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Fralk
Fictional Character
A World of Difference
POD: c 4,500,000,000 BCE;
Relevant POD: AD 1976
Type of Appearance: Direct POV
Species: Minervan
Nationality: Skarmer clan
Date of Death: 1989
Cause of Death: Molotov cocktail in combat
Occupation: Student, Nobleman, diplomat
Relatives: Hogram (grandfather),
Lorkis (uncle)

Fralk was a Minervan male of the great clan Skarmer. He was domain-master Hogram's eldest of eldest and, since his father had predeceased his grandfather, stood to inherit Hogram's domain upon the elder Minervan's death.

Immediately before the first human visit to Minerva in 1989, he crossed the Ervis Gorge to deliver an ultimatum to the Omalo domain-master Reatur. Reatur sent him away without acquiescing to his demands.

While returning to Hogram's castle, Fralk became the first Minervan to make contact with the Soviet space shuttle Tsiolkovsky. Fralk became Hogram's point man for dealing with the humans. He used the opportunity to trade with them to make himself a considerable fortune, and the communists recognized that he was a capitalist. However, since most Minervans were feudalists, Fralk was actually a progressive according to Karl Marx' dialectical materialism.

Fralk, who stood to become domain-master of Reatur's domain if it could be conquered, led the military expedition across the Ervis Gorge. In preparation for it, he had had to submit to Juksal as his drill-master. Fralk resented Juksal's authority over him at this time, partly because he felt Juksal was unfair to him and partly because Juksal was socially inferior to him. Nonetheless, it was Juksal's training that prepared Fralk for battle.

Fralk also oversaw the building of boats, a technology previously unknown to the Skarmer but acquired from the seafaring Lanuam. He led the crossing of the gorge by his soldiers in a fleet of boats when the summer floods had turned it into a river. On reaching the eastern side of the gorge, he began his campaign against the Omalo. Though he met with early success (partly due to an AK-74 confiscated from Oleg Lopatin), his campaign faltered near Reatur's castle when the American humans made a serious effort of defending Reatur's domain. Fralk was killed when Sarah Levitt dropped a Molotov cocktail near him from the Damselfly.

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