Hello Everyone, the only vote I received this week for a new character illustration was for a character who already had one.
But I did not want to hold out on a character illustration, so I decided to revisit and improve the previous illustration! Last week's Illustration will be incorporated into the original Character Roster Post.
A lion's pedigree and a regal opulence best characterize our next Character, Lord Adanis Nomikos!
The roar of the crowd was a physical wave, a wall of sound that crashed over Mathaios like violent, foamy waves over a rocky cliffside - barely registering in his mind. He pounded down the corridor, the brigandine a dead weight on his shoulder, its hardened leather plates digging into his collarbone with every jarring step. His lungs were spent, his legs screaming a protest that had long since become a dull, constant ache.
He risked a glance to his left. Damiano...
2025-10-24 21:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Theodorus, Demetrios, and Stefanos’s shared laughter in the courtyard died a swift death at the armory door. It was good that they had managed to wring out a brief, joyous moment, because the situation within was no laughing matter, and it certainly brought no joy.
“This is…” Demetrios stood stock-still in the middle of the cavernous space, his voice a choked whisper. He ran a hand over a stack of kite shields, their new oak faces already filmed with a l...
2025-10-21 21:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone, the story has seen explosive growth over the last few days, and we've finally reached the 10 Patron benchmark! This milestone means we have a community large enough now to start discussing things that can meaningfully shape both the story and the Patreon.
Firstly, I wanted to thank you to all the new members who've enjoyed the story enough to lend your support :), and to everyone who has been commenting on recent chapters! I enjoy reading all of them and want to build an...
2025-10-19 14:00:11 +0000 UTC
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The castle’s resident chickens had not yet started their morning ballad when Theodorus rose from his roughly carded woolen mattress, a luxury compared to the straw bedding he’d slept in back at Probatoufrorio. He dressed in the pre-dawn darkness, the flicker of a single guttering candle chasing the gloom from the corners of the stone chamber.
He walked the silent, aged corridors of Suyren Fortress, his soft-soled boots making little sound. The air here...
2025-10-18 21:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Author's Notes: Don't forget to vote on a new character illustration by commenting below the chapter :)
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Dark-bellied clouds broke against the stone flanks of Suyren, their passage a promise of rain that did nothing to diminish the fortress’s grim majesty. It stood at the mouth of the Belbek River, a weathered molar of a castle guarding ...
2025-10-15 21:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Being called to the Doux’s office for the second time in a week was never a fun experience, but after idling for half a week in the Capital, Leonidas was already feeling the strain of sitting still. He would never truly be comfortable in a large city. Too many shadows and not enough open fields. Mangup wasn’t especially big from what he’d been told, but it was plenty big enough for him.
“Oy, Leonidas.” He found Cosmas lounging in the mess hall, lying h...
2025-10-12 21:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Theodorus pushed the heavy oak door inward and stepped into a cave of shadows. The last, wounded light of a setting sun bled through a tall, narrow window, turning the figure seated behind the massive desk into an imposing black mountain. The air was thick with the faint, metallic tang of oiled steel mixed with the stale taste of old parchment.
As his eyes adjusted, the details emerged from the gloom, painted in the flickering, predatory light of a single large ...
2025-10-09 21:00:17 +0000 UTC
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Author's Notes: Character Illustrations have been added, be sure to check those out in the Miscellaneous Collection!
We will start out with the main cast of 15 Characters, and every Saturday a new Character Illustration will be released based on my patrons' comments that week. If there is any Character you'd like to see, just leave a comment in the chapter.
If there are no comments in a given week's chapters, no characters will be released.
Thank you for your support :)
<...
2025-10-06 21:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Theodorus Sideris
Demetrios
Christos
Author's note: From now on Chapters will have illustrations. I will also retroactively add chapter illustrations for the previous chapters over the coming days, so be sure to check those out if you wish :)
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The softness of his bed irked Leonidas, who was more used to sleeping on the cold, hard ground of a makeshift camp than the cozy confi...
2025-10-03 21:24:33 +0000 UTC
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Author's Note: Just wanted to drop in and say that the two weeks of Chapter Releases every two days are finally over. Chapters will now follow a regular release schedule of one chapter every three days. Thank you for your support!
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Theodorus had gathered the men in a wide semicircle where the battle had raged, in the shadow of the great, m...
