"Think, too, of the great part that is played by the unpredictable in war: think of it now, before you are actually committed to war. The longer a war lasts, the more things tend to depend on accidents."
- Thucydides, Historian and General
--------
There was a light fog, barely more than a mist, that hung low to the ground on the third day. The temperatures had broken the night before, leaving the snow wet and heavy as it turned to slush under the boots of ...
2025-04-30 22:49:34 +0000 UTC
View Post
Taliesin and Jarl Gunther left the wall swiftly after the gnolls scattered, before the Sheriff’s men and militia allies realized that they had the Jarl severely outnumbered and no common foe uniting them outside the walls at the moment. It was just as well, for word of their hostage rescue was spreading swiftly. Taliesin had no doubts that the Sheriff would find some way to rage at the young Jarl about leaving the city during the battle for the raid, and somehow try to turn their victory to...
2025-04-29 01:39:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
Arnulf could hardly believe that a person could be so powerful.
Magic activated all around the Stormlord. The air flared with it, shining like stars bursting in the air. Yet the most impressive feat was still to come. Just as Arnulf thought they would soon be overwhelmed, two portals appeared in the pens at the same time!
Arnulf raced into action. He began to harangue the dazed prisoners to go through even as he ran to pick up his little sister.
“You came back for me,” s...
2025-04-26 00:46:11 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Sometimes the path of virtue requires acts of sheer idiocy.”
Taliesin the Stormlord, Archmage
----------
“You canna’ be serious,” exploded Runolf in a shout of disbelief, a rare display of temper from the normally silent guardian.
The various voices of protest and argument that had exploded around Taliesin just moments after the raiding party had retreated back through the portal before the archmage could hold it open no more. The rescued t...
2025-04-23 22:57:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Every dust-covered scholar loves to spout off about how you need ‘patience to win a siege’ and point to their ‘studies of history’ as proof. Those fools know nothing. If all it took was a bit of time, any conquest would be impossible to stop. Siegecraft is the ultimate skill in war, and its mastery has built and broken more cities and kingdoms than stars in the night sky.”
- King Pyrrhus of Epirus
--------
The factional truce seemed to be holdi...
2025-04-21 23:01:31 +0000 UTC
View Post
"A war may only be deemed just if it is waged by a legitimate authority, not in haste or for conquest, but as a grave responsibility to uphold justice and order. It must be fought with a just cause, aiming to right a wrong or defend the innocent against aggression. Above all, it must be propelled by right intention, seeking to restore peace and harmony among sovereigns, rather than sowing the seeds of future strife. In this delicate balance of authority, cause, and intention, lies the mor...
2025-04-18 22:52:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
“If you must strike your foe, do not do it in half-measures. Do it right and do it completely.”
- Taliesin the Stormlord, Archmage
--------
The icy wind cut across the hilltop without mercy. Taliesin bundled his cloak tightly about himself as he stood in knee-deep snow, but otherwise ignored the chill. Runolf and a half-dozen varingjar stood at the ready along with an equal number of the Jarl’s House Guard in a loose circle. Beyond the protective ring...
2025-04-16 21:39:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
“The real hubris of nobles is that they believe the privilege of their birth means they are immune to the consequences of their actions. I believe recognizing this flaw is key to truly measuring up to the virtues of one’s lineage.”
- Letter from Dom Francisco de Oliveira e Dias, Marquês de Viseu, to King João de Andrade, six months before dying in a failed coup attempt.
---------
Aina felt numb.
At first, after she cleaned the blood off her se...
2025-04-14 22:44:12 +0000 UTC
View Post
“With you as my allies, my enemies want for nothing!”
- Final words of War King Herodius
--------
Taliesin stood in the freezing rain of his own creation and watched as the wall burned. He and his closest bodyguards stood aside as his recruits joined the Jarl’s House Guards in a vain attempt to extinguish the blaze on the outside of the town’s walls. Taliesin, for his part, maintained the [Gentle Rain] spell to prevent the flames from spreading, but...
2025-04-11 23:00:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
“There is one truth taught by history.
Everything ends.”
- Waltheoff Odinsgode, Grand Priest of the Old Way
-------
Taliesin shivered in the pre-dawn morning as he walked across Buverik. A few sleep-dazed thralls were up and around, hauling firewood mostly, but little stirred otherwise. Aina and Runolf and a half-dozen varingjar led twenty armed villagers - men-at-arms in training, really - who all shivered beneath sturdy wool cloaks and ...
2025-04-09 23:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Magic is not just chaos and destruction.
