The List
09-27-2013, 06:31 AM
A long time ago, but not so long I don't remember much about what things were like beforehand, Dark Lord Vaeru appeared. Nobody seemed to know where he'd come from, or who he was before he started calling himself a Dark Lord, or how he amassed power so seemingly-suddenly, but there wasn't time to find much out before he made his move. Within months, most of the major kingdoms had fallen or surrendered, and in under a year only the Free City of Terrus was flying its own flag. The city hunkered down for an extended siege, counting on its cliffs to defend it and extensive internal agriculture to sustain it. It sat for weeks, surrounded only by a token force that prevented refugees coming or going, waiting for a strike that would never come. In time, the Dark Lord himself arrived and requested an audience with the city's council; nobody knows what happened that day, but the rumor is that he explained that he'd finished developing some sort of alchemical superweapon that would completely annihilate the city if it didn't surrender to him. Regardless of the truth, the council acquiesced, and Vaeru crowned himself uncontested emperor of the entire known world. There was a perfunctory celebration, and he immediately began rebuilding.
It didn't take long. What surprised most people, looking back, was how little devastation there was. There simply hadn't been that many major battles, and those that had happened had mostly been quick and surgical. Vaeru had succeeded early on mostly by shock and awe, carefully dividing kingdoms and city-states such that there was rarely any reason for neighbors to come to each other's aid. By the time he was a clear enough threat on a global scale that a major organized resistance began stirring, he and his armies had grown big enough that he couldn't reasonably be contested. Most simply surrendered as Terrus had: it probably helped that the ones that didn't see what he called reason, he completely wiped off the map.
What was strange – or at least, what I found strange – was that he never stopped rebuilding. I suppose I'd have expected someone who called themself a Dark Lord, with capitals and everything, to just sort of play with the world like a toy, to use it until it broke. But Vaeru went on a relentless campaign of urban development, replacing decrepit slums with free and livable housing, building roads, rooting out bandits and monsters. Instead of the secret police and roving bands of corrupt guards everyone expected, civil service sprang up behind him. In a strange way, life got... better. For a lot of people. It was almost enough to make people forget about the whole dark lord business, and the public executions that still happened sometimes.
Almost.
And I guess that's why I'm thinking about all this. Some people still want to overthrow Vaeru. Maybe even a lot, I don't know. Some don't want to have their freedom restricted, some lost family in the wars before he was crowned, some people just object to the whole evil empire thing on principle. There are still attempts at assassinations and coups pretty regularly, although they keep getting less and less frequent as time goes on. Nobody's managed it yet, and organized rebellions tend to get quashed. Heavily and quickly. And after a failed assassination, there's always the aftermath. It's happening downstairs right now. We got a visit from a couple of armed guards and some bureaucrat, and they told us my brother had been killed while making an attempt on the Dark Lord's life. I couldn't stay down there and watch how stony my parents' faces got at the news, watch them not react to the gush of soothing, businesslike words. Watch my mother fiddle with her apron strings like she always does when she's trying to stop her hands shaking. They'd always told Gareth he was going to get himself killed. And now they were right.
Up here, I can't hear anything but a low murmur, but I already know what's being said. Same thing that got said to my friend Becca last year. They're very sorry for our loss, accept this pension for the death of our son, his remains will be delivered next week. Tax adjustments will be made for us this year to account for the tragic death of a family member until arrangements can be made. This is the address of a priest of Solenus who can help with any grief counseling we need. If any surviving member of the family ever makes an attempt on a government official's life or is discovered to be a member of a rebel organization, the entire family will be summarily executed, all property seized, and any titles stripped posthumously. Please accept whatever aid we need in this trying time.
The talking stops, and I've barely heard my father speak once. There's silence for a while, and I know it's because there are forms to be filled out. Eventually, the voice that talks the most speaks up again, and my mother answers. A few seconds later, there's a knock at my door and the bureaucrat lets herself in. She introduces herself, but I'm not really listening. She's wearing what I assume is a very calculatedly nonthreatening knit garment and a brown skirt, and Vaeru's emblem is pinned at her neck. It strikes me how much it almost doesn't look like a skull anymore. How easy it is to forget the meaning of a symbol you see every day. She keeps talking, and hands me some papers and a stub of lead. I start filling them out. There's no reason not to, to resist. It's all strangely mundane. Could almost be tax forms, until I get to the last few questions. One in particular stands out to me.
