Knights

I've compiled a large number of sprites from Dominions 4 and 5 and their mods into sheets of characters and creatures for use with chivalric roleplaying games.

The default implied setting here is a dreamscape amalgam of times and themes from the fall of the Western Roman Empire up to the widespread proliferation of firearms: the heyday of the mounted warrior.

The true Lancer RPG.

Some of the ideas here are based on the Dominions games, while others are just representations of familiar historical groups.

The apparent size of these sheets varies based on their dimensions, but if you download them and open them in an image viewer or editor the characters and monsters will appear nice and crisp when you zoom in.

I've been compiling these sprites for long enough that I can't say for sure where each of them comes from; if there's any art from your mod here and you'd like to be credited or have it removed, please let me know.

A piece of news before we begin: Monster Eater, Chapter 3, is now live on Fierce Firelight. 

    Index

The Knights of Isle and Plain

    Advanced Knights of Isle and Plain

Chivalric Orders

    Knights Castellan

    Knights of the Rose

    Knights of the Forest Guard

    Knights Hermetic

    Arsenal Knights

    Knights Theurgic

    Knights of the Wild

    Knights of Apollo

    Knights of the Grail

    Minor Orders (Knights of the Pride, The Pack, The Sun, and The Claw)

Localized Cultures

    Men of the Dark Forest

    Men of the Boar

    Ice Giants

    The Dark Peninsula

    The Grand Arsenal

    Pythium

    The Knights of the Black Water

    Sauromatia

    Elk Knights

    Knights of the Whisker

    Knights of the March

    The People of the Empty Places

    The Empire of Immortal Fire

    The Empire of the Silver Dish

    The Tower City

    The Empire of the Third Cataract

    The People of the City-Sea

    The Knights Riparian

    The Thousand Fortresses

    The People of the Pillars

    The Lands of Lead

    The Knights of the High Road

    The Knights of Ivory

    The Floodborn

    The Knights of Spring and Autumn

    The Knights of the Golden Apple

    The Knights of the Chrysanthemum Throne

    The Lord of Hills and Isles

    Atlantis   

    The People of the Deep Expanse

    The Empire of the Great Bridge

    The Knights of the War Bonnet

Distributed Cultures

    The Last Villas

    Agartha

    Cynoscephalae

    The Empire of the Peaks

    The Empire of the Volcanoes

    The Knights of the Starry Plain

    Littoral Amphibians

    Ogres

    Svartálfar

    The Great Megaliths

    The Green Realm

    Vampire Knights

General Purpose

    Commoners and Sorcerers

    Bandits

    Foes

    Characters

    Outsiders

Emergent Factions

    The Royal Army

    The Army of the Republic

    Knights of the Flame

    Knights of the High Frontier

    Pirates

Imagery

    Royal and Divine Imagery

    Example Cutout Framework

Knights

Knights of Isle and Plain

The Knights of the Isle in the north and the Knights of the Plain in the south have warred for a generation and the Knights of the Isle hold fiefs in the Plain, but a period of peace has come and now the knights mutually turn their lances against threats to mankind, and other suitable prey. 

Knights of the Isle

Allies: Chivalric Orders

Enemies: Men of the Dark Forest, Ice Giants, The Great Megaliths, The Green Realm

Knights of the Plain

Allies: Chivalric Orders

Enemies: Men of the Boar, Ice Giants, The Dark Peninsula, Pythium, Vampire Knights, The People of the City-Sea

 

Advanced Knights of Isle and Plain

These character models are for established knights, and those who have acquired magical mounts.

Images hereafter are arranged hierarchically, with higher-status individuals and creatures higher-up on the image

 

Chivalric Orders

Knights Castellan
Fortification Armor

Knights of the Rose

International bounty hunters

Knights of the Forest Guard
Barbarians who have become knights to ameliorate the chaos in their realms

Knights Hermetic
Inventor-knights half-mad from tinctures and forbidden knowledge

Arsenal Knights
Weaponmasters. Chivalry is an afterthought

Knights Theurgic
Ars Magica

Knights of the Wild
At home among monsters

Knights of Apollo
The most adamant proponents of civilization. Severe, disciplined, and clean to the point of mysophobia

Knights of the Grail
Immortality in service of the highest ideals, and no longer

Minor Orders
Knights of the Pride, The Pack, The Sun, and the Claw

Supporting Troops
You need not fight alone

 

Localized Cultures

Once a PC has concluded a diplomatic marriage with a culture that permits them, new PCs can come from the allied family and thus from that culture, with access to their mounts, their equipment and their abilities.

Men of the Dark Forest

They were granted land on the Isle by a foolish king who wished to employ them as mercenaries, but now they come in droves, serving no chivalric master. Someday they will come for the Plain, as well.

Allies: Sauromatia

Enemies: Knights of the Isle, Pythium, Vampire Knights, Elk Knights, The Last Villas, Knights of the Whisker

Marriage Alliance?: No

 

Men of the Boar

The Men of the Boar have lived by far-flung coasts for generations. The receding suzerainty of the Western Empire marks the birth of a new tribal confederation, and the chance to put the taxmen and their enforcers into burning wicker. 

Allies: Empire of the Third Cataract (distantly), The People of the City-Sea

Enemies: Knights of the Plain, The Dark Peninsula, Pythium, The Last Villas

Marriage Alliance?: No

 

Ice Giants

Their raids carry them to the Isle, the Plain, the March, and even to the Dark Peninsula once upon a time.

Allies: N/A

Enemies: Knights of the Isle, Knights of the Plain, Elk Knights, Knights of the March

Marriage Alliance?: No

 

The Dark Peninsula

The former seat of the Western Empire. No one can say exactly what happened here, but the omnicidal hostility of the Empire has awakened again after generations of sleep. Fortunately, the collapse of the Western Empire has been so thorough that the dark figures of the peninsula have yet to march into neighboring lands.

Allies: Outsiders

Enemies: All peoples

Marriage Alliance?: No

 

The Grand Arsenal

A great city-state on the City-Sea, unbesiegable for being mired in marshes, the profiteers of sea-war as their arsenals turn out ships to guard their cargo armadas and equip foreign navies willing to pay through the nose. They are the scorpion, you are the frog; do not trust the Arsenal Dukes.

Allies: Pythium (for now), The Empire of the Silver Dish, The Thousand Fortresses

Enemies: Vampire Knights, The Dark Peninsula, Knights of the Black Water, The People of the City-Sea

Marriage Alliance?: No

 

Pythium

The surviving half of the former empire; while its sister has been ruined by dark spirits, Pythium has been seized by serpent-worship, and actual serpentmen have assumed a crowning role in the cult.

Allies: The Grand Arsenal, Knights of the March, Knights of the Whisker

Enemies: The Dark Peninsula, Sauromatia, The Knights of the Black Water, The People of The Empty Places, The Empire of Immortal Fire, The Empire of the Silver Dish, The Empire of the Third Cataract

Marriage Alliance?: Not while the Snake Cult rules

Particular Proficiencies: Cataphracted serpentry

 

The Knights of The Black Water

The women of a great island south of Sauromatia. They form political alliances with foreigners in lieu of conquering and integrating them in the manner of Sauromatia, and thus have maintained their isolation and their freedom from the problems of empire such as the androphagi hydra-cult in Sauromatia.

Allies: The Knights of the Whisker, Elk Knights

Enemies: The Grand Arsenal, Sauromatia, Pythium, The People of The Empty Places, The Empire of Immortal Fire

Marriage Alliance?: Yes
Particular Proficiencies: Mounted archery

 

Sauromatia

The women of the dark coasts have subjugated many tribes, integrating the men into the original male tribe of cannibal subjects while integrating the women as low-status handmaidens and squires. A byproduct of the conquest and expansion of the androphagi is the proliferation of their hydra-cult, and their lands are now overrun with many-headed snakes. Pythium looks with lust upon this realm.

