Accursed Worldbuilding: The Heroes of Old

[Ross Watson]

One thing I'd like to talk about is the heroes of old -- the original defenders of Morden who failed to stop the Witches' advance and died in the final battle.

We don't have to detail every single one, but I'd like to get some ideas and thoughts on at least three of the most "legendary" of these heroes.

Ideally, one of these heroes should be rumored to have survived the battle. Ideally, another should have inspired others by his example. Ideally, a third may be (or may be rumored to be) a traitor.

Right now, I'm thinking that we should talk about them in general terms...

I'm thinking:

The Archer
The Knight
The Holy Man

We can come up with names and such later, but what's important is their role as a hero and what they did to become legendary in the first place.

And of course the most important bit is what happened to them after the Accursed smashed the Alliance to pieces.

[Patrick Dennis]

What about the King/Leader or is that the knight?

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From: Ross Watson <spy...@clansmith.org>
To: accursed-wo...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 4:46 PM
Subject: Accursed Worldbuilding: The Heroes of Old

[Ross Watson]

One of the legendary Heroes should certainly have been the Alliance’s military leader. Not necessarily a King, but I see what you’re going for there.

[Texashex]

Don't forget the "thief"/morally ambiguous with aligned goals....

Sent from my iPhone

[John Dunn]

I'd definitely like there to be a military strategist, who had somehow persuaded the members of the different nations to work together after the fall of the Outlands. I think, without this character, the nations would have fallen successively in a short time, rather than mounting a sustained resistance.

-John

[Ross Watson]

I'd like to propose something that builds on John's idea of the strategist.

What I'd like to introduce is another villain, but a relatable one. Accursed has the Witches and the Banes, who are these unrelenting forces of evil you don't really ever see becoming friends.

However, what if we did have another villain who you could see eventually swaying to your side?

What I am imagining is something like this:

Let's say we do have the "Knight of Honour" paladin-king, and let's say he has as his advisor the great strategist.

During the Final Battle with the Witches, the strategist realizes that the battle is doomed and he withdraws with lots of troops at the height of the conflict. The strategist knew all was lost anyway, but any survivors of that battle consider him a traitor.

The strategist, for his part, considers the Knight of Honour too concerned with glory rather than the survival of Morden.

At any rate, the Strategist took his men and his troops to Parnath and has taken over there as the center of a second resistance... one that is NOT friendly at all to the Order of the Penitent.

The Strategist sees the Order of the Pentitent as an enemy because, in his mind, they are like the Knight of Honour -- they get people killed by trying to inspire them to rise up against the witches.

Meanwhile, the Strategist is furiously trying to uncover weaknesses of the Witches, and he and his agents sometimes clash with groups of Accursed while on similar missions.

How's this sounding?

[Patrick Dennis]

So then how did they stop the Colossus? 

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From: Ross Watson <spy...@clansmith.org>
To: accursed-wo...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Monday, July 1, 2013 9:00 AM

Subject: Re: Accursed Worldbuilding: The Heroes of Old