2025-09-30 21:00:08 +0000 UTC
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“Assemble!” The captain’s voice roared, slicing through the raw-throated cheers of his men. The elation of victory, so potent a moment before, began to recede, replaced by the familiar weight of duty. “You have won a great victory! But the work of a soldier is never finished. I want a full accounting of the injured and the dead. I want every weapon, every piece of armor, and every coin tallied from the fallen. Catch any horses that have not fled. Send a runner to Kerasia...
2025-09-28 21:00:06 +0000 UTC
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The volley was not a sound, but a texture - a sharp, ripping tear in the fabric of the morning. Thirty arrows arcing as one was a strangely soothing balm to Theodorus’s spirit, the perfect execution of a thousand variables. The bait, a half-dozen of Kerasia’s bravest women feigning a panicked scramble, had worked to perfection. The raiders, drunk on the promise of easy prey, had surged into the clearing. Their leader had tried to rein them in, but it was too late. They were deep i...
2025-09-26 21:00:09 +0000 UTC
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“Captain! Sergeant Leonidas! Orestis! Where are you?!” Christos’s voice was a ragged bellow as he crashed through the woods. He had only a vague sense of direction, a desperate heading toward the valley the Captain had designated for their rally point, and he ran with the wild abandon of a man possessed.
His plan - to run in the vague direction of the meetup through the woods and towards the fight, yelling frantically all the while - had been met with a wa...
2025-09-24 21:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Evangelos thought shepherding was much like raising kids. You grew them up, took care of ‘em, kept the wolves away, and got them as fat as the meagre soil allowed, all in the hopes that they grew up to be worth somethin’ someday. Not every one could be perfect, but that’s why you played to the law of averages. At least one or two of ‘em ought to turn out right. His eldest, Marios, had turned out right. The boy had his mother’s patience, a gentle hand that could guide a flock...
2025-09-22 21:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Nestled in a valley southeast of Kerasia, a particular grove held its breath. Here, an offshoot of the Belbek river gurgled around a colossal, moss-eaten boulder that local legend claimed was a tear shed by a giant. The valley walls were steep, creating a natural funnel that opened onto a flat, grassy plane. The trees that grew here were a resilient breed, their wood tough and unyielding. It was a sacred place. It was also a perfect kill box.
“Here.” Theodor...
2025-09-20 21:00:06 +0000 UTC
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“HOLD IT LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!” Sergeant Leonidas’s boot slammed into a shield, the impact a dull thud that sent a shockwave down the line. “BECAUSE ONE DAY, IT WILL!”
“You’re as weak as newborn fawns! Man the fuck up!”
“My grandmother, dead ten years and half-eaten by worms, could hold this line better than you! PATHETIC!”
Leonidas and his veterans stalked the shield wall like hungry wolves circling a ...
2025-09-18 21:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Christos moved through Kerasia not like a man, but like a storm front rolling in over the hills, a palpable drop in pressure preceding him. He did not take any winding side paths; he strode down the center of the village’s main road, a straight, direct line to the house on the hill. The whispers that had followed him before were gone, replaced by a more profound and fearful silence. Doors clicked shut. A woman hauling a basket of laundry saw the look on his face, dropped her load in...
2025-09-17 01:37:29 +0000 UTC
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“It’s been three days.”
The quill in Demetrios’s hand hovered over the parchment, a tiny, indecisive bird. He wasn’t looking at the rough sketch he was meant to be refining - a grid of vegetable plots to be carved into the fort’s packed-earth courtyard - but through it, his gaze lost somewhere in the middle distance. The captain was, as always, embarking on a new ambitious project. To use the vegetable seeds he’d purchased from the relief convoy fo...
2025-09-15 20:09:16 +0000 UTC
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The sunrises and sunsets of Mangup were a miser’s gift of extra light, a few precious minutes hoarded from the encroaching dark. A grace afforded by the elevated promontory on which the city sat. For Zeno Makris, whose days began before the sun and ended long after it, this light was a resource to be exploited. It meant another column of text read, another note penned, without the needless expense of a candle. He might now be the personal aide to the Megas Doux, a position that coul...
2025-09-15 13:30:48 +0000 UTC
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The last week and a half had been a whirlwind of frantic, managed progress. After twelve days of grueling practice, the recruits were finally showing some semblance of discipline. They snapped to attention when addressed, assembled in the courtyard without being screamed at, and had begun to execute the simple drills Sergeant Leonidas put them through with a precision that was, at least, no longer laughable. It was an astonishing transformation from the broken, malnourished mob Theodo...
2025-09-15 13:30:24 +0000 UTC
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