Allies: The Men of the Dark Forest, The Knights of the March, The Empire of Immortal Fire, The Tower City

Enemies: The Knights of the Black Water, The People of the Empty Places, Pythium, Elk Knights, The Knights of the Whisker

Marriage Alliance?: No

 

Elk Knights

The knights of the forest bogs have served as a tremendous roadblock to expansion by the People of the Empty Places and the Knights of the March, but at last an invasion into their backcountry by the Ice Giants has begun to darken their icy horizons.

Allies: Knights of the Whisker, Knights of the Black Water

Enemies: Men of the Dark Forest, Ice Giants, Sauromatia, The People of the Empty Places, Knights of the March

Marriage Alliance?: Yes

Particular Proficiencies: Ambush

 

Knights of the Whisker

The riotous forest nobles and steppe-people who give cavalry to the Knights of the Whisker have many neighbors prone to wandering and settling, and those who cannot be integrated by the charter are disintegrated by the lance charge.

Allies: Elk Knights, Pythium, The Knights of Black Water

Enemies: The People of the Empty Places, The Men of the Dark Forest, Knights of the March, Sauromatia

Marriage Alliance?: Yes

Particular Competencies: Ultra-fast lance charges

 

Knights of the March

The city-states of the Knights of the March are forged amidst the most terrible foes: the People of the Empty Places, the destroyers of settled states. 

Allies: Pythium, Sauromatia

Enemies: Ice Giants, The People of The Empty Places, The Knights of the Whisker, Elk Knights

Marriage Alliance?: Yes

Particular Competencies: Integration of carefully-placed foot archers into cavalry tactics

 

The People of the Empty Places

Every man a horse archer, a great tribe associated with the People of the Empty Places played a key role in the fall of the Western Empire, and now those even deeper in their windswept lands push out in every direction again, preparing to bring ruin to the cities and armies where men foolishly fight on foot.

Allies: N/A

Enemies: Pythium, The Knights of the Black Water, Sauromatia, Knights of the March, Knights of the Whisker, Elk Knights, The Empire of Immortal Fire, The Knights of the High Road, The Knights of Ivory, The Lands of Lead, The Knights of The March, The Knights of the Whisker, The Knights of Spring and Autumn, The Knights of the Golden Apple, The Knights of the Chrysanthemum Throne

Marriage Alliance?: Not unless they conquer vast regions and become sedentary

 

The Empire of Immortal Fire

Usurpers from the Empire of the Volcanoes invaded and seized the crown of the Empire of Immortal Fire, attracted by its central cult. The flower of its former chivalry went into exile as the Knights of the High Road, and wait for their chance to reclaim their highland empire.

Allies: The Empire of the Third Cataract, Sauromatia, The Tower City

Enemies: The Empire of the Silver Dish, Pythium, The Knights of Black Water, The People of the Empty Places, The Knights of the High Road, The Knights of Ivory

Marriage Alliance?: No, except for with the Empire of the Volcanoes

 

The Empire of the Silver Dish

The Empire is named for a great platter upon which subjects of the divine giants and their captives are served in hideous feasts.

Allies: The Grand Arsenal, The Thousand Fortresses, The People of the City-Sea
Enemies: The Empire of Immortal Fire, Pythium, The Empire of the Third Cataract, The Knights of the Black Water, The People of the Empty Places, The Tower City, The Lands of Lead, The People of the Pillars, The Knights of the High Road

Marriage Alliance?: No

 

The Tower City

A vast city-state that reaches up towards the heavens. The divine giants of the Silver Dish long to empty out the Tower City and send its populace down their gullets, but these powerful but paranoid people have resisted all comers with aid of a shifting web of strategic alliances.

Allies: Sauromatia, The Empire of Immortal Fire, The Empire of the Peaks

Enemies: The Empire of the Silver Dish, The People of the City-Sea

Marriage Alliance?: No

 

The Empire of the Third Cataract

Humans once ruled the Empire of the Third Cataract, but the waters of their great river proved so rich that they gave consciousness to the lizards that basked upon the banks. The lizards overthrew them and adopted their cult and government, and now the men of the empire find themselves in bondage, serving as warriors and laboring on titanic construction projects for the vanity and benefit of the lizardly priest-kings.

Allies: The Men of the Boar, The Empire of Immortal Fire

Enemies: Pythium, The Empire of the Silver Dish, The People of the City-Sea, The Knights Riparian

Marriage Alliance?: No

 

The People of the City-Sea

Cities have been founded along the coasts by exodites from the Empire of the Silver Dish. Most remain cordial with the Empire but practice much more limited sacrifice, focusing on foreigners as objects of trade and profitable subjugation rather than as ornaments of the dining table.

Allies: The Empire of the Silver Dish, The Thousand Fortresses, The Men of the Boar

Enemies: Knights of the Plains, The Grand Arsenal, The Tower City, The Empire of the Third Cataract,  The Knights Riparian
Marriage Alliance?: No

 

The Knights Riparian

The men of the flooding grasslands find a variety of mounts more conducive to patrolling their vast herds than the horse, some patrolling the open mounted on lions, some making sorties into the vast forest by spiderback. Those with the means find that the elephant is conducive to crashing through both, but the lion remains the ultimate symbol of lordship.

Allies: The People of the Pillars

Enemies: The Thousand Fortresses, The People of the City-Sea, The Lands of Lead, the Empire of the Third Cataract

Marriage Alliance?: Yes

Particular Competencies: Men source, smelt and forge their own iron weapons and tools, and high-status individuals also work gold 

 

The Thousand Fortresses

The kings of this great empire operate coastal fortresses from which warbands sortie out to capture vulnerable polities for sale into slavery. This has, however, deprived them of nearby allies and presented a sympathetic hinterland as a possible conduit for attack by the Knights Riparian.

Allies: The People of the City-Sea, The Lands of Lead, The Empire of the Silver Dish, The Grand Arsenal

Enemies: The Knights Riparian

Marriage Alliance?: Only with the People of the City-Sea

 

The People of the Pillars

A rogue sect of Red Genies have descended on this secluded, secretive people and forced them into the their conflict with the genies of the Lands of Lead.

Allies: The Knights Riparian, The Knights of the High Road, The Knights of the Golden Apple

Enemies: The Lands of Lead, The Empire of the Silver Dish

Marriage Alliance?: Yes, once the genies have been expelled or homeostatically integrated

Particular Competencies: Extremely fast maneuvering while mounted

 

The Lands of Lead

The genies of the Lands of Lead hold their human subjects in bondage on the basis that it is better than being devoured in the Empire of the Silver Dish. That does not stop the genies from feeding their people into the fires of war.

Allies: The Thousand Fortresses

Enemies: The People of the Pillars, The Knights Riparian, The People of the Empty Places, The Empire of the Silver Dish

Marriage Alliance?: No

 

The Knights of the High Road

The heirs to the Empire of Immortal Fire, which was seized by usurpers from the Empire of the Volcanoes. They guard the ways around the Empire and stand watch over the roads to Spring and Autumn, waiting for the day in which they might overthrow the volcano-men.

