Story Some writing things I did earlier for a setting of mine

[ElimGarak123]

Please leave feedback, even if you wanna call me a bad writer and an idiot who should pack everything in and go home, I like all forms of feedback. I wrote these during the pandemic to kinda show people what my world was like, and could give them something to read to show them how things function.

Heres the first, sorry for poor formatting

Aranel was a young man, a boy by every definition still, yet a boy who lived at a time when changes were great and nobody knew what the future meant anymore. The arrival of an Empire from across the seas had shaken the collective consciousness of his race. The Empire had done much to try and earn their trust with their massive construction in infrastructure, Alara itself which had floated since time immemorial had a truly massive bridge constructed to connect it with the land. Yet everywhere he went, the elderly and those too stuck in their ways called them bribes, meant to buy their loyalty, his parents, both proud warriors who each morning would help each other don their intricately carved armor, both wearing a set custom made and fitted to them. Each morning too they would discuss things over breakfast, they made it clear to their teenage son that their kingdom would not be bought by some new roads, yet the boy could not help but admire the black clad bands of Imperial Infantry that had taken to patrolling the roads alongside their own warriors. As time went on more work gangs from the East arrived. These men, filthy, and clad in thick corduroy overalls would pile into the tavern, eager to take advantage of the free ale the kingdom could afford to give, Aranel himself enjoyed speaking to them, the workmen themselves happy to have a distraction from the hard and odd looking labor of laying thick steel rails on the ground would answer most things he asked. They called themselves Herzlanders, and had travelled to their land from across the ocean, the voyage taking two months and another 2 months upon reaching Nicea to construct their odd links of rails from there to here, as to the question of what they were, the same answer applied, Herzlanders, the humans and elves in that land had become so mixed over the years that creating separate designations for each would be impossible. Aranel would see their work completed, eventually seeing a massive beast billowing clouds of black smoke moving rapidly down the lines, the loud noises it made were quite unsettling to all who heard it, yet it moved over the bridge rapidly, pulling into their kingdom, from several large wagons set behind it thé imports from further East arrived, and they were loaded to the brim with outgoing goods, thé single unit on the front, with its five man crew could pull easily several hundred wagon loads of material. To the young man it seemed so wondrous, only increasing his desire to see this Empire for himself. As yet more time went on he would however attempt at the Trials to become a Warrior, his parents stressed heavily that they loved him either way, for they and he knew that only One out of Ten completed them successfully, and Aranel like so many others that summer day would fail them, and make the journey home saddened and depressed, despite the kind words of his parents. The days following would be the most agonizing of his life so far, the first day after he would learn exactly who had succeeded, he would listen to the armorsmith hammering out the various pieces for the newly accepted aspirants, and much to his dismay, the girl he had grown up living beside had been accepted in, having completed the trials with flying colors, impressing the Crown Prince immensely with her skill at archery. The two finally saw eachother for the first time in days, his mother making a quip about their eventual marriage as she had done so many times in the past, as he carried home a few boxes of freshly imported foodstuffs. Fira a had always been energetic, and rushed to greet him, showing off her newly forged breastplate, "What do you think?" Firana asked him eagerly, shifting herself to show off the electrum colored armor. Everything, from the cuirass, to the greaves and wrists shined brightly in the sun, he bit his lip as he looked at her, his face losing its color as her display forced him to accept his own failure so fresh on his mind. "I’m happy for you" Aranel said meekly, his eyes moving to the cobbled street below him. A glance from his mother would force her to stop, as if one look communicated to her everything, "Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it” Firana finally said softer to Aranel. He quickly went inside as his mother opened the heavy oaken door for him, setting the boxes down before unpacking. Like most nights, he would help prepare dinner, standing with his mother and father as the trio cooked their meals together had always been a high point of the day for him, yet tonight his fathers absence, his duty as a Guardian would be keeping him away for the night, would only gouge the sheer humiliation he felt even further. Every cut he made, every time he stoked the oven fire, and even setting out a third plate, as they had always done when one of their family couldn’t be there, seemed designed to torture him further. After dinner Aranel would move into the small bedroom he had used since leaving his parents bed, he began to think long and hard, staring at the rafters above him for most of the night, his thoughts were still focused on his own failings, yet a thought kept him occupied now, "I am an only child" he thought to himself, his conclusion was simple : He was an only child, being a Warrior and Guardian meant putting himself in danger, younger warriors were often the first to die in fighting, therefore it seemed to him that he had failed not due to his own inadequacies, but by the machinations of his parents not wanting to see their only son be killed. Before he knew it he had fallen asleep, and would be roused from sleep by the bright sun hitting his eyes, he roused himself from his bed and dressed himself quickly, seeing his mother drinking an odd liquid in the morning at their kitchen table, her face twisting as she sipped it. "What is it?" Aranel asked his mother, who coughed slightly, "It’s a certain legume that is boiled in water and drank in the East" she said, sliding the small cup to him. Aranel lifted it cautiously, sipping it carefully, immediately the strong bitter taste washed over him, he felt it moving loosely down his throat, "By the Gods!" He said loudly managing to keep himself from spitting it out, his eyes watered as he looked towards his mother. "I think today you should see the masters about becoming an apprentice, you don’t want to wait too long, they don’t take those who get too old" she said, trying to sound positive, "I was going to do that today, Orris and me were going to try and become huntsmen" he said softly, feeling a slight excitement as his energy began to spike. "Do me a favor then, your father had one more thing he ordered from the East, Moe-las-ses…" she said awkwardly, Aranel nodded at her request. Upon leaving he saw Firana on her way to begin her training, smiling widely as her father wished her luck, managing to duck down and scurry off without being seen, Aranel hoped. He went on, down the street, and out into a little spot he and his friends always hung out at, all were there, save Firana. The group would sit around for a time, debating what profession each of them would go in to, Finally, the last one of their group of five would arrive, bearing news, "Hey! I heard something from the Rail layers today" Irian, thé last member shouted as he jogged towards them. The others would turn to look at him, like Aranel, had taken the trials, and like him had failed. "What’s that?" Aranel asked as he leaned against a wall, "There’s a man staying at the inn by the river, calls himself a Recruiting Sergeant." Irian said calling himself down. "What’s he do?" Haldor asked aloud, he was a year older than the rest of them, he had apprenticed to a cobbler already, in the year he had worked the monotonous tasks of twisting boot laces and hobnailng soles onto shoes had fallen to him. "You tell him you wanna be a warrior, he gives you some things and makes you one" Irian replied, sitting down against the stone wall, "I didn’t even bother with the trials, I’m gonna be a cobbler, I don’t want anything to do with the fighting" Haldor grumbled out at him. With that Orris spoke up, "Come on, we’ll either all join together, or none of us will." He said to his friend, "I only started apprenticing a year ago, I don’t wanna walk out now just after learning the basics" Haldor said back, growing increasingly nervous. Aranel replied to him, "Come on, we’ll all go together, be nice to see the East, those rail layers told me that everyone there goes into the army, so it can’t be that hard" he said, growing more excited at the prospect. Haldor remained unconvinced, the day went on, each boy went to speak to a craftsman, and each one returned the next day, Aranel had gone to a tailor, Orris to a blacksmith, and Irian to the Cooper. The boys would discuss nothing in particular, the idea of leaving home to join in with the Empire seemingly far from their minds, they would miss the sergeant at the inn, each one continuing on in their apprenticeship, learning the basics of it, Aranel’s parents happy that their only child had found his purpose in life.


