Aram al Ashir
21 years ago - 21-year-old Aram al Ashir's older brother dies in a hunting accident, making him the new crown prince. He flees Kaambuku to become a minstrel & rogue.
16 years ago - 26-year-old Aram al Ashir finds evidence of a hidden temple with a vast treasure. He joins a mercenary band to steal their ship.
14 years ago - 28-year-old Aram al Ashir is rescued from his own mercenary band by Travis Morgan & Shakira, who agree to help him hunt for the hidden temple.
13 years ago - 29-year-old Aram al Ashir & Travis Morgan are enslaved by a hidden civilization of Snake People. They escape with the help of Shakira, fleeing the undercity. Ashir returns to Kaambuku to take his crown.
8 years ago - 34-year-old Aram al Ashir is assisted in retaking a Kaambuku outpost held by the Snake People by Travis Morgan, Mariah Romanova, Machiste & Shakira
Let me just speak directly to the other Dungeons & Dragons nerds out there; I know, whenever you imagine a fantasy world, you can't help but want to stick in all the classic archetypes. It doesn't feel complete without a rogue. I get it. Fantasy fiction does draw from a lot of sources, though, and not all of them have that particular trope. Skartaris, perhaps to it's detriment, doesn't have a classic Grey Mouser-style rogue character. What it DOES have is Ashir, one of it's less frequently used characters, but nonetheless a fun spin on an archetype that fills out the world of Skartaris in a fun way that absolutely deserves to be included.
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Aram Al Ashir's StoryAshir first showed up in Warlord #25 in 1979, a caddish wandering brigand Morgan falls in with during his time as a mercenary. Of the various characters Morgan traveled with, Ashir actually wasn't around all that long, but he stood out specifically because this was very briefly after a major moment in the series, when Morgan believed he'd been forced to kill his own son, and walked away from everything he'd ever loved to wander Skartaris, heartbroken. Ashir was basically custom-built to give him a new traveling companion that he WOULDN'T grow close to, who was loveably mercenary and shallow. Of course, he does eventually reveal that he is actually the wandering prince and heir of Kaambuku which, after Tara and Machiste, raises the question of whether anyone in Skartaris ISN'T wandering royalty.
Despite only being around for a brief while before he decides to return home and take up his throne, Ashir actually does pop up fairly often later in the story, as Morgan's travels will often take him through Kaambuku, and it is always useful to be old road buddies with the king. He is ultimately a pretty minor character in the grand scheme of things, but there is one moment that perfectly illustrates his role among all these adventurers and quickly establishes Ashir as a character that needs to be in the timeline. |