Allies: The People of the Pillars, The Knights of the March, The Knights of Ivory, The Knights of Spring and Autumn

Enemies: The Empire of Immortal Fire, the Empire of the Silver Dish, The People of the Empty Places, The Floodborn

Marriage Alliance?: Yes

Particular Competencies: The ability to conjure flaming weapons as the true keepers of the faith of Immortal Fire, giant rams can batter through portcullises, reputation for clemency as rulers

 

The Knights of Ivory

The Princes of a land of a thousand great cities and fastnesses, the Knights of Ivory fight an immortal battle with the Floodborn using their traditional military triad of elephantry, chariots, and infantry. Men born to families of hereditary military leaders are expected to fight in all three modes. Invasions by the People of the Empty Places and by the Empire of Immortal Fire now present a time of troubles not matched since the ages of myth and legend.

Allies: The Knights of the High Road, The Knights of the Golden Apple

Enemies: The People of the Empty Places, The Floodborn, The Empire of Immortal Fire

Marriage Alliance?: Yes

Particular Competencies: Mounted as elephantry (and charioteers) by default, sacred ascendance into higher states

 

The Floodborn

The richness of the flooding waters here have granted an intelligence to creatures of the wood- some for good, most for evil. The Princes of Ivory have hitherto resisted being overthrown in the manner of the Empire of the Third Cataract, but the coming of the People of the Empty Places and of the Empire of Immortal Fire may change this.

Allies: Outsiders

Enemies: The Knights of Ivory, The Knights of the High Road, The Knights of the Golden Apple

Marriage Alliance?: No

 

The Knights of Spring and Autumn

The Knights of Spring and Autumn manage a vast and verdant land that is now threatened by raiders from the sea and invaders from the continent's cold interior. The trade connection they maintain with the Western lands is in danger of being co-opted or cut by the People of the Empty Places, who mass for a great invasion; only the Knights of the High Road allow for their connection with distant realms.

Allies: The Knights of the High Road

Enemies: The Lord of Hills and Isles, The People of the Empty Places, The Knights of the Golden Apple

Marriage Alliance?: Yes

Particular Competencies: Gunpowder, military command, and ascension to Living Ancestor-status via sacred alchemy

 

The Knights of the Golden Apple

The noble cavalry of a thalassocratic, archipelagic empire south of Spring and Autumn. They, too, are subject to invasion by the People of the Empty Places, but their combination of natural defensive territory and firearm use by the armored nobility present an unparalleled challenge to the warriors of the steppe.

Allies: The Knights of Ivory, The People of the Pillars

Enemies: The Lord of Hills and Isles, The Floodborn, The Knights of Spring and Autumn, The People of the Empty Places

Marriage Alliance?: Yes

Particular Competencies: Able to switch between horse-archery, foot gunnery, and stealth at the drop of a hat

 

The Knights of the Chrysanthemum Throne

The lands of the Chrysanthemum Throne are in chaos as the holy-blooded adolescent Emperor is held as an unwilling courtier by the demonic Lord of Hills and Isles. While nearby vassals scheme for the Emperor's release, those of the outlying territories remain content to wage private wars over their borderlands. It will take a great leader to weld the feudal lords into a common cause and overthrow the Lord of Hills and Isles.

Allies: N/A

Enemies: The Lord of Hills and Isles, The People of the Empty Places

Marriage Alliance?: Not while the Lord of Hills and Isles holds dominion

Particular Competencies: Horse-archery, foot dueling, ascension to sword-saint status

 

The Lord of Hills and Isles

The single greatest power in the islands, the Lord of Hills and Isles schemes to keep the feudal lords suppressed and divided, ravaging the lands of those who will not be cowed with armies of bandits and demons.

Allies: Outsiders

Enemies: The Knights of the Chrysanthemum Throne, The Knights of the Golden Apple, The Knights of Spring and Autumn

Marriage Alliance?: No

 

Atlantis

A great power beneath a distant sea collects foul and mad human sorcerers as seers while co-opting communities of littoral amphibians. Their ultimate purpose is inscrutable but involves the destruction of the world's great civilizations as stepping stones towards the final transformation.

Allies: Outsiders

Enemies: All other forms of life, but particularly Pythium

Marriage Alliance?: No

 

The People of the Deep Expanse

The People of the Deep Expanse have lived in peaceable isolation for many generations, but the coming of the Empire of the Great Bridge has forced a change in their methods and purposes. Reaching out across the steppe are the Knights of the War Bonnet to make common cause, but their communities are as yet too far-flung and distant to present a unified front against the portentous night-raids of Xibalba.

Allies: Knights of the War Bonnet

Enemies: The Empire of the Great Bridge

Marriage Alliance?: No

 

The Empire of the Great Bridge

Their blood sacrifices were intended for the gods but instead brought forth the bats of Xibalba, the vast cavern realms under the Empire. Now the bats rule, the sacrifices continue for sake of their delicious blood, and the dark lords plot to steal the sun for their underground realm.

Allies: N/A

Enemies: Agartha, The People of the Deep Expanse, The Knights of the War Bonnet, The Empire of the Peaks

Marriage Alliance?: No

 

The Knights of the War Bonnet

The infinite plains are shrinking as dark forces pour forth from the southern heat. Outlying herds are drained of their blood, as are outlying tribes; a confederation is forming, but too many peoples may be snuffed out by the tides of Xibalba before a cohesive front can be established.

Allies: The People of the Deep Expanse

Enemies: The Empire of the Great Bridge

Marriage Alliance?: Yes

Particular Competencies: Tracking, precision lancing, rapidly mounting and dismounting in combat

 

Distributed Cultures

The Last Villas

Distribution: The Former Empire

Disposition: Survivalist

Modus Operandi: Operate isolated latifundia centered around a former magistrate and his cadre of garrison troops

 

Agartha

Distribution: Underneath the entire earth

Disposition: Crush the surface cities so as to weaken and control the surface dwellers, commanding their resources without having to invade their sunlit realms.

Modus Operandi: Tunnel under cities and then collapse them

 

Cynoscephalae

Distribution: These maneating jackal-headed people ravage the Pythian backcountry and range out from the Dark Peninsula, but can be found in isolated pockets throughout the earth. Even goodhearted cynoscephalae are plagued by a bottomless bloodlust.

Disposition: Ravenous

Modus Operandi: Sniff out underdefended settlements, herds, and processions before falling upon and devouring them. 

 

The Empire of the Peaks

Distribution: Many of the highest peaks in the world.

Disposition: Imperial

Modus Operandi: Settle new peaks and demand tribute from low-lying settlements; raid recalcitrant peoples in their backcountry, declining battle wherever the enemy gathers in favor of attacking weakly-defended settlements.

 

Empire of the Volcanoes

Distribution: The world's volcanoes.

Disposition: Imperial

Modus Operandi: Forge new weapons and species in the living, umbilical fire of volcanoes, covertly settle inactive volcanoes and charge them until they erupt, ruining nearby settlements and creating new sacred calderas

 

Knights of the Starry Plain

Distribution: Plains, prairies, and seas here and there across the world

Disposition: Beneficent 

Modus Operandi: Range the open lands and waters, hunting and periodically cultivating vineyards. Assist more centralized institutions in their endeavors.

 

Littoral Amphibians

Distribution: The world's remotest coasts, and some of the largest rivers

Disposition: Revanchist

Modus Operandi: Theocratically subjugate isolated communities closer and closer to the world's largest port cities in hopes of someday reclaiming the most verdant coasts and rivers.

 

Ogres

Distribution: Remote hills and caves

Disposition: Ravenous

Modus Operandi: Acquire and devour flesh.

 

Svartálfar

Distribution: Caverns here and there beneath the earth

Disposition: Covetous (surfacers) and genocidal (Agartha)

Modus Operandi: Slave raiding against surface communities

 

The Great Megaliths

Distribution: These rabbitfolk can be found residing on giant stone structures throughout the world but particularly on the isle of Lugaru, which lies northwest of the Knights of the Isle and northeast of the Knights of the War Bonnet. One of their largest megastructures in human lands rises in the realm of the Knights of the Isle, though this was almost fully depopulated by incessant warring with the Western Empire. Others can be found in the Dark Forest, in the Empire of the Silver Dish (where they are a prized delicacy), in Spring and Autumn, in the riverlands north of the Knights Riparian, amidst the Knights of the Golden Apple, and in the Lands of Lead, to name a few.