Which of the following best describes you?
a) I am a squire training for officership in a military or paramilitary organization, about to achieve full recognition and nervous about taking the final steps into leadership and true combat roles. (Please indicate affiliation and primary weapon proficiency)
b) I support my family primarily through hunting and trapping, and have become somewhat reclusive or withdrawn after spending the majority of my time in the wilderness by myself. (Please indicate type of environment you specialize in surviving in)
c) I am a novice priest with strong resolve, but am finding my faith tested by the state of the world and the restrictive and sometimes seemingly contradictory rules and tenets of my church. (Please indicate deity's or deities' name[s] and domain)
d) I am an apprentice or student alchemist with ambitions of eventual greatness, looking forward to completing my training and beginning my own studies or business. (Please indicate alchemical specialty and name of master or educational facility)
The answers are... weirdly specific. Which I guess is why I'm a little annoyed one of them fits me so closely.
It didn't take long. What surprised most people, looking back, was how little devastation there was. There simply hadn't been that many major battles, and those that had happened had mostly been quick and surgical. Vaeru had succeeded early on mostly by shock and awe, carefully dividing kingdoms and city-states such that there was rarely any reason for neighbors to come to each other's aid. By the time he was a clear enough threat on a global scale that a major organized resistance began stirring, he and his armies had grown big enough that he couldn't reasonably be contested. Most simply surrendered as Terrus had: it probably helped that the ones that didn't see what he called reason, he completely wiped off the map.
What was strange – or at least, what I found strange – was that he never stopped rebuilding. I suppose I'd have expected someone who called themself a Dark Lord, with capitals and everything, to just sort of play with the world like a toy, to use it until it broke. But Vaeru went on a relentless campaign of urban development, replacing decrepit slums with free and livable housing, building roads, rooting out bandits and monsters. Instead of the secret police and roving bands of corrupt guards everyone expected, civil service sprang up behind him. In a strange way, life got... better. For a lot of people. It was almost enough to make people forget about the whole dark lord business, and the public executions that still happened sometimes.
Almost.
And I guess that's why I'm thinking about all this. Some people still want to overthrow Vaeru. Maybe even a lot, I don't know. Some don't want to have their freedom restricted, some lost family in the wars before he was crowned, some people just object to the whole evil empire thing on principle. There are still attempts at assassinations and coups pretty regularly, although they keep getting less and less frequent as time goes on. Nobody's managed it yet, and organized rebellions tend to get quashed. Heavily and quickly. And after a failed assassination, there's always the aftermath. It's happening downstairs right now. We got a visit from a couple of armed guards and some bureaucrat, and they told us my brother had been killed while making an attempt on the Dark Lord's life. I couldn't stay down there and watch how stony my parents' faces got at the news, watch them not react to the gush of soothing, businesslike words. Watch my mother fiddle with her apron strings like she always does when she's trying to stop her hands shaking. They'd always told Gareth he was going to get himself killed. And now they were right.
Up here, I can't hear anything but a low murmur, but I already know what's being said. Same thing that got said to my friend Becca last year. They're very sorry for our loss, accept this pension for the death of our son, his remains will be delivered next week. Tax adjustments will be made for us this year to account for the tragic death of a family member until arrangements can be made. This is the address of a priest of Solenus who can help with any grief counseling we need. If any surviving member of the family ever makes an attempt on a government official's life or is discovered to be a member of a rebel organization, the entire family will be summarily executed, all property seized, and any titles stripped posthumously. Please accept whatever aid we need in this trying time.
The talking stops, and I've barely heard my father speak once. There's silence for a while, and I know it's because there are forms to be filled out. Eventually, the voice that talks the most speaks up again, and my mother answers. A few seconds later, there's a knock at my door and the bureaucrat lets herself in. She introduces herself, but I'm not really listening. She's wearing what I assume is a very calculatedly nonthreatening knit garment and a brown skirt, and Vaeru's emblem is pinned at her neck. It strikes me how much it almost doesn't look like a skull anymore. How easy it is to forget the meaning of a symbol you see every day. She keeps talking, and hands me some papers and a stub of lead. I start filling them out. There's no reason not to, to resist. It's all strangely mundane. Could almost be tax forms, until I get to the last few questions. One in particular stands out to me.
Which of the following best describes you?
a) I am a squire training for officership in a military or paramilitary organization, about to achieve full recognition and nervous about taking the final steps into leadership and true combat roles. (Please indicate affiliation and primary weapon proficiency)
b) I support my family primarily through hunting and trapping, and have become somewhat reclusive or withdrawn after spending the majority of my time in the wilderness by myself. (Please indicate type of environment you specialize in surviving in)
c) I am a novice priest with strong resolve, but am finding my faith tested by the state of the world and the restrictive and sometimes seemingly contradictory rules and tenets of my church. (Please indicate deity's or deities' name[s] and domain)
d) I am an apprentice or student alchemist with ambitions of eventual greatness, looking forward to completing my training and beginning my own studies or business. (Please indicate alchemical specialty and name of master or educational facility)
The answers are... weirdly specific. Which I guess is why I'm a little annoyed one of them fits me so closely.