My take on Tirek's uncle, Vorak's younger brother
The last member of Tirek's family that I plan to design, Tirek's uncle on his father's side. I'm building up quite the story for Tirek's family history and how it will end up affecting Tirek later, check out my blog for the details!
Design wise, I think he's fine, I probably won't change anything. His appearance hits the points I wanted it to. Vorak's younger twin brother, the second prince, is a prideful centaur with a desire for the limelight.
I took inspiration for his design from England and British royalty, which is in contrast to the Greek inspiration for Vorak's parents. The reason for this is that in the comic for Tirek's origin, King Vorak is wearing the red British imperial robe, but the royal family has Greek like jewelry. Haydon and Terrick (a possible source for Tirek's name) are also English names. The gold and silver of the royal family is likely generational/traditional, but to emphasize the change in leadership once Vorak becomes king, I wanted to separate the generations by IRL kingdoms. Tirek's grandparents (Greek inspired) represent the old regime and social policies that oppressed magic users; Vorak and his brother (English inspired) are the unexpected upheaval of the kingdom, and the bloody rise to the throne.
Also, surprise surprise, I have a name for this character! This is Mordred, a name from British legend, the traitorous and power hungry son of king Arthur, and brother to the more honorable Gawain (parallel to Vorak). The spelling for this name also gives me visuals of "morbid" or "dread", tying into his darker nature. What really made me pick this name was this part from wikipedia "Mordred's death at Camlann, typically in a final duel, during which he manages to mortally wound his own slayer, Arthur." which lines up almost exactly for my thoughts on what happens to this character, but more on that later.
It's so hard to name OCs, but I finally figured out names for my designs for Tirek's family. I'll go back and add the other new names to my other posts.
British male royalty often posed with swords in their portrait, and giving Mordred a sword for his pose felt right; it fits his narrative role as the conflict that drives this tragic story. Vorak's brother was not intended to become king by their parents, and was instead raised to be the strong right hand to enforce Vorak's rule. Mordred's pose in this pic is a reflection of his role, both as a leader for the royal military, and his value of force and strength. He is a bit of a showboat, and skilled in reading a crowd and manipulating the masses to his favor. As the intended right hand of Vorak, Mordred's royal education included learning how to protect Vorak, how to spot danger, and how to eliminate threats to the crown and kingdom by any means.
Tirek's uncle, Mordred, also has the horns of a Jacobs sheep, which is of British origin.
Horns have important meaning, both in centaur society and narratively. The sheep horns are a trait that the younger prince shares with his father, who has ram like horns. But I wanted there to be a clear distinction between these two. Narratively, Vorak's father is like a sheep to be slaughtered; Mordred is the wolf in sheep's clothing that desires to take the throne by any means. The horns of the jacobs sheep also fit the demonic look of Tirek from G1, giving Mordred an intimidating presence.
I wanted to make visual parallels between Vorak's ambitious younger brother and Tirek, that's why they have similar main colors and eyes. But, I also wanted Mordred to have a feeling of an outsider, or unusual in the mainland centaur kingdom. The last queen was part of an arranged marriage and alliance between the island centaurs and the mainland kingdom, and as a result of genetic separation for some time, they have some distinct characteristics. Mordred has pale white skin like his mother, which is a visual reminder that by birth, he is not meant for the throne. He also has large cloven hooves like his mother, which is another island trait. As the younger, Mordred is expected to serve Vorak, which parallels with their mother, who is subservient to the king. Despite having the same amount of royal blood as Vorak, and being born on the same day (twins!) Vorak is the elder and more visibly similar to the king.
Mordred is the big reason why Vorak is a poor father to Tirek. As brothers, and a grieving man dealing with self loathing, Vorak fears that there's some sort of genetic evil in Tirek that he needs to control. Tirek's proficiency in magic is deeply tied to this fear, because while Vorak had no capacity for magic, Mordred did, and used this to seize the throne.
The stuff below is lore for this character, I'll be making references to other posts, check it out here for context.
I will forever stand by the idea that no one is born evil, that includes Mordred. Like Tirek, Mordred is a product of his circumstance and isolation from any friends or family that could have pointed out the flaws of his mindset. He was raised with both a superiority and inferiority complex; saw himself as better for his royal status, and inferior for his weak affinity for magic. (Context, magic users are rare and feared in the centaur kingdom, they are forced to become servants to nobility and enhavce the power of a house. Seen as an expensive commodity.)
By law of the status quo, Mordred's magic ability was ruthlessly hidden, if the public found out his nature, he would never be accepted as a leader. Worse still, he's not even a strong magic user, making it difficult to accept his abilities in secret. Mordred is intensely jealous of Vorak for being born "right", and even though his family loved him, their love was distant, and incomplete, loving only parts of him and not the whole. Vorak wasn't even aware of Mordred's magic ability because their parents insisted on hiding it. Their persistence in upholding the systematic inequality in their society for the sake of power, and the mindset that royal blood is inherently superior, lead to the young prince trying to prove his worth by seizing what he thought he was owed. His access to the royal archives are what lead to the resurfacing of the ancient centaur dark magic, the same draining power that Sendak and Tirek end up pursuing later on.
Mordred is both a parallel and cautionary tale that Tirek never learned. Vorak did his best to sweep this incident under the rug, he doesn't need the sins of his family haunting his reign, or for Mordred to inspire any scheming centaurs. It's this preference to erase history instead of learn from it that lead's to Tirek becoming the student of Sendak in the comic. If Tirek continues on his path, he will end up like his uncle Mordred.