Disposition: The rabbitfolk are prone to evil governance, which is resisted by individual heroic warriors. While these heroes are extraordinarily effective, these megalithic societies are so prone to internecine fighting that they have never been able to subjugate outsiders, though sorties have been sent against the Knights of the War Bonnet and the People of the City-Sea.

Modus Operandi: The rabbitfolk are skilled with traditional weapons, but are also capable of launching running kick attacks capable of killing horses or sending armored warriors flying. In this age they rarely establish new megalithic sky-structures, which are accessible mainly via massive jumps

 

The Green Realm

Distribution: It can manifest anywhere that vegetation that feeds on decay overcomes ruins or healthy biomes

Disposition: All-consuming

Modus Operandi: Manifest, skulk, terrorize, capture, and sacrifice

 

Vampire Knights

Distribution: Here and there throughout the realms of chivalry, but most archetypally in the lands between the Knights of the Plain and the Men of the Dark Forest, and between Pythium and Sauromatia.

Disposition: Acquisitive

Modus Operandi: Win lands through traditional feudal means, then reduce the peasantry and burghers to absolute immobility through terror and surveillance before treating them like herd animals.

 

General Purpose

Commoners and Sorcerers

 

Bandits

 

Foes

 

Characters

 

Outsiders

 

Emergent Factions

The Royal Army

Conditions of Emergence:

-A Player Character of the Knights of the Isle or the Knights of the Plain forms a marriage alliance established with a prominent family of Spring & Autumn or the Knights of the Golden Apple, so as to acquire a competency in gunpowder affairs

-The Royal Army is formed by decree of the King of the Isle, the King of the Plain, or the joint Emperor of Isle and Plain if such a political structure exists.

-If being formed by the Knights of the Isle, the Men of the Dark Wood must no longer present an existential threat

-If being formed by the Knights of the Plain, the Men of the Boar must no longer present an existential threat

-If being formed by a joint Empire of Isle and Plain, there will be a revolution by vassals and commoners of either Isle or Plain, depending on where the capital is to be or which group of Knights is regarded as being preeminent in the Empire. The purpose of the revolution is to resist being permanently centralized into an empire with a gunpowder army led by the other set of Knights and their King.

 

Army of the Republic

Conditions of Emergence along the sea-coast north of the Dark Wood:

-The Royal Army has formed

-The Men of the Dark Wood no longer present an existential threat to anybody

OR

-The Men of the Dark Wood no longer present an existential threat to anybody

-A PC from the Knights of the Isle, the Knights of the Plain, the Elk Knights, or Pythium has established a marriage alliance with the Knights of the Golden Apple or the Knights of Spring and Autumn.

Developments:

-The Republic will be good friends to the players if they had any hand in their independence, but will also rapaciously invade the empire of the Knights of the Golden Apple. 

-In turn, the Knights of the Flame will be the interminable enemy of the Republic should the Knights form.

 

Knights of the Flame

Conditions of Emergence southwest of the Knights of the Plain:

-PCs have encountered the Knights of Spring and Autumn or the Knights of the Golden Apple.

-PCs have encountered the Empire of the Great Bridge.

Developments:

-The Knights of the Flame will assemble to invade the Empire of the Great Bridge before they can steal the sun for Xibalba, and to seize the Empire's great wealth. In doing so, they will also indiscriminately wage war against the People of the Deep Expanse and eventually the Knights of the War Bonnet.

-Domestically, they will kick off a religious purity spiral, assailing knights and populations they regard as impious, and will particularly attempt to subjugate the Republic should it form, due to the sectarian and ultra-monarchist ideology of the Knights.

 

Knights of the High Frontier

Conditions of Emergence out of the Knights of the March and the Knights of the Whisker:

-PCs have encountered the Knights of Spring and Autumn or the Knights of the Golden Apple.

-The Knights of the March have not been eradicated by the People of the Empty Places

-Occurs very quickly if a PC who is a Knight of the March or a Knight of the Whisker forms a marriage alliance with the Knights of Spring and Autumn or the Knights of the Golden Apple.

Developments:

-The threat of the People of the Empty Plain is such that the Knights of the March acquire firearms and reform their armies of foot archers into arquebus-wielding hereditary troops and militia.

-By default, or if a PC who is a Knight of the March kicked off this process, the Knights of the March will force the integration of the Knights of the Whisker into their burgeoning Empire.

-If the PC who begins the process is a Knight of the Whisker, the Knights of the Whisker form the Most Serene Confederation and are capable of standing off the Knights of the March, who more gradually acquire firearms; thereafter, Knights of the Whisker fight as temporary allies of the Knights of the High Frontier during expeditions against mutual enemies.

 

Pirates

Conditions of Emergence:

-The Knights of the Flame succeed in establishing a permanent presence in the Empire of the Great Bridge and carry off great wealth in the process.

Developments:

-Pirates will raid sea-traffic between the Lands of Flame and the Great Bridge, and piracy will gradually spread as a gunpowder phenomenon throughout the world.

 

Imagery

Royal and Divine Imagery

 

Example Cutout Framework

Monster Eater

What strategies can a man employ when the only reliable foodstuff is the flesh of supernatural predators? Things whose breath may be fatal, whose bodies may be metal, whose eyes may control the mind?

In the face of this many men turn to cannibalism and other Faustian bargains.

Ramec must depart his home in the underworld sanctuary of Kalas Da, a place fed and comforted by a strand of the World Fungus.

He must forge his path to the surface in a world of absolute darkness and privation, where light is the beacon of death.

Ramec goes knowing only that there can be no categorization of the predators of the deep and that the humans of the underworld can be the most dangerous of all.

He will be transformed, because every moment in the chaos of the underworld commands death or adaptation. 

Listen to Monster Eater at Fierce Firelight.

Xenostygian, by Dan Sullivan

I've been inspired by fantastic depictions of civilizations and their privations in the deep underworld for a long time, probably beginning with descriptions of the confined-space planes in the old Manual of the Planes, deepening with the phenomenal Underdark, and culminating in the epoch-making Veins of the Earth.

So far, I've written about four chapters of Monster Eater.

Ranger

This is a story about an established adventuring group’s personal funnel.

It’s also about a Ranger and the things he does without using magic.

     Index

Commentary: Tribes, cities, empires, heroes, and antiheroes

Ranger: You can listen on Fierce Firelight or read it below the commentary.

Something I’ve wanted to note for awhile is that in my stories and RPG stuff, tribesmen and city-state dwellers who have lived near each other for a long time always share their ethnicity and common origins. The groups diverged into different modes at some point in history.

I think this was probably true of many early sedentary polities and their nearby tribal communities; it might have taken a long time before they were differentiable to us, particularly if the latter were non-nomadic.

As an example of this dynamic, in Fane of the Poppy, the Archzenites and Affidavits share a common ancestry, whether or not either really knows this or cares to recognize it.

City-states and tribes in my stories are explorations of different modes of human life, and sometimes of their interactions. Either can individually or collectively be heroes, antiheroes, villains, tragic actors, context, or footnotes.

This doesn’t mean that city-states and tribes of differing ethnicity can never come into conflict, just that the “starting” conflicts aren’t usually between people with radically different origins (except with empires, with the Cynthians invading the coasts everywhere and the Empire of the Twin Canals subjugating as many tribes and cities as possible).

