The Title of
Man
By: Nelson Carrasquillo
Prologue-
Through out the world different
cultures have different customs that a boy must go through to cross
the thresh hold of adolescence to manhood. No matter who you are,
you are not considered a man if you do not complete these certain
rituals. These rituals can be as simple as traveling to a certain
rural place to something more painful and deadly. For the tribe of
Thgil of Mangunu the trail was a trail of both a long journey and
grave danger. But unlike the other tribes the Thgil was an elite group
of the Mangunu; a tribe located in the middle of Africa, and was a
choice of the males of the Mangunu to join. The trial of manhood was
held very sacred, and if you vowed to complete this journey and help
the other men of the Thgil fight the forces of evil you did so with
your life. If one chose to do this mission and didn’t finish it, the
tribe recognized that the person was a person of evil, and sent out
a hunter to either help the person through the journey or kill the
person to rid him of the evil in his soul. There are many Thgil tribes
men around the world and one is located in this great city of Paragon.
He is no ordinary citizen of Paragon city he is a hero. This hero’s
name is Kumdarey Tortures, but he is better known to others and to
himself as Rey Tormentor.
In October 31, 1905, on his fifteenth birth
day, young Rey went through the pain staking day of the ritual of
blood. Which was the act of cutting patterns into the skin of a certain
animal that was the spirit of the young male, for Rey it was an ancient
bird that has been extinct for many centuries. After his wounds had
recovered the head shaman blessed him and sent him on his journey.
This journey is so sacred that it is forbidden to be known by anyone
unless they are on the journey it self. But what is known is that
the journey is vast and the participant is not expected to come back.
Periodically the shaman will make a psychic connection to the traveler
and make sure he is still on the path of righteousness.
In 1910, young
Rey was unexpectedly taken off course and suffered a head injury doing
one of the requirements of the journey. He obtained amnesia and forgot
who he truly was. Luckily an anthropologist documenting the tribe
was secretly following the young boy and took him under his wing.
Due to the fact that the young doctor thought this whole trial was
inhuman he never told the boy that he was doing the journey and just
told him of what the wounds were from. Kumdarey continued his life
from that point as Rey Tormentor. He joined the U.S. air force and
participated in both world wars and also joined the S.U.P.E.R.S. and
fought in the Rikti War.
To this date it has been one hundred years
since he left home but that is unknown to him. Rey believes that he
is only fifty-one years old. Unfortunately the head shaman of his
tribe feels that Rey is in need of some assistance. The Hunter has
been sent.