A full year would pass, the gang had each taken onto their trade, this year they met in a tavern, now drinking down Ale as they talked about their masters, and complained about tasks their masters had given them. Nearby to them a band of railroad workers sat around their own table, complaining about their own problems, now being told that they were to build an express line from Alara to Nicea, and that parallel tracks would be laid on existing lines. Aranel finished his drink, returning his mug to the keeper and headed for the door, taking a minute to look over the large notice board before he left. The board was there to allow any person to put up posters and papers, detailing things from missing animals to simpler things like needing labor for a day, today a stone mason needed several strong bodies to haul stones for an expansion on the castle he was building, however there was one poster that caught his attention, partially obscured by an offer from a farmer needing hands for the coming harvest, the poster depicted a drawing in black and white, an oddly dressed man carrying a strange looking spear, a long thin point offset from the center, Aranel grabbed it off, being unable to read English he brought it back to his group. Orris had thankfully learned English better than most, his time at the blacksmith had seen him make lots of iron fittings and parts for the Railroad in the kingdom. He held it up, reading it aloud, translating it for them as best he could, "Be a man amongst men…a recruiting sergeant will be at Inn on Tyzca for the month of April" he said reading it aloud to the rest, "Ah, don’t wanna bother with that." Irian said before finishing off his own drink, "We got nothing better to do, let’s go see what he’s gotta say" Aranel said, "I guess, be a good distraction" Orris said setting the paper down on the table, "Only a day away on our feet, be nice to have a day not working" Irian spoke out, "What about you, we didn’t go last year cause you didn’t wanna go" Aranel finally said to Haldor, “I don’t know, the master got a large order for boots in, I don’t think I can take a day off now" he replied as he looked at his drink. "Come on, it’ll only be a day, besides, we can setup and bring some Perch back, he still likes them, doesn’t he?" Orris said loudly, "I suppose, have to do it soon though, once we start on that order I’ll be stuck here for a month", with that being said, the next day each of them would tell their master that they would be taking a trip up the Tyzca River, promising to bring back fish that normally weren’t for sale in their own market, setting off the day after next, leaving early one Friday morning. They started early, each one wearing a backpack, bringing along a few fishing poles Irian borrowed from his father. Aranel’s parents wished him well, his mother kissed him on the cheek at the door before he left, his father patted him on the shoulder, "Proud of you son, you’ll make an excellent tailor, try and bring us back some good fish” he said as his son left, his face red with embarrassment at his mothers kiss as he left. On thé way out he saw Firana leaving her house next door, saying goodbye to her kid brothers as she walked out wearing her electrum colored armor, carrying a bow and quiver over her shoulder, "Where are you headed so early?" She asked him, walking along beside him. In the year since failing his trial, in the year past, Aranels failure at the trials had evolved from a personal humiliation, to something she would tease him about, and something he would laugh along with, "We’re all taking a day to go fishing on the Tyzca.", he replied, smiling softly as he looked over at her, the two were certainly interested in each other, and were expected to wed by both of their parents, having been born within the same week, and had done much of their growing up together. "Oh, sounds like fun, wish I could come, Darin has me patrolling the roads for the next month" she said, her tone sounding more frustrated, "I thought you were happy to get into the Guardians?" Aranel replied, looking over at her, her long white hair put into a tight pair of braids to better fit under her helmet, "I was, it’s very boring though, we spend all day walking along the roads, when we’re not training for a fight I don’t think is coming" she said sulkily, "Being a tailors apprentice isn’t that great either, old man uses me to do all the simple tasks, i think I sewed a hundred holes shut on a hundred shirts last week." Aranel replied, grumbling about his lot in life now, it seemed that excitement was a distant prospect for everyone there. They neared the end of the road, the gates stood open, carts pulled by horses and a few elk moved in and out rapidly, Firana looked at him, their eyes at level as she moved in front of him, "When will you be back?" She asked him suddenly, "We should only be gone for a day or two, three at most" he said, a soft smile crossing his lips as he locked eyes. He stood there, in the narrow road opening up near the gate, his eyes not leaving the face of the woman he had known his entire life, soon she reached out, taking his hands in hers, leaning in and kissing him briefly, his face turned bright red, his ears perked up as she quickly moved back a step, "Don’t stay away too long…"she said softly, Aranels thoughts swirled in his head now, he didn’t notice that her blush was as bright as his. She quickly turned and moved away, leaving him still speechless as her metal clad boots clattered against the cobbled road. He moved outside the gate after a minute, catching up with the other three, "What took you?" Orris asked, Haldor holding two fishing poles, borrowed from his uncle, over each shoulder, "Sorry, had to say goodbye to someone" he said, not wanting to admit his first kiss just so recently. "Right, I had an idea" Orris said confidently, "The master of mine does a lot of business with the Easterners, so he gave me some of their coins, we are going to take that metal beast to that inn." He said confidently, appearing rather smug as he suggested it, "We can ride in one? Thought it only carried things here then went back for more?" Irian said, looking around confused, "No no no" Orris said still with confidence, holding up a slip of paper, "Told one of the men who came by to pick up his fittings about our trip, he told me the beast made a stop at the inn, can’t remember why, but he said it would get us there in a few hours!" He said walking past them. The rest would begin to follow along behind, none of them had packed anything, save for Haldor and his poles, they had planned on spending at most one night away, and none saw the point in bringing along extra clothes for what was to be a quick fishing trip. Orris walked into a building, a sign written in English and Elven was nailed to the wooden wall reading "Station Master" Aranel would follow him inside, followed by the others, inside a man sat behind a desk facing the wall to the left, leaning back and turning his head to face them, by appearance, he was a Herzlander who was mostly human, almost no point to his ears under his greying hair, "Now how can I help you gentlemen?" He asked, his voice was stuffy, sounding like he had a cold, "Uh..yes, there’s four of us, we want to go to the inn on the Tyzca" Orris responded to him. The man nodded at Orris, glancing over at Aranel, "And you?" He asked, "I’m with him" Aranel responded, trying to sound polite, "Alright, he said, gesturing for them to come to his desk, he reached into a drawer, pulling out a map and setting it down for them to see, he put his finger on one spot, Orris could at least read it, Aranel had no idea what he was looking at, "We are here, I imagine you’re referring to Centrepoint Station here" he said, moving his finger eastward, over another point. "I guess, that the place just across the River, about a days walk?" Orris asked, "I think so, normally I wouldn’t do this, but your kind here does not know about these things so I’ll give you this for free" he said handing Orris the paper map, “When you want a ticket it helps to know the name of the Station you’re going to" he said, looking over at the another paper, "So for four tickets, exiting at the first station, the cost is a tuppence" he said, Orris reaching down, fiddling with the stack of various colored discs his master had given him, "A what?" Orris asked, holding up the discs for the man. "A tuppence, that’s two Pennies, he said, reaching down and pulling up two brown coins, roughly an inch in diameter, "We charge by the station, a hafenny per station, per person.” The man said, reaching over and picking up four small slips of paper, setting them down, writing something quickly on each of them, "Your train leaves in one hour, there is no refund for a missed train, after leaving, you’ll have to present your ticket to the conductor" the Station Master said quickly returning to a stack of papers nearby, “Off you go then, enjoy the journey" he said sending the two out, Orris leaving, handing each of them a ticket, the four sitting on a few stacks of crates as they waited the hour. The loud hissing would alert all of them, the four walked out to see the massive green beast moving backwards, pushing into a long beige colored wagon, with glass windows spaced out along the body. The four would watch confusedly, a few of the Herzlanders nearby approaching, stepping up into the back of the wagon, the boys followed them along, clutching their tickets tightly, a man in a grey coat leaned out the front, shouting out, "Boarding now, Number 402 on the Nicean route!" Before leaning back in, around a pair of workers would run along by the tracks under the platform, moving between the wagons with tools in hand. The group would be treated to bare wooden bench seating on either side of a thin aisle, a closet near the back of the car with a latrine, the benches large enough to handle two of them, Aranel and Irian sat side by side, Orris on a bench across the aisle, Haldor seated behind Aranel, setting the poles up beside him, he spoke up first, "When do we leave, we could have already started by now?" He asked aloud, "I don’t know, I’ve never done this before" Orris replied, shifting nervously in his heat as he turned to look out the window. "Will we have to walk back?" Aranel asked, "I might, making barrels is boring" Irian said, "I wanna stretch this out a while". Aranel snickered at his words, "I know what you mean, my master uses me for all the piddly work", shortly after he spoke, in the middle of Irian’s reply the conductor shouted out to the platform again "All aboard! Number 402 on the Nicean route leaves in 5 minutes!" He moved inside the cabin, reaching into his grey coat, looking at something in his hand. Irian would continue his conversation after the interruption, "You have it easy, my hands are so calloused these days my mother won’t let me hug her for fear of cutting herself" he spat back at him, the others laughing at his words, a few rail workers in front looking back, speaking to each other in English, having no idea what the talk, white haired elf was saying. In the middle of a rant telling them to stop laughing at him the entire wagon lurched forward, Irian letting out a surprised cry as he was jolted forward, a soft churning was heard, Aranel glanced out the window, seeing them moving along very slowly, "We could walk three times as fast as this" he said clearly annoyed to Orris, "I think it gets faster, the man said it would take a few hours" Orris replied back, though he himself looked worriedly out the window. Each chuff of the engine was followed by a hiss, as they cleared the station they were clearly moving faster, now out on the large bridge connecting their floating kingdom to the world, all four looking out the left windows at the farmers and ranchers bringing their wagons of produce and meat to market, Aranel couldn’t help but remember how many people had complained about the bridge when they built it, yet those same people were now using it often. Once across the speed would begin to increase rapidly, as the ground leveled out, the speed reached its peak, Orris the most surprised, "My gods, were faster than an elk now!" He exclaimed loudly, speaking over the loud rattling of the wagon and the hissing and churning of the engine. Haldor would catch Aranel by the arm, pointing out a pair of their own on elk on the road parallel to the track, one of the riders speeding up, keeping up with the wagon for a time, after fifteen minutes of hard riding they watched the beast show down, gradually at first, then sliding to a stop after running off the road. The elk were considered the pride of Alara, theirs were the most fit, and out of all the kingdoms, theirs were the only ones capable of flight, having the stamina to ride at the trot from sun up to down, yet against the mechanical beast it had been found wanting, the churning of the engine, and the burning of its wood had overpowered the poor creature, the sight of that had silenced any doubt the four had about these monstrous machines.