Magic is power. Magic is life. Magic is creation.
Magic shapes the entire world.”
- Hemlock the Shaper, Archmage
----------
There were never enough hours in the day.
Taliesin ignored the temptation to seek out companionship for even a few hours after the feast. Instead he retreated into his small laboratory to continue his work. His workspace was getting more cramp...
2025-04-07 22:33:13 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Civilization isn’t formed from good intentions and profound ideas. Neither do superior morals or faith in the gods play a vital role. Rather, it is formed by the application of deliberate violence in ways meant to provoke or hinder specific actions. When the untamed man is subjected to the rules of the sword, he either becomes a useful part of the state or falls before it. His opinions on the matter are of no consequence.”
- A Treatise on Royal Governance
...
2025-04-04 22:29:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
“The echo of an enemy's deeds rings louder than his words.”
- King Ivar the Old, after executing his son
--------
Aina paced back and forth in the receiving room outside the Jarl’s great hall. Her body ached from overuse of her Forging. She’d stayed invisible too long, had moved too swiftly while trying to hold the divine magic around her. Aina had never pushed herself that hard before, and the pins and needles feeling all over her skin and ache in ...
2025-04-02 22:53:36 +0000 UTC
View Post
I wanted to give a heads up to anyone who uses the Patreon App through the App Store. If you decide to sign up for membership - please do so through the website, not the app! The app store charges a 30% fee which gets tacked on top of the subscription, simply for using the app to sign up. You get the same benefits by signing up on the website, then opening your account in the app afterwards.
This is a fee tacked on by Apple, not Patreon, so save yourself a bit and avoid the hassle.
2025-04-01 18:04:12 +0000 UTC
View Post
“The size of a man’s arm rarely pairs with great strength of mind. When the two align however… Beware the cunning warrior, my son.”
- Old Farmer Wisdom, Ballad of the Troll Slayer
-------
“He’s a goliath!” shouted one of the men, while another screamed, “Earth Forging!”
Taliesin’s men closed ranks in front of him to interpose a solid wall of warriors between him and the seven militia and one very oversized warrior. The earth Forger...
2025-03-31 23:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Bonus behind the scenes bonus content!
Aina was an interesting character for me because I've always wondered, what makes someone deeply loyal? How could that be earned?
Taliesin, of course, is the magical glass cannon of the operation. Ultimate cosmic power? Check. Fragile human form? Also check. That meant he'd need people to shore up his weaknesses. Strong people, smart people, sneaky people.
Now that was the train of thought that got me on the path that ultimately led to ...
2025-03-30 12:22:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
"The art of ambush is the art of the unexpected. It is the unseen dagger that cuts deepest."
- Taliesin the Stormlord, Archmage
-------------
Taliesin yawned as he walked through the kitchens towards the muster yard behind the manor. The temperatures had taken a dip, and a brisk wind was blasting snow drifts, sending an icy mist right at face level that was just cold enough to be miserable. Few servants and thralls were around, for anyone who had the...
2025-03-28 17:39:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
"The unwilling can find no escape from change's relentless grasp."
- Thane’s Edda
--------
Taliesin stepped outside of the manor into the crisp, pre-dawn light. He was tired from an exhaustive, all-night session of experimenting with his spellforms and planning. He was pleased with his progress - given a few more nights, and he’d have a few more spells re-discovered, and more of this new system of casting mapped out. Given a few months, Taliesin suspect...
2025-03-22 00:00:11 +0000 UTC
View Post
Behind the Scenes: I don't know how often I'll do these, but I felt like sharing, and you are the kind souls who are supporting the story so if anyone was interested in bonus content, I'm going to give it to you.
I found this image floating around as a wallpaper of all things, when I was dreaming up the idea of a wizard in a new world. I knew that I wanted to write a story about a powerful magic user, that was part "regression" and part "apocalypse" but neither of those really fitted my...
2025-03-21 14:32:13 +0000 UTC
View Post
“You come to me with your skin unweathered and palest of blues, boasting of your Sea Forging and demanding to learn how to gain a Second. Who are you but a dirt farmer who tracks mud upon the decks of my ship? You know nothing of the Sea yet proclaim your ignorance with pride.”
- Awilda, Pirate Queen of the Kattegat
--------
A scream and commotion interrupted Taliesin’s breakfast. Taliesin took another bite, but the noise only increased in volume. Wit...
2025-03-20 00:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
"Nothing is more perilous for a ruler than being incompetent, for it invites the derision of his enemies and the scorn of his subjects."
