He’s an immortal human warrior forged directly by the Heavens themselves indeed. Which means he’s old, probably 1000’s of years old. ■■■■ probably 10’s of thousands O_O.
I just thought in essense of that his sub-theme be changed from Wolf to Mammoth. His voice overs with the word wolf in it should be replaced with Mammoth. Instead of saying Wolf Spirit upon instinct activation he should say Mammoth Might.
The wolf image at the base of his hilt should be this
As a man named Tusk who lived when Mammoths lived, probably being given his name because he single handedly removed the tusks of a Raging Mammoth possesed by a primordial relative of Omen. A warrior probably from the Ice Age, probably the ancestor of all European Homo Sapien as he made children with the African migrants who first entered Europe 10’s of thousands of years ago. His animals should be a Mammoth with which his name aptly calls to.
I am an amateur paleozoologist. Trust me i know. Dire Wolves were an American only species however, Tusk COULD have travelled the world indeed and saw the dire wolf. Ultimately though his name is Tusk not Fang and Sabrewulf is our Wolf warrior. Its all too rare for characters in games and comics to invoke Elephants as their animal spirit, and in Tusk’s case a Mammoth or Mastodon would have been especially awesome and rare characterization for him to have. Wolves are glorious and one of my favorite animals but the mighty Mammoth is a missed oppertunity that seemed obvious in this case.
P.S. Tusk with the DragonSlayer from Berserk would be too gasmic for us mortal men.
In Tusk’s backstory, before he became immortal he led a barbarian army. And during his first battle with Gargos (the one that would have killed him if not for the divine intervention that granted him immortality and his magic greatsword) he’s described as a swordsman. This means he can’t have had the sword during paleolithic times, because bronze swords were not invented until 1600 BCE, thousands of years after mammoths had gone extinct. He would’ve had to acquired the sword much later than primitive times if he was to have any idea how to use a sword well enough to lead an army of other people who probably had swords.
Based on his current design, Tusk borrows most heavily from Viking influences, so it’s safe to assume they were the culture he originated from since many European groups gave then the title of “barbarians”. We can see this in his tattoos, the style and color of his hair, and not only the shape but the name of his sword: Warg-gram, or “Wolf-wrath”.
Modern Grey wolves existed during the ice age, and they’ve lived well across the northern hemisphere. The grey wolf not only spread across the globe, but also out competed its Dire Wulf cousins in America at the end of the ice age due to its relative versatility. In addition, the earliest wolf species existed around 800,000 years ago long before the ice age or modern man.
So not only did wolves exist at the same time as these ancient beasts, they also vastly outlasted them, living into modern times and evolving to live beside human beings as guard dogs… Sounds just like Tusk, right?
I think the wolf is a much more fitting creature to associate with Tusk than a mammoth. The mammoths are all dead, after all, while the wolves have lived on.
On another note, every time he activates instinct he shouts “WOLF SPIRIT!” It’s more than likely the ichorien soul that was used to craft the sword took the form of a wolf. Hence the name.
Well heres the thing, the word Barbarian is an empty broad term to describe a culture other than the Greeks (They invented the word). Barbarian is a person not belonging to any of the great civilizations to Europe, a non Greco-Latin, Non-Christian culture of European people in most cases. The oldest surviving evidence for a sword is indeed the Bronze age during the Neolithic indeed, however that doesnt mean Humans never created them earlier and evidence has since eroded, Aztec Eagle Warriors had obsidian Sword Saws with no metal so being a swordsman and having metallurgy are not a mutual coexistence. Finally Mammoths went extinct at about 1400BC not thousands of years after the “first” metal sword. Furthermore many sword historians strongly agree that swords existed in 3500BC and; obviously, personally I notice the history of the sword is overwhelmingly focused on European cultures during Ancient times, when Humans cultures discovered metal over 10,000yrs ago. Not to mention African civilizations were using metal independent from Eurasians, just hard to figure out when it began. Ultimately in Tusk’s case the Ichoriens forged his sword, not man so age on blades and metallurgy is irrelevant.