They started early, each one wearing a backpack, bringing along a few fishing poles Irian borrowed from his father. Aranel’s parents wished him well, his mother kissed him on the cheek at the door before he left, his father patted him on the shoulder, "Proud of you son, you’ll make an excellent tailor, try and bring us back some good fish” he said as his son left, his face red with embarrassment at his mothers kiss as he left. On thé way out he saw Firana leaving her house next door, saying goodbye to her kid brothers as she walked out wearing her electrum colored armor, carrying a bow and quiver over her shoulder, "Where are you headed so early?" She asked him, walking along beside him. In the year since failing his trial, in the year past, Aranels failure at the trials had evolved from a personal humiliation, to something she would tease him about, and something he would laugh along with, "We’re all taking a day to go fishing on the Tyzca.", he replied, smiling softly as he looked over at her, the two were certainly interested in each other, and were expected to wed by both of their parents, having been born within the same week, and had done much of their growing up together. "Oh, sounds like fun, wish I could come, Darin has me patrolling the roads for the next month" she said, her tone sounding more frustrated, "I thought you were happy to get into the Guardians?" Aranel replied, looking over at her, her long white hair put into a tight pair of braids to better fit under her helmet, "I was, it’s very boring though, we spend all day walking along the roads, when we’re not training for a fight I don’t think is coming" she said sulkily, "Being a tailors apprentice isn’t that great either, old man uses me to do all the simple tasks, i think I sewed a hundred holes shut on a hundred shirts last week." Aranel replied, grumbling about his lot in life now, it seemed that excitement was a distant prospect for everyone there. They neared the end of the road, the gates stood open, carts pulled by horses and a few elk moved in and out rapidly, Firana looked at him, their eyes at level as she moved in front of him, "When will you be back?" She asked him suddenly, "We should only be gone for a day or two, three at most" he said, a soft smile crossing his lips as he locked eyes. He stood there, in the narrow road opening up near the gate, his eyes not leaving the face of the woman he had known his entire life, soon she reached out, taking his hands in hers, leaning in and kissing him briefly, his face turned bright red, his ears perked up as she quickly moved back a step, "Don’t stay away too long…"she said softly, Aranels thoughts swirled in his head now, he didn’t notice that her blush was as bright as his. She quickly turned and moved away, leaving him still speechless as her metal clad boots clattered against the cobbled road. He moved outside the gate after a minute, catching up with the other three, "What took you?" Orris asked, Haldor holding two fishing poles, borrowed from his uncle, over each shoulder, "Sorry, had to say goodbye to someone" he said, not wanting to admit his first kiss just so recently. "Right, I had an idea" Orris said confidently, "The master of mine does a lot of business with the Easterners, so he gave me some of their coins, we are going to take that metal beast to that inn." He said confidently, appearing rather smug as he suggested it, "We can ride in one? Thought it only carried things here then went back for more?" Irian said, looking around confused, "No no no" Orris said still with confidence, holding up a slip of paper, "Told one of the men who came by to pick up his fittings about our trip, he told me the beast made a stop at the inn, can’t remember why, but he said it would get us there in a few hours!" He said walking past them. The rest would begin to follow along behind, none of them had packed anything, save for Haldor and his poles, they had planned on spending at most one night away, and none saw the point in bringing along extra clothes for what was to be a quick fishing trip. Orris walked into a building, a sign written in English and Elven was nailed to the wooden wall reading "Station Master" Aranel would follow him inside, followed by the others, inside a man sat behind a desk facing the wall to the left, leaning back and turning his head to face them, by appearance, he was a Herzlander who was mostly human, almost no point to his ears under his greying hair, "Now how can I help you gentlemen?" He asked, his voice was stuffy, sounding like he had a cold, "Uh..yes, there’s four of us, we want to go to the inn on the Tyzca" Orris responded to him. The man nodded at Orris, glancing over at Aranel, "And you?" He asked, "I’m with him" Aranel responded, trying to sound polite, "Alright, he said, gesturing for them to come to his desk, he reached into a drawer, pulling out a map and setting it down for them to see, he put his finger on one spot, Orris could at least read it, Aranel had no idea what he was looking at, "We are here, I imagine you’re referring to Centrepoint Station here" he said, moving his finger eastward, over another point. "I guess, that the place just across the River, about a days walk?" Orris asked, "I think so, normally I wouldn’t do this, but your kind here does not know about these things so I’ll give you this for free" he said handing Orris the paper map, “When you want a ticket it helps to know the name of the Station you’re going to" he said, looking over at the another paper, "So for four tickets, exiting at the first station, the cost is a tuppence" he said, Orris reaching down, fiddling with the stack of various colored discs his master had given him, "A what?" Orris asked, holding up the discs for the man. "A tuppence, that’s two Pennies, he said, reaching down and pulling up two brown coins, roughly an inch in diameter, "We charge by the station, a hafenny per station, per person.” The man said, reaching over and picking up four small slips of paper, setting them down, writing something quickly on each of them, "Your train leaves in one hour, there is no refund for a missed train, after leaving, you’ll have to present your ticket to the conductor" the Station Master said quickly returning to a stack of papers nearby, “Off you go then, enjoy the journey" he said sending the two out, Orris leaving, handing each of them a ticket, the four sitting on a few stacks of crates as they waited the hour. The loud hissing would alert all of them, the four walked out to see the massive green beast moving backwards, pushing into a long beige colored wagon, with glass windows spaced out along the body. The four would watch confusedly, a few of the Herzlanders nearby approaching, stepping up into the back of the wagon, the boys followed them along, clutching their tickets tightly, a man in a grey coat leaned out the front, shouting out, "Boarding now, Number 402 on the Nicean route!" Before leaning back in, around a pair of workers would run along by the tracks under the platform, moving between the wagons with tools in hand. The group would be treated to bare wooden bench seating on either side of a thin aisle, a closet near the back of the car with a latrine, the benches large enough to handle two of them, Aranel and Irian sat side by side, Orris on a bench across the aisle, Haldor seated behind Aranel, setting the poles up beside him, he spoke up first, "When do we leave, we could have already started by now?" He asked aloud, "I don’t know, I’ve never done this before" Orris replied, shifting nervously in his heat as he turned to look out the window. "Will we have to walk back?" Aranel asked, "I might, making barrels is boring" Irian said, "I wanna stretch this out a while". Aranel snickered at his words, "I know what you mean, my master uses me for all the piddly work", shortly after he spoke, in the middle of Irian’s reply the conductor shouted out to the platform again "All aboard! Number 402 on the Nicean route leaves in 5 minutes!" He moved inside the cabin, reaching into his grey coat, looking at something in his hand. Irian would continue his conversation after the interruption, "You have it easy, my hands are so calloused these days my mother won’t let me hug her for fear of cutting herself" he spat back at him, the others laughing at his words, a few rail workers in front looking back, speaking to each other in English, having no idea what the talk, white haired elf was saying. In the middle of a rant telling them to stop laughing at him the entire wagon lurched forward, Irian letting out a surprised cry as he was jolted forward, a soft churning was heard, Aranel glanced out the window, seeing them moving along very slowly, "We could walk three times as fast as this" he said clearly annoyed to Orris, "I think it gets faster, the man said it would take a few hours" Orris replied back, though he himself looked worriedly out the window. Each chuff of the engine was followed by a hiss, as they cleared the station they were clearly moving faster, now out on the large bridge connecting their floating kingdom to the world, all four looking out the left windows at the farmers and ranchers bringing their wagons of produce and meat to market, Aranel couldn’t help but remember how many people had complained about the bridge when they built it, yet those same people were now using it often. Once across the speed would begin to increase rapidly, as the ground leveled out, the speed reached its peak, Orris the most surprised, "My gods, were faster than an elk now!" He exclaimed loudly, speaking over the loud rattling of the wagon and the hissing and churning of the engine. Haldor would catch Aranel by the arm, pointing out a pair of their own on elk on the road parallel to the track, one of the riders speeding up, keeping up with the wagon for a time, after fifteen minutes of hard riding they watched the beast show down, gradually at first, then sliding to a stop after running off the road. The elk were considered the pride of Alara, theirs were the most fit, and out of all the kingdoms, theirs were the only ones capable of flight, having the stamina to ride at the trot from sun up to down, yet against the mechanical beast it had been found wanting, the churning of the engine, and the burning of its wood had overpowered the poor creature, the sight of that had silenced any doubt the four had about these monstrous machines.


