King Nathaniel of the Normans sat in the throne room next to his queen, Allesandra of house Carlisle. To his left was his Chief Financial Minister, Calios of house Marquis. To his right was his most esteemed general, Zacharias of house Terris. As they were discussing the annual Feast of Kings, they heard the clatter of plate male as a rather tall and lanky knight ran up to them. Sir Jeffrey of the towers arrived, huffing after his long trek.
“My lord!” The knight exclaimed. “The Iron Legion has attacked one of our towns in the forest!”
“Thank you for delivering this most troubling news, good sir knight.” The King said, distraught. “Go and find a place to rest.”
“My God! What horrible news!” The Queen exclaimed. “Whatever shall we do?”
The King looked to his General for his opinion.
“I believe we should respond in kind.” The General said. “We cannot let an act stand without response. If we don’t show them we are willing to stand against them, then they will see that as a sign of weakness.”
“I disagree.” The Minister said, “If we attack and fail it could prove costly. We may not have enough of an army left to be able to stop their advance into our territory. Even if they see our inaction as weakness, we will fair a far greater chance at victory if we hold defensible positions.”
“Sire, General Roshan will be there. If we can capture or kill him then we can assuredly crush the Legion.”
“It is war then!” The King responded. “We will retaliate against the Legion for what they have done. Calios, have our army outfitted with plate armor.”
“Sir, it would be far cheaper to outfit our army with gambeson instead of plate mail.” The minister responded.
“And far quicker,” The general Chimed in.
“Nonsense!” the King rebuffed. “Our soldiers will be in the thick of battle! Simple cloth armor could not possibly protect them!”
“Actually, Sire,” The General replied, “Gambeson does a fine job at protecting against all sorts of blows. It is quite underrated as an effective armor.”
“Very well then,” The King began, “Outfit our army with gambeson. The Legion will pay for this transgression.”
Author's Note
In the original story Rama kills large number of demons in a forest. Ravana is informed of this. One of his advisers advocates for retaliation. The other is against it. The one that is for it is able to convince Ravana to attack by informing him of Sita and her beauty. I changed Rama to an opposing army and Sita to an important general for the other side. I felt that it was more reasonable for a king to want to capture a general in wartime as opposed to a princess.
References
“My lord!” The knight exclaimed. “The Iron Legion has attacked one of our towns in the forest!”
The Town That Was Attacked
“Thank you for delivering this most troubling news, good sir knight.” The King said, distraught. “Go and find a place to rest.”
“My God! What horrible news!” The Queen exclaimed. “Whatever shall we do?”
The King looked to his General for his opinion.
“I believe we should respond in kind.” The General said. “We cannot let an act stand without response. If we don’t show them we are willing to stand against them, then they will see that as a sign of weakness.”
“I disagree.” The Minister said, “If we attack and fail it could prove costly. We may not have enough of an army left to be able to stop their advance into our territory. Even if they see our inaction as weakness, we will fair a far greater chance at victory if we hold defensible positions.”
“Sire, General Roshan will be there. If we can capture or kill him then we can assuredly crush the Legion.”
“It is war then!” The King responded. “We will retaliate against the Legion for what they have done. Calios, have our army outfitted with plate armor.”
“Sir, it would be far cheaper to outfit our army with gambeson instead of plate mail.” The minister responded.
“And far quicker,” The general Chimed in.
“Nonsense!” the King rebuffed. “Our soldiers will be in the thick of battle! Simple cloth armor could not possibly protect them!”
“Actually, Sire,” The General replied, “Gambeson does a fine job at protecting against all sorts of blows. It is quite underrated as an effective armor.”
“Very well then,” The King began, “Outfit our army with gambeson. The Legion will pay for this transgression.”
Author's Note
In the original story Rama kills large number of demons in a forest. Ravana is informed of this. One of his advisers advocates for retaliation. The other is against it. The one that is for it is able to convince Ravana to attack by informing him of Sita and her beauty. I changed Rama to an opposing army and Sita to an important general for the other side. I felt that it was more reasonable for a king to want to capture a general in wartime as opposed to a princess.
References
Chris, I found this story extremely entertaining, and your updates to the story fitting of the point of the story, even though thematic elements were changed. I also enjoyed your discussion of armor types, especially gambeson. One thing to maybe add would be a picture of the types of armor you are discussing for your readers who are less familiar with armor types, so they can visualize the debate.
ReplyDeleteHello again! When I read your Author's Note and the changes that you made, the story that you created made more sense! I must also agree that a general compared to a princess may be more reasonable to want to capture during time of war. I enjoyed the dialogue you created for the character's in the story - it kind of allows readers to see Ravana as an indecisive and unfit king. Great descriptive story you have written, Chris.
ReplyDeleteHey again Chris!
ReplyDeleteI really liked this story! From the very beginning, you pulled us in to a different world. The image you chose really helped set the scene too. You did a great job of using the dialogue to move the story along and kept the vocabulary relevant to the time period. I think that changing Sita to a general was a wise choice. It was also interesting to see the other side of it, I didn't realize I was rooting for Ravana until the end.
Ahoy there Chris. I very much enjoyed this story. Gambeson truly is an underrated form of armor, and is in my opinion, the superior method of protecting a soldier. Also, I have to say that I was quite intrigued by the Chief Financial Minister, this Calios of House Marquis. He seems like a pretty awesome guy and he could have used some more time in the spotlight.
ReplyDelete