Tarkus Eba, the first explorer

Tarkus Eba. A name that sparks the fantasy of many children and adults alike. As you might allready heard, he was the first one to go around the Thaspis sea completly and as I will tell you he discovered a lot of strange, terrifying and yet wonderful things. He was a man of humble origins, yet he achieved immortality buy writing his name in every historybook ever to be written about Nandaahr.  

His early days

So lets start from the beginning...  

His childhood

Tarkus was born the bastard of a priest and a farmers wife in the year 374 of the third era. The priest was a deadbeat drunk and his mother was chased off the farm by her husband after he found out (Tarkus didnt looked like him a single bit). At the age of 6 his mother finally died after spending her life in the Daskol-dens of Moss Harbor after being kicked out of her home. Tarkus, left to his own devices luckily was taken in by a local innkeeper. He found him sleeping in the chickens den behind the inn and took him in. This was one of those days where the world would change, yet nobody noticed at this point. The innkeeper, Efrain Eba, was a widowed childless retired soldier who lost a leg in the countless battles that took place around the time. The heartlands were just being colonised from Olim and Svedero at this point and every lord or rich fellow who had the coins to afford some mercenaries tried to save himself a piece of the giant fertile cake around the Thaspis sea. But instead of becoming bitter, the old man made it his task to collect all the homeless kids from the streets and gave them a home and an education. He could read and collected a few books throughout his life so he tried to pass this on to the younger generations. Eventhough Moss Harbor was a terrible place back in its founding days (some say it still is), his neighbours loved what he was doing and helped out here and there, so besides the inn he allways had 3 to 4 kids who lived with him and helped around the inn and small garden. But back to Tarkus. At first he was an angry child, but eventually Efrain got through his anger and turned his life around. Once his curiosity was sparked, nothing could stop him. He read through all the books Efrain had, as soon as he learned to read. Until his deathday he would show of the scars on his back he got from the whipping by the towns guards after he broke into the private library of a local trader.   

His youth

Many of Efrains adopted kids made quite a life after leaving the inn, but it soon became obvious that Tarkus would be among the brightest of them, if not the brightest. At the age of 17 he joined the army and soon he got promoted many times. After 3 years he was the leader of 100 men. He maybe would have risen even higher, but after an arrow pierced his forearm he realised that a life in the army would probably be a short one so he retired as soon as his arm was finally healed. So with 21 years he know got a nice sum of gold from the cities ruler and had to decide what to do with it. He could have bought a farm, a small ship or just blown it all on booze and women, but he decided to buy 15 horses, supplies and equipement, grabbed his 15 most trustworthy men from his old armydays and went a journey around the Thaspis sea. Nobody had ever done anything alike. In this day, people still belived the Thaspis sea the most southern part of the Frozen Sea.

The expedition

The expedition was a great deal, but Tarkus kept it as secret as possible, he knew that 15 horses and all the equipement and supplies would be a nice loot for every outlaw around - and there were many around these days. So in the middle of the night they slipped away and started their journey southwest along the shores of the Thaspis sea. After leaving Moss Harbor, Tarkus and his men had to find their way south through the woods along the shore. He wanted to do something noone ever had done before. And until now hardly anyone has ever been anywhere further south that Moss Harbor. Apart from some lumberjacks and furhunters. And as you might know, these folks often get kind of lonely in the woods and make up many tales about fantastic creatures, fairies and so on...

"Loony as a Lumberjack."

Is a saying for a reason... Anyway, you want to hear about Tarkus. He was young, yes. But his years in the army of the Count of Moss Harbor, as the Mayor liked to call himself (Or the first Warlord as the farmers use to say), made him and his fellowship aware of the dangers and challenges of the region. So they made it through the thick lush woods pretty easily. After nearly two months in the dense forest they suddenly were facing a vast dried out steppe with the highest icecovered mountains in the far distance that any human being has ever seen. Later they would be called the Dragonfangs . But what first caught their eyes besides the steppe and the distant mountains (Tarkus called them the columms of the skies, but the name didnt stuck) was a solitary mountain sourrounded by a small forest - but the odd thing was the small fortress peeking over the treetops in a region that was supposed to never have seen a human before.        

