Client
: Personal Folio Piece. Sold as Framed Prints.
Coloured Pencil & Pastel (on
Cartridge): Scanned and heavily reworked
in Adobe
Photoshop
1995 (original) 2004 a.d (second update)
Design Notes :
Born thousands
of years ago on the Steppes of Russia, the man known as the
Kurgan was raised to fight almost as soon as he could walk. He
was an immortal, one of a handful who walked the Earth untouched
by age or infirmity, healing almost any wound in minutes, and
only able to die a final death if decapitated. The Kurgan's first
death occurred in 970 BC, his drunken father crushed his head
with a rock. Upon returning to life, the Kurgan forced his father
to swallow a searing hot stone, killing him. He then joined a
group of bandits that raided caravans. He eventually encountered
another Immortal, "The
Bedouin," who revealed to him his true nature, mentored and trained
him, and taught him the rules of immortality, the "Game": that
they lived to one day fight a final contest against one another until
only one remained and claimed "the Prize";
that they could not fight on holy ground, they could not attack in numbers,
but must face each other in single combat; and that the winner of a fight
to death between immortals would gain the loser's "Quickening",
their lifeforce and experience. The
Bedouin became
the only person the Kurgan would call friend. During the intervening
centuries, the Kurgan took an incalculable number of Immortal
heads.
In the year 476 BC, allying
himself with the Persians as part of a special fighting unit, the Kurgan
took part in the Battle of Plataea in ancient Greece.
During the battle, he faced off with a Spartan warrior
who wielded a katana made by the master swordsmith Masamune, strong enough
to shatter the Kurgan's blade. He escaped by falling down a cliff, and
was borne away by the flow of the battle. From this experience, the Kurgan
learnt the value of steel and a well-crafted blade. The
Spartan warrior fought in the battle was revealed to be fellow Immortal
Tak Ne, whom the Kurgan would also encounter in Babylonia and
ancient China.
Circa 410 AD, the Kurgan
joined the Vandals, Goths, and Visigoths in
attacking Rome and
other Roman settlements, also fighting with the Goths against the Huns.
He would then later ally himself with the Huns directly, fighting along
Attila, around the year 453 AD. From the fifth to thirteenth centuries,
the Kurgan would spread terror alongside the Tartars of
the Gobi and
ancient Turkey,
as well as with Viking raiders
and the Mongol horde
of Genghis
Khan.
In the
year 1536 AD, the Kurgan hired himself out to Clan Fraser in their
battle with the MacLeod clan, in exchange for allowing him to be the
one to kill Connor MacLeod. In the midst of combat, the Kurgan challenged
MacLeod. Before the inexperienced Connor could strike, he was run through
with the Kurgan's broadsword. However, Connor's cousins Angus and Dougal
(along with other members of his clan) beat the Kurgan back, rescuing
Connor from certain beheading. The Kurgan promised he would finish
it, threatening: "Another time,
MacLeod!!" Five years later, the Immortal Tak Ne – having now adopted
the alias Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez – sought out MacLeod
to train him in the ways of the 'quickening' and swordsmanship, in the
hope of defeating the Kurgan, who in turn tracked them down to MacLeod's
home. MacLeod was not present, but Ramírez and Connor's
wife, Heather, were. He battled Ramírez, who managed to slice Kurgan's
throat (although the blade did not cut deeply enough) before being impaled
and decapitated himself; all while Heather watched.
Soundtrack (music to
draw to) : Various - Highlander the Final Dimension.
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