Post by Cheetah on Feb 28, 2020 22:00:15 GMT
Kerchak the basics full name • Kerchak nicknames • N/A age • Fifty primary standing • Gorilla family patriarch secondary standing • N/A faction • Unaffiliated species • Silverback Gorilla gender • Male sexuality • Hetero the appearance origin • Tarzan height and weight • 6'4" / 510 lbs overall appearance • A massive male gorilla, Kerchak is a magnificent example of his species. Uncommonly taller than an average human, his muscular form is covered in thick black fur - save for the namesake patch of silver hair on his back that denotes his maturity. He has a distinctive domed head with thick brows; from below which small red eyes regard his world. Kerchak's face, mostly bare of fur, displays keen intelligence as well as ever-present sternness. the personality overall personality • Protection of the Family above all. That was the concept that Kerchak has lived - and still does live - his whole life by. The responsibility of leadership has laid on his shoulders for many, many years now, and the huge gorilla never taken the role with anything but the utmost seriousness. If Kerchak ever had a sense of humour, it has long since been lost to the weight of his responsibility; the Family is EVERYTHING. His fury is legendary; but is only ever turned against those who put the Family at risk; anything that wilfully threatens it must be driven away, or crushed with brute strength. In a jungle where ferocious leopards roam, and long-bested enemies like Tublat lurk, this isn't overkill or paranoia: it's reality. That said, Kerchak is not simply a wall of emotionless sternness. Anyone who has seen him in a private moment with his immediate family can attest to the leader's gentle manner in those most tender of instances; a softness rarely seen will creep into his expressions and mannerisms when danger is far away, and he can spare these precious moments with Kala. More recently Tarzan, too, has been exposed to this rare side of Kerchak; finally accepted, after so long, as a respected heir to the mantle of leadership. the history overall history • A western gorilla, Kerchak has lived his whole life in his native jungle of Africa. Like many of his kind he left his natal troop upon reaching maturity, with the intention of starting his own family group. The young silverback was vigorous and strong, and soon had attracted a following of female gorillas - some from his birth troop who followed him, others who were emigrating themselves and became a part of the family. Amongst these was a beautiful brown-furred lady named Kala, whose calm and level-headed nature contrasted with his instances of protective fury over his new family. It was then, perhaps, inevitable that over time the two of them would fall in love; and though Kerchak cared for every member of his troop, there was no denying that he and Kala had something particularly special. In time, she gave birth to the silverback's child. He had the family he led. He had his mate, they had their son. Kerchak was happy. Everything changed in a heart-stopping instant. It was night, the family slept, and his son had innocently wandered away from the group, chasing a frog. It was the scream that awoke Kerchak and Kala; the scream, and something infinitely more terrifying: the roar of a leopard. By the time the parents reached the scene of the hunt, Kerchak knew it was too late; all he could do was support Kala in her grief. His own grief, he buried. He had to be strong: for Kala, and for the family. Still, the loss changed Kerchak; suddenly, the dangers of the world were real to him. He became cold, resisting the approach of anything from 'outside' the family, anything that could harm those who trusted him. He had failed his own son; but that failing had taught him the lesson he needed to make sure he never failed any other member of the family. The lesson that nowhere was safe, and that anything outside the family could and would become a threat. He would lose no-one else, because he would watch over them and keep anything strange away. No-one outside the family could be trusted. Still, not even his newfound coldness could hide that... Kerchak worried about Kala. In the days that followed, she lagged at the back of the troop; her will to carry on seemed to have died along with their son, and Kerchak wished he knew how to support her. He would have done anything for her, even though his primary duty was to protecting the family as a whole, not any one individual. When she disappeared shortly after, Kerchak feared the worst. Those fears were unfounded. Kala returned shortly, her good cheer once again restored... and bearing with her the very thing that Kerchak was sure would destroy the family. A baby. Not only from outside the family, but of a foreign species Kerchak had never seen before. He knew what was happening, of course. Kala's motherly instincts had latched onto the baby, in lieu of her own son. Though the gorilla chief understood, he knew he couldn't allow it. Where there was one outsider, more would come. They would endanger the family. Try though he might to put his foot down, however, Kala was stubborn; she knew her own mind, and it was one of the things he loved her for. Finally, Kerchak relented only after making absolutely sure that no others of his kind would come after the boy. He could stay - but Kerchak refused to accept him as his own son. The years passing only seemed to validate this, in Kerchak's eyes. Tarzan was trouble right from the moment he could walk and talk; getting in Kerchak's way, disrupting the family with his differentness, culminating in an incident that almost killed another baby when he accidentally started an elephant stampede. Again, Kala stopped Kerchak from putting his foot down, but the silverback's patience was waning. The hairless creature would never - COULD never - learn to be one of them. And yet. As more years passed, Kerchak reluctantly found himself being proved wrong. No, Tarzan wasn't like any other gorilla; but all the same, he was learning. He could do things no gorilla could, he made it easier for them to shelter from the rain, or to