Emesa Hundred/1st Edition/13
Bradas keeps an ostler and a wagoner who almost pays for himself through work for Byced and Scutal. The village has a water-mill but the mill-pond is clogged with weed and stinks in high Summer. The miller has complained to Bradas who will not allow him sufficient labour to clear it. The lumbermill is the manor’s only real asset: Byced provides a steady flow and lumber and the timberwright is efficient and effective.
Bradas’ lack of interest and his mother’s highhandedness leaves most of the practical decision making in the hands of the manor’s reeve. He maintains as diverse a range of crops as possible and the village usually avoids starvation. If Bradas took more interest, or trusted him more, then the manor might thrive.
Bradas is at his happiest when leading the Chapter into the forest in search of Kuborans, something he does on the slightest pretext. Each spring and summer he takes the chapter a little further into the Uld range. He justifies these expeditions by bringing back any captives as slaves to support the manor’s work.
In truth they require guards and are poor workers. More often than not he sells them on at a loss compared to the effort it takes to capture them. His men have always valued his leadership but the distractions of the fief, his money worries, and a growing tendency to retreat into a bottle are sapping their respect for him. If they perform badly at the Festival of the Pillars this Summer his embarrassment will be complete and his position as Meketa may be open to challenge. Meketa Halan Uelesen, who recommended him for this post and values his loyalty, is an increasingly regular visitor; he cannot afford to have someone he promoted fail.
Byced Manor[edit | edit source]
The wooden manorhouse with its observation tower is surrounded by a ditch, bank and palisade. It is not designed to hold for long, but does offer some protection for the population in the case of a Kuboran raid.
Telmen Pendrick Rold is another beneficiary of the deaths on the Scarlet Ribbon. He served under Meketa Bradas in Golotha, and followed him north when he was granted the chapter. Pendrick brought his orphaned nephew, 5 year-old Gereras, and a maid, Sapella, to raise him. The rest of the household comprises his squire, Roldova, a junior priest, Biris, and a single laumak, to support him.
Pendrick is ambitious and drives the peasantry hard. Currently they are working to clear more forest beyond the isolated hamlet of Clan Zarsi so that it will grow and, one day, become a self-sufficient manor. The lumber they cut is dragged to Torkat for cutting into boards or posts as part of the village’s payment to their liege. Anything they need is supposed to be sold back to them but the woodward makes sure he declares enough wood as ‘unsound’, to meet the needs of the village.
The Telmen treats Sapella badly in public to disguise the fact that they are lovers and his ‘nephew’ is their son. He fears that the priest suspects the true nature of their relationship and might offer that tasty titbit to an officer coveting the fief. The priest is currently oblivious to the sin going on under the manor roof. He is an arrogant young man who cannot believe that a man of his quality is stuck in this god-forsaken backwater.
To bolster his prestige Pendrick recruited a journeyman weaponcrafter at last year’s Festival of the Pillars. The village has an ox-mill; a potter; a domestic metalcrafter; and a salter.
‘The Legion’[edit | edit source]
A handful or two of the most zealous Peonians of Emesa would go beyond the strong words about ‘the Harpy leading the people to freedom’. They remember the tales their grandfathers told of their grandfathers; tales of ‘The Legion’; tales of drill and skill at arms.
The Theocracy never knew or cared what these half-barbarian frontier folk did and it was only with the arrival of the Warriors that the Legion was rooted out and crushed. Elders who had, traditionally, led each hamlet’s ‘cohort’ were tortured and burned alive before their families and friends. Weapons that had been hoarded and repaired, and shields that had been patched and refurbished by each successive generation, were impounded. Anyone found with a weapon, let alone practicing with it, was subject to summary execution. The organisation that had protected the Emesans for nearly 300 years died in 690; or did it?
Last Spring the son of Torkat’s woodward was clearing tree stumps half way to Byced. Stuffed into a long forgotten hollow beneath one of the stumps were 7 short swords carefully packed in oiled cloth. With them were several pages of parchment. The ink had faded to a barely legible dull red but would, anyway, have been beyond the illiterate youth. It was the illustrations that ignited his imagination: legionary sword drills.
The boy’s name was Korin of Thald and he didn’t just see pictures, he saw divine instruction. Local legends say that Peoni’s warriors always wore red, and here were warriors drawn in red practicing with the swords she had sent him. No longer was he confined to the life his father had led; now he was to be Peoni’s strong right arm. He was to find six others, train them as she instructed, and take the fight to the oppressors.
He continues to weigh the qualities of the youths he meets when he accompanies his father to Emesa market. However, he has not been impressed by anyone yet. He is beginning to wonder whether Peoni’s gifts were all intended for local people. Perhaps he needs to seek outsiders to help him in his cause. If he cannot find locals he has resolved to approach strangers to Emesa at the next beast fair. Surely Peoni’s sister-harpy, Heneryne, will guide him to the magnificent warriors he needs.
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