Christopher stands at the top of a tower next to Rhodry, gargoyles silently watching as he takes in Caerac Keep below.
Rhodry points to one of the buildings wedged together along a winding road.
Rhodry: That’s the Tipsy Unicorn where Kevin works. It’s owned by Maggie, a former adventurer.
Christopher: Adventurer?
Rhodry: Once upon a time…why are you smiling?
Christopher: Those words have special significance for me. You’re invoking a deity of story. A seductive, somewhat dubious deity.
Rhodry: I don’t have to say them if those words trouble you.
Christopher: Go on. I respect their power even if I distrust them. This is your story, your world. I’m curious what you’re about to invoke.
Rhodry: Adventuring, perhaps? Once upon a time, anyone who didn’t live behind walls was an adventurer. At least in Rowenda.
Christopher: Rowenda?
Rhodry: The seventh daughter of Serena Jasior, Imperatrix of the civilized lands. Once they came together to form a great empire to fight the Serpent.
Christopher: Serena and the Serpent? This sounds like a tale in its own right, apart from adventuring and Rowenda.
Rhodry: Yes, it is, but the tales are interlocked, like a serpent swallowing its own tale. As Nevalyn my ancestor once swallowed the World Serpent.
Christopher: This sounds like yet another tale! Is this serpent-swallowing ancestor part of the reason you’re special? Maybe why Daeric wants to keep you in this tower?
Rhodry: You’re quick, to grasp my connection to this story.
Christopher: I’m just not sure which story you’re telling.
Rhodry: All stories are interlocked, threatening to swallow each other.
Christopher: A curious anaology. Here I thought they were like the shadows of color left by the setting sun, mingling and overlapping in spite of the darkness.
Rhodry: A beautiful image. Is it connected to Once Upon a Time being a deity of story? Perhaps Happily Ever After as well?
Christopher: You’re quick as well. Quick, but confusing.
Rhodry: (smiling a little) A curious comment coming from you.
Christopher: Please go on with your story, although I’m not sure which one you’re telling.
Rhodry: Adventuring. It’s connected with my ancestor swallowing the Serpent, only to be defeated by Serena Jasior. This is why there’s a land called Rowenda. It’s also why some Rowendians adventure while others live behind walls.
Christopher: Go on.
Rhodry: Our world is filled with monsters whom feed upon humans of some kind. This hunger was encouraged by the Serpent.
Christopher: Why?
Rhodry: Once Nevalyn swallowed the Serpent, She became a dark god for all monsters. Not only did her children, the Serpent-Born inherit her hunger for life, energy, love, blood, and flesh; but almost everything intelligent did as well.
Christopher: How so?
Rhodry: Kobolds, gnolls, trolls, goblins, and humans who could shapeshift found themselves hungering for human flesh and blood. They began hunting them; forming bands which attacked human settlements.
Christopher: Which is why humans began building walls?
Rhodry: Exactly. Eventually a queen got all the various leaders of the human lands to follow her, to confront and destroy the heart of this predatory hunger; Nevalyn the Serpent.
Christopher: This was Serena Jasior, right? Your Imperatrix?
Rhodry: Not my Imperatrix. She disappeared a couple of centuries before I was born.
Christopher: What happened to her?
Rhodry: No one knows. She just vanished and her adopted daughters were left to snatch up pieces of her empire for herself.
Christopher: I’m guessing Rowenda got Rowenda, correct?
Rhodry: Quite correct. You’re getting me ahead of myself.
Christopher: Sorry.
Rhodry: Serena vanished, yes, but not before she and her allies succeeded in banishing Nevalyn from existence. Nevalyn had been banished before, but She remained as long as Her descendents were alive, whispering and controlling them. Whatever Serena did silenced Nevalyn, freeing not only her descendents, the Serpent-Born, but every monster in existence to live free of her influence.
Christopher: Her descendents are the Serpent-Born? Is that what you are, Rhodry?
Rhodry: (bowing his head) Yes. Daeric and I owe Serena Jasior, even if she’s been more of an enemy than an ally to our kind. She freed us, but many people still fear us.
