"In the end, inspired by the great Duke Herak, our men managed to push back the cowardly foes. Thus we have managed to destroy the tunnels of the cowardly moles once more. Whatever dirty tricks they attempt in the future, our walls shall never be broken so long as the great Duke Herak controls our destiny!"
While the arcavian commander spoke of his master's great achievement, Herak simply sat by the side and looked like he was about to kill someone. Though that wasn't anything new.
<...
2022-12-01 23:32:08 +0000 UTC
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When Chalco left the confines of the tunnel's terminus, several people were already waiting for him. Next to Qori stood a warrior whose family had become famous for their impeccable senses for centuries. As a result, many of them would be employed as eagles by their masters, and this one was no exception.
"There is thumping," Chalco confirmed, and then turned towards the eagle. "Is there anything else of note that I have overlooked?"
"No, commander. There is only the thumping you ...
2022-11-29 00:53:05 +0000 UTC
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Drip, drip, drip.
Water droplets created a rhythmic beat in Taki's ear. After they escaped the damp ceiling, they fell down through the dark and humid air. Finally, they added to the shallow stream of water, reaching up to the ankles of those who splashed around in it. Every once in a while, a drop of sweat would join in and add its own drip discordant noise, hidden within the ceaseless assault of ceiling droplets.
Against the water fought a squeaking machine. On both sides, two m...
2022-11-28 00:44:46 +0000 UTC
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Hello, Hermit here.
So, since it's been a while since I posted anything new on here, I thought I might as well write out a general update on some stuff that has been happening.
New Chapters: Since I'm now officially out of advanced chapters, I started writing new ones again recently. I'll update one or two tomorrow, to stay ahead of the curve a bit. The current book 6 might have another ten or so chapters left, so there's actually not much left until we get into some new, exciting...
2022-11-27 00:39:29 +0000 UTC
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After Pacha had finally relaxed, the two kings just sat there for a while, and warmed their body with the hot irish coffee in their hands. Finally, the hero king looked up again. For a few second, he eyed his fellow king, before he said, “I can never tell what you are thinking.”
“That’s the idea.” Corco laughed. “Anyways, what’s up with you?”
“What?”
Again with the frown.
“Well, just asking how you are doing up there,” he said, and supp...
2022-11-12 21:26:01 +0000 UTC
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How peaceful.
For Corco, it was a guilty thought.
Looking out of the window of Lord Makipura's city manor, he saw green once more, now that the white blanket of winter had disappeared. Birds were singing over the lively sound of Rimas City's busy streets.
Ever since they had joined the Kingdom of the South, the people of Rimas had benefited immensely. Out of all the many immigrants from various backgrounds who traveled from the two northern kingdoms south to Saniya,...
2022-11-12 21:23:18 +0000 UTC
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Like every day, Chalco and Qori lined up near the port to get the food assigned to their combat group. From behind, the two kids were catching up.
“Master Chalco, please wait!” beardless shouted.
“We are standing still,” Chalco replied in a weary tone. These children had far too much energy. Apparently, Qori saw it the same.
“Have you celebrated enough?” the veteran added.
“Master, should we not enjoy our great victory?” the cocky kid asked. At the same...
2022-11-10 20:29:41 +0000 UTC
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“Positions!”
The usual shout woke Chalco from his thoughts. He stretched out his hand and Qori stepped forward to help pull him up.
Is it already here? They’re a bit early today.
Just as he had the thought, the loudmouth child interrupted him.
“Quick! The heretics are coming!”
Annoyed, the architect looked over to the kid who had already drawn his weapon.
“Calm down, boy,” he said. “Do you want to throw your fancy axe down the wall?...
2022-11-08 21:39:28 +0000 UTC
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Freezing cold sapped Chalco of his strength, and a heavy weight on his back pulled him down, closer and closer to the snow-white ground. Yet he struggled on, step by step, as his fingers lost feeling and his limbs lost strength. He felt like he tread water, like he stood still. Every step led him to the same place again, with no way forward. At last, there was a change. A thunderous sound from behind. When he turned, the giant wave of blood was already upon him. With a start and a scream shor...
2022-11-08 21:38:20 +0000 UTC
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Compared to the cold outside, the air inside the command tent of the southern kingdom’s army was warm and heavy. Not only did the large, burning braziers around the tent’s periphery heat up the place, but so did the many bodies inside. At the helm of them all, furthest into the tent, sat their king. At this very moment, he was receiving a report about their struggle to prevent another damming incident.
“As a result of the men’s efforts and the fast reaction of Corporal Quisuyupa...
