The magic the empire tried to bury — and the people who would not let it die. Long before the empire, the wizards — all of them, undivided — rose against the old gods and banished them from the world. There was no “Shadow” among them then: a wizard was a wizard, and the distinctionContinue reading “The Shadows”
Author Archives: NCKestrel
Dragons of the Eastern Mountains
The one beast that can answer a Palatine Knight. Creatures large enough to fight an armored knight on equal terms are rare. The greatest of them are the dragons of the eastern mountains — immense, armored in scale thicker than a castle wall, and crowned with fire. A grown dragon can take a battering thatContinue reading “Dragons of the Eastern Mountains”
Bears and the Dire Packs
Not malicious. Just large, hungry, and in the way. Below the monsters of legend are the beasts — the bears, boars, and wolves that maraud the deep country at the ragged edges of cultivation. One of them is a hunt. A pack of them, driven down by hunger or hard weather, is a battle, andContinue reading “Bears and the Dire Packs”
The Captains of the Roads
Where imperial order runs thin, the roads belong to the bold. The empire’s authority is thinnest on the frontier, and into that gap step the bandits — deserters, broken men, dispossessed peasants, and captains with ambitions far above their station. They prey on caravans, isolated steadings, and travelers foolish enough to ride the back roadsContinue reading “The Captains of the Roads”
The Retinue
The footmen who follow the lance. For every towering knight there are a dozen ordinary soldiers — the retinue. Footmen with spear and shield, archers and crossbowmen, light horse: the common men and women who march behind the golem-knights and do the unglamorous work of war. A unit of retinue is reckoned not as aContinue reading “The Retinue”
The Tower Wizards
The empire has no priests. It has wizards. Where other ages would place a priesthood, the Palatine Empire places its Tower Wizards. They counsel kings and peasants alike, read omens in smoke and stone, keep the calendar and the histories, and hold the knowledge of how the world actually works. Above all, it is theirContinue reading “The Tower Wizards”
The Spine and the High Pass
One road, one pass, and a war on either side of it. The contested frontier is split by a range of mountains the locals simply call the Spine — a long, hard ridge that runs across the march between Talins and Severni Mars. It is not the tallest range in the world, but it isContinue reading “The Spine and the High Pass”
Talinsthorpe
The great northern port — and the seat of the Order of Saatti. Talinsthorpe is the largest city of the northern frontier: a grey, salt-stained port on the cold northern coast, where the empire’s one great highway begins its run south toward the pass at Halgard. It is wealthy, crowded, and watchful — a workingContinue reading “Talinsthorpe”
The Order of Saatti
Honor. The spear and the lance. The colour blue. Saatti was a legionnaire — a soldier of foreign birth who led an army of foreign recruits in the empire’s early expansion. His name is remembered for the defense of Talins. Having taken the city, Saatti learned that a far larger enemy army was marching toContinue reading “The Order of Saatti”
The Stone Bond
What it is to live inside the armor. A Palatine Knight does not wear their armor. They become it. The bond begins with a touch and a word. Laying a hand on the golem of enchanted stone and speaking a personal command phrase — known only to the bonded knight — the warrior merges intoContinue reading “The Stone Bond”
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