Belkar Bitterleaf
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Belkar Bitterleaf is a major character in the webcomic The Order of the Stick, written by Rich Burlew. A halfling ranger at the start of the Order's adventures, he has since taken at least one level of barbarian.
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[edit] Character History
[edit] Early Life
Very little has been definitely revealed about Belkar's early life. He once spun a sob-story about how he was ostracized in the halfling community for being exceptionally small even by halfling standards and that he has since strived to be a great adventurer in order to assert himself and eventually return to the village and exact a murderous and bloody revenge. While he subsequently claimed to have done this purely to gain extra experience points for role-playing, much of the story rings true. Belkar is indeed quite sensitive about his height and when Vaarsuvius hits him with a crushing despair spell he laments that he is going to die alone and unloved, which suggests that there was more truth to Belkar's sob-story than he cares to admit.
It has been suggested that at least some members of his family share his general disdain for the lives of others and have a similar bloodthirst - it has been suggested that he has an Aunt Judy who is as vicious as he is. He also seems to believe that spending time with one's family is a form of cruel and unusual punishment.
[edit] Joining the Order
Details of Belkar's adventuring career are sketchy, although he was clearly something of an atypical ranger, in that he has never taken any points in the Survival skill.
What is known is that four days prior to the formation of the Order of the Stick, Belkar was locked up in the local prison, facing a charge of murdering fifteen people in a barroom brawl. He managed to escape when the wizard's arena, located immediately next door to the jail, was accidentally destroyed when Vaarsuvius mis-scribed a spell. The spell was a powerful fireball that was entitled "Distant Inferno", which was created in a wizard match called "Iron Mage". The resulting blast damaged the prison enough for Belkar to make his escape, although not before he'd taken revenge on one of the guards, whom he claimed was "Size-ist".
Belkar was next seen pushing to the front of a line of adventurers and mocking monks for their wimpy attack style (for not being armed), waiting to be interviewed by Roy Greenhilt to join his party. Roy had just offered the last place in the group to a monk, when Belkar arrived and, faced with the pressing need to leave town quickly with a heavily armed group, persuaded Roy to take him instead, initially asking who Roy wanted him to kill in order to earn his place, then revealing that he was a ranger with, he claimed when Roy showed interest, considerable tracking skills. As Roy needed somebody with those abilities, he agreed to take Belkar on.
[edit] The Order of the Stick
Despite his kill-first who-cares-about-asking-questions attitude causing the occasional (constant) problem, Belkar has proven to be generally effective (in killing) as a party member during his time with the Order. Roy has learned from experience that Belkar is unlikely to follow orders to protect vulnerable individuals during combat, and he has often been known to regard his own teammates (mostly Elan) as viable targets, but, with carefully applied threats, the rest of the group have generally been able to keep the halfling under control and they consider him to be one of their own, standing by him when he faces threats from others.
Captured and imprisoned in Azure City, Belkar was able to break out, murdered a guard and went on the rampage, daring paladin Miko Miyazaki to track him down and face him. She did so, in a fight that ranged throughout the castle, ultimately getting the better of the halfling. However, as she prepared to administer the final blow, she was struck from behind by a spell from Vaarsuvius who, despite his/her (or its) contempt for the halfling, still preferred him to Miyazaki. Belkar, who had been doing his best to provoke Miko into an act that would deprive her of her paladinhood, was distinctly ungrateful, but later, during the New Year celebration, the drunken halfling kissed Vaarsuvius. Since then, the wizard has been going out of his/her (or its) way to aggravate Belkar, in order to prevent any possible repeat of the incident.
In return for Roy's co-operation in defeating Xykon, Lord Shojo has secretly agreed to allow Belkar to continue travelling with the Order of the Stick, postponing Belkar's trial for his murder of a Sapphire Guard until one week after Xykon is defeated. However, in return for his freedom Belkar has had an enchanted rune, visible only through a Detect Magic spell (or similar), placed upon his forehead. This "Mark of Justice" represents a powerful curse, triggered whenever Belkar violates certain terms:
- if Belkar attempts to deal lethal damage to any living creature within the bounds of any city, village or town. Presumably he can still deal lethal damage to undead, and he is able to inflict non-lethal damage. It appears that he can also employ others to inflict the damage on his behalf.
- if Belkar is separated from Roy by more than a mile;
- if he annoys Roy enough to make him trigger the curse with an unknown activation word.
If the curse is activated, Belkar would get sicker and sicker until he is incapable of hurting anyone. Belkar's freedom has been given "on the sly"; Belkar must remain in disguise whilst the OotS are in Azure City, and Roy's father has created a permanent illusion of Belkar in the Sapphire Guard's cells. So far, he has been careful to avoid violating any of the above terms that would activate his curse, although he came very close when facing Yokyok of the Linear Guild, before Elan reminded him. His share of all the treasure and loot gathered will go towards having the guard he killed raised from the dead.