2022-11-08 21:37:16 +0000 UTC
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Once, Taki had thought that the armies of the southern kingdom were as invincible as their miracle king. Once, he had thought they were unbeatable. Now, he knew better.
Sure, their enemies had come faster than they had thought. Of course, their defenses had been insufficiently prepared. Still, a lack of preparation alone wasn’t enough to explain their failure. No, the persistence of their enemies had come as a shock even more so, to the point of disbelief.
Why won’t they r...
2022-11-05 21:31:19 +0000 UTC
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The sound of drums filled Chalco’s head once more. After their defeat in the lightning battle, he thought that he would never have to hear that noise again. That maybe, he could go back home and return to his quiet work as an architect, leading a fulfilling and quiet life.
Of course, life was cruel, and the Divines had more torture planned for him. Now, for the second time in his life, he had been forced into his family’s uncomfortable heirloom armor.
Every bone in his body wa...
2022-11-05 21:23:03 +0000 UTC
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“This is an embarrassment!” Pari shouted at bodies who lay panting and collapsed in and around the camp. It had taken them all afternoon to reassemble the routed workers who had rushed into the forest like headless flies. Five had sustained injuries so severe that they couldn’t rejoin construction anymore, which would slow down their plans even without enemy interference. Their injuries hadn’t even come from the cannons. Rather, they had fallen down or spiked themselves on a low-hangi...
2022-11-03 12:22:27 +0000 UTC
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Winter still held the southern kingdom in its icy grip. Snow still reigned on the plains north of Antila and silenced all life under its cover. However, only the Uskaylla River still raged on with its usual ferocity. With its source high in the southernmost outcrops of the Sallqatta Mountains, it charged downhill in the north-eastern part of Antila and brushed the city along its eastern wall. On its race towards Port Ulta and the Weltalic Sea, the river showed little care little for the surro...
2022-11-02 18:00:36 +0000 UTC
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On a new day of combat, a young commander in Antila’s new allied army stepped on top of the walls. As part of the reinforcements from Port Ulta, he had just stepped off the ship and was ready to show off his prowess. His black hair was long and shiny, a proud achievement of his many victories over the years. His armor was polished to a mirror shine, gleaming in a bronze hue in the sunlight, ready to blind his enemies during his charge.
“Idiot! Get your head down!”
Herak’s ...
2022-11-01 21:43:40 +0000 UTC
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After several days of preparation and reorganization in Cashan, Corco’s army had grown to an entirely new level. Twenty-seven companies of soldiers – made up of about a thousand combat personnel each - represented almost all the strength Saniya could muster in the short-term. The king had only kept back another two companies in Qarasi Castle. In case of an attack from the north, the two thousand men would be enough to protect the Narrows until reinforcements arrived. With his current cont...
2022-10-31 21:32:53 +0000 UTC
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His head empty of thoughts, Loreius Ichilia stared down onto the snow-covered fields around Antila. All he registered was the endless white of the plains. Who knew how long he had stood there, still and sunken into a trance.
“Lord Ichilia! Lord Ichilia!”
It took him a while, but Loreius finally realized that the voice was addressing him.
That’s right. I am the lord now. At the same time as he realized, he also noticed that his face had been scrunched up into a...
2022-10-29 20:16:32 +0000 UTC
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Not long after Corco’s commands, everything in Kapra had been settled, and the king began his hunt for Ogulno and his accomplices. Together with his army, he traveled north, on the same road he had taken on his retreat from Kapra last time. Once again, he reached Utusku, under the control of Lord Makipura.
The lord himself welcomed Corco, as well as the other lords and their representatives, into his home. They only spent one evening there, for rest and resupply. Makipura agreed to se...
2022-10-27 20:24:28 +0000 UTC
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As someone with the memories of a modern person, convenient travel was one of the things Corco missed the most about modern life. Without planes, without cars, and without trains, getting anywhere took ages in this place. Medala didn’t even have any horses, so most of the time, he was being carried about by other people like some ancient pharaoh in a Hollywood movie. Though considering how little fun Corco had on long journeys, this had been a remarkably pleasant trip so far.
Right th...
2022-10-25 21:16:08 +0000 UTC
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When Ogulno had left his castle to join in the efforts of the league of lords, hope had been bleak. Now that he was back, it was even bleaker. With a heavy heart, the lord ran his hands across the armrests of his noble seat. Piled onto the table was today’s meal, as opulent as always, but he had no eyes for it. Across from him sat the other two lords he had fled with, all the way to here, back home to Kapra.
Again, those two were talking among themselves. While Ogulno had worried for ...