The valences of conflict between ancient neighbors and between people who are basically unknown to each other are very different, and each has its space. I prefer the "neighbors" option when structuring the world and leaving open the "unknowns" option for development.

The "neighbors" species of conflict tends lend itself to dramas of statecraft and family intrigue, while the "unknowns" tends to pattern more easily onto familiar conflicts from more globetrotting recent history and losing its timelessness, or seeming to be racial in origin when I want the conflicts in my work to represent the plurality of things which people have fought over since ancient times (if you've read my stuff you know that urbanites fight urbanites and tribes fight tribes and the urbanites fight tribes for all the reasons that those polity-types fought each other historically and then some). 

The alienness (at the beginning) of the antagonists in a struggle between unknowns can be a constraining factor when it comes to narrative, rendering people into forces of nature to each other, which is why I'm content with everyone in this world speaking the same language (except xenostygians); the language barrier is a very real source of drama in reality, but not one that I'm interested in constantly exploring due to its tendency to narrow the immediate possibilities of the situation when the whole world is a patchwork of tiny states and cultures (although I am interested in loss of speech). I'm happy to explore conflict between mutual unknowns in simple stories, but I want to leave the gate open for stories involving different kinds of polities (city-states and tribal federations) to be about things other than the conflict of mutual unknowns and their piece-by-piece demystification.

Part of the reason I settled on this neighboring-cities-and-tribes setup is because I want it to reflect elements of the histories of many real-life nations and cultures going back thousands of years while also never mapping 1-to-1 onto historical conflicts; when city-states and tribes fight, trade, and make alliances in my stories and RPGs, I want it to be both recognizable to one who is somewhat versed in history, but I also want it to be capable of being seen with fresh eyes.

Another reason for this is that I don’t take a tack where either city-states or tribes are inherently morally superior (the details make the difference) and players/characters should be able to emerge from either, though empires and things like roving theocratic armies tend to have a more iniquitous set point in my material.

This is all before large nation-states despite the tech level, because all of the supernatural stuff in the deep wilderness prevents deep penetration by human settlements, except for isolated RGOs (e.g. highland mining communities) and tribes that have developed hyperspecializations to survive whatever lurks in their area a la the guides in the Stalker film.

When I wrote Ranger I wrote another story in the RPG-class vein called Barbarian, about a tribesman who is dragooned into an malevolent city-state’s military (which sounds awesome to him, at first) and once he gets there he has to decide what he's ultimately going to do.

The city-state in Barbarian is the same city-state as in Ranger, Megastheos, but a few centuries later.

Barbarian is a lot longer, though, and can stand some serious restructuring, editing, and finishing, so it may be some time before I put it up.

These stories (Ranger and Barbarian) are both about morally gray guys vs Bad Guys, and a consideration that I struggle with when conceptualizing stories is: how bad can a main character be at the beginning of a story while ensuring that a reader in the expected core audience (which for me are just people who share some critical mass of neurotype elements and/or experiences) won’t see the character as being unworthy of redemption? The main character in Barbarian and in another story which I’ll record, The Crimes of Jack Daw, are both fairly ruthless individuals at the start of their stories (not murdering innocents, but ruthless in their own ways), and if a form of wake-up call/redemption doesn’t come quick enough, a reader can begin to snarl at an unredeemed bastard’s minor victories along the way. So when should the path to a better way present itself, or when should the protagonist start seeking one if he or she doesn’t want to be abandoned or reviled by the reader?

I asked a friend who doesn’t usually write stories but has consumed more anime than Patrick Stuart has read Black Library, and his opinion was that if a main character does some really dark shit it should happen before the story starts, and shouldn’t have done something that would commonly be considered unforgivable in their backstory, unless you’re planning on writing a tragedy or a nihilistic exploration of something (the latter of which is possible but fraught with difficulties). 

I think he’s basically correct. Still, I plan to continue exploring the edges of this line from time to time.

On to Ranger!

--------------------------------------------------------------

Dasen sat back by the dead campfire. The trees took shape around him in the predawn light. His bow lay across his lap, his quiver under the small of his back. He was still and tranquil.

There was a crack in the woods. A man named Morari lowered himself from a bower of twigs which he’d mane in the shoulder of a tree.

Morari was a veteran warrior. He belonged to a circle of elite fighters and experts who pried artifacts and riches from the cold fingers of despots, raiders, and men long dead in their tombs.

Dasen stood up. He was an aspirant to join Morari’s circle, and so were the men who still slept around the dead campfire. They were all on their trial run. Morari was there to audition them.

The enormous warrior walked slowly over to Dasen and stopped, chewing silently on a dry red sausage with his perpetual hint of a smile.

 

“Get em up. We move out in two minutes.”

Dasen nodded and began running between sleepers who were bundled in blankets in the leaves by the fire’s ashes, shaking them awake as he went. They sat up without a hint of anger or pleasure. There were six of them. Two were missing.

Dasen looked at Morari, who gazed back at him, chewing.

Dasen began roving around the woods near the campfire, searching for the missing aspirants. He found the one of them laying on a bed of pine needles in a little pit of soft soil. Dasen knelt over him, seized his lapels and shook him awake.

“Get the fuck up and be at the campfire in one minute,” Dasen growled with as much menace as he could muster.

“Got it,” said the young man.

Dasen went of in search of the last one missing. He finally found the man, whose feet were sticking out from underneath a dead log with a half-dome of mossy twigs set against the wind. The man wasn’t wearing his boots.

Dasen picked up the boots and hurled them towards the campfire, then grabbed the man’s trouserlegs and yanked him out from under the tree. The man came out kicking and sat up, scraping his head on the log. He looked at Dasen furiously.

“What’s your problem?”

“Get your boots on and get to the campfire! You only got a few seconds!”

“Shit!”

The man ran after Dasen, sticking his feet into his boots without tying them and clomped up to the campfire where the others were already standing.

Morari had finished his sausage and was standing contrapposto with his hands on his hips.

“Sorry,” said the missing man.

“When the Emberlings call a muster, they torture and kill the last man who shows up. They figure they don’t need a guy like that anyways.

“I’m sorry.”

“Get your pack.”

The man went, bent over, and slung his pack from where it lay by the fire, pots and pans jangling.

“I’m with the Emberlings. Head back to Megastheos.”

“I can do better.”

“I understand. Get moving.”

The man turned, and set off back down the trail with his head hung low. Morari looked at Dasen.

“Take us off.”

Dasen nodded. He took his bearings from the stars and led the party off the trail into the dusty wilderness.

Morari had a set of plate armor slung on his pack, which burdened him so little it seemed to become part of his body when he took it up.

He had a two-handed sword in a black scabbard, and he used it like a walking stick. 

Dasen had seen the other members of Morari’s band when he’d visited their private drinking hall in Megastheos. They ranged from hard, lean and wiry survivors who could cross mountains on a peasant’s fare, to sleek athletic champions with splendidly sculpted bodies like ancient engravings. Morari was the only one of them who was huge and musclebound. He didn’t need to be so big; he just liked to be, and he was known to lift carts and press giant stones for a hobby.

“What’s your plan?” he asked Dasen

“Cut through the wilds to Bitterwell Peak, then head due northwest to the sound north of Glassloch.”

“Can you hit Bitterwell Peak from this far out?”

Dasen nodded.

“Ok.” Morari walked back so he could watch the party from behind.

Dasen felt good as he strode through the woods. He knew his pack was heavy and his gambeson was hot but he felt a sense of purpose and momentum.

The only thing that troubled the back of his mind was the man who’d been sent home. They were far away from the territory of the Dekandrites that the man probably wouldn’t be be ambushed, but Dasen considered himself responsible for the party being short one man.

