Volk

Volk Bato is the lead scout for The Lost City of Saxon. His knack for exploration and skill at piloting their flying zodyaks make him one of the best scouts the city--or perhaps even the spheres themselves--have ever seen. His talents in scouting don't cross over to other avenues very much, and he has a reputation of being a bit impressionable and dimwitted outside his fields of expertise.
He suffered a crisis of conscience upon learning from his wife Kira that the fire giants he believed he lived in harmony with actually used the Geit people as slaves to amass technology for an army to conquer the spheres. While he opposes the fire giants' plans, they managed to keep him in line and servile when they got a hold of Volk's younger brother, Koba, and installed cybernetics that--while restoring his ability to walk--would bind him to the city's power core and allow Saxon to kill him if he ever stepped out of line.

Early Life

Volk grew up among the Geit as a member of the Bato clan, renowned for their skill in scouting and kayaking. Like many of his people, he was possessed of a lust to explore Jotun's narrow seas and find the wonders frozen beneath the ice. He enjoyed a friendly rivalry with the neighboring Hrothgar Clan--a city of fishing specialists whom the Batos often encountered on the water--and a close relationship with his younger brother, Koba.
While Koba was slight of frame compared to Volk and their other siblings, he shared his brother's love of exploration. Although Koba's passions manifested in a more intellectual fashion than Volk's, growing into more of a bookish sort than a rough and tumble explorer. Volk tried to pass his wisdom onto his brother and relished teaching him how to kayak, but his duties as a scout for the Bato clan often seperated them for long periods of time. He made up for his absences by keeping a journal of kayaking tips that he would one day present to his younger brother to share his wisdom.

Broken Skulls and Lost Cities

Of all the legends that explorers shared about Jotun, none fascinated Volk more than The Lost City of Saxon. Said to be possessed of wondrous technology and treasure, no one had ever laid eyes on the city and returned to tell about it becuase it purportedly sat behind Jotun's most dangerous rapid, Broken Skull Pass.
Undaunted, Volk took the first opportunity he could to make a run at the pass. But his kayak crashed partway in, killing his crew and leaving him stranded with a nearly broken boat. As Volk lay trapped and slowly succumbing to frostbite, he studied his surroundings and tried to work out a way to overcome the pass's obstacles. Feverishly carving his findings with his knife on the leather cover of his journal, he eventually worked out a path through that would carry him down the rapids. Once he could take the cold no longer, he set back out into the rapids.
Against all odds, Volk arrived in the lost city to find it not only existed, but had far exceeded the legends told about it. A futuristic neon utopia where people road in flying kayaks and Fire Giants lived in harmony with Geit. It was the most amazing sight Volk had ever witnessed, and given his injuries, he thought it would be the last.

A Second Life

The city's scouts found Volk at the edge of town near death. They brought him into the clinic, resucitating and replacing his frostbitten limbs with advanced cybernetics. Upon awakening, Volk learned that The Lost City of Saxon was founded by fire giants who had taken in a lost tribe of ancient Geit after the Shrikevind scattered their civilization across time. Taking pity on the refugees, the fire giants incorporated them into their society and shared their technology. Thanks to their advanced cybernetics, Volk was alive and felt better than ever, but the miracle came at a cost. His cybernetic augmentations required access to the city's power source to operate, meaning if Volk ever left for an extended period of time they would deactivate and kill him.
The operation was not wholly the prison sentence Volk feared, as the city maintained a robust fleet of scouts who often set out on expeditions around Jotun and beyond to collect resources for the city. Since these missions would supply Volk's cybernetics with enough power to slake his wanderlust--even if only for brief periods.
Volk signed up for the scout force and quickly rose through his ranks. His prodigious talents and knowledge of Jotun's hostile environments saw him earn a position of lead scout, a rare feat for an outsider. Serving in the scouts, Volk got to hobnob with the city's leader, a kindly man who they called the Speaker of Saxon. He developed a rivalry with the Speaker's son, Marlowe- the city's chief of police-- and a romance with the speaker's daughter, Kira.
Eventually, Volk settled down to lfie in the city. He married Kira and moved in with her to a luxury apartment, where they lived with a "dog" named Melt who was really a proto Fire Giant Volk had found during one of their scouting missions. Outside of missing his brother and family dearly, life couldn't have been better for Volk.
Matters grew complicated however, when Kira revealed to Volk that not all was as it appeared in the city. She had learned that the idyllic peace between Geit and Fire Giant was a relatively recent development. Her people were originally slaves kept by the fire giants to gather nectar and artifacts for them. A failed slave rebellion had improved their quality of life, but the goal of the city remained to see its true leader, Saxon, build an army of fire giants to conquer the spheres themselves. Kira secretly used her position as the Speaker's daughter to lead an insurgency aiming to take the fire giants down.
Even though Volk owed his life to the fire giants, he couldn't continue helping them knowing the truth. After all, the outside world Saxon sought to conquer held many of Volk's loved ones from his old life, including his younger brother, Koba. Volk agreed to act as a double agent for the insurgency, using his position with the scouts to help them cover their tracks. Wtih Volks help, they killed several fire giants and harvested their components to destroy the city core. As their project neared completion, Volk volunteered to deliver the payload. With his cybernetics drawing power from the city core, the attack would be a death sentence for him (and many others in the city). However, his actions would save more lives in the long run by stopping Saxon's plans from coming to fruition.

A Bittersweet Reunion

Volk's invovlement with the insurgency hit a stumbling block when Koba unexpectedly arrived in the city. Apparently, he had taken his own trip down Broken Skull Pass in search of his missin brother, which resulted in him becoming paralyzed from the waist down. But Koba's failed expedition had recoverd Volk's missing journal, and the young Geit had never given up hope of finding his brother. Somehow, Koba had managed to convince a group of Corsairs to tackle the pass with him again. With Volk's notes they managed to arrive in the city in-tact.
While he was overjoyed to see his brother, the reunion brought up conflicting feelings as Koba now occupied a city full of dangers--one that Volk himself was making plans to destroy. He hosted Koba and his new friends at the apartment, keeping up appearences as the leader of the city's scouts. Eventually, the Corsairs learned of the insurgents' plan and Volks involvement with them.
Before he could explain what was really going on the city, the Speaker turned Volk against the insurgents by taking Koba for an operation that would cure his paralysis but also bind him to the city. Volk couldn't face the prospect of killing his brother and quit the resistance.
But the Corsairs sprung into action, helping Volk break Koba out of the hospital and escape the city. Together, they raced down the skyway toward freedom. Volk knew that he himself could never escape and the city would undoubtedly face Saxon's wrath as a result of his betrayal, however as long as Koba could escape with his freedom Volk was willing to weather those sacrifices.
His escape fell short however when the Speaker shut off Volk's cybernetics and attempted to come to an accord with the Corsaris. He reasoned that he could control the damage of the Corsairs escape, but Saxon was adamant on the Bato brothers’ return to the city. He did not dispute that Saxon was evil, but his army was still many generations off from being able to take over the spheres. In the meantime, he wanted to provide a good life for the people in the city who had been enslaved by the fire giants.
Volk begged the Corsairs to leave with Koba, but they reasoned that returning him would save people’s lives and that the boy would have a better life in the city where he could walk and be happy. The Speaker promised the Corsairs patronship from the city in exchange for their cooperation. The Corsairs returned to the Nomad while the Speaker took Volk and Koba back to forever serve The Lost City of Saxon.