Post by Land Of Zargon on Aug 27, 2008 23:10:45 GMT -5
Joe
In the Begining
Joe was born to the Hardfist tribe. A strong willed people that are highly respected among the other Grogowen clans. Joe wrestled with all of the kids in the village which is what most Grogowen kids do for fun, but with when it came to Joe none of the other kids could win... Even the older kids couldn’t beat him. Though it was only a battle among kids the agents of the kingdom never look away from an interesting find. It was arranged that Joe Hardfist at the age of twelve would start training in the academy for agents. The most gifted group of warriors in all of Zargon the agents not only defend the kingdom but attempt to uphold the balance of the entire world.
It was here in the academy that Joe would meet the person that would become his lifelong friend and partner Dogin Hood. Joe was very big for his age even as a Grogowen, many of the kids wanted to pick fights with him just to prove they were better. Joe at the time was actually quite shy when it came to such a crowded place. Back home with people he knew such as family and friends Joe wasn’t shy at all, but here he neither had family or friends to have fun with so Joe became shy and even more so when people began to pick on him. Though Joe wouldn’t defend himself there was someone that would... A new kid arrived one day by the name of Dogin Hood and when Dogin saw the way the other kids treated Joe he couldn’t stand it! After that day both Dogin and Joe became the best of friends. In their studies there teachers noticed that alone they did well, but when put together on a task they completed it far beyond that of normal standards. Thus the due of Dogin and Big Joe began, but it would not last for that long...
Both Dogin and Joe advanced faster than most of the other students. Unknown to them there was another among there generation of trainees that would become a good friend... her name was Tahora. Dogin at the age of 19 and Joe at the age of 18 graduated from the academy and now had to go there separate ways. Each of them was assigned a master that would teach them their own ways of being an agent, though the academy provided a basic knowledge there masters would teach them how to take what they learned and make it their own... Joes master was a harsh Grogowen by the name of Stukov Black Ram he trained Joe from dawn to dusk each day being more excruciating than the last. But Joe didn’t quite he pushed on knowing that somewhere else Dogin was doing his best too. The Trial of Succession the last test before joining the ranks of the agents. Where the master is allowed to give the student any test he wants to make sure his student is ready to become a agent. For Joes Trial of Succession he was forced to run a gauntlet of extreme trials for ten days until he was almost ready to drop. On the tenth day Stukov told him "If you wish to become an agent you must dig deep within yourself and break through this wall!" Joe slowly picked himself up for this trial then with everything he had he welled up the energy inside him as his master had thought him to do and smashed through the wall... Thus the agent Joe Hardfist was born.
Joe and Dogin where teamed up for many missions there earliest together being in Swellwood forest where the name Dogin Hood and Big Joe became something of a legend! They have endured many hardships together and have traveled many roads, but now Dogin at the age of 32 and Joe at the age of 31 they embarked on a mission just like any other... Or so they think... If only they knew what awaited them at the end of this mission to Dargath... The demon wars...
Wandering
After the Demon war.
Upon the end of the Demon war Joe returned to the Land of Zargon to attend the Grogowen tournament of champions to defend his title as Grand champion. In the tournament pliminarys as is tradition he had to fight anyone from his clan that disputed his title as clan champion... meanwhile the champions of other clans where doing the same thing. After successfully defeating his younger brother Joe was able to train for the true tournament. To read more look for Joes history.
While training for the tournament one night Joe meat a female Grogowen whose strength was impressive, but after a bungling the conversation by commenting that she was strong for a women she left without Joe knowing her name.
In the tournament Joe when all the way to the final battle, where he faced off with the champion of the Black Ram tribe a vile Grogowen by the name of Kain. Kain was a monster of a Grogowen standing at ten foot eight inches. The battle was long and bloody, but ended when Kain crushed Joe's right hand with his own... Kain was made Grand Champion and Joe was left with nothing.
Kain had crushed his hand to where it could not be saved, a fate almost worse than death, for Joe would almost never be a warrior again.
