Crossroads

An imposing orc knight with deep green skin etched with glowing psionic circuitry, Garruk stands taller than most, his cybernetic augmentations enhancing his already formidable physique. He wears sleek armor that fuses Ordo Mentis plating with reinforced cybernetics, which hums with latent energy. His thoughtful yellow eyes reveal a depth of contemplation, and his left arm, lost in battle, has been replaced with an advanced cybernetic limb adorned with etched scripture from texts he has studied.

Garruk is a walking contradiction—a knight trained to enforce order, yet constantly questioning authority. He is calm, articulate, and introspective, possessing a depth of wisdom uncommon among the Ordo Mentis. Yet, beneath his composed exterior, he harbors a great internal struggle—the raw, primal orcish instincts that still stir within him, instincts that his psionic discipline keeps at bay. He believes that true power lies not in domination, but in understanding. He holds deep respect for knowledge, ethics, and the concept of self-mastery, yet he is also deeply conflicted about his place in the world. To the Ordo Mentis, he is a question they cannot answer. To the orcs of the Bronx, he is a traitor to his blood. And to himself, he is a knight searching for a purpose beyond war.

Born into the brutal world of the orc warbands, Garruk Thorne’s fate should have been written in blood and conquest. Yet, when he was captured as a youth during an orc raid on a North Manhattan settlement, his life took a path no orc had walked before. Taken to the Noetica Sanctum, he was at first treated as a curiosity—an orc with psionic sensitivity, something exceedingly rare. The Ordo Mentis saw a unique opportunity—if properly trained, implanted, and disciplined, Garruk could become a fearsome warrior, an unshakable enforcer of their will. But Garruk’s mind proved as strong as his body. While he endured the same grueling psionic conditioning and cybernetic augmentation as his human peers, he also developed a keen intellect and a thirst for philosophy. Instead of becoming a mindless instrument of war, he questioned the very nature of power, control, and morality. While some within the Order viewed him as an inspiring testament that orcs could rise beyond their primal nature, others—especially among the higher ranks—saw him as a failed experiment. He was supposed to be a weapon, not a thinker. Now a fully initiated Ordo Mentis Knight, Garruk walks a precarious line between loyalty and self-discovery. He upholds the tenets of discipline and order, yet he also questions the rigid dogma of the Ordo. His cybernetic augmentations make him one of the most formidable warriors of the Order, but his refusal to abandon his philosophical inquiries has made him an outlier. Garruk still carries out missions for the Ordo, but he is watched carefully, as some fear that his independence threatens the stability of their ideology. Meanwhile, he seeks his own truth, venturing into Crossroads’ most dangerous territories to understand how power, control, and morality function outside the strict walls of the Sanctum. His greatest fear is that he has no true home—too civilized for the orcs, too wild for the Ordo, and too uncompromising to belong anywhere in between.