The predawn chill had come and the dew was unbelievably thick as they crossed a grassy field to reach a wild green draw on the other side. Their boots and trousers became just as wet as if they’d climbed into a fountain when they traversed the grass and descended to the riverside, which was choked with vegetation.

A heron glided slowly above the reeds. Winter was breaking and the foliage wasn’t as thick as it would be come summer, when it would have been almost impossible for Dasen to cross without throwing off his heading. As it was, they could pass but the water would be cold enough to take their breath away.

Dasen felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Morari.

“Count them off. You go last.” Dasen nodded.

Addis had been the first aspirant to stand up by the firepit. Dasen sent him across to check out the far shore. Addis made no preparation but simply crashed into the water, pushing through it wherever he could get his feet on the riverbed. He was not stupid, he was so tough that he seemed to play by a different set of rules. Being soaked wouldn’t reduce his competence.

The others went across with varying degrees of gingerness, some trying to hold their packs overhead, one or two taking their boots off first. The cleverest had a tallow-treated pack which he’d sealed, and he used it as a raft, floating across the river.

Dasen held his bow overhead but otherwise went as he was, counting on the journey to dry him. Morari walked beside him, pushing through the water with his pack submerged. His plate armor may have been stainless steel, but Dasen knew this man was rich enough to abuse and discard coats of plates if he liked.

That was why many of the aspirants were there, some of them experienced soldiers. Dasen wasn’t there for the money. He was there for this. The adventure.

Morari got to the shore first and stepped up as the water cascaded from his clothes and pack. He turned, barring Dasen’s way. Dasen stood as the freezing water pushed past him. He took a steady stance.

“Weren’t you on watch?”

Dasen nodded. He breathed through his nose to not begin panting as the chill tightened his muscles.

“Why was that guy late?”

“I didn’t think he’d camp so far away.”

“Wrong answer. You don’t know if these guys are responsible, or where their loyalties lay. You keep them where you can see them. When we get to Dekandrite territory we won’t be sleeping around a fire, just a hole to piss and shit in. Nobody leaves the circle till we move out.”

“Understood.”

“If there was another ranger, he’d be taking over for you.”

Dasen nodded.

They stood there for a long time. Dasen began to breathe through his mouth as the water chilled him to the core. His legs shook and he repositioned his feet again and again as they sunk into the mud. His fingertips hurt and then were numb. He began to mentally sing a hero’s ballad and he found that it braced him, gave him courage, and he could barely resist breaking out in a tearful smile.

Morari stood there until Dasen’s head began to ache and his eyes were drooping, then he turned and went up to where the party was waiting in a clearing. Dasen collapsed against the muddy bank and hauled himself out of the water, quaking violently. The shady earth felt warm between his fingers. He joined the group. The band gazed at Dasen with varying degrees of empathy. Morari was expressionless. Dasen nodded at Addis, and took point again.

…

They were in the highlands. Dasen had counted his steps. They should be at Bitterwell Peak, but there was no peak in sight.

He looked around with a growing sensation of dread. He gave the sign for a halt, and the party gratefully took a knee, except for Morari, who stood back with his arms folded, his massive sinewed forearms broadening against one another.

“Have some water and lay down,” Dasen said to the aspirants, “I’m gonna do a map check.” They nodded and lay on their bellies beside their packs to lower their profiles, pointedly avoiding glancing at Morari, who stood over them like a statue.

Dasen spread his map on the ground, then looked around. The clearings in the forest weren’t large enough to be marked upon the map. Dasen shed his pack, tucked his map deep into his quiver, found the tallest tree and began to climb. It was easy going for the first half but then the branches got thinner and more distant. By the end of it, he had to stand up on a branch with his legs shaking, look at the branch above him as if it was the only thing that existed, and then jump to reach it. He grabbed the dry bark, pulled himself up, set his knee upon it and slid out his map. The treetop visibly swayed. He looked around. There were five or six hills; any of them could be Bitterwell Peak.

He looked back in the direction of the town. He saw a thin trail of smoke rising from an imperceptible chimney. Then he looked into the far north and spotted Mt Gauntbody. Looking at the map, he located the peak that was most directly between Megastheos and Gauntbody. Pivoting his vision to the right of that, he was able to determine that the next peak was Bitterwell. He memorized a branch on the bottom of the tree which pointed in the right direction, stowed his map, and gratefully descended to the earth.

They reached Glasswell Loch late that afternoon and gazed down over the glassy bay to the north. There were little thatch baskets on the shore that gleamed with an odd warm light. Dasen knew that these were collection points for the Dekandrite’s aphasic slaves, who deposited amber taken from the water, which their blacksmiths used as fuel for their earthwork forges. The party’s faces lit up with greed. The baskets stood alone. None of the tribesmen could be seen.

Dasen looked at Morari expectantly.

Morari said, “I’m gonna take a piss and look around. When I get back, I want to hear your plan. If it’s good, we’ll execute it. If not, we’ll head back to town. I’d rather you see your mother again than have the Deks plant you asshole-first on a centipede pot, that’s why I sent Brimley home this morning. But, if you don’t want to take any risks to get that amber, then this profession may not be for you.”

He set off up the nearest hill.

The party shed their packs and put their heads together. They collectively glanced at Dasen, who was the navigator, and Addis, who was the boldest. Addis looked at Dasen.

Dasen began sketching in the dirt straightaway.

“Here’s the sound. Here we are on this ridge. You can see the crags on the saddle behind us; they’ll be unmistakable when we’re near the waterline. We’ll have two groups, one that holds the ridge, one that goes and gets the amber. The reason for that is if the amber group gets cut off, they can blow a whistle and have the second group hit the enemy from behind. Or, if the group’s getting chased, the guys at the crag can surprise whoever’s chasing em. Remember there’s also a ton of loose rock up here you can toss down at em.”

“Who’s doing what?” asked a dry-mouthed barkeep.

“I’ll go for the amber. Addis too.” Addis nodded without a word. “We’ll go right away since the Deks sleep in the day.”

“Ok. So us guys with ranged weapons hold the crag,” said the barman, even though Dasen was wearing a bow.

“Yeah. If there’s no one down there, we bag up the amber and split, if there is anyone… we either hit em or pull back. It’ll be a judgement call.” They nodded. “Anyone else want in on the grab team?”

There silence, then,

“Fuck it. I’ll go,” said Haedra, who was a discharged soldier.

As if on cue, Morari came out of the woodline.

“Let’s have it.”

Dasen explained, Morari nodding slowly, stroking his chin.

“What happens if you catch a javelin? Say I’m not here, how do these guys get out?”

“Everyone, go due south and eventually you’ll hit the Scalestream. Just follow its flow, and it’ll take you into Assindar township.”

“Alright, simple enough. We’ll go ahead with your plan. Just be aware that if we get into the shit with some Deks I’ll probably be ok, but you guys aren’t capital-A adventurers, so act accordingly. If I spot a big Dek war crew I’m pulling us out, though.” He made a kingfisher’s call. “That’s the signal that we’re coming, and if you hear it throw a rock down below and hold your fire. But if you hear me blow my whistle it means we’re bringing company. Be listening.”

Dasen, Addis and Haedra slithered forwards on their bellies. The water gleamed silver through the boughs. The trees had animal skeletons twined from them in whole hunting scenes, hundreds of bones hung joint-to-joint in osseous mobiles.

The wicker bands of the amber baskets were strips of human skin made hard by baking. One section had human eyelids within it.

“Brutal,” whispered Addis.

“Fucking savages…. fucking primitives… kill ‘em all,” breathed Haedra.

“Easy,” said Dasen, “Eyes on the prize… ah, bad metaphor. Let’s get the amber and bug out.”