Crushed by the shame of his defeat Joe left the title of Hardfist behind saying he was unworthy to bear that name any longer. Ashamed at his weakness Joe didn’t know what to do, until he met the lady from a few nights ago. She had searched for him after the tournament to see if the rumors where true that he had given up on everything. Seeing him in such a state the women only had a few words to say to him. "You where gifted with strength from birth and have never tried to find your limit. I had to work for every ounce of my strength and still I will never be able to match what you could become." With that she left without ever giving her name. Joe was determined now that one day he would learn her name and on that day he would show her his limit. He would have to do much to prepare for that day
Joe decided to investigate a Grogowen legend that was said to be as old as the Land of Zargon. The tale of the Godhand... It is said there is a mystical connection between a warrior and his weapon. A warrior must put his faith into his weapon and a weapon must put faith into the warrior, when this happens nothing is impossible. There are those who have mastered that connection a brave few that were given the name Godhand thousands of years ago, but they have all fallen to the ways of time... All but one or so it’s said. A son of one of the Godhands decided to learn the way of the Godhand like his father. Many roads lead to the Godhand but very few can complete any of them... The boy decided that he would become a master smith the likes that none have seen before. With the course of time the boy became a man and with that time he created many great works each more impressive than the last, but the man could feel that he was drawing no closer to the Godhand with these works. And so the man decided to move into a cave on top of the highest mountain in the Land of Zargon where time is said to stand still, it was a dangerous and long journey and before he knew it the man and become old. Some say the man never made it to the cave, others say he made it but died, but others believe that the rumors of the cave are true and that the man is still there to this day forging weapons trying to get closer to the Godhand.
But unlike the Grogowen man in the legend Joe was much closer to the mountain. Joe traveled for many weeks searching for the cave among the high peaks of the mountain, until one day he could swear he heard the pounding of a hammer on metal. He followed the sound and soon found himself standing outside the legendary cave, but before he could enter a voice came from within "Halt! Who are you and why do you trespass here?" Joe could not see deep inside the cave from where the voice came so he decided to answer. "I am Joe... I have cast aside my clan name due to my own weakness and shame and I come to seek my own limits. I come to seek the Godhand." from within the cave the voice responded "Many come here in seek of the Godhand and all have failed. Who are you to think you can succeed where many have not." Joe thought for a moment "I no longer care how others view me... Because of my own weakness I have lost my greatest friend, my title, my clan... Because of my weakness I have lost everything! I no longer choose to stay the way I am, I do not choose to stay weak! I am here to seek the limits of my strength to grow stronger so that I may protect that which I could not in the past... To protect the life of someone dear to me." Joe was breathing heavily for he had poured great emotion into his speech and for a long moment the voice said nothing. "For a thousand years I have waited in this cave... trying to grasp the Godhand for myself. In this cave my body wasted away but my spirit remained and worked on something that I could never hope of wielding in another thousand years." Joe was confused "What do you mean you can’t wield it?" The voice echoed back. "I succeeded in what I came to this cave to do... I created a way to wield the Godhand, but that wasn’t enough. It seems there is more to it than just finding a way to reach the Godhand... The Godhand must chose you to wield it. Only now can I see what my destiny was." Joe didn’t know what the voice meant. "My destiny was never to wield the Godhand, but to create it for one who could wield it... Someone with the right heart. Deep in this cave the Godhand I created waits for its chosen master, many have tried to claim it as their own but all have failed and died because of it." Joe looked into the cave with determination in his eyes. "I wish to try... What does it look like?" The voice replied "In you I sense good intentions, but I don’t know if that is enough... The Godhand does not chose a form until it finds its master. In the cave you will find a glowing orb beside my forge, then you must attempt to take up the Godhand as your own. Only then will we see if it has chosen you to wield it, but if it hasn’t you will die."