the last hearth

They decided that the risk was worth it and cautiously approched the small fort that was sitting at the steep foot of the mountain at the rim of the forest. Uppon geting closer they could see that whoever builded that fort wasnt human. It had massive rounded walls and seemed to either directly been cut out of the dark basalt or builded from giant basalt blocks that nearly seamlessly connected to each other. Overall it gave of very alienating vibes, but just as they decided to better retreat before they were discovered a woman walked out of the slightly opened frontgate and walked right up to the group that thaught they were well hidden.   It turned out they were hiding directly underneath one of the many scout outposts throughout the forests and the folks in the fort knew about their arrival for over three hours now. The woman invited them in and Tarkus and his men followed - in hindsite that probably saved their lives. The people living here derive from a group of scholars and adventurers that went out to explore the unknown south around one century ago. They got into contact with the dwarves and after some initial trubble they became friendly with them. The Dwarfs were the ones who builded the fort they were currently staying in.   After relaxing for a few days Tarkus and the expeditionteam left the last hearth. The people there taught them a lot about the dangerous wildlife in the steppe. Without this extra knowledge probably a lot of them wouldnt have the upcomming four months.  

The southern shore

As I mentioned, upon reaching the most southern shore, the lush swampy forests recline and make room for a vast savanna dotted with solitary trees and hills that seem to grow steeper, the closer they get to the snowcovered mountains in the far south. Just as they encountered their fair share of beasts in the forests they faced some nasty creatures here as well. The main threat were big felines with saberlike teeth. But luckily they feared the fellowships torches like a sinner the holy water. What was more of problem were the earthworms. When hearing "earthworm" you might think of some fingerlong pink creartures you use as bait to fish. Well that couldnt be further from the truth... The earthworms even drive the saber felines away. They seemingly grow up to lenghts of 10 meters, have a terrible eyeless head that only consists of big nostrils and a gruesome round jaw that looks like a meatgrinder and is completly covered in triangular serrated teeth. The beasts seem to have territories - in the center they build a subterran nest. But at the surface on top of said nest they pile up all kinds of carcasses - eventually to scare of potential enemies (if there are any). They also seems to build a tunnelsystem, the explorers dicovered some weird oversised rabbitholes on a hill and throughout their journey across the desertlike plains they would stumble upon them ones in a while. If not for the warning from the folks of the last hearth they likely would have tried to explore the strange holes - but now they knew to avoid them like the Reapers Markings.  

The western shore

At some point they made it out of the desert after reaching the western shores 4 months after leaving the last hearth. It was starting to become winter and the first autumn storms crashed over the now much greener steppe. Without any trees in sight and no place to seek cover the thunderstorms that haunt the planes around here during spring and autumn became much more threatening and dangerous. One of his fellows was struck by lightning while scouting for cover - all that remained from him and his horse were smoking ashes and a chunk of hot glass in the ground. It was the third member of their party that they lost. First his former first officer died of a fever in the forests 4 weeks after they started from Moss Harbor, the second one was his "cousin" (another of Efrains adopted kids) Ferrida Eba, she was ripped to shreds by an earthworm during a nightly ambush in the desert. And now the leader of his scout team. But the group had no choice, they continued on their way north, now sticking more closely to the coast where they found at least some trees.   After a few weeks the first snow fell and it became obvious that they would have to stay put during the hights of winter. After some days of desperate searching they found - it was really a miracle - a cave with hot springs and a vast tunnel system. At first the group had bad flashbacks to the earthworms in the desert but the cold forced them into the caves. In the end the caves saved their lives. Thanks to the geothermal warmth in there they survived the cold and thanks to the various mushrooms growing in the dark, wet and lightless tunnels they allways had enough to eat. Tarkus marked the spot on his legendary map and set the spot for the foundation of Nodden a decade later. But thats another story...   After 3 hard but warm months in the caves the weather finally allowed them to continue. Their supplies were dangerously low now but thanks to the warmer weather the steppe animals came back from their southern winter territorries and populated the plains again. Amoong those there were some strange beasts. I am disgressing here - just let me tell you, these beasts wouldnt come to mind in your wildest dreams. One I will describe a litle bit further here - later known to scholars as Tyrannosaurus imperialis. He was the god of the steppe. Growing up to nearly 20 meters, this bipedal predator that seems to only consist of muscle and teeth was the walking apocalypse to all poor creatures that had the bad luck to cross paths with him. His skull is kind of rectangular with a giant powerful jaw, filled with teeth up to 50cm. Its body is covered in thick scales that protect him from all smaller bolts and arrows - even spears and swords will have a hard time piercing that hide. To balance its massive had, the reptile has a long tail ending in a bunch of sharp bony spikes that they probably use to fend of rivals in addition to their powerful jaws. Luckily they hate the cold and stay pretty far south for most of the year so Tarkus and his fellows slipped past them. But back to the expedition. After the winter the sprouts came to live again, deers, antilopes and other animals flooded the plains again and the party made good progress.  

