As We Sing of the Heroes of Eld

[Kasmandre]

Overture: Storyteller's Prerogative

 

Lie back, children and hear a tale of the days of old. Listen well and I'll tell you of the heroes of the West. Of Jamie the Kind. Of Ramburt the Bold. Of Aeron the Beauteous. Of Tybalt the Devious. Of Darion the Wise. And of Bethany the Quick, greatest of them all.

 

Oh? You say you've heard all the old stories? You could recite the tales yourselves of how Ramburt rode three nights straight to warn the King of the Arhur's treachery (except of course for those of you who'll tell me it was ten nights and all through snow), of how Aeron seduced the warlord Brecct while Tybalt led an army into the enemy camp, of how Bethany settled the quarrels between the Northlanders and the Krosos, of how Jamie held the Tower of Souls with only his quarterstaff and his courage, of how Darion the Wise ended the Age of Fear when he gave his life sealing the Passage of Eternity? Well, I don't doubt for a second that you know all these stories and a hundred thousand besides. There isn't a child from the Gray Marsh to the Terrible Cliffs who hasn't heard these stories from their fathers and brothers and uncles and mothers (for isn't it the mothers who are the finest storytellers?).

 

But have you ever heard the story of how Jamie earned his sword? What, you say? Jamie never had a sword? Nonsense! There wasn't a man among the Horselords who didn't know the sword as well as their own wife. What? You didn't even know Jamie was a Horselord? Well, then, I suppose you never heard of his brother Derek, either. Or of the great feud between Ramburt and Darion. Or of how Tybalt came to need the aid of Darion and owe him a blood-debt in the first place? Did it never strike you as odd that Aeron, the most beautiful woman to walk this side of heaven, wore a cloak and death's head mask into battle? Or that Tybalt was the only left-handed member of the Tyrian thieves? None of you thought to ask your mothers when Jamie made his famous oath? Or where Darion learned his art? Or how such an inexplicable mish-mash of fighters and cheaters and dreamers became the greatest names ever known? How these six came to know and love each other in the first place? Well, it seems you barely know these heroes at all.

 

Gather close, children, and I'll tell you a secret: every one of these brave men and women was once an ordinary person like you and me. They, too, once sat on their mother's knee and heard stories of heroes so brave and true that they couldn't possibly be real. They played games and told jokes and did all the things little children do. If you'd known any of them back then, you wouldn't see any difference between them and other children. They didn't glow or speak in tongues or possess superhuman abilities. They were normal, everyday children and grew into normal, everyday adults.

 

So, you must be asking yourselves (for I know you're all wise children, wise beyond all years) how did they become heroes? How did these perfectly normal people grow so tall with shadows so long?

 

Well, like most stories of the Heroes, it begins with Bethany...