In the Seventy Six years Aranel, Orris, and Irian, and the Seventy Seven years Haldor had been alive, every year at the Midsummer, there was a race on elk from Alara to the inn on the Tyzca, and each year there was a large feast for the victor. In their memory the average time for an elk was around the two and a half hour mark, the record sat comfortably at one hour and a half, the train would carry the party there in just under three hours. When it came to a halt at the station the boys all stood up, Aranel stretched his legs, the wooden bench dug into him while he sat, this with the constant shaking of the wagon made the journey very uncomfortable, "I think we should walk back" he groaned out as the others dragged themselves out. They moved out onto the wooden platform, seeing the stone arched bridge over the river, a sign had been recently placed on the same side as the inn, Aranel and Orris went over to have a look while Irian and Haldor headed for the inn. The sign was a new addition, informing them that the River Tyzca was set as the border between the Kingdom of Alara and the Imperial Principality of Nicea, the two reading this had no idea what this meant, it was the same place they had walked too as soon as their parents allowed them, and the same river they had fished in for decades. They then walked back to join the other two at a table in the tavern, Alavar, an aging innkeeper who had been a fixture of it as long as anyone could remember was busy stoking the fire underneath the large stone hearth, he smiled at the other two, by now a few of his front teeth were missing and the rest jagged and ugly, to those who didn’t know him, his smile appeared as an angry scowl. "You boys here for the fish again?" He asked them as he slowly trodded their way, reaching over and grabbing a stick to lean on as he hobbled along. "You’re nearly men now, you can pour your own ale." He said, his hoarse, raspy voice was far softer it seemed, he groaned, rubbing his back as he sat down. "Thanks old man” Haldor said with a soft smile, he would get the drinks for them, “Bring me a small cup, drinking hot water helps with my joints" he called out as Haldor walked behind the counter, at present, they were the only ones there. "We heard there was a guy from the Empire staying here" Aranel asked him finally as soon as Haldor gave him his cup, the old elf would pour it full of hot water, running a hand through his thinning white hair, balding on top, but still as long as any of the boys on the sides, still reaching down to his shoulders. In response, he began to drink the steamy water, spending a while clearing his throat before answering, "Yes, I know him, stepped out for a stroll about an hour ago, interesting fellow, told me he had to ride a giant ship for two months to get here…lots of boys from Trost land have been coming to see him, hands em some papers and they get on that louder beast outside" he began with, continuing as the boys begin to drink down the strong cider the inn was famous for, "I like him, we share War stories, you boys know I was your age once, back then they’d give everyone a suit of armor and a spear, I guess the Easterlings still do.." he said, the boys focused on their drinks as he began to ramble on the story of how he lost a few fingers centuries ago, each one of the four capable of reciting the tale from memory by now. The boys drank up, Alavar would finally finish his tale, holding up his right hand, his ring finger and middle both cut off past the joint, at the time a man dressed in black would enter, his black leather boots polished to a shine, his woolen pants tucked into them, a black woolen tunic draped over his waist, with several brass buttons going up, around his waist a polished black leather belt hugged his waist above his tunic, a large brass belt buckle with the three headed eagle stamped into it in the center, and a cap, flat on top, made of black dyed wool to match his tunic and pants with a pair of flaps fastened with a small button coming up over the broad, gradual peak, above that a larger brass button, with the letters P and V imposed over each other in the center, Alavar smiled his crooked teeth at him as he entered, "Welcome back Herbert, I thought you got yourself killed out here, these boys here were looking for you" Alavar choked out, pointing at the four with his cane. Herbert turned to them, smiling softly under the large, bushy red moustache, taking off his hat as he sat at their table, revealing his short neatly kept red hair. He looked over them, his green eyes running over each of the boys, he finally spoke up, "Have you men decided then to take the Emperors Shilling and enlist?" He asked, leaning back in his chair, straightening his tunic. He was the first person to refer to any of them as men, the sergeant knew nothing about their land, he spoke their language with a thick accent, but he did know his prey very well, and boys like that, those who were only just considered as adults, they were the same everywhere in the world, he knew better than to start of talking of adventure, he would listen to them, his response would be tailored to them. "I’m not sure..what’s it like?" Aranel finally asked aloud, by the casual tone of him, the Sergeant knew that a response promising battles and danger would be wrong, "To be honest, most men who enlist never see a battle, they man the forts and garrison the cities, lots of guys take on other professions while they’re in" he said matching the tone of his prey. "Come on, you’re not thinking of it are you?" Haldor said behind Aranel, "It’ll be something different for us, I wanna do it" Irian said leaning in closer. "Well, those who enlist together are guaranteed to serve together." The sergeant said calmly still, Orris would ask him a question next, "So what would we be doing?", "Well you’d be doing a lot of things, there’s carpenters, engineers, every job you think of is done by those in black!" He said trying to foster some excitement among them. "I’m not going to, I like my master, I know you find them boring, but I like my quiet life of making shoes here." Haldor said looking around at them, "You could make shoes if you enlist, our strength comes from our boots, I bet your master would be happy to have an apprentice who’s fixed a hundred thousand boots." The sergeant said to him, Haldor shifted at his words, "And a group of four would get a bonus of two shillings apiece for enlisting together." The sergeant said to them, “You’ll get to see the Empire, travel around the world to exotic locales, most men who enlist only see one battle” The sergeant continued on, Irian was the first, he hated being a cooper, "Come on, let’s just do it, couldn’t be worse than our lot now." He said turning to the others, Orris spoke up now, "Suppose we join, could we be like our warriors, they get married and live in their own houses", the sergeant replied quickly, "You’d be far from home, you will have a cozy barracks to sleep in, most new recruits live there till they’ve saved up enough money to buy a house" he said, "Alright, and the foods good?" Orris asked after, "You’ll be eating the best the Empire can give you" this alone convinced Orris, "I’ll do it if Haldor does it", Aranel blurted out, his thoughts were racing, he was nervous at the prospect, having put his desire to fight behind him, whatever remained had been driven out with every thrust of a needle in the clothing he sewed and hemmed. Haldor looked at him, his face was red, the other two began now, "You’ll only need to do ten years, after that you’ll be respected as veterans in the Empire." The sergeant said, before finishing, “And you’ll be given a pension for the rest of your life, so you’ll never be short of coins" after more cajoling from Orris and Irian, Haldor finally agreed, the sergeant smiling softly, the four having put him above his quota for the month, guaranteeing his bonus for that month. "Right then, wait here please.” the sergeant said, standing up, moving to one of the bedrooms, by now the aging innkeeper had fallen asleep in his rocker by the fire, the silence that followed the sergeants exit allowed the sound of his snoring to fill the room. After several minutes the Sergeant returned, placing four papers out in a line on the table, then another on top each of them, "Alright lads, the top paper makes you a citizen of the Empire" he said, before holding one back to read it, "Can any of you read English?" he asked them, "A little", was Orris’s reply though the font each was printed in made it difficult, "I the signatory do swear upon my life and sacred honor to follow the laws provided by the Diet, and all dictates and edicts issued by the Emperor and Archon, to submit myself to all responsibilities and requirements expected of a citizen, and renounce forever all bonds, debts, oaths and titles accrued before swearing this" the sergeant read out, placing one of the papers back down, "Sign the bottom or make your mark" he said placing a jar of ink and a quill in it on the table. The boys would sign them, Haldor hesitating finally dragging the quill tip across the paper, the sergeant picked up the next piece, doing the same, "I the signatory do solemnly swear"…he said skipping over the filler, "To obey all lawful orders of my superior officers, to remain under arms for the agreed upon period, and to conduct myself with the dignity and gravitas expected of a servant of the Throne and Empire" he said as he laid it down, watching as each made their mark on the bottom one by one, Haldor gritted his teeth, quickly and sloppily making his mark across the bottom, the Sergeant smiled at them as they finished, taking each paper back to his quarters. When he returned he handed each of them a similar black hat, minus the brass button, "Here you are lads, and here’s a Rail Pass, I’ll be leaving the morning after tomorrow, you can come with me to the depot" he said softly, "I’d use this time to set your affairs back home in order" he said, soon heading over, back into his room, leaving the four there to contemplate their choice, Haldor was red faced, staring down at the empty mug in front of him.

Three of the four would go out that day, Orris and Irian excited at the thought, Aranel unsure, though he still wore the black cap like the other two, the two setup their poles and began their reason for travelling. All of them had the magical aptitude to catch fish and small game with that, yet it had always been frowned on to do that unless one was starving, being considered very unsporting to use magic for hunting and fishing. The trio would sit back for several hours, getting comfortable by the river bank, Aranel fiddling with his new hat in the meantime, discovering that the wool over the front could be pulled over the black button, and left to drape over one’s neck, or buttoned again under the chin, a small cut on the inside by his ears, seemingly designed to allow for them to be tucked in. Haldor would be sick to his stomach that day, moving outside finally to throw up behind a tree, sitting on his knees, mumbling to himself as he cursed the other three, terrified at the thought of what was to come, he leaned toward, resting his head against the tree, tears began to flow from his eyes, he sat there for a while, quietly sobbing to himself. Soon he would be alerted by a sound from the tavern, he wiped the tears from his face, trying to calm himself down before going to investigate. Today would see an influx of young men, their long white hair coming down over their shoulders, and all had clearly signed up, all of them carrying or wearing the black hat given to them by the sergeant, thinking back, he did remember the old innkeeper mentioning that lots of men from Trost had been signing up, and now in front of him about one hundred men stood, a train behind them hissing steam as the rest climbed off, most of them holding sacks over their shoulders, reminding Haldor that they had joined into an organization they knew nothing about, and would be leaving with only the clothes on their backs. He shied away from the crowd, slumping onto the ground, his back against the wall of the Inn, he leaned his head back against it, trying to calm himself down. The day would continue on, most of the hundred cramming themselves into the inn, Haldor would wait until the other three returned before doing anything. The other three walked along the road, laughing about a bird they had seen get himself stuck on a tree branch, Orris had shimmed up the tree to free it, it’s talons had been caught on a forked tree branch. With two poles the three had caught a few fish, they had planned on giving a few to the innkeeper for letting them have a room, the trio were stopped dead in their tracks by the sight of the crowd on the platform, walking toward cautiously, Haldor moving over, joining them as they aproached, "There’s gotta be a hundred here" he whispered out, looking at the mass arrayed in their new black woolen hats. Their fishing poles and fish were left around the back of the inn leaning against a wall, they moved into the crowd, seeing not a familiar face amongst them, Aranel finally caught someone by the arm, "What’s going on?" He asked the figure he held onto, "I don’t know, we were all told to be here by today if we were serious about enlisting." the figure replied nervously, their eyes met, Aranel could see the fear in his face, he was keeping his back straight and his head held high, trying to appear fearless, "I was told they’re taking us far away to train us" a fellow beside him said. By the sound of their voices, it seemed that these men were all from Trost, "Why are you all here?" Aranel asked finally, he got an answer that surprised him, "We don’t have anyone left to hold a spear, nobody good enough to pass the trials, so the king said we’d have a garrison from the east, we couldn’t be guardians, but these new people would still take us." He said, the crowd standing around, the sound of a few dozen conversations overwhelming everything else, a glance back at the Inn showed off the old man sleeping on the porch in a rocker. After several hours of waiting, for what nobody could say, everyone Aranel asked didn’t know, the noisy churning of a train pulling into the station caught everyone’s eye, one hundred ears perked to the sound, as it slowed to the stop a fellow dressed in the same manner as the Recruiter stepped out, addressing them in a loud booming voice, Aranel heard the man, one of his kind, from Trost, he seemed so different from any he had met, his white hair cut short, only just being revealed under his hat, "Form a line along the platform, be ready to give your name, age and origin!" he bellowed out at the crowd, shouting above the noise of the train and everyone’s conversation. Gradually the crowd began to move, too slow for the man apparently, "Gods damn you all, quickly!" He boomed out, the crowd being shaken awake at the loud voice, running to form a single file line in front of the man. "For now, and for the first week of your training you will be addressed in Elven, after that you will be expected to understand and reply in English!", he said addressing the crowd, "Now come forward, one at a time, give me your name, your age, and your origin kingdom." He said softer, quieting down slightly as the noise of the crowd lowered. Aranel was in the middle, Orris, Irian and Haldor behind him, the line moved slowly, the man in front he had recently spoken to was only Sixty Five, too young to even be considered for Warrior Trials, the black clad fellow took down his information and waved him onto the train. Aranels time would come soon enough, "Aranel, Seventy Six, Alara" was his response as the man looked him over, raising an eye at his origin. Haldor was next, he began by asking "Im sorry I don’t wanna be here…can I go home?", the man spat back a reply, as if possessed by a flash of anger, "Your name is on the paperwork, both for citizenship and enlistment isn’t it? Now shut up hell up, tell me what I want to know, and get your nervous arse on the train ‘fore I skin you alive!" Haldor was shocked by his response, having expected some compassion from one of his own, instead walking into a wall, "Haldor, Seventy Seven, Alara." He squeaked out nervously, his face turning red, "See, not so damn hard was it, don’t worry, we’ll make a soldier out of you too" the man said calling down quickly. Irian and Orris would go through, this car identical to the one they rode in on, Aranel sitting by the window, watch the others shuffle along, after Haldor was snapped at, all four would begin to have doubts. Thé line would take a full two hours to complete, the passenger car was packed tightly with a hundred young elves, a shout from the man outside was heard, sounding like a grunt above the noise of the train, a few churns would sound off, and they began to inch along the rails, beginning their travel to parts unknown, taking them farther away from home then they had ever dreamed of going.