2022-10-23 22:17:47 +0000 UTC
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“Have you still not moved it?” An annoyed Sumaci walked up to the offices in Saniya's Rapra Castle., where a group of six workers were holding a giant piece of furniture.
“The table is too wide! We can’t possibly get it through the doorway,” one of them argued, but the queen wasn’t having any of it.
“Then just break the doorway,” she said. “Do you think the doors are more expensive, or the table?”
With a face of defeat, Rapra Castle's office workers put d...
2022-10-22 23:10:11 +0000 UTC
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After the lords had been sufficiently intimidated, they finally agreed to formal peace talks, though the place didn’t really change. Normally, a grand peace deal like this would be negotiated in an equally grand place, but that really wasn’t an option right now.
First, the obvious place would be to negotiate in Puscanacra. It was the old capital of the south, and the center of the league of lords rebellion. Saqartu mansion in the center of the city was also grand enough to hold such...
2022-10-21 21:48:38 +0000 UTC
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Day forty-eight of the Winter Season in fifth year of the Era of Strife was a momentous day in Medala’s history.
Two major battles took place,on the same day, at the same time, several hundred kilometers apart. Both ended in resounding, one-sided victories for the royal forces of the southern kingdom. The death of Divitius Ichilia on the northern battlefield and those of a further three lords in the southern battlefield marked the beginning of the end for Medala’s old ruling class, ...
2022-10-20 21:22:15 +0000 UTC
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Three bangs went off in Governor Ichilia’s ears at the same time, but by now he was used to the sound of the cannons from the opposite shore. Of course, the constant ringing in his ears helped muffle the noise as well. He wouldn’t have to hear much through it. Not only had he grown used to the noise of battle, but also to its danger.
The battle had started slowly, and then had ramped up in intensity as his ships got closer to the shore. Thus, he had been eased into his first major n...
2022-10-19 19:12:12 +0000 UTC
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When Governor Ichilia spotted the beacon tower on Sachay’s shores, General Scolo atop the tower had long found the invading fleet. Since the traditional battleships of Medala sat low in the water and had no crow’s nests, the scouts on the towers had a huge advantage when it came to their line of sight. Not to mention that they were equipped with telescopes, which further compounded their advantage.
They had been warned by the king’s ghost network that House Ichilia was likely to a...
2022-10-18 21:43:24 +0000 UTC
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Medala’s climate had always been peculiar, along the Narrow Sea even more so than elsewhere. Temperature differences between the southern and northern shores were frequently huge, even though one could see the other shore on a clear day. As a result, the battle on Puscanacra’s northern border was being fought in ice and snow, while a warm breeze blew from the Verdant Isles in the north-west down towards Medala and swept across the Narrow Sea, to bring spring to Sinchay’s southern shores...
2022-10-17 19:22:25 +0000 UTC
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“Forward, men! Whoever breaks their ranks first will be a hero! Onto glory!” All around Lord Maygua, his warriors replied to his passionate speech with endless cheers. Their smiles beamed as they climbed up the snow-covered slope. Even the lord himself wanted to look up to the sky and laugh out loud at the ease of their imminent victory, though unfortunately he had to embody the calm gravitas of a leader. Still, he had every reason to be giddy.
Idiot northerners. This is why you...
2022-10-16 18:28:01 +0000 UTC
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After the pre-war negotiations had failed, Governor Mayu returned back to his troops, filled with resentment. As soon as that lowly servant called Fadelio was out of view, the governor’s subordinate lords had made excuses and left for their own forces as soon as possible. Not one of them had even tried to stay and strategize for their victory. At least they could have pretended to follow his command with some vague words like ‘we will await your orders’, but clearly, none of them had an...
2022-10-15 19:24:27 +0000 UTC
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The negotiations between the king and the league of lords were only a short interlude in the southern kingdom’s civil war. Not long after Fadelio had returned to the command tent in the army’s back line, the drums of war began to sound. First came the drums on Saniya’s side, which were soon answered with drums from the league of lords as well.
Unlike many of the old customs associated with warrior culture, this was one of the few medalan traditions Saniya had kept. Before every ba...
2022-10-14 21:13:55 +0000 UTC
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Although most of southern Medala was covered in ice and snow during these winter months, the ground Fadelio was walking down was rough, and there was no risk of slipping. After Saniya’s troops had set up camp atop the hill, they had strewn coarse sand all the way down the hill. Although the slippery snow would havei mproved their defense against a charge, there was no guarantee their enemies would attack at all.
Depending on the circumstances, if the league of lords would turn out to ...
2022-10-13 18:40:59 +0000 UTC
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