on. Over the years he grew increasingly dissatisfied with this, and thought he had to seek a new life, one far more rewarding and less humiliating. So when the time came for the brothers to split up, he was the first to go.

Soon enough Grendel was hit hard with the reality of being alone in Felarya, and had to struggle hard and continuously to make it through every day. When he reached a considerable size, he eventually met a centauress called Da, also rebellious and looking for a purpose in life. The two bonded quickly, and would gain a sort of infamy in the plains, enormous bandits that attacked and devoured as they pleased, all the while searching magic that would make them even stronger.

When the other centaurs in the area got sick of such puffed up youngsters, Grendel and Da found themselves assaulted by far stronger herds, and were pushed to their limits as they struggled and escaped. Ultimately thought, Da betrayed him and gave him to the furious horde, claiming that he was the “dumb muscle” and had to sacrifice for her to achieve her grand ideas. Grendel only barely survived the beatdown, and then proceeded to track down Da, angry and heartbroken. In the fierce fight that ensued, the centauress was killed and consumed by the squamataur.

Feeling guilty and betrayed at the same time, Grendel went back to the life of a wanderer, musing that going on his own was the best and only thing he could do. And so he has continued, growing prodigiously huge, doing what he wants with no one to boss him around.

Wether or not Grendel is truly satisfied with his lonely, wandering existence remains to be seen....but it's not something he puts too much thought into anyway

I was planning on calling a character Grendel! Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfu

Still, this guy seems a lot more developed and funnier than my idea anyway. Love that drawing of him, he looks delightfully deranged. His personailty seems fun too, he doesn't have a rapier wit, boundless charisma and perfectly chiseled abs, which is enough to separate him from most male OCs you see here, and I don't think you could call him a Mary-Sue by any stretch. And I really like his abilites too, he's kinda gross without going overboard or straying too far from the animal he's based on. Especially pleased that you kept the less-appealing Komodo habits of eating just about anything alive or dead.
Poor dude though, really sucks that Da turned him in. Glad he ett her, she sounds like a huge bitch who had it coming.

Sorry OAO;

But thanks, i was really aiming to make him about as nasty as the real animal he's based on. What fun there is in tauric creatures if you're just making them people with funny lower bodies?


The only thing i'm not sure is the whole tragic backstory thing. It feels like it has been done too many times around here....althought this time, vengeance was bloody and nourishing, so i guess it's an aversion?

Eh, tragic backstories are pretty common, but considering the number of things out to get you in Felarya they're hardly unsurprising. And it wasn't filled with masses of wangst either, as far as I could see he got pushed around by his siblings, made a friend, and then had a falling out with her. Then ate her. Not a background full of sparkles and happiness, but not too depressing or silly, IMO.

True. When you think about it, it's more of an "average" background that a lot of the stuff you see in these things. They can't be all super-special super-tragic snowflakes

Raised Grendel's age, realized he was far too young for this setting

Tweaked some aspects of Grendel's personality. It really bothered me that in the end he doesn't really behave like I wrote up at first

Made Grendel taller according to Karbo's current size chart :O

And yet ANOTHER update, this time with a big overhaul and a tweak to his reference picture. About time I kept this to date