Christopher: Which is why Daeric wants you to stay in this tower.
Rhodry: Exactly. We haven’t been able to shake the appetites Nevalyn left us with; not the Serpent-Born or any other monster. People have reason to fear us.
Christopher: Hence the walls.
Rhodry: If you want to travel in Rowenda beyond the walls, you need to do it with a sword in hand or magic capable of fighting the monsters with. Those who do so are called adventurers.
Christopher: Your Maggie is one of them.
Rhodry: Yes. She traveled far and wide with some of the founders of the Keeps, the walled cities.
Christopher: It sounds like she’s old.
Rhodry: Very. She looks human, but she’s very short. People suspect she’s part dwarf, gnome, or halfling. Not that many of the old races survive.
Christopher: The old races?
Rhodry: Dwarfs, gnomes, halflings, and elves. Most of them have mingled with humans, or disappeared. Maggie, I suspect is the descendent of a such a mingling.
Christopher: And she’s an adventurer who runs a tavern.
Rhodry: Yes. A lot of people accuse her of being a murderer and a thief, but they keep coming to drink her ale. It is a good ale.
Christopher: Why do they accuse her of being a murderer and a thief?
Rhodry: Adventurers often had to fight and kill other living creatures which were once simply classified as monsters. Now people accusing adventurers of being mercenaries who ventured into dungeons, caverns, and lairs in order to kill those occupying them and taking their treasures.
Christopher: Is this true?
Rhodry: Maggie did travel with a raiding party deep into a dungeon to slaughter all the goblins within. Those goblins were raiders themselves, often coming out to attack human civilizations, but these adventurers didn’t leave any survivors. They took everything in the dungeon they could carry; weapons and treasures which the goblins stole.
Christopher: Stealing back the stolen goods. Perpetuating the cycle.
Rhodry: Exactly. This used to be very common in the early days of Rowenda. Rowenda herself was an adventurer. If she hadn’t been, she couldn’t have claimed these northern lands as hers, but she did claim them with a sword.
Christopher: Did any humans object to her claiming this land?
Rhodry: Good question. (He smiles bitterly.) If they did, their words and stories are lost.
Christopher: While the conqueror got to tell her story and pass it on.
Rhodry: Exactly. Now people are saying adventurers like Rowenda and Maggie were no better than the monsters they killed. Calling nonhumans monsters is just an excuse to murder and rob them.
Christopher: What does Maggie say to this?
Rhodry: If she hadn’t killed the monsters, they would have killed her. If the monsters were dead, why shouldn’t she help herself to their treasure?
Christopher: Pragmatic, if a little merciless.
Rhodry: Mercy is preached by the Servants of the Unicorn in below temple, but not always observed.
Christopher: Just how powerful are these Servants of the Unicorn?
Rhodry: Citizens of Serena’s empire used to venerate the World Serpent. This serpent was later worshipped as a Dragon by its followers. The Followers of the Dragon were all converted to the become Servants of the Unicorn.
Christopher: All of them?
Rhodry: Those who didn’t were hunted down and killed.
Christopher: These Servants don’t sound merciful at all.
Rhodry: As I said, mercy is preached, but so is running the impure through with your horn as the Unicorn did anyone nursing a monster in their breast.
Christopher: Would this include nonhumans and the Serpent-Born?
Rhodry: Centuries ago, the Followers of the Dragon would enslave us. The Unicorns, however, would kill us on sight.
Christopher: Do they still?
Rhodry: No, but they regard us as an evil which must be constantly watched. An evil which must be smited, if it shows any of the tendencies of our foremother.
Christopher: How terrible.
Rhodry: Yes, our history is quite terrible, isn’t it? I haven’t even mentioned the undead stalking our land. If there’s one thing the Unicorns fear more than the Serpent-Born, it’s the undead.
Christopher: Are there a lot of undead in your world?
Rhodry: Enough to frighten and seduce the living.
To be continued on Monday; May 20, 2024
inspirationcauldron 