The train would carry them along for hours and hours, their nervousness combined with the constant jolting and rattling of the car as it quickly ran across the tracks kept them on edge. The sun was high in the sky when they began to slow down, pulling into a small town, the man who had herded them on stood up, shouting out, "Get off and form a block on the platform, be ready to walk!" soon after they would all glamour off, onto the platform, standing in a loose block nearby, "Welcome to Moira! You are to be a part of the Hundred and Twenty-fourth Regiment of Foot, called the First Moiran!" The man shouted out towards them, "My name is Sergeant Major Talcar, I will be your drill master for the next six months, I expect all of you to unlearn everything you know, I will teach you how to do everything, from eating to dying, you will learn how to be soldiers, I will be cruel, I will be merciless, but when you complete your training you will be able to stand against any for the Emperor tells you to fight! Is that understood!?" He said standing in front of them, a murmur went through, Talcar yelled out loudly at them, "Answer my damn question! Is that understood!" he said, the sound of anger flashing in his voice, "Yes!" was a response shouted by most in the crowd. "Right then lads, keep in your block and follow behind me!" He shouted back trudging off the platform, Aranel walked along, the block shuffling along, the roads in this town were laid with bricks, immediately feeling much different than the cobbles he had walked on his whole life. The four would look around at the townspeople here, black haired for the most part, with ears longer than theirs, hundreds of pairs of green eyes would watch them as they moved along, and the voices around spoke in a language unknown, they were nervous, Irian and Orris, the two most eager to go even had their doubts now, they were far from home, they understood none of the locals, and they had been put under the charge of a man who had promised to be cruel and merciless, "Left to get away from a master, and now I’m given another…" Irian said dejectedly. After walking a mile through the town, the way having been laid with locals gawking at them, one older man approached the crowd, walking along beside briefly, "You Trostmen got killed in droves last time you came here, we used to pluck their eyes out, pack em full of mud" the fellow said, in bad Elven, the boys he spoke to tried to ignore him, biting their tongues as he told them stories of everything he did. He would continue on for half the mile they walked, at the end they reached a castle, very large, with a banner flying from the top, a black stripe, yellow, and a white from top to bottom, in the top left corner was the three headed eagle they had seen on all imperial property, they were herded in past the gates, a lone soldier stood by the gate, his green eyes staring straight ahead, his ears folded back tucked into his cap. Inside they looked around, standing in a square laid with cobbles, Talcar went back in front, ordering out "Form two groups!", the four kept close together, heading into the right block of about fifty men. Once they had done this Talcar shouted out, "Open the doors!" To someone else, his back facing them, turning around he addressed both groups, "Right group will go to the right table! Left group to the left! Empty the contents of your baggage out onto the table, and await inspection!" He yelled out, slowly at first, until a shout from the drill master sped them along they would move inside, dumping their bags on a pair of large wooden tables. The four having nothing but the clothes on their back would stand at it awkwardly, the Drillmaster moving up and down, looking the tables and the contents of everyone’s bags up and down, "That’s the spirit boys, you didn’t need to bring anything!" He shouted standing right beside Haldors head, making him wince. "Foodstuffs, non-regulation clothing, and personal effects larger than three inches are considered as contraband and will be discarded!" He shouted out moving between the two tables, Irian who stood at the end was offered a piece of smoked meat a boy from Trost brought along, already having a mouthful, the drillmaster quickly noticed, slapping him on the back of the head, causing the stranger to spit his mouthful out onto his clothes, "You stupid bastard! You’ll eat when I give you permission to!" He screamed in his ear, ripping the tone looking meat from his hand, "This is contraband! It’s getting thrown out!" He shouted out after. The boy looked down at his messy clothes, his face red, he said nothing, Irian looked down at his feet, the behavior of his new master already filling him with dread. After some time, Talcar would come in front of them again, "Right, leave all contraband on the table, and form a line, single file, between the two tables!" The hundred men now moving much quicker, "Right, now undress, take off all your clothes!" He shouted out as they formed, loud murmuring was heard in response to his request. Talcar began to scream insults at them, further up the line, walking in the direction of Aranel, he continued, "Take those disgusting whore rags off or I will flog them off!" He shouted, most of the men in line started with their shirts, in Alara, like in Trost and the rest of the west, exposing oneself like these was always thought of as wrong. Aranel began to unbutton his shirt, taking off the leather vest first, his hands shook nervously as he undid the buttons, the other three moving just as slowly in their actions, Haldor whispered out his complaint to Orris, "Why the hell does he want us naked?" he hissed out. "I don’t know, I don’t know anything anymore.." Orris whispered back. In front of them, Talcar motioned, "First five recruits, head straight forward, into the door!" He shouted out, all he did was shout at them, since they had departed, since they arrived. The first five moved off, covering themselves with their hand, five minutes later the next five went ahead, then the next, the four kept on a pair of linens they wore under the pants, Talcar would scream and berate them for it, they would soon be naked, the constant swearing and screaming putting them on edge, already at their breaking point. They felt awkward, soon their turn came, a nervous boy from Trost behind, they walked in, their feet clapping against the cold stone floor, once in they could feel the heat of steam, a large hole in the floor, plated with copper and filled with steaming water greeted them, an Imperial stood nearby, a local it seemed, his green eyes went over them, "Get in, soak yourselves, soap yourselves and rinse yourselves, hurry it along I don’t have all day.." he said with a sigh, snapping his green eyes straight ahead. The five walked into the large bath tub, white bars is soap sat on the edge, They soaked themselves in water, running the soap over their bodies rapidly, then quickly throwing water over themselves, "Alright, get out, move on to the next room" the attendant said, giving them no time to dry, immediately they were freezing cold, their long white hair clinging to their back, the man shooing them off, the next room stood five men, standing in front of a chair each, "Have a seat, we’ll get you shaved cleanly, haven’t cut a man yet!” One of them said, bragging loudly with a grin, the one man with them not with their group was the first to move over, Haldor moved next, his eyes losing their shine, he had resigned himself to the misery which he found himself, within seconds all five had moved and sat down, and had their heads and faces shaved, not a hair on their heads after, their long white locks piled with a dozen others around their feet. They moved quickly, soon Aranels shoulder was patted, “Right, move on then" his cutter said as the next group began to enter, trying to keep their naked bodies covered. After heading through into the next room, the group of five was ordered to stand against the wall, several lines painted across the wall in thick black lines, “Hands by your side, relax your shoulders" one of the Imperials in said, waiting for them to comply, Aranel shut his eyes, hesitantly doing as he was told, the man came by, shouting things in English to another man sat at a table, writing things as he spoke. After this they were made to stand on a device that bounced as they moved on, the man reading out what he saw on it. The man went through the list, reciting it out to them, handing each one a slip of paper, "Aranel of Alara, Six feet Five Inches, fourteen stone, five pounds" he started with, moving down the rest, "Haldor of Alara, Six feet, six inches, fourteen stone eight pounds, Orris of Alara, Six feet Five inches, fourteen stone, ten pounds." Finally he got to Irian, giving a whistle as he read out, "Irian of Alara, Six Feet Ten Inches, Sixteen Stone, Two Pounds!" Irian had always been the largest, and since working as an apprentice for a stone mason on an expansion of the palace, he had only gotten bulkier. After they had gotten their slips they moved on as the next group came in. The next room was stacked with dozens of crates, a man sitting behind a table, his hat laid out beside him, he reached out as Aranel approached, reaching for the paper he was given in the last room, by now all four had resigned themselves, burying their embarrassment of being paraded naked in front of several men, he no longer tried to cover himself. As soon as the paper was taken, the man said something, and soon a large square parcel wrapped in thick paper was given to him, a piece of twine keeping it held together. Once all had received one, the attendant read out a slip of paper, trying to speak in elven, pronouncing it wrong, but enough to get the message across, "Stand outside, wait for the leader to instruct you before opening your paper", they nodded along, moving into another large square, not many people around, the other elves stood around naked, using their parcels to cover themselves, it would be two hours of standing nude in a breezy square, "Why are we doing this?" Haldor asked finally, breaking the silence, “That human at the Inn could have mentioned all of this" he followed with, the square filled up around them, as soon as all were out Talcar came trampling through the door behind them, shouting, "Pay attention! Remember what I said, the first thing you will relearn is how to dress!" He said, before ordering them to open their parcels. Inside was the wool tunic on top, tightly wrapped, inside was a pair of linen briefs, a long sleeved linen shirt, suspenders, belt, socks of linen and wool, and a pair of canvas gaiters with wooden buttons down the side. "Put on the briefs first, then your undershirt, pants, secure the suspenders tightly around your shoulders, then your socks, you wear two pairs, linen underneath the wool, and finally your tunic, the leather belt is not to hold your pants up, it is to hold essential items!" Talcar bellowed out, pacing around, watching them closely, “As soon as everyone has done it correctly you will be issued your boots" he said quieter. It took thirty minutes, suspenders were not worn at home, and many of them fiddled with the buckles on them, much to the Sergeant Major’s annoyance, but when everyone had done it, they were directed to several stacks of boxes, the boots were in three sizes, stiff black leather, hobnails on the bottom acting as cleats, the front was devoid of laces, "How many here know how to lace a boot! Step forward if you can!" Talcar ordered them, Haldor alone walked forward. "Right, lace your own, then walk to that end and show them, work your way forward until you meet me" he said softer, Haldor alone would be treated to the sound of the Sergeant Majors voice in a speaking tone for the duration of their training. Haldor laced his boots quickly, like he had done on so many pair, by the time he finished the sun was starting to set, "We have buttoned your field caps for you, walk back through, collect them and return here! Be quick about it!" Talcar bellowed out, Aranel went through the rooms again, the metal cleats scraping against the cobbles and scratching over the wood, finding the stiff clothing awkward to move in, the thick woolen pants and tunic already feeling scratchy, his cap had a brass button pinned above the smaller one, facing forward it had the number One Hundred and Twenty Four stamped into it. He fixed it back on his head, before trudging back through with the rest, the Sergeant directing them into a door, long tables with benches were laid out, reaching across the room, "Fill your bellies tonight, youll sleep better, and I need you all well rested, we will rise before the sun and March all day long!" He said, leaving them alone, a group of cooks had several vats of food already cooked, their meal consisted of a sliced loaf, which the cooks called Erbswurst, cut into slices half an inch thick, served with beer, sauerkraut and a thick barley porridge, all piled in a low rising tin bowl, and given a spoon. The pale meat patty was made pork, and packed in with flour and small green peas, the taste was like paper, the same was true of the porridge which sat in their mouths like a thick slime with little bumps in it, Orris was staring down after the first bite, finally shutting his eyes and forcing himself to swallow the disgusting concoction, washing it down with watery beer. They were allowed only half an hour to eat before Talcar stood up from his lonely table, "Swallow down whatever you got, you’ll be marching a mile for every bite you haven’t eaten!" he went around, forcing them to down whatever was left, soon standing behind Orris, "Choke it down, don’t you dare waste a single crumb of the Emperors food!" He screamed out in his ear. He jolted upright, swallowing down mouthful after mouthful of the disgusting slimy porridge, letting out grunts as he had to force his body along, his throat wrenching several times. After a few more minutes they had to quickly stack their plates at the front of each table, then rush out into the square again, this time being directed into another room, with three rows of bunk beds going down the entire length, a small pair of wooden boxes with little doors between each bed. "Whatever bed you pick will be yours for the next six months! Choose wisely!" Talcar shouted out behind them, the four selected a bed near the window, a lantern mounted every three beds burning a small flame, the smell of them off putting, "Sleep heavily! Tomorrow we rise before the sun to drill!" He shouted, twisting a valve near the door, after several minutes the burning in the lamps would die down, leaving them in darkness at last. The night was quiet and cloudy, no moonlight shone through the window, a few sobbed, almost stared into the black motionless, one hundred elven men were in an unknown land, serving an unknown state, and placed under the charge of a cruel tyrant who would beat and berate them.