The northern shore and the bogs

After another month the fellowship finally reached the northern ends of the Thaspis Sea. Now they were facing swamps and coniferous forests instead of stepppe - a welcome change to the treeless neverending plains of the western shore. But as you might expect, the troubles of an expedition into unknown lands didnt left them there. There were no large terrifying beasts here that hunted them. This time their problem consisted of hostile woodelves. Ages ago a tribe of elves had decided to leave the rigid society of the elves and return to a life amongst nature and its creatures. Now they were everything but amused to see a group of humans among all possible explorers roam their forests and draw a map. Tarkus and his men and women were heavily armored and well equiped in the means of weapons so the few scattered elves couldnt really start a head on attack on them, but they lured bears in their path, poisened wells with dead deers and pulled other stunts to kill them. Once they even managed to shoot two of his men with poisened arrows. Erdis, from this point known as Erdis the one legged survived. She took it with a dose and humor and claimed after so much walking the leg was done for anyway, the other one, Norim, died painfully over three days. At some point on elvish clanboss gathered around 70 warriors and actually started a march on Tarkus. Luckily for him by this time he and his party were out of the forests and well into the bogs and rivers that cover the Land between the northern end of the Thaspis sea and the frozen Sea. Luckily is a bit of a strech here to be honest, nothing lives here that is much bigger that a dog, but the willowhisps and other malignend spirits that tend to inhabit bogs were enough to cost another life. After nearly a month in the bogs in an especially dark and stormy night another member of the fellowship lost their way in the bogs, probably after fullfilling natures most urgend duty, and was never to be seen again. But heard actually. Two days after they lost her, the expedition suddently heard strange human calls that wanted them to come find her. At first some wanted to go, but upon further inspection it became obvious that whatever made these cries wasnt her friend but some dark creature that imitated her voice to lure more prey into the treacherous swamps. This was the point where everybody just wanted to get home. Nearly half of the expedition was dead, their supplies were empty now, they were living from famished rabbits they were shooting in the swamps and fleshy sprouts that gave them headaches but actually filled the stomachs quite well.   Later everyone involved would say the experienced such joy as when the they saw the smoke from the chimneys of the small farmers town of Bogsville. The - at the time - most northern outpost of civilisation, heavily fortified with a stockade and some small wooden towers agains outlaws and bandit and whatever lurks in the bogs and the forest nearby. The townsfolk was nealry as stunned as Tarkus and his fellows when they stood infront of the gates. It was only tree months prior that a wandering trader came into the town - he had sleeped at Efrains inn in Moss Harbor a month before and heard him talking about Tarkus and his adventure going on. After a few drinks he told the townsfolk all his stories he got a hold off in the last few months - farmers far away from civilisation are allways hungry for news of any kind. And an expedition around the Thaspis sea? At this point most people still believed it was just a part of the frozen sea - was truly a tale they dug into. And now said adveturer from the story stood infront of their gates. After nearly two years out in the wildernis the small town felt even bigger than Moss Harbor and the following party (you dont have succesful explorers with strange maps nobody has ever seen before in your remote town) was kind of shock for the Tarkus and his fellowship, still a very welcome shock for everybody involved. Rumor has it that 9 months later some kids with blond hair were born by multiple single and not so single women - a trait that has never been seen around here - apart from some members of the expedition... But I dont want to ruin the explorers honour here.   From here on they could take the road that only has been built a few years ago, so their return to Moss HArbor went pretty smooth from here. The remaining men and women with their battlehardened faces, scratched armors and weapons were enough to scare away the bandits that normaly specialised into robbing fat traders and nearly famished farmers.  

The return

The day Tarkus and his party set foot into Moss Harbor again will be allways be remebered and up until this day is one of the highest holidays in the whole region. The Mayor was not amused that Tarkus just slipped out of the city, but the glory and fame his succesful exploration and the map brought him made it impossible to condemn him in public. SO the mayor swallowed his anger, went with the flow and announced Tarkus to be a "Lord of Honour" to the city, which in fact was an empty title but gave made him taxfree for the rest of his life and granted him some priviliges here and there. The  following festivities lasted for a whole month and in the end one half of the city was completly broke while the other half turned rich. The remaining explorer scattered into all directions for now. Tarkus went to Olim to learn more about cartography, a new found passion of him from the "School of topographic exploration" that has been founded in Olim while he was gone.   

