2nd version of one of my glatorian MOCs, Tesara. I mostly wanted to rework the upper part of her body, since the old one used a ridiculous number of ball joints, which I don’t have too many of to begin with. In that respect, this new version is better. I’ve also changed the leg and shoulder armor, and the claws. Lastly I changed the helmet to a modified Breez 1.0 helmet from Hero Factory.
Back story:
Tesara was one of the leading glatorian in the Jungle Tribe before and during the Core War. Like many Glatorian and Agori in the Jungle Tribe, she had relatively short legs and long arms, which allowed her to move comfortably on all fours and easily negotiate the rough jungle terrain. She usually wielded two large claws, which were excellent tools and weapons. Her armor was a mix of green and brown, but during the core war she dyed some of it black to stay hidden better during the night.
As a fighter, Tesara relied heavily on speed and stealth to outmaneuver and confuse her opponents, and then finishing them off with a blow to a weak spot in their armor. During the Core War, she developed this fighting style into a set of battle tactics, and she trained and led a unit in the Jungle tribe military known as the land wielders*. The land wielders wore light armor and carried only small weapons, but they were experts in stealth and camouflage and knew how to use any terrain to great advantage. As such, they were very effective scouts, spies, caravan raiders, and assassins, and they became one of the most feared fighting units on Spherus Magna. Tesara herself was responsible for the death of at least two of the foremost leaders in the Sand Tribe; both instrumental in that tribe’s eventual downfall. Her signature move, as an assassin, was to leap on her target from a vantage point behind them, and then stick one of her claws into the back of their head, killing them instantly. She would often stalk her target for days, waiting for the right moment to take them out quickly and quietly.
In the Jungle Tribe, Tesara was hailed as a hero and she became a symbol of the tribe’s military might in the core war. Her enemies often saw her methods as brutal, dirty, and underhanded, and in their stories of the Core War she is often depicted as a savage beast with no morality to speak of. Tesara, however, strongly disliked the war, and the only reason that she operated in the way she did was that she believed it was the best way to end the war quickly. Although her assassination method would seem savage at first glance (it often tore off the entire back of the skull), she in fact developed it specifically to avoid a prolonged death; instant death, she figured, was far more humane than, for example, shooting the target from a distance and then letting them bleed out. Of course, killing the target instantly was also the best way to avoid them raising the alarm. Whenever she went on a reconnaissance or espionage mission, she tried to accomplish it without having to kill anyone.
Towards the end of the war, Tesara became increasingly concerned about the effect it was having on the planet. The energized protodermis, over which the war was being fought in the first place, was being drained out of the planet’s core by the Ice Tribe, and anyone else who could sneak in on their operation and take some. This compromised the stability of the planet’s surface, leading to frequent earthquakes. Weather patterns were also disrupted, and large areas were rapidly turning into deserts. Several times, Tesara attempted to convince other military leaders in the Jungle Tribe that the fighting had to be brought to a halt somehow, but only a few shared her concern, and most were of the opinion that if the Jungle Tribe was to stop the fighting, then they would have to do it by capturing the Northern Frost from the Ice Tribe and winning the war. Seeing this as a quick way to end the carnage, Tesara offered to scout the area herself to give the Jungle Tribe armies the best chance of success, even though the Ice Tribe patrolled the entirety of the Frost constantly. The offer was accepted, and the Jungle Tribe armies started the march north.
The Ice Tribe’s defenses were severely weakened due to an attack by the Rock Tribe, and Tesara managed to find the spring that the Ice tribe was using to drain the energized protodermis. As she observed the process from a hiding spot on a nearby hill, the Fire Tribe, taking advantage of the weakness, attacked and claimed the spring. Tesara then watched as the Fire Tribe ramped up the rate at which the energized protodermis was being drained. This turned out to be the last straw as far as the planet was concerned; it began to break apart, starting with tremendous earthquakes, the first of which brought down part of the mountain that Tesara was observing the spring from. Tesara was caught in a rock slide down the mountain. She survived, but her right arm and leg were crushed and she was trapped by the debris. It did not take long for one of the Fire Tribe glatorian to find her. Unfortunately for Tesara, the glatorian in question was Malum, who was well aware of her reputation and killed her on the spot. Malum took her remaining claw as a trophy and had her head sent back to the Jungle Tribe as a warning.
Spherus magna ended up splitting into three pieces, an event which became known as the Shattering. In the wake of the disaster, and with the element lords gone, the new leaders of the tribes set up the Arena system, which would settle future disputes. The Jungle Tribe suffered badly in the process, and was forced to re-settle in the now much smaller rainforest area, since much of their original territory was now featureless desert. In Tesara’s honor, their new village was named after her. Tesara has now become something of a legend for the Jungle Tribe, and she appears in many of their stories and songs.
*credit to That-1-Cactus (formerly That-1-Unique-Skakdi) for the original idea of the land wielders.