extract termites from their mounds. And though he couldn't keep up with the family on the ground, he mastered the vines and branches above, easily pacing the troop. While he remained cold towards Tarzan, Kerchak nonetheless formed a begrudging tolerance towards the young man, one that culminated when Tarzan took up a spear to defend the family against a predator that Kerchak himself was unable to stop. For the first time, the patriarch was willing to accept it: Tarzan had earned his place as one of them. It couldn't last. Before he could even verbally acknowledge as much, a foreign noise split the air; there were strangers in the jungle. Instinct warned Kerchak that they would be a danger - they were from outside, they were other - but though he commanded the family to stay away from them, Tarzan refused to listen. They were like him, he wanted to know more, and he continually sought them out. While Kerchak didn't seek out any further confrontation with Kala's son, his silent disapproval hung over the whole family. And, ultimately... Every fear Kerchak had ever maintained towards the human was realised. Taking advantage of Kerchak's paranoia about the strangers, Tarzan lured him away, then led the others like him right to the family. For the barest of moments, as Kala's son pleaded with him, Kerchak found himself to stunned to respond; to find the strangers welcomed right into the family's midst... thoughts utterly failed him. Until he saw one of the humans brandish a weapon at one of his gorillas. Instinct overrode any semblance of thought; the family was in danger, and the family's safety overrode all other concerns. Kerchak would have crushed Clayton right then and there if not for Tarzan's intervention; the man sided with his own kind over his family, fighting Kerchak himself to allow them time to flee. As Tarzan released him, the gorilla chief found his anger overpowered by the sense of betrayal. Despite his reservations, he'd allowed himself to be lulled into thinking that the man could be one of them; and it had ended in the very thing he'd feared, those twenty long years ago. Tarzan had betrayed them, and that fact cut Kerchak deeper than he'd possibly expected it to. The man left in shame, to join the creatures like him in returning to their own world; and while Kerchak felt relief to know they were going, he also knew that the gap he would leave in the family was larger than any of them could have imagined... and the gap in Kala's heart would be larger still. She hadn't listened to him, when he'd known this would happen. But even so, Kerchak wished he could have spared her from experiencing this pain of loss a second time. There was no time to console her, though; suddenly, humans were swarming the nesting site. Kerchak fought as fiercely as he was able, but not even his strength could stand against the hunters' whips and nets, and he was forced to the ground as Clayton stood victoriously over him. Kerchak's only thoughts were a burning hatred for the yellow-clad man - and the realisation that he'd been right. For all his good intentions, Tarzan had doomed the family-- And he who had doomed them was also their saviour. In the last possible moment, Tarzan charged to the rescue, a band of larger animals in his wake, scattering the hunters and freeing the family. Kerchak could hardly believe what he was seeing; Tarzan had come back, had changed his mind, was placing the family above all... and for the first time in those twenty years, Kerchak felt pride in the young man. Together, they and Tarzan's real friends amongst the humans fought off the attacker; though Kerchak himself was near-fatally wounded when he intercepted a bullet meant for Tarzan. Kerchak was certain he was going to die; and as Tarzan reached his side, after Clayton's death, Kerchak passed on the mantle of leadership to the youth, finally accepting the human as a worthy son and successor. Only... he didn't die. The wound, while still potentially life-threatening, wasn't as immediately lethal as Kerchak had believed; and Tarzan, who spent more time around members of other species than did most of the family, recalled stories he had heard from other animals, of a distant tree with healing properties: the Tree of Life. Though Kerchak was uncertain, Tarzan had earned his trust; the human crafted what he called a 'stretcher', that would allow Tantor to carry him on the long journey to the tree. The journey took many, many days, and his healing took longer still. Trust in the lion healers was hard for Kerchak to come by, with his own experience of felines being almost entirely of Sabor and her ilk; and even once he accepted that the Night Pride were not the vicious beasts he was familiar with, the healing process was slow as the healers treated the unfamiliar wound carefully. Ultimately, however, the bullet was removed from his chest, and the wound slowly repaired; although, the healers warned him, he would bear the scar for the rest of his life, and would never quite regain all of his old strength. Once, that would have been unthinkable for Kerchak to agree to; now though, he knew the family was in safe hands with or without him. He accepted his new limitations, and set off on the long journey home. He returned just in time to catch the news; that the world was teetering on the brink of war, and Tarzan had managed to land squarely in the centre of it. After spending so long away from the family, Kerchak's homecoming spurred his protective instincts again; and while he would not begrudge Tarzan doing what he felt was needed, the patriarch insisted on keeping the rest of the family out of harm's way. The family had come so close to losing everything once already, and he could not allow it to happen again - so in the days when Tarzan was away at the war, Kerchak would once again guard his family, keeping them far away from the brewing conflict. the Role play sample the role player alias • Cheetah age • 28 pronouns • Male other characters • Mulan, Cody, Shenzi, Amelia, Experiment 624, Sunray, Judy, Dr. Facilier, Tiifu, Angry, Faline, Berlioz, Dogo, Karmi, Vixey, Neera |
made by remi of rilla go!