Joe looked down at the stub that was his right hand then he picked up his head and walked into the cave. Joe walked into the cave he walked for what seemed like days, he walked until the light from the entrance was far behind him. Then he rounded a corner in the cave and found himself staring into a vast room lit only by a small orb of light beside a forge so massive it didn’t seem probable. Then the voice called to him as if it were right beside him. "This was my forge here in the pitch blackness I was able to see all colors of molten metal’s and shape them to my likening, my forge was so large I needed a demon from hell to work the bellows... It is here that I made a way to wield the Godhand, and it is here that I remain unable to grasp what I have created. Go now Joe and find your limit." Joe walked up to the glowing sphere. He began to reach for the sphere with his good hand but pulled back, doubts flooded his mind. What if I fail? What if I’m unworthy? On and on the list grew until Joe was almost certain he would fail. Memories floated back into Joes mind memories of long journeys with great hardships, memories in which a very good friend was with him the whole way never letting him give up... It was the memories of that friend that allowed Joe to move on, keep moving, to keep livening. At that moment while Joe started at the glowing orb a voice he hadn’t heard for a long time drifted to his ear. "Go on Joe. If you don’t do it I will..." A tear rolled down Joes check, but a smile crossed his face. "Not this time Dogin..." Joe reached for the glowing sphere and when his hand came into contact with it a bright light blinded him for an instant then only darkness.....
Joe awoke outside the cave with the voice from before whispering in his ear. "Imagine yourself with the greatest power the power that will allow you to win, that is the secret. Go now Joe. Go now and live your life in the defense of those you hold dear. Go and find your limit... And thank you... Joe of the Godhand... Thank you." The voice left for the last time and Joe lay on the ground confused. "What?" he mumbled. "What happened?" He got up and rubbed his head instinctively with his right hand... Only to find that his nub of a hand had been replaced by a golden gauntlet the likes of which he had never seen. He flexed his new hand qustingly trying to get a feel for it. "Imagine myself with the power to win? What do I win with?" Joe thought back to his old hammer that had broken in the demon war and no sooner had he thought of it it appeared in his right hand! "By Zargon!" He then imagined it gone and it vanished after that he imagined up several weapons those that he had made in the past, seen before, and those that had never exist before today. Joe nodded his head in approval. "Now that I have the tools I need... I go to seek my limits."
That is the Joe of today... After the demon war. Joe of the Godhand
In the Begining
Joe was born to the Hardfist tribe. A strong willed people that are highly respected among the other Grogowen clans. Joe wrestled with all of the kids in the village which is what most Grogowen kids do for fun, but with when it came to Joe none of the other kids could win... Even the older kids couldn’t beat him. Though it was only a battle among kids the agents of the kingdom never look away from an interesting find. It was arranged that Joe Hardfist at the age of twelve would start training in the academy for agents. The most gifted group of warriors in all of Zargon the agents not only defend the kingdom but attempt to uphold the balance of the entire world.
It was here in the academy that Joe would meet the person that would become his lifelong friend and partner Dogin Hood. Joe was very big for his age even as a Grogowen, many of the kids wanted to pick fights with him just to prove they were better. Joe at the time was actually quite shy when it came to such a crowded place. Back home with people he knew such as family and friends Joe wasn’t shy at all, but here he neither had family or friends to have fun with so Joe became shy and even more so when people began to pick on him. Though Joe wouldn’t defend himself there was someone that would... A new kid arrived one day by the name of Dogin Hood and when Dogin saw the way the other kids treated Joe he couldn’t stand it! After that day both Dogin and Joe became the best of friends. In their studies there teachers noticed that alone they did well, but when put together on a task they completed it far beyond that of normal standards. Thus the due of Dogin and Big Joe began, but it would not last for that long...
Both Dogin and Joe advanced faster than most of the other students. Unknown to them there was another among there generation of trainees that would become a good friend... her name was Tahora. Dogin at the age of 19 and Joe at the age of 18 graduated from the academy and now had to go there separate ways. Each of them was assigned a master that would teach them their own ways of being an agent, though the academy provided a basic knowledge there masters would teach them how to take what they learned and make it their own... Joes master was a harsh Grogowen by the name of Stukov Black Ram he trained Joe from dawn to dusk each day being more excruciating than the last. But Joe didn’t quite he pushed on knowing that somewhere else Dogin was doing his best too. The Trial of Succession the last test before joining the ranks of the agents. Where the master is allowed to give the student any test he wants to make sure his student is ready to become a agent. For Joes Trial of Succession he was forced to run a gauntlet of extreme trials for ten days until he was almost ready to drop. On the tenth day Stukov told him "If you wish to become an agent you must dig deep within yourself and break through this wall!" Joe slowly picked himself up for this trial then with everything he had he welled up the energy inside him as his master had thought him to do and smashed through the wall... Thus the agent Joe Hardfist was born.
