#skorak

Design

Given that Ultraman was a huge source of inspiration for Gigabash, it was probably inevitable that we’d get a Gastropod monster since the ultra franchise has produced a handful. Namegon from Ultra Q in particular was a massive source of inspiration for Skorak’s design.

However, Skorak is also described as an evil overlord, so it’s possible that he’s got some Gatanothor in him as well. Gatanothor would later appear in the game with the Ultraman character pack as Camearra’s ultimate.

Skorak has quite a bit of concept art as well! And for awhile PRG was debating giving him up to 4 heads.

Side note: Skorak’s talons erupt from his pupils.

I personally find Skorak really cute and he reminds me of the “Live slug reaction” meme.

Lore

Skoraks home turf is Tarabak island (the name itself a reference to the snail kaiju Taraban from Ultraman Tiga), which is Gigabash’s stand in for Skull Island; an island overflowing with monsters and kaiju much to the dismay of the native humans. Much like Skull Island, Tarabak has an in universe book written in the early 1900’s called The Lost World of Tarabak detailing the adventures of a man named Petyr Faust in his crew. However, the content was so radical and unbelievable that it was labeled as a fictional story, and this wouldn’t be corrected until the 70’s during the first kaiju crisis.

The natives of Tarabak Island lived in fear for centuries as no place was safe from the rampaging monsters. Eventually though, one day a kaiju came along that curb stomped any other monster and quickly became the “king”. The natives worshipped this kaiju for protection, and under his watch they developed quite an advanced civilization. Entire cities of stone and gold were constructed, and a dam was built to control water flow for agriculture. They even had a legislative and court system! For nearly a century things went well and the people prospered, but this protection came at a cost, which I’ll cover two entries from now when we take a look at this “dragon king”. For some people this cost was too great a price to be tolerated, and so one day these displeased people performed a dark ritual where they spilled their own blood and the offerings meant for their king. Their prayers were answered in the form of a poisonous sludge. These rebels filled their offerings with this sludge and when they fed these offerings to their king he fell sick as Skorak devoured him from the inside before bursting out and taking his skull as a trophy.

That sludge was actually eggs, and this means that Skorak is a parasitoid kaiju slug that wears the remains of its first meal as protection, which is metal as hell. Also, I know Gigabash is a doofy kaiju party game, but the anatomist in me is very unhappy with the skull Skorak wears.

The resulting civil war would destroy the once great civilization of Tarabak and the population would splinter into three factions that constantly vie for control over the island, with Skorak’s followers becoming a cult known as the Eyes Of Skorak.

While the cult’s activities are mostly on the Island of Tarabak, the religion is known amongst occultist circles. In order to be initiated into the Eyes of Skorak you have to be injected with his venom. Those who survive, IF they survive, gain a telepathic connection to the kaiju and other cult members. Hence the name “Eyes of Skorak”.

Sadly Skorak and the rest of the game’s roster don’t have story modes as any more beyond the initial four were too resource taxing on the small indi studio of Passion Republic Games. Skorak does appear in all the other story modes sans Pipijuras’s as an opponent though. In Woolley’s in particular the native Yeti herd of Tarabak are seen celebrating his defeat, and given that Skorak lives for the hunt and consumption of other kaiju, it’s likely that he was routinely eating the poor Yetis.