I mentioned this idea briefly in the previous forums but I think it’s worthy of its own thread.
Tusk’s background and ethnicity appear to be a sort of conundrum for the developers to build a story with. They don’t want to go back in time like they did in the 90s. So they want him of a low tech culture which is proficient at surviving in the wilderness indefinitely.
The problem is, we don’t know of any survivalist societies wherein people brandish enormous swords in this day and age, which is Tusk’s signature weapon.
My take on the situation:
I believe fans just want a barbarian with a giant sword (possibly with other weapon options like a battle axe) which means we need to bring Tusk to our time from quasi-medieval times… Unless he’s the descendant of some warrior race. Both are plausible I suppose. I personally prefer him to be a true warrior of the old world.
Who are the Picts?
From Wikipedia: “The Picts were a tribal confederation of peoples who lived in what is today eastern and northern Scotland during the Late Iron Age and Early Medieval periods. They are thought to have been ethnolinguistically Celtic.”
As I understand, Pictish men and women supposedly fought without clothing, which could just mean they wore very little. Such as a loincloth of fur.
They were known to sport extensive tattooing all over their bodies. They were thought to have used swords. Some probably had beards and/or mustaches. Long hair was probably common.
Here are some modern interpretations of Pictish warriors.
This last picture is the Pictish scout from Conan. (Hence the Arnold standing next to him.)
Notice the common theme of muscular, tattooed, bladed weapons, leathers and furs, the last one has a boney ornament. I see no reason to assume they wouldn’t know what a tusk is.
Why should Tusk be Pictish?
I think Picts make a good foundation because they weren’t around for very long and rather little is known about them. This allows all the creative liberty IG might want to make use of.
So what would Tusk’s story be? How did he get to the future?
I mentioned this in the previous forum.
Let’s say a certain tribe of Picts discovered Gargos. The best they could do to combat the imminent threat was to train up a group of elite warriors, among which Tusk was the largest and deadliest. They end up fighting Gargos and despite their losses, (perhaps this is how the Picts disappear from history) they drive Gargos back to his realm. Tusk pursues him and the portal closes behind him. Gargos imprisons Tusk in shadowy stasis as a trophy, and as revenge for foiling his plot to rule the world… Or whatever.
Kan Ra blunders in by ARIA’s design and opens a portal into Gargos’ realm. Gargos wasn’t expecting this. With the portal opened, not only does Gargos gain access to our world, but Tusk is also released from stasis into our time. A specially trained, enormous, muscular, tattooed barbarian with an equally enormous sword forged to slay a shadow god. And he’s angry.
By the way, I’d love to see pictish symbology engraved into the blade of Tusk’s sword. Something like these authentic Pictish stone carvings:
IG, do what you have to with the story, but all I truly want is the 6’11" barbarian with the big sword. I don’t really care about how he gets to fight Gargos centuries after his time… You gave us a Battletoad. Nothing about Tusk’s story is going to trump that. Heck, I’d be content if he’s just a descendant of Cuchulainn or the Fianna and has been awakened to his purpose by the coming of Gargos or something.