The next day would come quickly, Talcar threw open the door before the sun had risen, twisting the valve, letting the gas flow back and burn in the lights, holding a sheep bell in the other hand, "Get out get out get out!" He screamed out, walking up and down the rows of beds, ringing his bell, Aranel had gotten less than an hour of sleep he felt like, he laid there with closed eyes, until a cry was heard, the sound shot him up, the Sergeant Major had pulled one man moving too slowly from his bed, letting him fall to the wooden floor, he shouted along after ringing his bell more times, "Get out there, form a block outside!" He shouted, dozens of exhausted elves now rushed out, their boots clattering on the cobbled ground as they clamored out. Once in their sloppy blocks, fixing their hats on their heads, Talcar would come back in front, "You’ll get your breakfast when you form a proper block! Straighten those lines out!", soon after a hundred bodies began to shuffle back and forth nervously, "You are the dumbest group of bastards I will ever have the displeasure of knowing!" He shouted out in response to them. Then he began to address them, "After you’ve had your breakfast, we are going to March up and down the square. Breakfast was served on the same plates as dinner, the mugs that had held the watery beer were filled now with a sour mixture of vinegar and water, with more barley mash and slices of erbswurst, the sickly yellow slices sat atop the crème colored porridge, the sight alone making several wretch, the sour taste of the vinegar forcing Aranel’s eyes to water. After the half hour to eat was up everyone was forced to choke down whatever was left, and reassemble their block in the square. Despite trying hard and moving rapidly, they were still too slow and their lines not straight enough for the Sergeant Major, "Get your damn lines straight!" He screamed out in a man’s ear. Once they were satisfactory in their block Talcar moved back in front, addressing them, "Today I will give you an order, I will give it in Elven, then repeat in English, you will be drilled until midday, then the post commander, Captain Henkel, will begin instructing you in the English language, after that I will drill you until sundown!" He shouted out. Their drilling began that day, they were to do things called half steps, which required them to pick their foot off the ground, and move it deliberately in a small step forward, Talcar would be continually shouting out, "Left!" Every other step. It was barely sunup when they began, they would move across the square, Talcar would order them to halt, then to about face, often hurling out insults before ordering them again, "Forward at the half step! March!", that order was repeated a hundred times before they finished for the morning. "Get yourselves to the dining room and eat! Dismissed!" He bellowed out,raving the hungry men to rush in to eat their erbswurst and porridge, watery beer again for a drink. They were eating quicker now, Aranel was hungry, thé heavy woolen tunic and pants, had weighed him down far more than the clothes he was used to, he closed his eyes and spooned his food down, eating in silence like all the others. Captain Henkel entered in, and began addressing them, "I am Captain Henkel, every day for the next six months we will sit in here for two hours after lunch, where I at my personal expense will make you all fluent and literate in English, the Emperor has decreed that English is to be the sole language used by the Imperial Soldier for issuing and responding to orders, and not a single man will leave this place until you are all competent in its use!" He spoke loudly, running his eyes over the recruits in front of him. He had pamphlets handed out, showing the Latin alphabet, and with several sentences written on it, on the reverse was the translation into West Elven, "These are the common orders you should receive in formation, you know what these sound like already." He said, he used a piece of charcoal to write on the wall, for the next two hours he would write things out, today it was letters, he went down the alphabet teaching them the sounds each letter made. After the two hours were up they resumed marching up and down the square, until dinner, before being dismissed Talcar addressed them again, each day after dinner they would get an hour of free time confined to their barrack. "What is this, thought we signed up to see the Empire" Orris said, kicking off his boots, letting his feet air out, "Eh, I figure they’d train us, thought we’d be learning how to fight, we’ve been walking funny up all day, my legs feel like they’re gonna fall off!" Irian groaned out as he laid back on the firm mattress. Nobody had a blanket, they were expected to sleep in their clothes, which for now seemed to do well enough keeping them warm at night, thé climate here was similar to what they were used to. "They keep telling us six months, why do they gotta keep us here so long?" Haldor finally groaned out, resting his head on the bare mattress. The next day would be more of the same, then the next and the next, time lost all meaning now, the Sergeant would tell them what he wanted them to do, then shout the order in English, then the Captain would teach them more, then they would March some more, after a few weeks they were approaching their first full month in, Aranel thought long and hard about home, he wanted to go back and see everyone he loved again, he thought about Firana and how she had kissed him, the memory made him happy and sad, most of all, it made him want desperately to return home. The first day of the second month saw them assemble in a block in the square, Talcar calling them to attention, Aranel made his hands into fists, lifting his fists until they were level with his waist, "For attempted desertion during recruit training, Private Myrill is to be flogged twenty times before the Company!" He bellowed out, soon the offender was brought out, a man on either side, Each one carrying one of the Empires oddly pointed spears, the two Moirans much shorter than the Elf they escorted. Myrill had his tunic and shirt removed, showing his bare chest, he was tied to a post, his arms wrapped around it before being tied, Talcar was given a split rope, with several pieces with multiple knots tied in it, before he began he walked beside the lad, whispering a few things, putting a small piece of leather in his mouth before he began, the rope struck the recruits back repeatedly, each time a harsh scream came from him, being muffled by the leather in his mouth, one after another, until his back was beaten and bruised as black as their tunics, after it was over Talcar called over a few recruits to carry him to his bunk, and lay him down on his belly. The two did as they were told, Aranel was left wide eyed at the sight of a man being beaten that badly, all for merely wanting to get away from the misery they were kept in, after that they marched up and down the square again, by now they were moving at the Single, the easier step was more like walking, his hands moved instinctively, moving in flat palms over his belly, his left hand moving up as his left foot struck the ground. The lunch was the same as it had always been, the Captain was bringing books he purchased for his children back home, he would start nearest to himself, and have every man read aloud one of the simply written paragraphs, in doing this he learned about the Imperial Diet, the legislature of the Empire, with one chamber being elected by commoners, another by nobles and aristocrats, and the third having its members appointed by Provincal Consuls. "The job of the Representative is to write laws, then vote on those laws, then present them to the Emperor and Archon for approval!" Aranel said standing up, shouting out his words as the Sergeant Major had to them to, he passed the book along, the next sentence was read, until it reached the end, the Captain dismissing them, encouraging them to begin speaking English to each other in their only hour of free time. The second month saw them be issued their kits, as Talcar called them, they arrived pre packed, weighing sixty five pounds each, they were ordered into the dining hall, and told to empty the contents onto their tables, Talcar would go down every item in the pack for them. The pack itself was a large square, framed with wood, and made of leather, with a mattock strapped to the back, the handle hanging down in the middle past the bottom, on top was a blanket tightly bound in a roll and clasped with a pair of buckles. The contents which Talcar went through seemed to cover everything, a field grooming kit, with iron scissors, straight razor, and a brush with a small wood bowl, a field sewing kit, linen bandages, two linen sacks, empty, a small tin cup that Talcar explained should be clipped to the straps above the mattock head. Most relieving however, we’re the spare clothes, two extra undershirts and briefs, and one extra tunic, trouser and suspenders sets, all wrapped tightly inside the great coat. Thé greatcoat itself was of thicker wool than their tunics, long enough to reach past their knees, and with a large collar, which as Talcar explained was to be popped up and tied in wind. Finally at the end, they received a twenty inch long spear point in a sheath, the blade itself was triangular on the end, Talcar referred to this as their bayonet, placed over a satchel and several pouches with wide loops on the back. Every man stood at attention, their hands curled into fists, with their arms angled to keep their fists at level with their waists, "Right, everyone has confirmed that all contents are present?!" Talcar shouted to the as he stood at the head of the room, near to the counter they received their food from, "Yes Sergeant Major!" The Room! shouted back in unison, “Very good! Take off your belts, and affix the cartridge box!" He shouted holding up one of the boxes with the loops on the back, "You are to place one on either side of your buckle…Begin!" He shouted, the room scrambling to remove their belts and fix the boxes on, Aranel leaned over slightly to the man beside him, "What’s a cartridge?" He whispered out softly, "No idea, maybe that’s where they keep their small things?" The elf whispered back. "Next you are to take your satchel and fit it so that it lies at the center of your chest!" Talcar shouted once most had finished, doing just so, "This is called your cap pouch!" He said, still managing to sound angry while explaining their equipment. Finally, when everyone was done he spoke up again, "Go outside and receive your canteen! The soldiers here have filled them with water and we will March till midday with full kits…at the double!" His orders seemed to bring a dread over everyone, double marching was a slow run, though still requiring them to stay in step. "Pack your kits! And fall out into the courtyard!" Was his final order, the men scrambling to get everything fit into the pack, "We are going to March around the fort on the dirt road! You will learn the taste of dust!", the men piled up outside, receiving a canteen, a large circle that hung around their shoulder, hanging near their waists, filled now with stale water. They marched at double time outside the gate, their sixty pound kits weighing them down, jingling on every step. By the time lunch came everyone was too hungry and tired to complain about the food, Aranel gulped down his greasy porridge and paddy, and gulped down the watery beer furiously, grunting as wolfed down his food, in his whole life he had never truly known hunger like this, the erbswurst, greasy and with its sickly yellow color, speckled with green peas today seemed like a fine cut of meat he had eaten on his holidays. Orris and Irian were just as hungry, they had wanted to join the most, and had bought the lines the recruiter gave them eagerly, they had travelled little, and for a month straight had learned only to walk in time with others, they had been revolted when made to strip naked, and each day only made them regret their decision more, Haldor had warmed up a little, having paid more attention in the daily lesson on English language than most others with him, he had the best grasp on it out of the four, and the books they took turns reading from, usually simply written things meant to teach children about the Imperial State, had filled him with something approaching admiration for the well ordered society that existed in the Empire. Today would be no different, after their meal was over the Captain entered, every recruit stood to attention the second the door opened, taking their seats once ordered to. Today was a new book, this one telling the story of the Empires founding, how the Archon had appeared at the court of King Frederick and had given him the command to ready his kingdom for war, his son Frederick the Second would use the army his father built in a war against all seven surrounding kingdoms, and the victory that saw King Frederick the Second crowned as Emperor Frederick the Second, Haldor read out his portion, staring down at the pages, half bearing text, the other side bearing a large picture of the Archon placing the Imperial Crown on the head of their first Emperor while he knelt, the words he read today were a quote from the Archon made in a speech he had given on the beginning of what was called the Unification War, "Herzland is in a terrible crisis, we live today in an epoch, an epoch in which the lives and liberty of our children will be decided. Before us lies hardship more terrible than anything we have faced, but we must trust in the righteousness of our cause, but after every storm the sky clears and the light of the sun returns. And no matter the quantity of our enemies, I trust in the bravery and skill of the army you have built with your blood and toil, from the youngest recruit to the oldest veteran, the army will attack, and will deliver us from the tyranny of false gods, and conquer for us not just the whole of Herzland, but the mastery of our own destiny." Haldor returned to his seat once he finished, “Very good! Glad your kind learns quickly, the Moirans took all six months to get through the first book!" The Captain said loudly, the book was read in various degrees of competency, the other three in his group could care less about the contents, but Haldor listened eagerly as the story was continued, from the beginning of the war which saw Frederick defeat armies twice the size of his, and won battle after battle with the help of their archon. Finally they stopped at the coronation of the first Emperor, Haldor grumbled as he put his pack over his shoulders and proceeded back to the courtyard, listening to Irian grumble loudly, "Damnit, can’t we finish this already, lying bastard said we’d have an adventure!", Aranel responded to him, "Rather be hauling stone? Cause I think tailoring seems much better now…" Aranel was interrupted by a man from Trost, "Tailor? Why’d you come here then, we’re here because there’s not much else, most of the master craftsmen fled as the Moirans invaded, nothing else to do in Trost." The man said as they headed out, doing their afternoon march, at the end of the day, Talcar would order them to unfasten their canteens and pour out what water remained, berating anyone who didn’t drink enough, though by now everyone had gotten used to him cussing them out. Dinner was eaten with the same hunger driven enthusiasm as lunch, Aranel would ask the man who spoke to him earlier, “What do you mean there’s nothing left in Trost?", "Aye, we had the best craftsmen, Moira kept us fed, then that damned Kinc of ours had to throw it all away cause a priest didn’t like how they handled their dead!" Another said after finishing a mouthful of porridge, as he shoveled in another bite another elf spoke up, "Don’t know where you’re from, but you still had someone there’d who’d teach you a trade, why’d you come here?" He asked Aranel, "Ah I promised I’d join if the other three friends of mine joined, two of them wanted to get away from home and go adventuring.", this made a few laugh, "We were told to join, the Regent was honest with us, told all the men that we had to go serve the East, that’s the only way the Empire would help us, called it our blood tribute…" another would interrupt him at the end, "My wife had a pair of twin girls the day one of those black clad humans knocked on my door and handed me the notice, said I’d have the honor of serving the greatest cause in the world" he said forcing out a chuckle, yet the sadness was visible in his eyes, he reached down on his neck, pulling out a locket, with small sketches of the three, and a lock of his wife’s white hair, "Least they let me keep this when they dressed us up" he said, Irian would interject now, “What do you mean? I thought you went to that man, the recruiter?" He said the last word slowly, being in English, and having not mastered pronunciation, "For the rest of the kingdoms maybe, heard there’s a pair of men from Duken here, men that completed all the trials and training, yet they’re still here." The married man said, "Wanna make a bet?" The one next to him said, "Sure what do you got?" "Bet you Trost joins the Empire by the time we leave this place.” He said, not, to Irian, Aranels, and Orris surprise, sounding at all saddened by the prospect, for those three, the Alliance of the Five Kingdoms was sacrosanct, orchestrated by the gods themselves and the thought of a kingdom leaving it was simply unthinkable. "Join the Empire? Why would you abandon the alliance?" Aranel asked wide eyed, the married man responded, "We called on it when Moira revolted, at least the king did, and he was told the alliance wouldn’t join in on an internal problem, only outside foes, then the Imperial Princes joined in, the outside foes were there, they still did nothing…" he said angrily, still sounding a tad bitter, "Then when we asked for help in feeding ourselves we were turned down too, Alara needs to give free bread to its people, the others too, all conveniently had crop failures that year!" He said louder to the increasingly shocked trio, "So these black clad foreigners, they annex Moira as soon as the war ends, then they come to us, they offer us food, they offered to rebuild our cities, they lifted us up, built us railroads, got rid of the bandit problem, and then they demanded we serve them, said we’d get paid a shilling a day, and if you died or lost a limb your family would get a pension.” He said confidently, finishing with, "So I’m happy to be here, wifes gonna get two thirds of my pay, she’ll be able to buy everything she could ever want from the Empire"

