Sir Aeron

I started a new Thousand Year Old Vampire.

I have a Universe already, called the Alius See, in which I’ve set my previous TYOV stories (and ones inspired by my TOYV stories) but this one immediately ended up being recognisably not-Earth. So now it’s a Multiverse, and the Alius See connects ’em all.

This time around, I’m playing on actual paper, continuing my love for index cards.

Sir Aeron, who’ll one day be Lord Aeron if he plays his cards right, has been brought up in a world of tough love. As the first born, it was always his destiny to take over ruling Cambridge and so that’s what his father has been rearing him towards.

Lord Essin of Cambridge never approved his his boy’s lingering over a chess board, when he could be practicing his riding or archery skills. It was decided that if his son was going to waste his time like this, then he’d come through the other end of it the best player these was.

I’m not sure yet how important Cambridge is to the rest of the King’s empire, but Statton certainly knows how to keep the Cambridge family happy. Likely, he does that with all his bannermen, but the King manages to do it whilst it feeling very personal.

The suit of armor wasn’t just gilded with both Aeron’s family name, but also the King’s own insignia. That alone is like +10 temporary hit points – no one wants to take a swing at the boar-and-swan and risk offending the King. That wasn’t all though. It was specifically designed after the blacksmith watched how Aeron preferred to fight.

Lain Talin is a close friend of Aeron’s, though about twenty years older than him, and married to the Archbishop. More than once their friendship has managed to mend a link between the Lord and the head of the Church in these parts, without them even realising. The Archbishop isn’t the only one with God’s ear though – his wife may have just as much of their attention.

It’s hard to know what kind of leader Aeron will be at this point. He’s skilled in combat – certain kinds of combat at least, when winning over the audience is more important than winning the fit. He’s managed to make some key friends during his time. And he may well be the keenest chess player alive.

None of this helped when quite a large Fold appeared – a crack between this world and the Alius See – and let a clutch of shadowkin through. As they’re want to do, they ravaged the bodies of those that tried to defend the city, and as so often is the case, their victims failed to die.

This isn’t good. Rather than a single vampire spawning (or whatever it is the shadowkin infect people with) the entire Company has turned. Maybe the entire Cambridge military. No idea where the shadows went afterwards. They probably didn’t have their fill and just head back home.

Aeron’s face was mercifully left alone, if there’s a mercy to be found. He does have a wound, similar to the rest of his band, that seems to have run out of blood to spill. Now the flesh is sore, red, and pulsing, as his heart tries to push blood is no longer has.

I didn’t even have to roll a dice yet and look how much content there is! I have many pages to fill out on my (private) world building wiki already. Tune in next time to see how Cambridged faired after the massacre.