Turok. Originally the lead character from the graphic novel series Turok, Son of Stone in 1956, after appearing in two previous issues of Four Color Comics in 1954 and 1955, Turok has been around in some form to this day. He's had multiple comic runs, 4 non-cannon novels, an animated film, and 6 console games. To make things more complicated, Turok is only the actual name of one character in this series, and is more of a title for 5 other characters in his fiction. To make things brief we have:
Turok: A native american warrior and main character of the original Dark Horse comic series, Dynamite Entertainment run, and an animated film.
Tal'Set: A Saquin warrior who took over the mantel in 1980 in a new run of comics by Valiant, the original Turok: Dinosaur Hunter game on N64, and prequel Turok: Evolution on PS2.
Carl Fireseed: Turok from 1982 - 1997, but not appearing in any games.
Joshua Fireseed: Nephew of Carl and the Turok in the Acclaim run of comics and the second game Turok 2: Seeds of Evil.
Danielle and Joseph Fireseed: Younger siblings of Joshua, and Turoks of Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion.
Joseph Turok: The half-Kiowa soldier from the 2008 Xbox360/PS3 game Turok.
Okay, so we've got the entire lineage of Turok and all his mainline games listed out. And...it's kind of a mess. We've got multiple comic series and a weird split timeline thing going on with the game series. Acclaim made a trilogy on N64 with new main character(s) in each installment that have some ties to the expanded universe, and then came back to Tal'Set from the first game for the PS2 prequel game. After that Propaganda Games ignored everything and made reboot of sorts with their game in 2008. I say reboot of sorts because it doesn't technically break any cannon, but also doesn't reference anything previously established aside from the most basic things like having dinosaurs and a guy called Turok. So let's start at the beginning and see just what kind of lore we're dealing with.
Turok, Son of Stone
The origin of Turok is a fairly simple one, but does lay some foundation the future games will draw from. Before any Europeans had begun colonizing America, Turok and his fellow warrior Andar are out hunting when they discover a cave with a huge amount of bats flying out. Hoping to find some water, the two venture inside. After deciding to go further in to find another exit instead of doing the smart thing and just turning around, and even swimming through a portion of an underground river, the two find themselves in a strange valley. Hungry from all that poor decision making, they try to hunt for food. Turok hits an animal with an arrow, but they see it snapped up by a dinosaur looking thing. Freaking out a little, the two try to climb a hill to get their bearings, only to get Flintstoned and realize they're climbing up a brontosaurus. From there the two's adventures focus on surviving in the Lost Valley (or Lost Land as it will later be called) while trying to find their way back out. So far so good, right? Nothing too crazy.
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter.
Remember, this is an N64 game with, like, two cut-scenes so players would have basically no idea what was going on without reading the manual. The manual explains that the main character, Tal'Set, is the latest Turok, a title given to the eldest male of each generation. Whoever holds the title of Turok has the responsibility to defend the barrier between Earth and the Lost Land. The Lost Land being world where "time has no meaning" and is populated by everything from dinosaurs to aliens. Still with me? Good. Now, the villain of the game is the Campaigner who is attempting to get an an ancient artifact called the Chronoscepter. The Chronoscepter was apparently so powerful that it was shattered into eight pieces so that it couldn't be used for evil. So, the Campaigner's plan is to use a focusing array to amplify the Chronoscepter's power and use it to destroy the barriers separating different ages of time. Apparently this will allow him to rule the universe somehow. Turok's job is to find the pieces of the Chronoscepter first and stop the Campaigner. Once he does so, he throws the Chronoscepter into a volcano.
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Boom - a new Turok falls out of a portal in the middle of outer space by an alien woman. You thought the first game had a crazy plot for a game about shooting dinosaurs? Well strap in because I'm about to throw some weird names at you. This alien, Adon, also known as the Speaker of Forever Light, tells Turok (this one being Joshua Fireseed for those at home taking notes) that he was summoned by the Elders of the Lost Land called the Lazarus Concordance in order to stop the Primagen. The Primagen is a super strong alien who was trapped in his own spaceship after he tried to witness the creation of the universe but crashed or something? It's not exactly clear what happened, only that his attempt to see the big bang created the Lost Land, he's trapped in his wrecked ship, and the Chronoscepter Tal'Set threw into a volcano woke him up. Thankfully someone (I'm assuming the Lazarus Concordance?) created five Energy Totems that keep the Primagen locked in his ship. But oh no, the Primagen's army is trying to destroy them! Who will protect them, Turok? Considering he was yanked out of time and space to do it, it's not like he really had a choice but to defend the totems and kill the Primagen, did he? But wait, that's not all! Along the way Turok is occasionally warped into traps set by something called Oblivion where its minions, Flesh Eaters, try to kill him. After defeating the Primagen, Adon let's us know that Oblivion is still out there...
Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion
Two years after the second game, even more confusing plot repercussions occurred between games. Apparently when the Primagen's ship was destroyed it caused a chain reaction that "the universe as it existed was completely eradicated." I guess...let's just not think about that. Anyway, this also nearly killed Oblivion, which we now learn to be a cosmic creature that existed before the universe was created (again, it's probably better we just nod and move along) and feeds on the living. How could it feed on the living if it existed before the univ- never mind! Just keep going. So, Oblivion only just survived the destruction of the universe and now plots to break through the Netherscape, not to be confused with the Netherrealm, which is what we're calling the thing that stands between the living world and the Lost Land. Again, what? Another retcon we're throwing in is that every Turok apparently has had a bag called the Light Burden with shards of pure energy that created the living world, and almost killed Oblivion. By ending the Turok line, Oblivion will be reborn. To do this, he has an army of religious worshipers called "The Sons of Darkness." Finally we get to the actual game where Joshua is back in our world having nightmares about a kid who he needs to protect because he's the last of the Fireseed line. Somehow he doesn't seem to know who this child he's supposedly related to is, but whatever. Oblivion's minions teleport into his house at night and attack. He fights while his brother and sister escape, but blows himself up in the process. Wow, what a great sendoff to the previous game's protagonist... Adon shows up again to teleport Joseph and Danielle to meet the Council of Voices. What happened to the Lazarus Concordance? Shut up, that's what. They decide one of the two will be the new Turok and stop Oblivion. This is where this timeline ends (thankfully).
Turok: Evolution
Here we go, jumping from the N64 to the PS2 generation and back to our old friend Tal'Set. But wait, is this a reboot or a sequel to the first game? Before I started this project I thought it was what the kids are calling a "soft reboot" but it turns out to actually be a prequel to the original game. Great, this timeline wasn't a big enough mess before, was it? Let's what other nonsense this game can come up with. We open on a new character named Tarkeen, a seer, who tells us about the Lost Land and how it was constantly being fought over by warlords. Cut to the old west where Tal'Set and Tobias Buckner fight, with Tal'Set cutting off Tobias' arm. Then, in classic Turok fashion, a wormhole opens up out of nowhere and sucks them both inside. Tal'Set is taken in by the River Village people who send him off to Tarkeen, fighting dinosaurs and the main enemy force called the Sleg on the way. Tarkeen tells him he was the one who brought Tal'Set there in order to break a curse placed on him and become Turok. Tal'Set is not interested in that, but for some reason gets really mad when he finds out the Sleg attacked the village and captured a bunch of people. We can glaze over most of the details here, but in short: Buckner appears as a general for the Sleg, Tal'Set rescues people, goes on missions against the Sleg, meets some senators, collapses a city, and eventually faces Buckner and leaves him to be eaten by compies. After that Tal'Set decides he will be Turok, because why not, but we're also shown Lord Tyrannus sulking in his temple as a teaser for a sequel we never got. I mean, a sequel to the prequel, not the original game which doesn't have Lord Tyrannus in it.
Turok
Last but (maybe?) not least is the 2008 reboot. Not only are we jumping consoles again, PS2 era to PS3, but also developers for the first time. So, what did they decide to do with our beloved Turok? Well, they named the main character Joseph Turok, not to be confused with Joseph Fireseed who was the Turok in 3, and make him a space marine. Yep, this is 2008 people, where space marines are second in popularity only to QTEs, waist high cover, and texture pop-in. Before becoming a space marine, Turok was arrested for some unknown crime while in the military, and was brought into a military unit called Wolf Pack by Roland Kane in exchange for being pardoned. Kane trained Turok in using a knife and bow, even teaching him a little about his own Kiowa history. After just one mission with Wolf Pack, Turok abandons the team when he accidentally injures a girl who Cane helps by...shooting her in the head while Turok holds her. Nice. So, after apparently suffering zero consequences for abandoning his unit, Turok is put in Whiskey Company and shipped off through space to a new terraformed planet to help capture Kane for war crimes. Their ship is shot down before it can land and, who would've guessed, there's dinosaurs on that planet! Turok spends a while grouping up with Whiskey Company, and then they start dying off one at a time in dramatic fashion as they try and escape the planet. They also learn Kane was doing some bio-weapons stuff on the planet with the animals and toxins, which was why they were sent after him in the first place. In the end, only Turok and two others make it to a ship and escape. Oh, and Turok kills Kane too in a...QTE knife fight. 2008, ladies and gentlemen. And...that's basically it. Kind of...boring compared to everything else.
Wow, that took longer than expected. Also, who would've thought a comic about two guys in a valley with dinosaurs in it would lead to such ridiculous plot lines? With all that history taken care of though, we can now begin looking at how Turok could be brought back. The way I see it, there's three paths to take.
