Starke starts out as a minor character that, quite frankly, I started falling in love with so kept giving him a bigger piece of the pie.  But, back to doing this in-character…  As Sabu, Eldar, and the rest are starting out they have need of a small group of mercenaries (Hey, wizards are great and all, but not so much up-close against swords, much less what they expect to be coming); close to a dozen, led by a man named Starke. An experienced soldier who started out as a grunt and quickly worked his way up to command his own merc unit.

He is not, however, entirely out for merely pay. He is a man of honor as well as intelligence, and will not fight for a cause he does not believe in.  And so he hired out to a mixed group of potential misfits who are knowingly journeying to an island that they know was once a base of some sort of the villainous Miro, though long abandoned these many centuries. Sounds like it might be worth his time.

That journey is rough, and by the time it’s finished (small spoiler here) he’s the only one left of his little merc unit, though still staying loyally by the side of those who hired him, though now for what he sees in them. Their miraculous deeds and different ways of doing things, has him believing their destiny leads on to far greater things.  Then there’s the matter of a vision that Sindar has regards Starke: That he shall one day become a General in service to a great king.

Does he?  Well, he does come into the service of the King, as a Captain (that emblem on his chest is the symbol of the Great Northern Kingdom, the only one whose King has sworn to stand up against Miro), but beyond that– sorry, we’re done with spoilers.  Besides, the King already has a General (Baldegron).

In the Maldene Tarot, I think he is best represented by the Knight of Gai.