Further expeditions

  Once he was done perfecting his skills of measuring and cartographing the lands of Nandaahr, Tarkus and some of his former fellows gathered funds from the still young traders guilt in Olim (considering his reputation that was pretty easy). The traders guild was more than happy to pay him whatever he needed - they were still fighting with the Lords of Olim, for the power over the city. And being the ones that made such glorious expeditions possible like the one Tarkus had done would certainly increase their power.    So until his mysterious disapperance at the age of 53 many years later, Tarkus made tree more trips throughout the uncharted wildernis of Nandaahr. HIs first one went east toward the orcish lands. The empire of the sky had just collapsed 3 centuries ealier and the orcs still had more importend skullcrushing to do than to guard their western boarders, so Tarkus and his team could actually draw a very detailed map from the northern to the southern trench. This was the foundation for the humans permanently talking over the Gates.  And this was also the beginning of Tarkus relationship with one of his "cousins" from Efrains inn - Brunild, who also accompanied him on his first trip finally made him hers in the orcish wildernis. The two were made for each other - allways trying to top each other during their adventures. Even when Brunhild became pregnant she insisted on coming along on her husbands journeys. Both of their kids where born in a tent somewhere in the wild.   The scond trip, five years after the one year long journey around the orcish boarderlands the two started on another trip, this time the traders guild - now the unfought leaders of Olim - send them to the twilight archipelago. Nobody else was willing to go and many warned him about going there with a four yearold and a pregnant wife. But the two didnt listen and the call of coin and honour lured enough men onto the ship beside some of his old friends who would follow the two probably into the underworld if they would ask.  

"I´ve seen Tarkus coming out of a cave, bleeding like crazy, draging the heads of two cavebears after him, I´ve seen him burning a wraith with some metall powder, I´ve seen him navigate through fog as massive as your mother - this man will get you out of everything." - Bartold (a companion of Tarkus from his legendary first trip)

  The trip did still cost some lifes and was a pretty dark buissiness nobody really talked about. But they returned with yet another map that was detailed enough for the traders guild to build an outpost there that lasted quite some time. But I will dig into that later.  

The last Adventure

Tarkus last trip is subject to many myths, songs and conspiracy theories. This time it wasnt the traders guild who payed them but some unknown rich guy. They went into the sunken forest - only with a small group of trustworthy fellows and without their children - which was highly unusual. A few weeks into the trip - the group had just climbed the elves ascend in the Dragonfangs, when Tarkus Horse slipped, he fell into a river and was gone for good. Nothing was found - the party members and especially his wife searched the riverbed as far as possible many times, but in the end they gave in. Brunhild wasnt the same after the trip. Her kids would continue on their adventurers, trying to escape their farthers shadow, but his wife stayed in their mansion in the richest part of Olim and hardly ever left the house. There were a lot of rumors going on about her beeing seen during the night in all kinds of places of Olim and once somebody claimed he saw her in Svedero too. But she allways just gave a little smirk and said she just didnt feel like going out without him anymore.   Some say he was murdered because somebody was envious, some claim he stumbeled about some dangerous secret, some said an old nemesis of his hid in the sunken forest and murdered him far from civilisation - some said he started to feel old and didnt wanted to spend his old days sitting in a chair so ended things on his own terms. But nobody ever believed the worlds most famous explorer died because his horse slipped on a wet rock.   Some years later his wife suddenly diappeared. It was a cold morning during spring 431E3, when neighbours claimed a cloaked woman unlocked the gates and slipped in. This was unusual because the Brunhild Eba allways locked her gates and had somebody guard it. But the woman went inside and days later Brunhild and her old equipement were missing - all that was left was a note telling her children to go the bank of Olim and ask for their heirlooms. This again sparked the myths of Tarkus survival and some big masterplan he had allways hatched. But nobody ever confirmed that. His kids arrived during the peak of summer, went straight to the bank, left a few hours later, went back into the mansion and left the next day with the ship of the older daughter - the "Gashels Lady". The daughter was never seen again as well, the brother became a rich shipowner in Svedero and did some minor explorations as a hobby. Whenever asked about the whereabouts of his family and Tarkus mysterious disapperance he would just stare into the void for a moment, sigh and say: "Well, if i´d only know that...". And then he would ask the one who asked to leave because he suddenly felt unwell.   So the mystery around mankinds first explorer never was solved.