And the second, with a character from this story some years later:
Since arriving in Falcor, the city five times the size of his hometown, after being made an officer by Rallys and sent off to study at the Imperial College of War, he had come to realize that he very much enjoyed the comforts afforded by the city. Since arriving each morning he would awake by his wife Sariah, the petite, short Thestral he had married 3 years ago now, the two would most often eat their breakfast, consisting largely of milky sweet coffee and oatmeal, before they dressed themselves and headed out the door. She worked as a bookkeeper’s assistant at the Imperial Technical Institute at Falcor, a running series of colleges established to teach the more nuanced sciences involved in the high technology of Herzland, at an intersection in the road they would kiss each other goodbye before heading off to their places. Once he parted from her side he would join a few of his fellows at a cafe to drink more exotic forms of coffee, having fallen in love with a local variation called melange, the creaminess reminding him much of the candies he liked back home. He had made friends there, a Count Leopold, a human of 25 years who belonged to the Old Order, those nobles who had held title prior to the 50 Years War, though the title conferred no privilege anymore, those Houses still held sway due to their tremendous property holdings, Kyros, a Thestral from the far south of the continent, who prior to applying here had entered service as a Cadet at age 40, he had followed the normal path for officers, starting at 12 for humans and 40 for elves by being sent to a boarding school where one received the formal rank of Cadet until graduation at age 16, then proceeding on as an ensign, those men who carried the colours in battles and parades. Then there was Elyon, a member of a more ancient line of elves, Haldor and him often conversing for a long time in their downtime over their exact histories, though as he learned more, it began to bother him more. Elyon’s first language being what the Empire called Aeldari, which Haldor suspected was the same as his own, though having had a few thousand years of separation to develop away from the kind spoken in the Occident. Haldor would join the four once he acquired his coffee and newspaper, the four were approaching their first quarter at the College, and as such were being tasked with wargaming out a campaign against a rival group of four. The rules were very complicated, the four would be seated in one room, and would write their orders out on two way paper, they would have a table in front of them with their own forces marked on a map, the orders would be sent to an umpire who would carry out their orders as they wrote them, teaching them as well how to properly format Orders. The umpire would know the positions of the enemy forces as well, unknown to Haldors group, from there they would have to plot out reported contacts with enemy forces and come to their own conclusion about their foes strengths. However despite this, there was a simulated system of supply, as the four had command of a theoretical Division, a body consisting of four regiments, or 12,000 infantry , plus a further 6000 men in the Army’s supply service, with 6000 men manning the 50 guns of artillery, with 1000 men dedicated to the auxiliary services, namely engineering, the chaplains, provost, and all other services, with a theoretical full strength of 25,000 men. The system was conducted by the students, with first years like Haldor getting divisional commands, 2nd years to the Corps of 4 divisions, 3rd years leading the two armies, each of 2 corps, with the final year students controlling the theatre, the two highest rated students in the fourth year would act as Commander in Chief for either side. They sat around a cafe table, Kyron was reading out their orders from corps command, they would need to advance and take the town of Carsonton, the Cavalry Corps would be detaching a cavalry brigade of 1500 horse, which fell into their command. Previous reconnoitering had come up with an enemy force numbering 1 regiment, with a battery of 5 guns to support them. "Alright, what are the roads like?" Leopold asked as he sipped his coffee, Haldor answered him, "Pretty good, gravel, and they’re dry so the wagons are having a good time about things" he said as he read over his newspaper. He was seeing things about Imperial Divestment in the west, though word of revolution in Alara had not yet made its way this far east. The four would continue on about things, Elyon folding out a map of the area to place on the table, "What should we do?" he mumbled out softly, Leopold responded, “I say we commit half our forces to it, don’t want them to know we’re moving a whole division in." He said as he looked at the map. Kyras was using bits of his sausage roll to mark positions on the map, "I’d like to get our guns on that hill there!" he said sounding a bit excited, Elyon shot a glance at him, "And I’d like to not destroy the place in taking it, the buildings would be nice…" he said with an annoyed scoff. The quartet would soon down the rest of their breakfasts and head off to their daily lecture, the College preferred limiting students to one required lecture a day, using exercises like the Wargaming to teach the students how things worked. Today the lecture was about weather and it’s effects on morale, explaining that long periods of overcast skies led to forces breaking and running on average 10 minutes before a force fighting under blue skies, going into detail about all the different environments and what men of what race preferred, humans and elves preferring sunny skies and rolling plains, Thestrals preferred dark, it didn’t matter where, as long as the space they were in wasn’t too claustrophobic, while Acapeth, the hulking race of reptilians would start dying if it got below 40 degrees. After the lecture Haldor and Elyon attended one of the two elective courses they could pick, they had both put themselves down for locomotive design and practice, which saw them travel slightly outside the city to a repair depot where a man from the State Railroad Service would explain the technology involved in getting them to function, today they had taken the front off an older recently decommissioned locomotive to see the boiler tubes inside. Haldor throughout all of this stood out from the crowd due to his white uniform and purple collar, attending as a foreign student. The other cadets were polite enough to him, they all being professionals and treated him like one as well, though finding it odd that he had not undertaken the usual path of an officer, but instead came from the ranks. After the lecture on locomotives was over they had their downtime, Haldor and Elyon heading off to the library to look more into what both theorized was a shared past. Imperial Elven was very similar, with many words being similar, though the Empire had many loan words from English in it. Their theory so far was that several thousand years ago, during the collapse of the old Elven Empire in the Occident, a large number of men had somehow managed to cross the ocean and establish colonies in Herzland proper. The two would often converse with each other in their own language, though Elyon found Haldor’s pronunciation humorous, it was still able to be discerned what one was saying despite the differences. After 2 hours there they would move onto their second elective, Haldor attended this one with Kyras, being on horsemanship. This course was a requirement for first year students who did not know how to ride, Leopold had been a captain in a cavalry squadron before attending here, and Elyon had been born into a landed family who could afford horses for their children. Haldor had learned to saddle, pick the hooves, brush and do all the upkeep on his horse, though he still found the required motion of bouncing up and down in time with the horse difficult. Once this course ended he would move back to the campus to meet with one of the 2nd year students and the other 1st years playing the part of supply chiefs in their divisions, they would discuss the general deployment of their forces, making demands of the Corps level supply chief, and getting requests handed back to them, the other division would be making a risky manœuvre over a mud road and would need several of Haldor’s wagons to keep their status up with the less developed paths they took, Haldor asked them to contribute a few regiments in the meantime for his Division, the 3rd Division, in their pending assault on Carsonton. An instructor was always present in these negotiations and planning sessions, their marks coming from how well performed at actually doing the task they were on. Once this meeting was over he would sit on a bench at a park near to the Technical Institute and wait for Sariah to finish her day, the two would join hands and move around the city for some time, with both making decent money going to one of the many restaurants in the city was affordable to them for their dinner, lunch often being skipped by Haldor, though he sometimes went to an automat on his downtime if he was hungry. Today Sariah and himself would be going to a Tortillereia, a tortilla was something neither of them had tried before, the smell inside was certainly unique, with the spicy fare cooking in the center of the restaurant. They sat down at a table, looking over the menu and seeing what they served, Tortillas, filled with rice , beans, cheeses and meats, Haldor got one filled with lamb, rice, beans, a little cheese and a mole sauce. It was much spicier than he was used to, causing both to end their meal with a layer of sweat causing their faces to shine, after this came Gelato, which they both had their favorite parlor in town, a small place near the Imperial University at Falcor. Haldor tried one flavored with mint and chocolate tonight, loving the mix of flavors in it, they returned home with full bellies and moved into their house that night, Imperial technology allowing for running water inside, with heating provided by a tank connected to the coal stove in the basement allowing them to share a steaming hot bath that night before bed. Haldor thought often of home while with Sariah, his mother and father desperately wanted to meet the woman their son had married, and as he explained to her, once he was finished he wanted both of them to move to Alara, or in the Occident in general, if he couldn’t get a job in Alara, or his position was awarded to another through nepotism, then Dagon and Rallys had both offered him a position on the General Staff in both states, if he graduated. That was what kept him going, the College had a dropout rate of 75% by the 4th year, though it was seen as difficult enough to get accepted, and even a dropout could land a good career on the sheer fact of being accepted, there were 250 in his year, by the time he finished there would be less than 100 if they held to the averages. Winter was beginning to set in now though, and the cadets would be pausing their wargaming until spring, no Army fought in winter, the levels of attrition would skyrocket to the point that no operation would be worth doing, he had a break coming up and was hoping to spend lots of time with Sariah over their coming break.