Now here I have to say Vikings are not a culture that would be considered thousands of Years old. Vikings as we know them are about 1100-800yrs old. Tusk as I and the story have confirmed have trained and developed armies of humans into these cultures. Tusk has viking details because according to KI lore he is their ancestor. The vikings have adopted Tusk tattoos and habits and style not the otherway around.
The wolf Canis lupus is one of the few surviving species of wolf to live past 20,000yrs ago. Most wolf species began going extinct prior to that point across the globe. Canis dirus is a uniquely North American species evolved from one of the many other wolfish species to exist seperate from the grey wolf line. The Grey wolf never out competed the Dire wolf because the Grey Wolf came into the Americas in 3 waves. The latest wave entering North America as recently as 9000yrs ago. Dire wolves apparently went extinct about 7-5000yrs ago. Overall the Dire Wolf and the Grey Wolf coexisted in the continent for 400,000yrs so not quite a story of competition.
Also its just my opinion that a dude named TUSK with a Huge Building he swings and his mighty gargantuan strength and 500lbs of muscle is just naturally akin to Mammoth strength than a wolf in this case.
Idk about that, but it could have just as easily took on the mighty spirit of the Mammoth too. Its just so happens the developers chose Wolf. I love wolves, but it was a GREAT chance to choose Mammoth in this case. The only excuse is mammoth has too many connotations with cave men and they wanted to remove the cave men stereotypes from Tusk. But that isnt hard, just engrave the sword with Mammoth images, Keep Tusk how he is, add a Elephantine-tusk image to his side burns or his side bangs, and make him use the word Mammoth instead of Wolf. Maybe give a Spiritual flare of a Mammoth to Tusk as he activates instinct similar to how Jago has a Tiger.
What if he was named tusk because of the necklace he wears around, his neck. Being that he came from an ancient civilization and he was human at one point he probably ended up killing some animal when he was young and was named after the trophy he took.
It wasn’t a story of competition for a long time, yes, until the end of the ice age and human hunting drastically reduced the amount of available prey for the dire wolf. Once a lot of the megafauna had died out, the dire wolves would have had to start chasing smaller prey.
And I think there’s an important bit you missed out on there:
So not only did wolves exist at the same time as these ancient beasts, they also vastly outlasted them, living into modern times and evolving to live beside human beings as guard dogs… Sounds just like Tusk, right?
I think the wolf is a much more fitting creature to associate with Tusk than a mammoth. The mammoths are all dead, after all, while the wolves have lived on.
Mammoths may have been big and powerful, even compared to their modern cousins I’m some species, but they’re all universally gone. The wolf lived alongside them, and even though different species have died off there have still been a few who remained very successful (at least until human persecution). This mirrors Tusk’s story, having outlived every culture he partook in and living in relative peace until Ultratech began meddling with him and other astral shenanigans.
Grey wolves are adaptable and clever besides being powerful. They could thrive in environments that their ice age contemporaries failed to adapt to, from the frozen north to the Sonoran Desert. They’ve helped shape the course of human history both as predators and eventually as domesticated animals.
Tusk has traveled the world and taken part in all sorts of cultures, serving as a protector of his many peoples and as a living nightmare for those that would do battle with him. From the grandest empire to the most humble village, he’s outlasted them all.
I don’t think Tusk would agree that his spirit would change because he’s “Big and Old”. I think he could relate far more to “Every other creature I’ve live beside is gone, but still I remain”.
Otherwise, there’s a lot of stuff in your post that was quite interesting I hadn’t thought about, like the age of Vikings and the Aztec macuahuitl. Very informative and thought provoking.
I’ll also say that the mammoth design used in the OP looks good. I’m just not sure that it encapsulates Tusk’s character apart from his name and stature. There’s more too him then how looks, after all.
I can see your point but Mammaoths were also found in the US as well. I get it, you simply want to make his theme more consistant with the name. The thing is though, How far back does Tusk REALLY go? I mean I admit, even the comment on the direwolf may not of made much since but if you think about it:
Is Tusk really even a caveman anymore?
@fwufikens actually ya know what, this explained EVERYTHING I was just thinking about.