- Puck the Jester, before the basque King Mario Bedua’s military loss to an inferior force
--------
Nothing had gone according to plan.
Hallfred paced his office, a scant handful of days after the disastrous funeral feast for the late Jarl. He’d planned everything so perfectly. Jarl Arni had been sick already fro...
2025-03-19 00:01:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
"Civilizations may rise and fall, but the enduring legacy of a sword is the indomitable spirit it instills in those who wield it."
- Xenophon of Athens, "The Sword and the Soul: Musings on the Art of Combat"
--------
The manor was far larger than any building Aina had ever seen before. It housed all of the Jarl’s family plus their closest advisors, important guests - of which she was inexplicably considered a part of - and servants, which was a mix of thr...
2025-03-19 00:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
There was no visible sign that anything had happened, but a series of visions assaulted him. He saw the manor, newly built with only one wing and the formal hall, and a young family living happily inside it. He saw a man with elaborate face paint and wild hair leading the family in a religious ritual, and wandering inside. He caught flashes of an old stone set in the floor, rough compared to the cut stone around it, and a rabbit being slaughtered above it. The room was small, with bundles of ...
2025-03-18 18:58:16 +0000 UTC
View Post
"Progress consists in knowing how to distinguish the nature of different difficulties, and in selecting the best means for overcoming them. But this cannot be achieved without effort and hard work. For just as a house cannot stand without a foundation, so too, success cannot be achieved without a strong and steady base. Let us, therefore, not be afraid to toil in laying the groundwork for our future success, for it is through hard work and diligence that we shall reap the rewards of our l...
2025-03-18 18:53:51 +0000 UTC
View Post
“He had enough fire in his belly to burn down a dozen nations.”
- Anonymous
---------
The morning was somber and cold, and was well-suited to the occasion. The skies were clear and the winds were calm, as if Hel herself had decided to witness the funeral of a warlord. A quiet crowd had gathered in the open field just outside the town walls, and the elites of Buverik were huddled in groups of families, clans and factions. Elite merchants mingled with cla...
2025-03-18 18:42:12 +0000 UTC
View Post
"Sometimes it's the kindness of strangers that can help us rebuild trust. A simple gesture, a genuine smile, or a listening ear can remind us that there is still goodness in the world and that we are not alone in our struggles."
- Journal of a Theban warrior on the eve of the Battle of Leuctra
----------
Aina slept.
She was exhausted beyond measure, but the bed was soft and warm, so she slept. The day gave way to night, and still she slept. The blanke...
2025-03-18 18:36:59 +0000 UTC
View Post
“The criteria for being Godforged has been one of Odin’s greatest mysteries. Why does he - and the Aesir and Vanir gods who follow him - choose who they choose? Why do the bodies of those who first receive an Elemental Forging change so drastically? Are the Conceptual Forgings lesser because they leave no such modifications?
I’ve spent a lifetime studying the Forged gifts, and gathering arguments from natural philosophers, priests, mages, and learned men. Yet I ...
2025-03-18 18:10:12 +0000 UTC
View Post
“It was far worse than a crime. It was a mistake.”
Taliesin the Stormlord, Archmage
--------
“Milord, the young Jarl is looking to manipulate you,” said Viggo as he walked alongside Taliesin. Runolf walked on the other side of Taliesin, and the two strolled around outside the manor house, ostensibly to check on their refugees.
“At the behest of Brant, no doubt. The steward is a canny one,” said Taliesin, seeming unperturbed. “Did you kno...
2025-03-18 17:55:53 +0000 UTC
View Post
Taliesin was so exhausted that he collapsed into the bed and fell into a deep sleep. He dreamt of the Void, and the long years of introspection that had forced him to deal with the loss of his family, his country, and his world. The familiarity of endlessly reconstructing spellforms soon replaced the bittersweet memories of a past forever gone, only to in turn become an endless magical tangle that he had to unweave. Only by reconstructing poorly made spells could he escape, but he could not m...
2025-03-18 17:52:37 +0000 UTC
View Post
“It is important to recognize opportunities when they present themselves. If those opportunities are stubborn and refuse to be revealed, an ambitious man must seek them out.”
- Prince Harald Ivarsson, before his execution
---------
The town of Buverik was just as unimpressive as the town walls in Taliesin’s eyes. He recognized he was jaded in that regard, for he had helped Duke Arthur build up Londinium into a shining beacon before rumors of demon-led...
2025-03-18 17:50:28 +0000 UTC
View Post
