To raise the sacred Staff of Source,
To roar with frenzied, furied force,
To topple traps that hold us back,
To bravely lead the last attack.
These are roles the Warlord plays,
'Til facing down his dying days,
And when he dies, the Staff recalls
His name in Fate's immortal halls.
Minotaur Warlord
Splinter - Anumun
Name - Borl Hurro
Set - Essence Orb/Promo
Class - Legendary Warlord Sorcerer
Size - Borl, the Minotaur Warlord not only claims authority over all Minotaur tribes of the Grasslands, but is larger and mightier than all other Minotaurs of the Splinterlands. The one who carries the Staff of Source has always been larger than the others, as throughout their life it continually gives them power. Most Minotaurs are about 50-75% larger than a man, but when fully upright, Borl stands nearly twelve feet tall.
Lifespan - It is believed throughout the Minotaur tribes that the Minotaur Warlord is a chosen reincarnation of an ancestral spirit. So when he was first handed the Staff of Source, Borlgot Hurro ceased being Borlgot, instead picking up a life that many others have lived before and that always carries on: The life of the Minotaur Warlord. There is always only a single Minotaur that carries the Staff and the title of Warlord, and that Minotaur is considered the unquestioned ruler who guides the Minotaur people. He will not live an exceptionally long life because of this burden. Instead, the Minotaur Warlord is always destined to die on a battlefield, after which the Staff of Source is always picked up and carried over to the next chosen Warlord.
Habitat - The Minotaurs of Anumun are the only civilized people BRAVE and rugged enough to occupy the Giant Grasslands of Primordia. There the grasses are often so high that they block out the midday light, and the predators are so horrifyingly fierce that any Minotaur who wanders from the tribe’s protective circle is a meal in moments. There are as many as twenty smaller tribes of Minotaurs, each with their own societal rules, territories and family units, but all Minotaurs are also bound under the one ruler who carries the Staff of Source. While members of different tribes can be especially ruthless to one another in squabbles of territory, no one ever challenges the leadership of the Minotaur Warlord. The position (and the power it carries) are highly respected by the tribes in a tradition going back to far before the Splintering.
Weapon - Even though spears are the much-preferred weapon of Minotaurs, the legendary weapon known as the Staff of Source is the only weapon the Minotaur Warlord ever needs to carry. The Staff is a simple pole, made from a chipping of the Eldest Tree and wound in a helix pattern with solid gold from the Seed Mountains. At the head of the Staff sits ominously the skull of Vuxius, the most ancient of the Minotaur ancestors. Through thousands of years being passed from one generation of Minotaurs to the next, the skull has never chipped, scuffed or worn in any way. When properly coaxed, the Staff of Source releases powerful bursts of jagged magic, which can be aimed at enemies of any size. Hurro does not use it to bring down Rexxies, which he insists should be hunted honorably.
Diet - One of the side effects of the powers transmitted through the Staff of Source is an incessant hunger. The Minotaur Warlord eats 7-10 times each day. By tradition, he is not permitted to take part in the Rexxie hunts, so he goes out on his own twice a day to hunt small, furry creatures called Fromp, whose meat he enjoys lightly braised. In addition to the huge quantities of protein he must consume, the Minotaur Warlord also needs plenty of fiber and roughage, for which he uses a particular red palm that grows near the edges of the Great Pit.
Allies - The Minotaur Warlord, who is guarded carefully by his people, is a mystery to all outsiders. He has never made alliances with any non-Minotaur, other than the non-spoken alliance with the Goblins of Gobson, which simply states that the two races won’t always kill each other. The Minotaur Warlord has enough business to attend to among the dozens of Minotaur tribes that don’t always see eye to eye. He works hard to make sure that Minotaurs are always loyal to and supportive of Minotaurs, first and foremost.
Enemies - Minotaurs in Anumun are mistrusted and often despised by Humans. When Minotaurs must visit the Kingdom of Lyveria, they are only allowed within the walls while they are accompanied by a Sheriff or a chaperone appointed by the King himself. When a Minotaur is in the street, word spreads quickly and families vanish behind slammed and locked doors. No one knows how the Minotaurs would treat Humans found in the Primordic Grasslands, because no Human would ever be foolish enough to go there.
Pastimes - One of the Minotaur Warlord’s favorite things to do is organize the massive inter-tribal parties for which the Minotaurs are notorious. These bashes are often so noisy that they keep Goblins awake in the city of Gobson, some 75 miles away. With Minotaur music, percussion and sheer noise level are the main emphases. At a Minotaur party, the loudness is a directly proportional indicator of joy.
The True Story of Splinterlands
Once upon a time your game purchase meant something. You could go to the store and purchase a game, after which you would simply own that game. You could play as often as you'd like, because it was your game. As the game companies were one by one swallowed up by larger and larger game companies, a terrible thing happened to the gaming world. While the games themselves were always making improvements, the players were always throwing more and more of their hard-earned money into a corporate black hole from which they reaped no rewards.
How did the corporations convince the players to pay this money? Loot. They showered the players with in-game riches designed to create a sense of accomplishment, but with no real value. Not only are these in-game "assets" entirely subject to the whims of corporate overlords who rarely (if ever) have the player's interests at heart, but they never really belong to the player at all. They belong exclusively to the game for which they were created. If a player wants to quit playing the game, they must also abandon their in-game treasures.
Blockchains are giving power and ownership back to the players, and it's about time. In this incredible and rapidly expanding world of technology it seems like such an outdated argument to be making, but the players (not the company) should own their gaming rewards. Blockchain, non-fungible tokens and games like Splinterlands are now making that possible.
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