“Cover me,” said Addis. Dasen and Haedra nodded, nocking arrows with their bows laying flat against the grass. Addis took his short sword in its scabbard and tucked it under his belt, then slid forward towards the nearest basket of amber.

He reached it and slid his arm up it like a snake. He took a handful of little orange rocks and bagged them, repeating this several times.

“Shit, enough amber, man, let’s get out of here,” hissed Haedra under his breath. Dasen silently concurred… then his blood ran cold. There were people walking up the beach towards the amber baskets. The first of them were bald, gaunt, and slinking. They had hideous, odious tattoos as if they’d been used for contemptuous practice. There were four young men coming behind them, and Dasen was seized by apprehension at the sight of them. Their bodies were lean yet muscular in a way that no farmer or burgher could match. They were nude and had spiders and centipedes tattooed across every inch of their pale bodies. Their ragged manes reached their heels, and one of them had a single braid amidst his hair which terminated tied up in the crest of a wooden fullhelm that hung behind his knees. They trouped along with long, thin spears. Their gaits were loose and limber.

Haedra looked at Dasen. Addis had froze with his hand in the amber basket. The warriors would reach him in just a few moments moments.

Dasen felt every grain of the wood between his fingers. The grass and the sun were vivid. He was about to witness something horrible.

Some part of him couldn’t believe it was possible that he could shoot the Dekandrite spearmen. But he took a knee, drew back an arrow, and held it until his arms were shaking and his fingertips were growing numb. A warrior stopped and gaped as he saw Addis laying there in the sand. Dasen let go with the familiar thumping noise and the arrow was launched tremendously at the warrior. When Dasen lowered his bow to look, the man was staggering backwards, screaming. He’d dropped his spear and was grasping the arrow’s shaft, perhaps trying to tug it free.

“Yes,” Dasen said in spite of himself. But the tribesman continued screaming horribly. Dasen’s skin began to crawl. The man gave a cry that seemed to come from the depths of his soul. Dasen couldn’t stand it. Weren’t they supposed to be tough? Stoic? Would he please stop?

Dasen reached back, retrieved another arrow and nocked it, but the Deks were already ducking and scattering, including the man whom he’d shot. Addis was up and sprinting through the brush with a fat bag of amber bouncing against his thighs.

He slid his short sword free as he reached his companions, his eyes alight.

Dasen turned and rushed up the soft soil of the hill. He went over a crag that jutted from the hillside to find an easier path and ran straight into a Dekandrite who’d come directly up the hill from the beach, trying to cut them off. The warrior had his spear in a low one-handed carry but Dasen swung his bow with both hands, catching the man in the chest and shoulder and knocking him over backwards, breaking the bow with a crack. Dasen dropped and then fell down on with a fist to the warrior’s jaw with a smack. The man immediately began shaking with his eyes half-lidded, unconscious.

“Gotcha,” Dasen hissed grimly, then planted his hands on the warrior’s hard chest and stood up.

Haedra darted in, straddled the unconscious man and began stabbing him all over the ribs with his short sword.

The man’s arm curled up towards the blade and he half-awoke, trying to sit up as his wounds began to bleed one by one, before he fell back and let his arm curl towards the ground. Haedra moved on to the man’s neck.

“Holy shit!” hissed Dasen, his voice strangely high-pitched. Haedra stood up and backed off, nearly tripping, then wiped his blade on his shirtfront.

“Welcome to war, kid! You gotta finish em when you get the chance! Otherwise they’ll end up like that cocksucker at the beach, or they come back and do the same thing to you!”

“We’ve got to get out of here,” said Addis evenly.

“Ok,” said Dasen, gazing at the slaughtered tribesman bathing in his own blood. He wondered if this would just enrage them more? Or if it would make any difference at all?

He grabbed the fallen warrior’s spear and led Addis and Haedra up the hill into the darkening foliage with the sun growing low on the horizon. The patches of sunlight seemed to move before his eyes. The night was coming soon, and with it, advantage for the Dekandrites. 

 

…

They didn’t have to wait for night. They were just five minutes’ breathless jog from the crags when they heard a shrill, mirthless, tuneless piping on the wind. A Dek war party was on their tail. They couldn’t hide. Dasen didn’t attempt to estimate their chances; they were in Morari’s field of expertise now. The huge man blew his whistle to signal the party waiting in the crags. The aspirants didn’t look him askance, but the piping seemed to slink towards them like a languid shark smelling a flounder.

The Deks came through the trees when the trio was almost in sight of the pass above, where their companions lay in wait. Dasen almost fell over when he saw the first of them. It was a jade colored serpent the size of a horse slithering up the hill towards him, mouth agape. Its fangs moved freely in the darkness, and then Dasen realized that it was a Dek warrior in an elaborate garment of peacock feathers that trailed over the rocks and roots as he went. The man had a pair of ivory daggers held icepick style in his hand; they were scrimshawed walrus tusks filed to an almost invisible point.

More come through the woods behind him. A geometric man wearing an armor of wooden boxes bound in an ecosystem of articulating segments, never touching, always rotating as he moved. As he approached, he slapped the boxes on his forearms and they produced a pair of obsidian spikes which fell into his hands beneath them.

Next was a man who glowed like a sun priest even in the fading light due to a half-disc of pure amber that he wore behind his head. He had on robes the color of tangerine sorbet like the sunset, and he held aloft an amber-toothed macahuitl like a sacramental icon. He was bald and his entire head had been covered with a strange black lacquer that formed a mannequin-like beetle shell around it. The only living flesh that could be seen was his blazing eyes.

A man who looked like some kind of hideous vascular mutant came through the trees, his red flesh shifting this way and that, poking and exploring everything around him. Only his naked tattooed legs were visible. Then Dasen realized that he was armored in red vipers which slithered in masses all around his body like he was a living mating pit. In any case, his eyes were lost in the morass of red scales. Perhaps he was so in tune with his armature that he could navigate from their hisses. He carried no weapons; his hands rested on two trees which he stood between.

Another came behind him, a man who swirled with milky white discs that flowed through the air around his body like a traffic of moons. Each had a rim of shining steel, and they were twined around him by furry green ropes. Dasen realized that they were sand dollars which had been bored through and set with steel blades to make chakrams, and the man had them twined such that their patterns were predictable and all he needed to do to keep them in a deadly flow was to weave his arms in a familiar pattern inside the deadly matrix.

The man in the snake raiment emitted a bloodcurdling scream echoed in an ear-piercing shriek by his serpents.

These men were the advance party, and they had just sounded the alarm.

Addis rushed them instantly with his short sword raised above his head, and several of the Deks fell backwards immediately, stunned by the sudden onslaught. Dasen could make out Addis slashing at two of them but the rest advanced on Dasen and Haedra; the serpent-man threw one of his dagger-darts overhand and Haedra screamed. Dasen glanced over. The scrimshawed weapon had impaled Haedra’s shinbone, and a strange dust which had clearly been rubbed into the weapon’s depressions was hazing the air around the wound, which begun releasing dark blood in trickles.

“Addis!” Dasen yelled. Addis looked over his shoulder; he’d delivered several livid red slashes to the arms and body of the man with the amber sun-disc, and had cut off several heads from the viper-clad man. Addis backed up, turned and sprinted to where Haedra was sitting.

Dasen looked back at the Deks and heard Haedra scream as Addis unceremoniously lifted him over his shoulders. The snake man and the geometric warrior had reached Dasen and the snake man darted in, trying to stab him with the fang-tusk. Dasen leapt backwards and lowered his spear, daring off the peacock-clad warrior, while the cedarbox-clad man attempted to flank him. Dasen suddenly whipped his spear point towards the flanker and it dug into the man’s square wooden breastplate. The serpent warrior came in with a low stab but Dasen relinquished his spear to dodge it and punched the snake man in the face as he passed, dropping him flat on his belly with a reverberating crack. The man in the boxes body-slammed Dasen, stabbing with his spike, missing Dasen’s arm but gashing his hip.