And finally a third, a book set in universe that I never got around to finishing:
All of the Elven lands are divided into three parts, one of which the Aeldari inhabit, another by the Moiran, the third, who in their language are called Drukhari, are named Dark Elves by the former. All of these differ from each other in language, customs, and laws. The river Iszara separates the Moirans from the Aeldari, the Marian and Selon separate the Drukhari from the other two. Of these the Drukhari are the bravest, because they are furthest removed from the civilization and laws of the Republic, and merchants rarely travel to them to trade the things which tend to effeminate the mind, and they are nearest to the Aeldari, who had total domain over all lands until the Republic was established, with whom they make battle with frequently. For this reason the Hivarii surpass the rest of their kind in valor, for they make near daily battle with the Aeldari, who the Hivarii either repel from their territory, or make raids across the Selon into the territory of the Aeldari.

Among the Hivarii, Dagobert was by far the wealthiest and most influential. He, when Gallus Piso and Gallus Messala were consuls, formed a conspiracy among the nobles of that tribe, and convinced the people to go forth from their territory with all their possessions, saying that it would be very easy, since they exceeded all in valor, to acquire the whole of Drukhari lands. To this he convinced them all the more because the Hivarii are surrounded on three sides, by the Selon in the north, a very broad and deep river, by the Inara Mountains in the west, separating them from the Sequanni, and by Lake Chereonoss, the largest lake in this continent in the south. From these circumstances it was deduced that their paths and targets in war were limited, circumstances like this causing great sorrow amongst those fond of war. They thought, considering the width and breadth of their territory, and their renown for warfare and bravery, found their avenues for advancement limited, though their lands measured 240 by 180 miles.

Induced by these considerations, and influenced by Dagobert, they sought out to acquire such things as necessary for this expedition, buying as great a number as possible of beasts of burden and wagons, to make their sowings as large as possible, so that on their migration plenty of grain would be available to establish peace and passage through the foreign lands they wished to traverse. They calculated that it would be two years to execute their designs, and Dagobert fixed by decree that departure would occur on the third year. Dagobert himself claimed the position of ambassador and embarked on a journey to persuade Catamantaledes, a chief of the Sequanii and father of Dagon who had been styled "Friend" by the Senate and People of Moira, to seize sovereignty in his own lands, which his father had held before him, and doing the same to Dumnorix, brother of Divico, a chief magistrate of the Haedua, much beloved in his own lands, to this he gave to Dumnorix his daughter in marriage. Dagobert proved to both men that he would soon attain sovereignty in his own lands, and with both knowing that the Hivarii were the bravest of the Drukhari, and would use his peoples skill at arms to acquire for them total authority in their states. When this had happened, the three took an oath, and pledged to one another that with total authority having been obtained in their lands, they would use their position as the three most powerful states to acquire for themselves the whole of Drukhari lands.


When this scheme was reported to the Hivarii by informers, they according to their custom compelled Dagobert to plead his case in chains, and it was the law that if found guilty Dagobert was to be killed with fire. On thé appointed day for the pleading of his case Dagobert drew together from across the width of Hivarii lands his clientele and their vassals to the number of ten thousand men and led to the appointed place all debtors and slaves of his, of whom he had a great many, and by these means rescued himself from the necessity of pleading his case. While the authorities, infuriated by this act, were assembling a body of men to compel with force of arms the pleading of his case, Dagobert died, and there is no suspicion among the Hivarii that he had committed suicide.


With his death having been reported, the Hivarii nevertheless attempted to embark on the migration they had planned on. When the preparations for this were completed, they set fire to all their towns, totaling 11 in number, and their villages, totaling 350 in number, and to all private dwellings that remained. They burned all grain save for that which they intended to carry with them after these things were destroyed, so that all hope of returning home would be removed from their warriors, and that they would be more willing to face all dangers. It was ordered then that all people carry from their homes all provisions for three months, they then persuaded the Rorarii, the Culingi, and the Latobrogii, their neighbors near the Sequanii, to adopt the same plan, and after the destruction of their towns and villages, to make the journey with them, and make confederation with the Celosii, who dwelt on the other side of Lake Chereoness.


There were two routes available to them at this time, one on the narrow of Sequanii lands on the narrow between the Inara Mountains and the River Selon, by which route scarcely one wagon at a time on this route, moreover there was a very high mountain overhanging, leaving them immune to attempts at interception. The other route was through the Southern Provinces of Moira, much easier and freer of obstacles than the mountains, and containing a multitude of fields growing grain and other produce. When this was reported to Rallys that they were attempting to make their path through the Provinces, he hastens out at a great a speed as possible and proceeds towards Hivarii territory while mustering his legions. As there was only a single legion posted on the Selon, he orders them to break down the bridges over that river. While thé Hivarii are informed of his actions, they send as ambassadors the most noble and illustrious of their number, of which Numeius held the chief position, to make their case that they intended to March through the Provinces and would undertake all efforts to do no harm to the Citizens of our Provinces, because they had, by their own admission, no other route to migrate by, and were requesting to do so with the permission of Rallys. Rallys kept in memory a certain Amorious Lucullus, a man appointed by the senate during the Liberation to lead an army south and prevent them from raiding into Moira, had been slain and his legions enslaved by the Hivarii, for this reason he would not grant them passage, nor did he think that such men in love with war would abstain from raiding and committing violent acts against the Moiran Citizens in the provinces, yet in order to await the muster of his remaining legions, he replied to the Hivarii ambassadors that he would take time to deliberate and consider their offers, and that if they had need of anything to return on the day before the Ides of April.