According to the Oracle of Sunken Valley, Belkar will eventually cause the death of at least one of Miko Miyazaki, her horse Windstriker, Vaarsuvius, Roy or the Oracle himself, although, due to the specific wording of his question, Belkar wasn't able to find out which one. The Oracle also strongly suggested that Belkar won't live very much longer but no one in the party can remember this.
He possesses a Ring of Jumping +20, obtained after their quest through the Dungeon of Dorukan, which he considers highly useful as it not only allows him to rain death from above onto his enemies but also to reach things on high shelves.
[edit] Personality, Abilities and Traits
Belkar can be readily described as being extremely vicious, bad-tempered and distractable. He has no patience, poor memory, is utterly immoral, and would quite happily kill fellow party members for experience. He would rather slit throats than take prisoners. Although his alignment was once in dispute, it has since been confirmed by the creator of the strip both through explicit statement and through various events in the comic itself that Belkar is Chaotic Evil. In his particular case, this does not mean he serves an evil ideology; rather, it means that he is completely self-centered and finds the greatest joy in harming others. His pleasures seem limited to killing things, murderously avenging minor insults, showing off his savagery, surprisingly sophisticated mental torture, setting things aflame, copious amounts of food, ale and sex. He does have a sense of humour, albeit a relatively primitive one, and often finds Elan amusing. Belkar is exceedingly hard to scare. To him, the more enemies to kill, the better [1] [2]. He is attracted to good-looking human females.
Belkar seems to be a counterstereotype to the traditional Tolkien-inspired RPG halfling that is a stealthy, jolly, social, calm, occasionally mischievous and fairly cute person who dislikes violence and prefers a tranquil life emphasizing the small pleasures of life. His only similarity apart from his stealth (He has high ranks in Hide and Move Silently and used these against Miko) would seem to be his enjoyment of food; he has on a few occasions displayed the advanced culinary sense traditionally associated with halflings. He also has an unusually keen sense of smell; he was capable of identifying Roy's true identity when he was under the effects of a Girdle of Masculinity/Feminity (though this didn't stop him from trying to flirt with "her"- sheerly for the joy of tormenting Roy) and, when confronted by Nale (who has secretly taken Elan's place in the Order) when the latter was not wearing Elan's clothes he instantly recognized him. Unfortunately for his comrades, Nale successfully managed to Charm Belkar, and has ordered him to murder his companions (while singing the complete score to "Meet Me in St. Louis").
Vaarsuvius has implied that Belkar has a problem with the concept that other people deserve to live, which essentially sums up Belkar's morality. The elf also claims Belkar has a Wisdom score "normally reserved for lemmings" and an Intelligence score that "would compare unfavorably with that of a table" (though (s)he later considers the last comment an insult to tables). All of these statements match Belkar most of the time.
In contrast, Belkar has incredible skill when he is torturing or fighting someone; he's come up with innovative battle tactics (like soaking the paladin Miko in sake- before he threw a match at her), used class limitations to his own advantage (as he hid from Miko, knowing that Spot and Listen aren't paladin class skills), and improvised methods to get around dangerous situations (such as throwing up a lead sheet to prevent Miko from realizing his Chaotic Evil alignment- her Detect Evil couldn't pass the sheet.) His mental cruelty displays a surprising level of sophistication as well, such as attempting to make Miko kill him so she'd lose her paladin abilities. Considering that Belkar is Chaotic Evil, he may well believe the only good use of his brain is to torture or kill someone, and in an incident where Vaarsuvius cast an Owl's Wisdom spell on him, Belkar temporarily became a much more peaceful and focused being, indicating that his Wisdom score must be at least as high as ten.
Since the kiss incident, Vaarsuvius has developed the hypothesis that Belkar is only able to process two emotions with regard to other people: hatred and lust. While this does appear to hold true in many cases, there are certain individuals who appear not to fit into this theory, most notably Elan. While Belkar was perfectly willing to 'defeat' Elan in order to gain experience, he finds the bard amusing, they get on reasonably well, as a rule, and the two have, on occasion, joined forces against Roy for their own amusement. When Elan was captured by bandits, the halfling required no persuasion to join the rescue effort, although it was on the basis that if anybody was going to gain experience for killing Elan, Belkar wanted it to be him (and Elan makes him laugh).
Belkar apparently knows the complete score to "Meet Me in St. Louis", and Vaarsuvius believes he lusts after Haley Starshine, Hermione Granger, Mrs. Butterworth and Vaarsuvius him/herself (Vaarsuvius reasons that after he/she saved Belkar from Miko, he classified him/her under the lust part of his brain). Interestingly, Haley does, on occasion, bring out unexpected sides of the halfling. At one time she made him feel guilty of being insensitive and prejudiced to her, the only time he has ever displayed anything resembling guilt and shame. Belkar also admits to finding it creepy that Haley polishes the party's gold daily, probably the only time he has been shown to be ill at ease.
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| Characters: | Roy Greenhilt | Durkon Thundershield | Haley Starshine | Elan | Vaarsuvius | Belkar Bitterleaf | Xykon |
| Character lists: | General list | Linear Guild |
| Locations: | General list |
| Miscellaneous: | Haley's pseudo-language |