Joe and Dogin where teamed up for many missions there earliest together being in Swellwood forest where the name Dogin Hood and Big Joe became something of a legend! They have endured many hardships together and have traveled many roads, but now Dogin at the age of 32 and Joe at the age of 31 they embarked on a mission just like any other... Or so they think... If only they knew what awaited them at the end of this mission to Dargath... The demon wars...
Wandering
After the Demon war.
Upon the end of the Demon war Joe returned to the Land of Zargon to attend the Grogowen tournament of champions to defend his title as Grand champion. In the tournament pliminarys as is tradition he had to fight anyone from his clan that disputed his title as clan champion... meanwhile the champions of other clans where doing the same thing. After successfully defeating his younger brother Joe was able to train for the true tournament. To read more look for Joes history.
While training for the tournament one night Joe meat a female Grogowen whose strength was impressive, but after a bungling the conversation by commenting that she was strong for a women she left without Joe knowing her name.
In the tournament Joe when all the way to the final battle, where he faced off with the champion of the Black Ram tribe a vile Grogowen by the name of Kain. Kain was a monster of a Grogowen standing at ten foot eight inches. The battle was long and bloody, but ended when Kain crushed Joe's right hand with his own... Kain was made Grand Champion and Joe was left with nothing.
Kain had crushed his hand to where it could not be saved, a fate almost worse than death, for Joe would almost never be a warrior again.
Crushed by the shame of his defeat Joe left the title of Hardfist behind saying he was unworthy to bear that name any longer. Ashamed at his weakness Joe didn’t know what to do, until he met the lady from a few nights ago. She had searched for him after the tournament to see if the rumors where true that he had given up on everything. Seeing him in such a state the women only had a few words to say to him. "You where gifted with strength from birth and have never tried to find your limit. I had to work for every ounce of my strength and still I will never be able to match what you could become." With that she left without ever giving her name. Joe was determined now that one day he would learn her name and on that day he would show her his limit. He would have to do much to prepare for that day
Joe decided to investigate a Grogowen legend that was said to be as old as the Land of Zargon. The tale of the Godhand... It is said there is a mystical connection between a warrior and his weapon. A warrior must put his faith into his weapon and a weapon must put faith into the warrior, when this happens nothing is impossible. There are those who have mastered that connection a brave few that were given the name Godhand thousands of years ago, but they have all fallen to the ways of time... All but one or so it’s said. A son of one of the Godhands decided to learn the way of the Godhand like his father. Many roads lead to the Godhand but very few can complete any of them... The boy decided that he would become a master smith the likes that none have seen before. With the course of time the boy became a man and with that time he created many great works each more impressive than the last, but the man could feel that he was drawing no closer to the Godhand with these works. And so the man decided to move into a cave on top of the highest mountain in the Land of Zargon where time is said to stand still, it was a dangerous and long journey and before he knew it the man and become old. Some say the man never made it to the cave, others say he made it but died, but others believe that the rumors of the cave are true and that the man is still there to this day forging weapons trying to get closer to the Godhand.
