The purpose of this day of the challenge is to imagine your character in an alternate universe, where if he’s a hero, now he’s not, and vice versa. Obviously, Grawnk is no hero, so I will try to imagine as if he was.
First of all, Grawnk would most assuredly have to be raised under different circumstances if he was to grow up to become a hero.
So, an alternate universe might have him still being born to Arliah and Madrog, but maybe Madrog goes through with trying to drown Grawnk. I imagine Madrog having to beat Arliah unconscious in order to wrest Grawnk from her protective grasp. Because of having to follow the code of Malacath, Madrog would not be able to Drown Grawnk without suffering the consequences in his stronghold. He would need to do it secretly. From that point, he takes Grawnk to the nearest body of water, Iliac Bay, and throws him out as far as he can, and leaves.
An Argonian, who just happens to be swimming through Iliac Bay on his way to Skyrim, hears a splash, and to his surprise, sees a newborn Orc floating on the surface. He breeches the water, and takes the screaming infant into his arms.
Okay, I’m just going to stop myself right here before I write out the entire back story of Alternate Universe Grawnk. Suffice it to say, the Argonian continues on land to Skyrim to raise Grawnk as his own.
Because so much of what you see in Grawnk is due to his childhood, Grawnk would have the potential to turn out rather differently. In this alternate universe where Grawnk is a hero, we have to assume that the Argonian raises him with that skill set in mind. This is where I see Grawnk drawing strength from the blood of his father, who is a great warrior. However, I think Arliah’s personality and traits will win out over Madrog’s. Essentially, I still see Grawnk being intelligent and kind-hearted, but probably to a lesser extent without being able to experience it firsthand from his mother.
Grawnk would be a cautious hero, never thrusting himself into any situation he didn’t think he could handle. His exploits would ever only be out of necessity. He wouldn’t seek out adventure just in order to gain fame, even though Madrog’s ambitiousness is a part of Grawnk.
This exercise was more difficult for me than the rest, so I hope I was able to do it justice. Let’s face it; writing Grawnk as a hero is a very difficult challenge.
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Grawnk may not be a hero in the sense that he was groomed to be, but I can totally imagine him performing acts of heroism. Sure, he won’t be a big hero of legend, but that doesn’t preclude occasionally rescuing a khajiit stuck in a tree, you know?
“An Argonian, who just happens to be swimming through Iliac Bay on his way to Skyrim, hears a splash, and to his surprise, sees a newborn Orc floating on the surface. He breeches the water, and takes the screaming infant into his arms.”
I love this image so much.
And I love this image so much:
“rescuing a khajiit stuck in a tree”
I guess I have to agree with you though. Grawnk has surprised me thus far, so I guess heroic acts can’t be discounted completely.
I can totally see this being difficult to write. I had the same problem, but you handled it like a champ. I would love to read more about this alternate universe especially an Argonian raising an orc. That has sitcom gold written all over it.
Thank you. I agree. I really had so many ideas going through my head about this alternate universe, that it was very difficult to stop writing it. Maybe one day I will revisit it, because I think it would be really fun to write. Bizarro Grawnk, but not really.
An Orc’s Tale:Through the Looking Glass the story that might have been. sounds like a best seller to me.
I love it. So will you be purchasing Dragonborn when it comes out later today?
god i wish. I dont have any money to spare. I will probably have to wait for a sale like i did with dawnguard and hearthfire
Yeah, sadly I’m in the same boat. Meanwhile, Elspeth’s been talking up how good it is. I may make a character tonight in preparation though since I had to abandon all my previous save files.
Yeah I might have to do the same thing hehe maybe
“An Argonian, who just happens to be swimming through Iliac Bay on his way to Skyrim..”
As Argonians are commonly known to do. As soon as I read this title I was wondering how you would manage this. And it works quite well in my opinion.
Hey, good to hear from you. And yes, Argonians very commonly swim to Skyrim. Well, not really, but in that universe, the fates were perfectly aligned. I hope you’ve been enjoying the challenge so far. Everyone has put forth excellent work.