Michael Lee Viviano after using bad shampoo.
For the user, see User:Kilmore
Kilmore and Ivory inflicting boo-boos on the Blood Ravens.
Kilmore aka Michael Lee Viviano aka Mikey.
Real version[]
Kilmore is an adventuring fighter that travels throughout the Empire of Trynser. He constantly travels with his brother Lefty and adoptive sister Cheri Karmuliken. Kilmore generally adventures for the thrill more than for the gold but any employers who meet his standards may hire him for work. Kilmore is not available for general soldier work; marching, training, guarding, or going to war.
He does not know much about his earliest background, he and his brother Lefty were both sons of Dhangus Tigerwhiskers, a close friend of Barney Karmuliken, and Opula, a cult priestess of the Demon Lord Paalugh. They were sired during a wild party in the north Kasteban city of Ardallia. Opula conceived the children as a bargain with her dark lord, specifying that one child would be sacrificed and his twin to recieve magical strength and become a powerful warrior of evil. She carried this pregnancy to bear in a hidden cult enclave nearby.
When the children were born, the foul ceremony was started, and Paalugh started tearing at Kilmore's face with foul magics, inflicting the permanent scars that he bears to this day, and giving huge muscular power to baby Lefty. However, Dhangus had heard of these goings on. Unlike the dozens of other babies sired across the globe, he chose to get involved. In an epic battle with the cultists, Dhangus laid down his life to rescue the babies, who were brought to Dhangus' friend Barney.
Knowing that the children were his now fallen friend's, Barney raised them, not quite like his own (which was Cheri), but as best he could. Barney taught all of them, but it was Kilmore who paid the most attention. Barney taught Kilmore about swordfighting, other kinds of fighting, and a basic degree of managing in the wild.. He taught him about adventuring and how to survive doing it, and instilled his own values in the child.
Much of Kilmore's interest in fighting came during his school time. He and Lefty attended a one-room school in the village of Datsolln in Karninia near Barney's castle, from the time he was five until he was twelve. Some of the kids treated with respect, but most others treated him like some sort of monster, physical abuse being common. Lefty most often protected him, but Kilmore decided to learn how to fight himself. Barney found that a good way to channel the boy's anger.
Unfortunately, Barney was called away on an adventure when the boys were twelve, and they and Cheri were sent to Paldast to be raised by one of Barney's girlfriends. They did not get along at all, and the kids escaped and terrorized the town until they were locked down in the Paladast Rehabilitation Hall. Several years later, Barney returned and sprung them from the joint.
Following was a few years of advanced training before Barney, judging them fit to survive unaided, tossed the brothers out on their butts.
Fictional version[]
Mikey in the U.S. Navy holding a certificate while standing with crewmates in front of "the tower."
Michael Lee Viviano was an author, illustrator, and the founder of Trynser Wiki. He was a game master in the Best of Both Worlds, Citadel's Shadow I, Citadel's Shadow II, Gnome Revolution. Streets of Trynser City, Tasadeon, Tigerquest, and Zarbatra I campaigns. He GMed both GURPS and Dungeons & Dragons.
When he was in the U.S. Navy, he served on a submarine that the crew called "a dragon in your midst." In his fiction, one of his recurring monsters was a giant badger which he used in adventures, in The Hellbënders Webcomic, and in the unfinished novel The Balls of Menthone. Mikey aka "Kilmore" was the inspiration for Keilos, a mage-minstrel captured by Badger Squad in Tower in the Mist, the first novella in the Minstrels of Skaythe series. The squad got its name from a giant badger and deals with a mysterious dragon.
GURPS Fantasy Folk: Elves by Alden Loveshade was dedicated in his memory (He passed away from COVID-19 related complications on 1 August 2020.) It includes a vignette featuring the dragon Mythonia, named after Menthone.