1. Base it off the original graphic novel and ignore all other cannon.
2. Continue with the N64/Evolution timeline.
3. Continue with the 2008 reboot timeline.
Personally, I think option 1 would be the best. Don't get me wrong, I've actually come to really appreciate the absurdity of the plots of the N64/ Evolution games, and can even appreciate how the 2008 reboot kind of had some interesting ideas...sort of...okay, that game's entire story was boring, poorly written, and basically a waste all around. But on a basic level I think the idea of Turok hunting down his mentor who taught him about his heritage and how to survive isn't bad.
So here's what I'm thinking. We start with Turok teaching a younger Andar how to hunt, similar to the original, also set before colonization, but it's winter this time. They take shelter in a mountainside cave for the night, and Andar shows Turok the sacred bundle he took from his father, the chief. The two argue, Turok taking the sacred bundle from him, but are taken by surprise by a bear. The bear attacks and Turok breaks his spear defending himself. Defenseless, the bear looks ready to kill Turok when Andar cries out and lunges with his own spear. The bear isn't much affected by Andar's poor attack, but his scream causes an avalanche that sends the bear running deep into the cave. The mouth of the cave is completely covered by snow and the two have no choice but to go deeper into the cave, hoping to find an alternative exit before they freeze or starve to death. They feel fresh, moist, air as they go which is confusing but also promising. They stop to rest at a junction of many tunnels, but after a short while Turok senses a presence. Thinking it's the bear, he stands to face it with his tomahawk, but when the bear does show up it just runs by the two. Confused, the pair then hears the sounds of something approaching. When lizard-like eyes appear in one of the tunnels ahead and emits a warbling chirp-like growl, Andar flees down one of the tunnels in fear. Turok chases him, but quickly loses track of him in the labyrinthine cave system. Pursued by the shadowy creature, which is obvious to us as a dinosaur, Turok continues to flee until the ground below him slopes down and he slides through the dirt, into water, and out the exit of a small waterfall in a cliff face into a small pool below. He hits his head in under water but manages to crawl to the muddy shore before passing out, hearing approaching voices before everything goes completely black.
Turok is healed by a tribe native to the Lost Land who have been in conflict with a race of humanoid dinosaurs somewhat akin to the enemies from Turok 2 and the Sleg from Evolution. He regains his strength and learns about all the prehistoric threats in the valley, as well as learning that Andar was spotted as a captive of the dino-huminoids. The game would then focus on three aspects: Turok finding and rescuing Andar, escaping the Lost Land, and also preventing the dinosaur-hybrid tribe from escaping into the outside world. Simple? Sure, but the best primary objectives in stories usually tend to be.
But who is this Turok? If he's not a deep, complex, and engaging character then it all falls apart. What if Turok was a warrior tasked by Andar's father, the current chief, to train and prepare him to be a brave warrior and return the sacred bundle. As seen in the beginning, Andar is not particularly brave. The sacred bundle is a collection of objects the Mandan tribe believed to possess sacred powers, and whoever holds them would be granted those powers by spirits as well. Only the leader of the tribe is permitted to hold the sacred bundle, so bringing it back is of upmost importance to Turok. See, Turok is one of the tribes best warriors, which means he has a lot of responsibility to the tribe. He holds the tribe's, and Andar's, well being above everything else, including himself. This new tribe he works with is different; putting value in the individual over concepts. For the first time he is also not the most capable hunter anymore. He has no idea how to deal with wild dinosaurs or their more evolved counterparts, and is dependent on this new tribe to teach him, but their way of teaching, and overall philosophy, is so different that it frustrates him. Turok must grow to learn that self-sacrifice isn't the only way to show worth, and sometimes putting himself first is necessary. He must also grapple with trying to be a mentor to Andar when he himself struggles to know what's right. Turok knows how to survive better than anyone, and can teach Andar those practical skills, but beyond that he hadn't given anything much thought beyond doing what he was told would benefit the tribe. Turok could also reflect on his own upbringing, which was to be nothing more than a hunter.
Obviously this is a really general and basic overview for a game's narrative, but I think that's how pitches for games kind of need to be. Granted that's a very ignorant statement since I know very little about how stories for games are developed. What I do hear often, though, is that A LOT changes during a game's development, which would obviously have giant ramifications on the story, so getting into a fully detailed, point by point, outline of a narrative would probably end up just having to be redone anyway. Also, this post has gone on for quite long enough already, wouldn't you say?
Before I end, I'm curious if anyone else has any ideas for how to bring Turok back? I chose to base the story mostly off the original graphic novel, but I could also see another outrageous melding of pre-history and sci-fi spawning incredible concepts too, probably better than the one I pitched. I'd love to hear any story/ character ideas this may have inspired.
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