Dasen was bowled over onto the downy dead bark of the hillside and the man in cedar lunged in to thrust his weapon into Dasen’s chest; Dasen reached up and barely managed to seize the man’s forearm box before the plunge. The man fought it free and Dasen desperately caught it again; the man began to push his other spike inexorably against Dasen’s side, piercing the flesh and muscle as the man’s knuckles rammed the dirt, his body laid across Dasen’s, pinning him down.

Just then there was a vorpal swoop in front of Dasen’s nose and the head of the box-clad warrior split apart in a V, brains gushing into Dasen’s face in a hot and viscous release. Dasen blinked and sputtered, pushing the man’s limp and heavy form off of him like a dog which had fallen asleep in his lap. He looked over in awe at the man’s split head; his eyes had fallen back from their sockets and lay amidst brains in the moss. Something flew over Dasen’s head and landed with a terrific thump and a cascade of dirt in front of it: it was Morari, clad in full plate mail and wielding his two-handed longsword.

Dasen got up and fumbled backwards, wiping brains out of his eyes over and over. He looked up the hill and saw Addis disappearing with Haedra, who’s pantleg was soaked in blood drip-drip-dripping into the earth. Then he looked back down at Morari.

The Dek warriors moved in on Morari, even the man in tangerine who’d been slashed by Addis.

Morari whipped his longsword in a circle above his head, daring back the Deks, then suddenly long-lunged towards the disc-spinner and planted his sword no more than two inches into the man’s chest amidst the storm of silver blades. The man gave a little cry and stepped back as the discs wrapped around the sword. Morari tore it free, cutting many twines, and the disc spinner sat down with an expression like he’d been grievously insulted, bleeding profusely down the chest. Morari had pierced his heart.

Instantly the tangerine priest and the man clad in vipers rushed Morari with weapons outstretched. He darted between them with such agility that Dasen wondered if Morari wore plate armor as a form of deception.

Morari gave the tangerine-cloaked warrior-priest an upward slash as he passed. The man turned and fell to his hands and knees with a ruby red line blossoming across his robe. The man who was wrapped in vipers whirled on Morari, but Morari’s carried his sword’s momentum into a whirling roundhouse attack that went through the viper-bearer without slowing, bisecting him and dozens of his snakes in an explosion of red flesh that pitter-pattered across the boughs and soil.

The man in the serpent coil began to push himself up with red teeth, blinking, but Morari walked by him on his way up the hill, swinging his sword with a noise that chilled Dasen. Morari cut the fallen warrior’s head off, and it fell to the ground inside his garment, reaching the earth before the man’s chest.

Morari took Dasen’s collar and sped him up the hill. He was laughing gutturally and relentlessly underneath his breath.

Dasen shook his head as he staggered under Morari’s grasp.

…

The party maneuvered long into the night. Four of them at a time would pick up Haedra, move, and when the Deks would begin to appear in the woodline the party would set him down and pepper the foliage with arrows and slingstones. They moved like this for hour after hour in an odyssey of pain and darkness. Dasen’s fingertips grew numb from Haedra’s pantlegs, his gait stooping and his feet aching. Dasen knew that he was fatigued and yet he was hyper-alert, peering into the shadows with wide eyes for the slightest hint of movement. Morari ranged around them, directing their path and fire, tireless.

The Deks didn’t relent until the party had reached the Scalestream. Dasen’s heart beat relentlessly because he knew that he wouldn’t hear the trackers over the stream and his own physiology. But the next attack didn’t come. They marched into Assindar after several more hours of silent walking, their arms and shoulders pained in ways that they’d never before experienced.

Haedra was deposited at the temple. Dasen would later learn that Haedra had lost his leg. It was their tribute to the Dekandrites.

 

Morari marched the party on Megastheos that same night. Dasen couldn’t believe it. He’d been looking forward to bed and breakfast in Assindar. Now they would spend the rest of the night marching under their packs after the ordeal they had just suffered through. He looked at Morari, and a part of him said to himself, “He didn’t carry Haedra all that way, what does he care?” Then he stopped himself, and thought, “Chances are he’s had to do much worse.”

They marched all night, minds growing numb, nearly passing out as they walked. Some of the party began to complain bitterly to each other, but Morari did not censure them or speak at all. Dawn broke with a cool wind across their faces; the skin of their backs felt like they’d laid down in glass from the pressing of their packs on their sweat-laden skin. Dasen's feet hurt so bad he wanted to cry, not to mention being nearly delerious with fatigue and hunger, but he kept going. The night was long and so was the morning. Morari whistled a tune from the back of the pack.

Finally they reached Megastheos, from whence they'd departed. The guards smiled as the aspirants trudged through the gates like slaves driven from a foreign land. Morari directed them into the clubhouse and they sat on wooden benches in the foyer, gazing at each other, barely able to think.

Morari opened the inner door a crack.

“Bluesmith,” he called one of them in. Bluesmith staggered up using his pack to steady himself and went into the inner chamber. A few minutes later he came back into the foyer furiously, slinging his pack and stalking out onto the street without a word or glance to anyone. Dasen’s heart was pounding like he’d just been thrown by a horse.

The door opened.

“Dasen.”

He got up and went in. Morari’s crew was standing around impassively, gazing at him with arms crossed. Being at leisure they wore common, form-fitting clothes and daggers. Their eyes were hard and unforgiving, but amusement danced within. 

Morari turned to face him. ”Dasen, thanks for coming out. We appreciate you taking your shot; that got hairy and I know you don’t want to leave empty-handed. I’m sorry to tell you this, but…”

Dasen’s hands shook. His heart was in freefall. Morari smiled.

“You’re in.”

Dasen nearly fell over. Then he nearly leapt in the air.

"Thank you."

Morari cracked a smile.

"Get the fuck out of here. Come back when you're cleaned up and we'll get started."

Now Recording: The Histories of Herodotus

I've begun recording the Histories of Herodotus for Fierce Firelight, my podcast for stories, interviews, and readings of historical works.

Per Wikipedia:

"The Histories of Herodotus is considered the founding work of history in Western literature."

"Written around 430 BC in the Ionic dialect of classical Greek, The Histories serves as a record of the ancient traditions, politics, geography, and clashes of various cultures that were known in Greece, Western Asia and Northern Africa at that time."

"The Histories also stands as one of the earliest accounts of the rise of the Persian Empire, as well as the events and causes of the Greco-Persian Wars between the Persian Empire and the Greek city-states in the 5th century BC."

Today we cover Book 1, Chapters 1‑44: "History of Lydia and its kings; the story of Croesus."

I am reading from this edition. 

Major subjects of the Histories include:

The Archaic Greek world and the role it played in the prelude to the Greco-Persian wars, beginning with the Kingdom of Lydia in Anatolia and its capital at Sardis.

The animals, monsters, geography, and cultures of the earth.

The Rise of the Persian Empire.

The development of Athens, Sparta, Corinth and other Greek states.

The Greco-Persian Wars.

I go about recording stories (mine own and others) and historical readings in different ways; I do relatively close audio editing of pure stories, but treat the intended experience of "reading" readings as being present while someone does a reading, and so for this I continue on despite minor stumbles and don't edit for sound during whitespace. Don't regard my pronunciations as canon.

I have fond memories of sunny days spent transported by a well-annotated copy of the Histories and pounds of Ezell's spicy chicken strips.