But unlike the Grogowen man in the legend Joe was much closer to the mountain. Joe traveled for many weeks searching for the cave among the high peaks of the mountain, until one day he could swear he heard the pounding of a hammer on metal. He followed the sound and soon found himself standing outside the legendary cave, but before he could enter a voice came from within "Halt! Who are you and why do you trespass here?" Joe could not see deep inside the cave from where the voice came so he decided to answer. "I am Joe... I have cast aside my clan name due to my own weakness and shame and I come to seek my own limits. I come to seek the Godhand." from within the cave the voice responded "Many come here in seek of the Godhand and all have failed. Who are you to think you can succeed where many have not." Joe thought for a moment "I no longer care how others view me... Because of my own weakness I have lost my greatest friend, my title, my clan... Because of my weakness I have lost everything! I no longer choose to stay the way I am, I do not choose to stay weak! I am here to seek the limits of my strength to grow stronger so that I may protect that which I could not in the past... To protect the life of someone dear to me." Joe was breathing heavily for he had poured great emotion into his speech and for a long moment the voice said nothing. "For a thousand years I have waited in this cave... trying to grasp the Godhand for myself. In this cave my body wasted away but my spirit remained and worked on something that I could never hope of wielding in another thousand years." Joe was confused "What do you mean you can’t wield it?" The voice echoed back. "I succeeded in what I came to this cave to do... I created a way to wield the Godhand, but that wasn’t enough. It seems there is more to it than just finding a way to reach the Godhand... The Godhand must chose you to wield it. Only now can I see what my destiny was." Joe didn’t know what the voice meant. "My destiny was never to wield the Godhand, but to create it for one who could wield it... Someone with the right heart. Deep in this cave the Godhand I created waits for its chosen master, many have tried to claim it as their own but all have failed and died because of it." Joe looked into the cave with determination in his eyes. "I wish to try... What does it look like?" The voice replied "In you I sense good intentions, but I don’t know if that is enough... The Godhand does not chose a form until it finds its master. In the cave you will find a glowing orb beside my forge, then you must attempt to take up the Godhand as your own. Only then will we see if it has chosen you to wield it, but if it hasn’t you will die."
Joe looked down at the stub that was his right hand then he picked up his head and walked into the cave. Joe walked into the cave he walked for what seemed like days, he walked until the light from the entrance was far behind him. Then he rounded a corner in the cave and found himself staring into a vast room lit only by a small orb of light beside a forge so massive it didn’t seem probable. Then the voice called to him as if it were right beside him. "This was my forge here in the pitch blackness I was able to see all colors of molten metal’s and shape them to my likening, my forge was so large I needed a demon from hell to work the bellows... It is here that I made a way to wield the Godhand, and it is here that I remain unable to grasp what I have created. Go now Joe and find your limit." Joe walked up to the glowing sphere. He began to reach for the sphere with his good hand but pulled back, doubts flooded his mind. What if I fail? What if I’m unworthy? On and on the list grew until Joe was almost certain he would fail. Memories floated back into Joes mind memories of long journeys with great hardships, memories in which a very good friend was with him the whole way never letting him give up... It was the memories of that friend that allowed Joe to move on, keep moving, to keep livening. At that moment while Joe started at the glowing orb a voice he hadn’t heard for a long time drifted to his ear. "Go on Joe. If you don’t do it I will..." A tear rolled down Joes check, but a smile crossed his face. "Not this time Dogin..." Joe reached for the glowing sphere and when his hand came into contact with it a bright light blinded him for an instant then only darkness.....
Joe awoke outside the cave with the voice from before whispering in his ear. "Imagine yourself with the greatest power the power that will allow you to win, that is the secret. Go now Joe. Go now and live your life in the defense of those you hold dear. Go and find your limit... And thank you... Joe of the Godhand... Thank you." The voice left for the last time and Joe lay on the ground confused. "What?" he mumbled. "What happened?" He got up and rubbed his head instinctively with his right hand... Only to find that his nub of a hand had been replaced by a golden gauntlet the likes of which he had never seen. He flexed his new hand qustingly trying to get a feel for it. "Imagine myself with the power to win? What do I win with?" Joe thought back to his old hammer that had broken in the demon war and no sooner had he thought of it it appeared in his right hand! "By Zargon!" He then imagined it gone and it vanished after that he imagined up several weapons those that he had made in the past, seen before, and those that had never exist before today. Joe nodded his head in approval. "Now that I have the tools I need... I go to seek my limits."
That is the Joe of today... After the demon war. Joe of the Godhand