Overview
"The strongest thing about Rumzuck wasn't his muscles. It was his refusal to let go of anyone." — Uaellaen
Rumzuck Umbatsch was an ogre warrior of immense strength and an even larger heart, and he was not just a member of Remedy — he was Uaellaen's brother. Where Uaellaen was the mind and the power, Rumzuck was the shield, and the shield did not know how to be anything else.
Habitat
He is home to the company. In the old world he kept with Remedy in its deep marsh barracks; in this one he keeps with the six wherever they travel, and the six have learned to travel in a way that leaves room for a fortress. He is at home in the mud, the ruin, and the space in front of the person he is standing in front of.
Appearance
2.79 m of ogre, built like a fortress that learned to run. Rumzuck stands 2.79 m and weighs close to 454 kg, broad through the chest and jaw, with the kind of shoulders that make doorframes look like suggestions. His skin is deep olive-green, thicker and grayer along the knuckles and jaw where the muscle sits, and it is mapped with pale white scars — old ones, well-earned, mostly on the left side, because that is the side he puts between what is coming and who he is standing in front of. His eyes are pale yellow, and they are gentle in a way the rest of him is not. His head is flat and heavy, hair a short black that is usually flattened by his own helmet, and his jaw is the kind that could close on a blade. His distinguishing mark is the shield: a tower shield of dark iron and boiled leather that he has carried since Remedy, dented and re-true'd a dozen times, with a pale white handprint on it that is not paint. Elders of his kind go gray-green and slower, their scars going white-on-white; Rumzuck is young-elder — the olive is still green, the scars still pale, and he is still fast enough to carry someone out of a burning room. He wears boiled leather over dark leathers, iron bracers, and the shield, always.
Warfare & Markings
He fights frontally, which is the whole point of a shield. He takes the blow meant for someone else, holds the line, and does not move until the line is done. His one true mark is the pale white handprint on the tower shield — not paint, and not a brand; it is the print of the hand that first handed him the shield, and he has never let it go. He wears his old scars openly, mostly on the left, and in the new world he has not added a single one he would not have taken for someone.
Behaviour
Loud, boisterous, and fiercely protective — the opposite of Uaellaen in temperament, matched in loyalty. He laughed loudly, fought harder, and loved deeper than anyone who knew him. He is the heart of the company's fighting force: the one who makes the tent feel safe, the one whose war cry could rally an army, and the one who carries the small ones out. He talks with his body first and his words second, and the words are usually kind.
"Rumzuck didn't just fight for glory or gold. He fought for the people beside him. That's what made him dangerous — not his strength, but his reason."
Magic Alignment
Ogre strength is his magic and it is not a school — it is the body. He is Ogre Strength, a body that is a wall; Warrior Expertise, high-level combat training carried in the shoulder; Unbreakable Loyalty, a will that will die before it lets harm reach the people behind him; and Battle Cry, the sound that could rally entire armies. His signature power is the shield itself — not a spell, but a promise made of dark iron and boiled leather that has never once been broken. The price: every time the shield holds, something gives, and it is always him.
Society
In Remedy he was the shield of the guild and the closest thing it had to a spine. In The Forgotten he is still the shield, now of the six and of the company the six grow into. He is the one the company stands behind, and the one who decides who is allowed to be behind the shield. Outsiders meet the shield first and the man second, and the man is kinder than the shield looks.
Culture & Lore
The wiki keeps him as Remedy's shield and Uaellaen's brother, and the tale is told mostly by Uaellaen, who does not speak of Rumzuck often. When he does, the words carry weight. The old world said the ogre who could not be moved; the new world says the ogre who would not let go.
Home
He keeps with the six, in no fixed place, in the deep marsh country of the old world behind him and the unknown universe in front of him. His truest home is the space in front of the people he is standing in front of, and that home travels.
Relations
Uaellaen — his brother, by blood and by choice, the mage to his shield. Smackage — his friend and his heart, the one who keeps the grin going. Wreckreate — the mind, the fourth of the core. Remedy — the guild that raised him. The Forgotten — the company he now shields. The new world is the one thing he has not yet met that he is not standing in front of someone to protect from.
In the Story
After The Fall of Remedy, Rumzuck was among the six a demi-god banished to the unknown universe. He is with Uaellaen — and is now a founding member of The Forgotten. Where Uaellaen is the mind and the power, Rumzuck is still the shield. Only the world around the shield has changed, and he is standing in front of it the same way he always has.
Quotes
"The strongest thing about Rumzuck wasn't his muscles. It was his refusal to let go of anyone." — Uaellaen